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How Ram’s 1500 Revolution Compares To Electric Trucks From Ford, Chevy, GMC, Tesla, Rivian And Lordstown

January 8, 2023 Published by

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with all the latest arrivals in the electric pickup segment including from Ram, Lordstown and GMC

Ram has finally unveiled the first details about its upcoming all-electric, full-size pickup truck with the Ram 1500 Revolution concept, so we can finally compare it to the competition. Set to go into production in 2024, it won’t hit the road until much later than its cross-town rival, the Ford F-150 Lightning, and even the Chevrolet Silverado EV. Today we’re asking, will it be worth the wait?

The last of the Detroit three to throw its hat in the electric pickup ring, the Ram 1500 Revolution has a lot of work to do to make up for its late arrival. The automaker promises, though, that its pickup will be a leader in the “areas customer care about the most: range, towing, payload, and charge time.”

Those qualities should help it compete against not just its cross-town rivals but the new school of all-electric startups like Rivian, Tesla, and Lordstown, all of which want a slice of the apparently quite popular electric pickup pie.

Ram 1500 Revolution

RAM 1500 REVOLUTION SPECS
› 0-60mph N/A
› Estimated 500 miles or range
› Can recover additional 100 miles of range in 10 minutes
› Adjustable air suspension
› Price: Anticipated to start at around $55,000
› Towing Capacity: >10,000 lbs

To start with, let’s look at the new Ram’s stats. Because the vehicle the brand unveiled today is still just a concept that’s set to go into production in more than a year, a variety of details remain unknown. These include the price, how quick it will be, how much power it will put out, and more. We do know, however, that the STLA platform on which it will be based is being designed to deliver more than 500 miles (805 km) of all-electric range, which exceeds that of most of the competition, as you’ll see below.

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Read: 2024 Ram 1500 BEV Previewed By Revolution Concept At CES

Ram promises that it will be able to recover 100 miles of range in just 10 minutes at a 350 kW fast-charging station. And, although it hasn’t revealed any towing figures yet, it has said that it will “lead the competition,” which suggests that it will be able to trailer more than the 10,000 lbs (4,536 kg) that the Chevrolet Silverado and Ford F-150 Lightning can manage, and may even beat the Tesla Cybertruck’s 14,000 lbs (6,350 kg), though it’s unclear if the stainless steel special will even be on roads by 2024. High-tech features like a removable center touchscreen and a movie projector, meanwhile, could help the Ram appeal to more than just contractors.

Prices for the production electric Ram 1500 have not yet been revealed, but it is expected that the automaker will try to keep them in-line with competition like the Ford F-150 Lightning, which now starts at $56,000.

2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV


CHEVROLET SILVERADO EV SPECS
› 0-60mph 4.5 seconds
› Up to 400 miles of range (manufacturer est.)
› Up to 100 miles of range added in 10 minutes of charging
› Independent front and rear suspension
› Price: $39,900 base/$105,000 RST First Edition (before tax credits)
› Towing Capacity: 10,000 lbs
› Payload: 1,300 lbs

Based on GM’s Ultium platform, the Silverado EV is capable of making up to 754 HP (562 kW / 764 PS) and 785 lb-ft which should help it get to 60 mph (96 km/h) in as fast as 4.5 seconds. The truck will also be capable of going up to 400 miles (644 km) on a single charge. Standard DC fast charging, meanwhile, should help it get back to work in a hurry.

Read: 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV Debuts With 664 HP, 400-Mile Range, And The Avalanche’s Midgate

It will be capable of trailering up to 10,000 lbs (4,536 kg) and can handle up to 1,300 lbs (590 kg) of payload, says Chevy. The Silverado EV will get a work truck variant that, like the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Tesla Cybertruck, was expected to start at around $39,000 when it was announced in early 2022. That price is likely to change before it hit showrooms in fall 2023. Although the Silverado lags behind Ford’s electric pickup, it will have been on the market for a while before the Ram is ready for sale.

2024 GMC Sierra EV


How Ram’s 1500 Revolution Compares To Electric Trucks From Ford, Chevy, GMC, Tesla, Rivian And Lordstown


GMC SIERRA EV SPECS
› 0-60mph <4.5 seconds
› Driving range of up to 400 miles
› Recharges up to 100 miles in 10 mins (DC fast charge)
› Price: from $50,000 (Estimate from October 2022)
› Towing Capacity: up to 9,500 lbs
› Payload: 1,300 lbs

The all-electric version of the GMC Sierra will arrive shortly after the Chevrolet Silverado, in early 2024. The pickup will focus more on a premium experience than it will on capital T truck stuff compared to its competition.

That means a relatively low towing capacity of just 9,500 lbs (4,309 kg) and a payload capacity of 1,300 lbs (590 kg). Available with up to 754 hp (562 kW / 764 PS) and 785 lb-ft (1,063 Nm) of torque in Max Power mode, though, it should be able to hit 60 mph (96 km/h) in less than 4.5 seconds.

With a range of 400 miles (644 km) and DC fast-charging technology, it will be able to regain as many as 100 miles (161 km) of range in just 10 minutes. Thanks to a bidirectional charging system, the truck will also be able to power a home’s essential necessities for up to 21 days, the automaker promises.

2023 Ford F-150 Lightning

FORD F-150 LIGHTNING SPECS
› 0-60mph 4.4 seconds (says Joe Biden)
› 230 miles std range, 300 extended range (EPA est.)
› 41 min to charge to 80 percent
› Independent rear suspension, 14.1-cu ft frunk
› Price: Starting at $56,000
› Towing Capacity: 10,000 lbs (extended range)
› Payload: 2,000 lbs

Ford now looks like an early adopter (though it was beaten to the punch by Rivian), but that quick start also means that the F-150 Lightning is slightly behind its Detroit rivals in terms of power. Rated at 563 hp (571 PS/420 kW), and 775 lb-ft (1,051 Nm) of torque, its motors struggle to keep up with the Chevy’s and the GMC’s, which are rated at up to 780 lb-ft (1,058 Nm) and 785 lb-ft (1,063 Nm) of torque, respectively.

Read Also: Who Got It Right, Ford’s Straight-Laced F-150 Lightning Or Tesla’s Cocky Cybertruck?

Despite that, Ford claims that its truck is able to trailer just as much as the Silverado and has a larger payload, which is set at 2,000 lbs (907 kg). Its range, however, tops out at 300 miles, leaving it at something of a disadvantage compared to the competition, especially for those looking to “go further.”

2023 Rivian R1T

RIVIAN R1T SPECS
› 0-60mph 3.2 seconds
› Driving range between 230-400 miles
› Recharges up to 140 miles in 20 mins (DC fast charge)
› Price: from $73,000
› Towing Capacity: up to 11,000 lbs
› Payload: 1,760 lbs

Rivian’s R1T was called a game-changer when it was unveiled, but its $73,000 starting price tag is considerably higher than the competition—though Ford’s prices keep creeping up closer to it. That said, the company is mostly focused on customer trucks, not bare bones work trucks, making the price a little easier to understand.

Despite being the first pickup to the electric party, its stats are still up-to-date. It’s no slouch, with motors that make up to 800 hp (811 PS/596 kW) and 900 lb-ft (1,220 Nm) of torque, and it can to tow up to 11,000 lbs (4,990 kg). Its payload rating, however, is lower than the Ford’s at 1,760 lbs (798 kg).

With a wide variety of lifestyle tricks and an interior designed for comfort, it may appeal to the weekend warriors who are really in the market for a premium pickup. Whether the company can leave a tough 2022 behind it and shine in 2023, though, remains to be seen.

2024 Tesla Cybertruck

TESLA CYBERTRUCK SPECS
› 0-60mph 6.5-2.9 seconds (single motor/tri-motor)
› Range 250-500 miles (single motor/tri-motor, EPA est)
› 44 min to charge to 80 per cent (est)
› Armor glass, 100-cu ft lockable bed with ‘magic’ tonneau
› Price: from $39,900 (claimed)
› Towing Capacity: 7500 lbs std, 14,000 lbs opt

For those who like a gamble, there’s the Tesla Cybertruck. Although it was announced and previewed in 2019, the production version of the vehicle has yet to be unveiled in final production form. The company is still making announcements about the truck, though, including that it will use the same megawatt charging technology as the company’s newly released Semi truck.

With a range between 250 to 500 miles (402-805 km), it should be right up there with the Ram 1500 EV as the longest-distance pickup on sale when it arrives. With up to 690 hp (699 PS/514 kW) and 824 lb-ft (1,117 Nm) of torque, it won’t be the most powerful, but Tesla promises that it will be able to tow up to 14,000 lbs (6,350 kg) and will have 3,350 lbs (1,520 kg) of payload capacity. Despite its outlandish appearance, Tesla has already taken more than 250,000 pre-orders for the futuristic truck.

2023 Lordstown Endurance


How Ram’s 1500 Revolution Compares To Electric Trucks From Ford, Chevy, GMC, Tesla, Rivian And Lordstown


LORDSTOWN ENDURANCE SPECS
› 0-60mph 6.3 seconds
› Driving range between 200 miles
› Charges from 20 to 80% in 45 minutes
› Price: from $45,000
› Towing Capacity: up to 8,000 lbs
› Payload: 1,050 lbs

And, finally, there’s the underdog Lordstown Endurance. Made by a company that has known no shortage of troubles, the truck’s makers have long believed in its in-hub motor technology to reduce the number of moving parts and give it true all-wheel-drive.

Unfortunately, despite the comeback story (the company has finally started delivering trucks to customers), and its neat technology, the truck’s specs are a little disappointing when compared to the competition. It has about half as much range as many upcoming trucks, less towing capacity, and is slower than the rest, despite making 550 hp (410 kW/558 PS) at peak output.

Although the company’s earning in 2022 were pretty bleak, thanks to materials costs that affected the rest of the industry, too, it did manage to deliver a few trucks in 2022, which puts it ahead of a lot of the trucks above.

So what do you think? Which of the upcoming crop of all-electric pickups will win out, and which will struggle for sales?

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Gene-editing gets fungi to spill secrets to new drugs

January 8, 2023 Published by

A high-efficiency gene-editing tool can get fungi to produce significantly more natural compounds, including some previously unknown to the scientific community, say researchers.

Using the approach that simultaneously modifies multiple sites in fungal genomes, Rice University chemical and biomolecular engineer Xue Sherry Gao and collaborators coax fungi into revealing their best-kept secrets, ramping up the pace of new drug discovery.

It is the first time that the technique, multiplex base-editing (MBE), has been deployed as a tool for mining fungal genomes for medically useful compounds. Compared to single-gene editing, the MBE platform reduces the research timeline by over 80% in equivalent experimental settings, from an estimated three months to roughly two weeks.

Fungi and other organisms produce bioactive small molecules such as penicillin to protect themselves from disease agents. These bioactive natural products (NPs) can be used as drugs or as molecular blueprints for designing new drugs.

The study appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Gene-editing fungi

Base-editing refers to the use of CRISPR-based tools in order to modify a rung in the spiral ladder of DNA known as a base pair. Previously, gene modifications using base-editing had to be carried out one at a time, making the research process more time-consuming. “We created a new machinery that enables base-editing to work on multiple genomic sites, hence the ‘multiplex,’” Gao says.

Gao and her team first tested the efficacy of their new base-editing platform by targeting genes encoding for pigment in a fungal strain known as Aspergillus nidulans. The effectiveness and precision of MBE-enabled genome edits was readily visible in the changed color displayed by A. nidulans colonies.

‘Cryptic’ genes

“To me, the fungal genome is a treasure,” Gao says, referring to the significant medical potential of fungi-derived compounds. “However, under most circumstances, fungi ‘keep to themselves’ in the laboratory and don’t produce the bioactive small molecules we are looking for. In other words, the majority of genes or biosynthetic gene clusters of interest to us are ‘cryptic,’ meaning they do not express their full biosynthetic potential.

“The genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors that instruct organisms to produce these medically useful compounds are extremely complicated in fungi,” Gao says. Enabled by the MBE platform, her team can easily delete several of the regulatory genes that restrict the production of bioactive small molecules. “We can observe the synergistic effects of eliminating those factors that make the biosynthetic machinery silent,” she says.

Disinhibited, the engineered fungal strains produce more bioactive molecules, each with their own distinct chemical profiles. Five of the 30 NPs generated in one assay were new, never-before-reported compounds.

“These compounds could be useful antibiotics or anticancer drugs,” Gao says. “We are in the process of figuring out what the biological functions of these compounds are and we are collaborating with groups in the Baylor College of Medicine on pharmacological small-molecule drug discovery.”

Gao’s research plumbs fungal genomes in search of gene clusters that synthesize NPs. “Approximately 50% of clinical drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration are NPs or NP-derivatives,” and fungi-derived NPs “are an essential pharmaceutical source,” she says. Penicillin, lovastatin, and cyclosporine are some examples of drugs derived from fungal NPs.

The National Institutes of Health and the Robert A. Welch Foundation supported the research.

Source: Rice University

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IRS targeted poorest taxpayers while millionaires went mostly unscathed in 2022: report

January 8, 2023 Published by

A study of 2022 IRS tax audit data found that a taxpayer in the lowest income bracket is five times more likely to face an audit that would a member of the highest income bracket. 

“The IRS correspondence audit process is structured to expend the least amount of resources to conduct the largest number of examinations – resulting in the lowest level of customer service to taxpayers having the greatest need for assistance,” National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins said of the report during an annual report to Congress. 

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University examines internal IRS management reports each month, and the group noticed different trends by reviewing 2022 data. Most notably, the group looked at audits, particularly considering the agency relying more heavily on automatically produced letters sent to taxpayers. 

The data showed that the IRS conducted 85% of its audits through these letters, which request additional information and documentation related to specific items of interest. Overall audits dropped from 659,003 in FY 2021 to 626,204 in FY 2022 out of 164 million income tax returns filed last year. 

RELEASED TRUMP TAX RETURNS SHOW PAYMENTS RANGED FROM ALMOST $1 MILLION TO NOTHING

The rate of income tax audits for those in the lowest income bracket hit 12.7 per 1,000, compared to 2.3 per 1,000 among theose in the highest – a nearly five-fold increase. The odds of a millionaire facing an audit were around 1.1%.

The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington D.C. 

The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington D.C. 
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

This roughly matched similar numbers – 13 per 1,000, and 2.6 per 1,000, respectively – during FY 2021, but that rate nearly doubled from FY 2020, when the lowest income bracket saw 7.9 audits per 1,000. 

IRS DELAYS IMPLEMENTING $600 REPORTING THRESHOLD CHANGE ON PAYMENT SERVICES

The TRAC report claimed that the lack of attention toward millionaires resulted from “severe budget cutbacks over the years” that forced the IRS to shift its focus to “easy marks in an era when IRS increasingly relies upon correspondence audits yet doesn’t have the resources to assist taxpayers or answer their questions.” 

COVID-19 USA Economic Stimulus Checks.

COVID-19 USA Economic Stimulus Checks.
(iStock)

A White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital that “President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which is only beginning to build enforcement for wealthy Americans, will finally force wealthy tax cheats to pay their fair share while making it easier for working Americans to get their tax refunds.”

REP. BRADY WARNS SUPREME COURT COULD BE SUBJECT TO TRUMP TAX RETURN PRECEDENT

The spokesperson also blamed Republicans for attacking IRS funding “for years” and claimed that millionaire tax cheats account for $163 billion in tax evasion per year. 

Hollywood stars, including Shakira, Teresa and Joe Giudice and Mike 'The Situation,' have been accused of tax evasion.

Hollywood stars, including Shakira, Teresa and Joe Giudice and Mike ‘The Situation,’ have been accused of tax evasion.
(Getty Images)

The U.S Treasury and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment as of the time of publication. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The Inflation Reduction Act provides the IRS with $80 billion in future funding to ramp up its audits and potentially target the wealthiest taxpayers.

Peter Aitken is a Fox News Digital reporter with a focus on national and global news. 

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Panic from MSNBC analyst over Republicans investigating federal agencies: ‘The insurrection platform’

January 8, 2023 Published by

MSNBC analyst and former U.S. Congressman from Florida David Jolly lamented the fact that a new select committee in the GOP-majority House might cut big government down to size. 

In response to a tweet from Congressman Dan Bishop, R-N.C. which expressed his hope that a new “Church-style committee” will curb “the weaponization of the federal government,” Jolly complained that the committee will “attack and shred” the government.

Just hours before House Republicans finally voted to elect Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as Speaker of the House, Bishop tweeted that he was pleased with new rules negotiated between members and the incoming Speaker that will allow a new House committee to directly challenge federal government overreach.

REPUBLICANS TORCHED FOR MCCARTHY-HOUSE SPEAKER VOTE FIASCO: ‘WORST GAME OF CHICKEN EVER’

LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 20:  David Jolly speaks onstage at Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.  (Photo by Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES, CA – OCTOBER 20:  David Jolly speaks onstage at Politicon 2018 at Los Angeles Convention Center on October 20, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.  (Photo by Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images)
(Michael S. Schwartz/Getty)

The Republican lawmaker wrote, “With the rules agreement we negotiated, we will have a powerful Church-style committee to go after the weaponization of the federal government – the FBI, DOJ, DHS, and all the rest.”

He also expressed his feeling that the negotiations were a “victory for the constitutional rights of all Americans,” and added, “I’m ready to get to work.”

Bishop’s reference to a “Church-style committee” harkens back to a Watergate era U.S. Senate committee chaired by Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho. According to Senate.gov, in 1973 that committee’s investigations revealed that the “executive branch had directed national intelligence agencies to carry out constitutionally questionable domestic security operations.”

Jolly, who left Congress and became an independent in 2018, has turned increasingly liberal since becoming an analyst on MSNBC. He balked at Bishop’s notion. 

KEVIN MCCARTHY DELIVERS FIRST REMARKS AFTER WINNING HOUSE SPEAKER: ‘OUR NATION IS WORTH FIGHTING FOR’

In effect, he denied that the current government has engaged in such questionable antics and should be reined in.

Rep. Dan Bishop joins the hosts of "Morning Joe" on Thursday. 

Rep. Dan Bishop joins the hosts of “Morning Joe” on Thursday. 
(Screenshot/MSNBC/MorningJoe)

He forcefully rebutted Bishop’s tweet, saying, “With all the focus on the House rules being given away to the Freedom Caucus et al, this development below may be the most consequential – a new House Committee to attack and shred the federal government.”

Jolly added that the new committee will end up “undermining confidence for millions of Americans in our self governance.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

One user responded to Jolly’s tweet, proposing the idea that Democrat lawmakers may have some use for such a committee. They wrote, “Could be a farce for sure but the GOP better be careful because my guess is that DEMS will indeed participate in this select committee (unless McCarthy kicks them off).  And, there are some questions I want [FBI director] Wray to answer.”

Though the lawmaker completely trashed that idea, responding, “I think it’s going to serve as their insurrection platform.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., celebrates after taking the oath of office in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 7, 2022.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., celebrates after taking the oath of office in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 7, 2022.
(Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. 

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What happened to Rudy Giuliani? Two classic films help explain it

January 8, 2023 Published by

Editor’s Note: John Marks is the showrunner of “Giuliani: What Happened To America’s Mayor?” A former 60 Minutes producer and US News & World Report correspondent, Marks has worked most recently as a staff showrunner and director at Left/Right, a New York based production house, for a variety of cable and streaming networks. The views expressed in this commentary are his. Read more opinion on CNN. Watch “Giuliani: What Happened to America’s Mayor?” on CNN Sunday at 9 and 10 PM ET/PT.



CNN
 — 

My father, a lawyer, once told me he hated movies about the law. With one exception, they were always false in one way or another. Yet the exception spoke to him profoundly, to his years as a defense attorney in the civil courts of Texas. That was 1982’s “The Verdict,” starring Paul Newman, directed by Sidney Lumet with a screenplay by the playwright David Mamet. Newman plays an alcoholic ambulance chaser named Frank Galvin, who finds himself suddenly giving a damn about justice in the midst of a case that should have been open and shut.

John Marks

“The Verdict” is a movie about redemption. Newman’s closing argument is a confession about his own loss of faith in the law. Framed in a wide shot that shows the lawyer, the jury, the judge, the grain of the wood of the court itself, the symbolism of American justice becomes visible.

That image came back to me so many times over the last year and a half as I worked on a CNN documentary series about another lawyer – former US Attorney, former New York Mayor and former counsel to President Donald Trump, Rudolph Giuliani. I thought about Giuliani, and then I thought of this scene and what it meant to my father.

We tend to think of Giuliani in his capacity as mayor, as indicated in the subtitle of the series, “What Happened To America’s Mayor?” – but for most of his life in government and in private practice, the mayor was a lawyer, at one time, by all accounts, a great one. He started there, and it seems likely he will end there. At this time, his law license has been suspended in New York and Washington DC.

Read through this lens, can the story of Giuliani be seen as the tale of a lawyer who lost faith with the law, like the character in “The Verdict,” but without the Hollywood ending? When we ask what happened to him, how one of the most admired (and among some, feared) leaders in modern American history became a target of federal, state and professional investigations, is that the answer?

In the last few weeks of 2022 alone, Giuliani generated one more tumbling wave of negative publicity. He was up before the DC Bar and under investigation by a grand jury in Georgia for trying to overturn an election. When the House January 6 committee referred Trump to the Justice Department for potential prosecution, Giuliani and five other Trump allies were named as potential co-conspirators. After the release of the executive summary of the committee’s final report, a spokesman for Giuliani denied in a statement to CNN aspects of how the report depicted Giuliani, describing him as “an honest, good American who has dedicated his life to serving others and doing the right thing.”

These post-January 6 headlines don’t tell a story of redemption, far from it, but they do punctuate a very different set of headlines far back in Giuliani’s past – reminders of that moment, 20 years ago, when in the face of unprecedented tragedy, he revealed an astounding capacity for leadership that surprised even his harshest critics.

On September 11, 2001, after two terms as a wildly successful, divisive and often self-destructive mayor, Giuliani was recast in a single day as a hero and emerged for a single moment as the most compelling leader in the United States. If that’s not a Hollywood ending, I don’t know what is. Had the story ended there, as political strategist Rick Wilson says in the documentary, schools would have been named after Giuliani.

In the moral economy of public life, does the earlier moment redeem or somehow balance the latter? Certainly, as we found in interviews for the documentary, there are old friends and allies who remain in awe of Giuliani’s behavior in those weeks, loyal to that man and his memory. Others always considered 9/11 the aberration and see 1/6 as a reversion to form.

Early on, Giuliani had a sense of civic duty. His Catholic upbringing in Brooklyn gave him a moral compass, and his Jesuit education gave him a sense of intellectual engagement and responsibility. He had a certain native ferocity that struck a familiar chord in a lot of New Yorkers.

As a young prosecutor, rooting out police corruption, as US Attorney for the Southern District, busting the mob and perp-walking white collar criminals, and as the law-and-order mayor, Giuliani displayed a fearless and often abrasive sense of moral rectitude. If he believed a thing, he implied at his press conferences, it must be right.

At his thorniest, in the New York era, especially in the wake of the police killings of Amadou Diallo and Patrick Dorismond, that sense of narcissistic rectitude could make Giuliani sound like a heartless bully with a racist bent or at the very least a political opportunist who would dog-whistle at racism as soon as the political moment required it. Certainly, many Black New Yorkers saw him that way.

In his finest hour, on the other hand, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Giuliani’s rectitude was softened by a sense of overwhelming tragedy. More than his actions, his demeanor seemed to reinvent him as a rare thing on the American stage, a wholly noble figure above and beyond politics.

Yet the dark side of power, so evident in Giuliani’s post-Trump behavior, always gripped the former mayor’s imagination – as another, very different movie about law and order suggests. Giuliani’s favorite film for years was Francis Ford Coppola’s mafia epic “The Godfather.” In the documentary, GOP pollster and political consultant Frank Luntz talks about watching it with Giuliani in a basement room of City Hall known as “The Lair.”

“He sits behind me,” Luntz recalled, “and during the entire movie he explains why the life of politics is the life of the Godfather. And, of course, in the one story where Sonny explains to the Godfather that they should be selling drugs, and you see this battle within the family, Rudy starts tapping me on the shoulder, saying, ‘Do you see, do you see? When you have a disagreement, you keep it in the family.’”

A lot of people love that movie, but few end up looking like a key architect of the most serious sedition case in modern American history. Connecting the dots between these educational screenings of “The Godfather” and January 6, one could imagine a vision of the law that makes it solely the tool of whoever wields power, sort of the opposite of the vision in “The Verdict.”

When Newman’s character makes his closing argument before the court, speaking the lines written by David Mamet, he speaks as someone who has rediscovered the law as salvation, and diagnoses the failure that has brought him to this point. “We think of ourselves as victims, and we become victims. We become…we become weak. We doubt ourselves, we doubt our beliefs. We doubt our institutions. And we doubt the law.” And then he proposes the solution: “In my religion, they say, “Act as if ye had faith, and faith will be given to you.” If…if we are to have faith in justice, we need only to believe in ourselves. And act with justice. See, I believe there is justice in our hearts.”

That scene is the law, my father said, explaining his regard for the movie. The essence of it: the advocate, the people, the process by which the rule of law unfolds.

Giuliani’s story is not a movie, of course. It’s real life, and no life, extraordinary or otherwise, is easy to measure from the outside. We cannot know what lies in his heart. Yet there is a clear chasm between the Giuliani of September 11, 2001, and the man of January 6, 2021. In the winter of 2023, it is hard to see anything like a Hollywood ending, public or private, on the horizon. It is hard to detect in the latest headlines about this lawyer an opening of redemptive light that might pave the way.

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Arkansas monastery desecrated with sledgehammer, relics stolen; suspect arrested

January 7, 2023 Published by

A suspect has been apprehended for the desecration of a monastery altar in Subiaco, Arkansas.

On Thursday, Jan. 5, a vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey with a sledgehammer and bashed open the top of the altar. 

Using a sledgehammer, a conventional hammer, and an axe, the vandal dug into the slab of stone and stole two reliquaries containing three relics.

CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF PORTLAND CHALLENGING MAINE LAW THAT ELIMINATED STATUE OF LIMITATIONS FOR CHILD SEX ABUSE

A vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey church in Arkansas on Jan. 5 and broke into the altar with a sledgehammer, stealing three holy relics.

A vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey church in Arkansas on Jan. 5 and broke into the altar with a sledgehammer, stealing three holy relics.
(Subiaco Abbey)

The man reportedly began tampering with the tabernacle, removing the cross sitting atop it, before being discovered and fleeing.

“By piecing together the testimony from multiple witness who had seen a strange man on campus earlier, we were fairly confident that we had seen him previously in our Church,” Subiaco Abbey said in an official press released. “Out of an abundance of caution, our Academy students were locked down while the investigation proceeded.”

However, the investigation did not need to look far.

POPE BENEDICT XVI LAID TO REST UNDER ST. PETER’S BASILICA IN PRIVATE CEREMONY

A vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey church in Arkansas on Jan. 5 and broke into the altar with a sledgehammer, stealing three holy relics.

A vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey church in Arkansas on Jan. 5 and broke into the altar with a sledgehammer, stealing three holy relics.
(Subiaco Abbey)

The abbey recounted, “Ironically, after the deputies had left, the gentleman in question decided to return to the Church. The Logan County deputies were called and they quickly returned. One of our monks spoke to the gentleman, and it became clear he was the one who had done the damage. He was arrested, his vehicle towed, and further investigations are ongoing.”

Jerrid Farnam, 31, was arrested Thursday in connection with the vandalism and theft.

One of the stolen reliquaries was reportedly recovered from Farnam’s vehicle, containing all three stolen relics. 

POPE BENEDICT’S VISION OF CATHOLICISM, VATICAN II, AND THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH ENDURE THROUGH HIS TEACHINGS

A vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas on Jan. 5 and broke into the altar with a sledgehammer, stealing three holy relics.

A vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey in Arkansas on Jan. 5 and broke into the altar with a sledgehammer, stealing three holy relics.
(Subiaco Abbey)

Authorities also found a sledgehammer and other tools believed to have been used in the crime.

A relic is a mortal remain of a saint — typically a fragment of their body. Relics are often placed inside Catholic altars upon consecration. The Catholic Church teaches that this is a continuation of an early Christian practice of celebrating mass over the tombs of other martyred Christians. 

The relics stolen from Subiaco Abbey reportedly belonged to St. Tiberius, St. Marcellu, and St. Justina.

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A vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey on Jan. 5 and broke into the altar with a sledgehammer, stealing three holy relics.

A vandal entered the Subiaco Abbey on Jan. 5 and broke into the altar with a sledgehammer, stealing three holy relics.
(Subiaco Abbey)

“Due to the desecration of the altar, Abbot Elijah and the monastic community will undertake the ‘Public Prayer after the Desecration of a Church.’ In accordance with the prescriptions, the altar of the church has been stripped bare and all customary signs of joy and gladness have been put away,” Subiaco Abbey announced.

Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at [email protected]

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Newfound part of the brain acts as shield and watchdog

January 7, 2023 Published by

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown part of brain anatomy that acts as both a protective barrier and platform from which immune cells monitor the brain for infection and inflammation.

From the complexity of neural networks to basic biological functions and structures, the human brain only reluctantly reveals its secrets.

Advances in neuro-imaging and molecular biology have only recently enabled scientists to study the living brain at a level of detail not previously achievable, unlocking many of its mysteries.

The new study comes from the labs of Maiken Nedergaard, co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen and Kjeld Møllgård, a professor of neuroanatomy at the University of Copenhagen.

Nedergaard and her colleagues have transformed our understanding of the fundamental mechanics of the human brain and made significant findings in the field of neuroscience, including detailing the many critical functions of previously overlooked cells in the brain called glia and the brain’s unique process of waste removal, which the lab named the glymphatic system.

“The discovery of a new anatomic structure that segregates and helps control the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in and around the brain now provides us much greater appreciation of the sophisticated role that CSF plays not only in transporting and removing waste from the brain, but also in supporting its immune defenses,” says Nedergaard.

The study focuses on the series of membranes that encase the brain, creating a barrier from the rest of the body and keeping the brain bathed in CSF. The traditional understanding of what is collectively called the meningeal layer identifies the three individual layers as dura, arachnoid, and pia matter.

The new layer discovered by the US and Denmark-based research team further divides the space between the arachnoid and pia layers, the subarachnoid space, into two compartments, separated by the newly described layer, which the researchers name SLYM, an abbreviation of Subarachnoidal LYmphatic-like Membrane.

While much of the research in the paper describes the function of SLYM in mice, they also report its presence in the adult human brain as well.

SLYM is a type of membrane that lines other organs in the body, including the lungs and heart, called mesothelium. These membranes typically surround and protect organs, and harbor immune cells. The idea that a similar membrane might exist in the central nervous system was a question first posed by Møllgård, the first author of the study, whose research focuses on developmental neurobiology, and on the systems of barriers that protect the brain.

The new membrane is very thin and delicate, consisting of only a few cells in thickness. Yet SLYM is a tight barrier, allowing only very small molecules to transit and it also seems to separate “clean” and “dirty” CSF.

This last observation hints at the likely role played by SLYM in the glymphatic system, which requires a controlled flow and exchange of CSF, allowing the influx of fresh CSF while flushing the toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases from the central nervous system.

This discovery will help researchers more precisely understand the mechanics of the glymphatic system.

The SLYM also appears important to the brain’s defenses. The central nervous system maintains its own native population of immune cells, and the membrane’s integrity prevents outside immune cells from entering. In addition, the membrane appears to host its own population of central nervous system immune cells that use SLYM as an observation point close to the surface of the brain from which to scan passing CSF for signs of infection or inflammation.

Discovery of the SLYM opens the door for further study of its role in brain disease. For example, the researchers note that larger and more diverse concentrations of immune cells congregate on the membrane during inflammation and aging. Furthermore, when the membrane was ruptured during traumatic brain injury, the resulting disruption in the flow of CSF impaired the glymphatic system and allowed non-central nervous system immune cells to enter the brain.

These and similar observations suggest that diseases as diverse as multiple sclerosis, central nervous system infections, and Alzheimer’s might be triggered or worsened by abnormalities in SLYM function. They also suggest that the delivery of drugs and gene therapeutics to the brain may be affected by SLYM, which will need to be considered as new generations of biologic therapies are being developed.

The research appears in the journal Science. Additional coauthors are from the University of Copenhagen.

Support for the study came from the Lundbeck Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the US Army Research Office, the Human Frontier Science Program, the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, and the Simons Foundation.

Source: University of Rochester

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Research uncover secret that made ancient Roman concrete so durable

January 7, 2023 Published by

Scientists have long pondered the durability of ancient Roman concrete structures, which have not only stood the test of time but have held up under extreme conditions, assuming it came down to a unique mix of ingredients.

Volcanic ash from the area of Pozzuoli, on the Bay of Naples was believed to be a key element that led to the unique durability of ancient structures and kept them standing as modern concrete crumbled to the ground.

But a report released Friday discovered that it is not necessarily the ingredients that attributed to the strength of the Roman’s concrete but the mixing process. 

Panoramic shot of the interior of The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre) in Rome, Italy. The Colosseum was constructed in the 1st century AD. Multiple files stitched.

Panoramic shot of the interior of The Colosseum (Flavian Amphitheatre) in Rome, Italy. The Colosseum was constructed in the 1st century AD. Multiple files stitched.
(iStock)

ANCIENT BONES, TEETH FOUND IN SHIPWRECK BURIAL GROUND HELP EXPLAIN GENETIC ANCESTRY OF SCANDINAVIANS

Scientists in a MIT, Harvard University study found that Romans actually relied on a process called “hot mixing” to whip up their hyper durable concrete. 

“The benefits of hot mixing are twofold,” MIT professor of civil and environmental engineering Admir Masic told MIT News. “First, when the overall concrete is heated to high temperatures, it allows chemistries that are not possible if you only used slaked lime, producing high-temperature-associated compounds that would not otherwise form. 

“Second, this increased temperature significantly reduces curing and setting times since all the reactions are accelerated, allowing for much faster construction,” he added. 

Masic was first alerted to the concept after noticing millimeter-small bright white minerals in the ancient concrete.

A view of the Colosseum after the first stage of the restoration work was completed in Rome, Friday, July 1, 2016.

A view of the Colosseum after the first stage of the restoration work was completed in Rome, Friday, July 1, 2016.
(The Associated Press)

GREEN COMET WILL PASS BY EARTH FOR FIRST TIME SINCE NEANDERTHALS ROAMED EARTH

The outlet said these deposits, described as “lime clasts” and not found in concrete today, were once chopped up to poor mixing practices.

But the MIT professor took issue with this line of thought.

“The idea that the presence of these lime clasts was simply attributed to low quality control always bothered me,” Masic told the publication. “If the Romans put so much effort into making an outstanding construction material, following all of the detailed recipes that had been optimized over the course of many centuries, why would they put so little effort into ensuring the production of a well-mixed final product?”

Masic and his team discovered that the white specs were actually calcium carbonate that had been formed after the mixture, which include quicklime, reached an “extreme temperature.”

His team then ran a series of tests using modern and ancient techniques with and without quicklime. 

The team are now working to commercialize the ancient practices for modern use.

Roman Forum - the Temple of Saturn in the foreground, Rome, Italy.

Roman Forum – the Temple of Saturn in the foreground, Rome, Italy.
(iStock)

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Masic described the findings as “exciting” and hopes to lighter-weight and longer-lasting concrete mixture will help reduce the environmental impact of cement production, the publication said.

Cement production reportedly accounts some roughly 8 percent of greenhouse gases.  

Caitlin McFall is a Reporter at Fox News Digital covering Politics, U.S. and World news.

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