Media Today

[Rick Plant]

James Webb telescope takes super sharp view of early cosmos
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62122859

NASA’s Webb Delivers Deepest Infrared Image of Universe Yet
https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/nasa-s-webb-delivers-deepest-infrared-image-of-universe-yet

[Rick Plant]

Toronto Blue Jays fire manager Charlie Montoyo amid recent struggles

TORONTO -- The Toronto Blue Jays fired manager Charlie Montoyo on Wednesday and promoted bench coach John Schneider to interim manager for the remainder of the season.

Triple-A manager Casey Candaele was named interim bench coach.

The 13th manager in Blue Jays history, and the first from Puerto Rico, Montoyo went 236-236 in parts of four seasons. Toronto beat Philadelphia on Tuesday to snap a four-game losing streak and improve to 46-42 this season, which would put them in a playoffs as a wild-card team if the season ended now despite being in fourth place in the AL East.

The Blue Jays are 3-9 in July. They went 1-6 on a road trip against Oakland, which has the worst record in the majors, and Seattle that ended Sunday with a four-game sweep against the Mariners.

Toronto's skid started July 2, when it was swept in a doubleheader against Tampa Bay. Montoyo and first-base coach Mark Budzinksi left the dugout during Game 2 after learning of the death of Budzinski's teenage daughter, Julia.

Several members of the Blue Jays organization flew together to Virginia on the off day Monday to attend Julia Budzinski's funeral.

Montoyo, 56, replaced John Gibbons as Blue Jays manager after the 2018 season. Montoyo's contract was extended through 2023 on April 1.

Montoyo oversaw a tumultuous period in Blue Jays history, with the team playing home games in three cities last season, including two minor league parks, because of border restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Toronto also played its 2020 home schedule at its Triple-A stadium in Buffalo, New York.

Montoyo led Toronto to a 32-28 record and a wild-card berth in the expanded playoffs that followed the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but the Blue Jays were swept by eventual AL champion Tampa Bay in the opening round. Toronto went 91-71 in 2021 and missed tying for the AL wild card by one game.

Before joining the Blue Jays, Montoyo spent six seasons on Tampa Bay's major league coaching staff, including his final three as bench coach. Prior to that, he spent 18 seasons as a minor league manager in the Rays system and also worked with the Puerto Rican team at the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34237064/toronto-blue-jays-fire-manager-charlie-montoyo-according-reports

[Rick Plant]

Judge denies Amber Heard's attempt at mistrial in Johnny Depp defamation case



Amber Heard isn't getting a new trial in her defamation case against Johnny Depp. Judge Penney Azcarate, who oversaw the six-week spectacle, denied the actress's attempt to toss the verdict and $10.35 million judgment.

Lawyers for the Aquaman star, 36, were seeking a mistrial on multiple grounds. One argument they made was that there was an apparent case of mistaken identity with Juror 15 in that the wrong person from a household reported to court. In her order on Wednesday, the judge said that the juror filled out the jury questionnaire properly and was questioned by both sides.

"The parties also questioned the jury panel for a full day and informed the Court that the jury panel was acceptable," Azcarate wrote. "Therefore, due process was guaranteed and provided to all parties in this litigation ... there is no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing."

The judge added, "Defendant does not allege Juror 15's inclusion on the jury prejudiced her in any way. The juror was vetted, sat for the entire jury, deliberated, and reached a verdict. The only evidence before this Court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the Court’s instructions, and orders. This Court is bound by the competent decision of the jury."

Heard has yet to speak out about the latest legal blow.

Legal experts told Yahoo Entertainment earlier this week that Heard didn't have grounds for a mistrial.

"The law in Virginia does not support Amber's claim that she was denied due process because of the issue with Juror 15. Her team had the opportunity to question the juror or to raise this issue at that time with the judge. Heard's team accepted this jury panel with the information that they had then and there is no new information that come out since. They had the list of jurors that identified the juror information and birthdate. This motion is a grasp, not a real possibility," legal analyst Emily D. Baker explained.

Depp sued Heard for $50 million over a 2018 op-ed she wrote in which she claimed she suffered physical and sexual abuse. Although she didn't name her ex-husband, the jury agreed it was reasonably inferred to be the Pirates of the Caribbean star. Depp specifically sued over three parts he said were defamatory and killed his career. Depp won on all three with the jury ruling that Heard was never abused — emotionally or physically — by the actor even once. He was awarded $15 million, but due to Virginia state law, it nets out at $10.35 million.

Heard countersued Depp for $100 million over statements the actor's lawyer made to the press. She won one out of the three and was awarded $2 million in damages. The actress didn't settle with Depp, which lawyers hinted was on the table, and will likely appeal.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/amber-heard-johnny-depp-mistrial-juror-defamation-case-200659615.html

[Rick Plant]

5 new awe-inspiring images of the universe from James Webb Space Telescope
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/5-new-awe-inspiring-images-of-the-universe-from-james-webb-space-telescope

[Rick Plant]

To search for alien life, astronomers will look for clues in the atmospheres of distant planets – and the James Webb Space Telescope just proved it’s possible to do so
https://theconversation.com/to-search-for-alien-life-astronomers-will-look-for-clues-in-the-atmospheres-of-distant-planets-and-the-james-webb-space-telescope-just-proved-its-possible-to-do-so-184828

[Rick Plant]

Mariners extend their winning streak to 11

There are only so many ways you can describe a baseball team’s style of play, and at their core they all fall into a few classic tropes. You’ve got the classic underdogs, the Chaos Ball-ers, the overwhelmingly dominant, the plays-up/plays-down to their opponents, etc. The 2022 Mariners are strange in that they’ve flirted with so many different identities already this season - and are sure to tangle with more in the coming months.

They’re not a traditionally star-studded team, nor are they a jarring dichotomy of stars and scrubs. This team feels...equal. Balanced, even, when they’re firing on all cylinders. Until they break their drought, the Seattle Mariners will always have something to prove, but what’s most striking this season is that the players aren’t just out to prove the worth of the franchise they represent, they each have something to prove themselves.

Julio Rodríguez is the rookie phenom, working to live up to the hopes and dreams of a franchise, a nation and his own.

Eugenio Suárez, Jesse Winker and Adam Frazier all had stellar standalone seasons, and are trying to show that those seasons weren’t anomalies.

Carlos Santana and Justin Upton are fighting Father Time and the ageism of the league.

J.P. Crawford continues to battle against his top prospect disappointment in Philadelphia - and his All-Star snub last year.

Abraham Tor, Luis Torrens, Sam Haggerty and Dylan Moore are each eschewing years of doubt, striving to show how past organizations were foolish to have jettisoned them.

Cal Raleigh is reminding Mariners fans that Mike Zunino isn’t the only, inevitable ending to a homegrown catcher’s story.

Ty France has been overlooked by the entirety of southern California.

The starting rotation features a bizarre assortment of young, homegrown talent proving they belong; crafty soft-tossers proving that strikeouts are overrated; and an ace proving he’s worth the money.

The bullpen is a series of names only a Mariners fan could love (or really recognize).

And tonight, with the background noise of inexplicable “overrated” chants, this team with something to prove proved it once again.



For most of the game, it seemed like the Mariners were cooked.

Every winning streak has its inevitable end, and after an unexpected doubleheader and late-night arrival in Texas it wasn’t surprising that Seattle was dragging. Marco Gonzales had an uncharacteristically difficult night, but managed to hold the Rangers to five runs despite giving up 11 hits and, most crucially, gutted it out for six full innings.

Up until the top of the seventh, the lone offensive highlight had been upstart Sam Haggerty’s inside-the-park home run - the first Mariner to accomplish the feat since Willie Bloomquist in 2007.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1547757953750405121

But in the seventh, Haggerty lit the spark again. He and Julio singled back-to-back and drove former Angels nemesis Garrett Richards from the game. An egregious called third strike on France made things look dour, but then Santana walked to load the bases with two outs for the third time this game. And, unlike the previous two times, they managed to drive in some of those waiting runners with a Suárez two-run single.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1547772221296295938

Down two in the eighth, back-to-back-to-back singles from Frazier, Toro and Haggerty brought the M’s All-Star to the plate. A hit-by-pitch wasn’t the ideal PA, but it still pulled the Mariners within one. Then, jilted All-Star France crushed his signature line drive to score two and suddenly Seattle had the lead. Diego Castillo closed out the bullpen’s third scoreless inning, and it was all done in such a targeted, competent fashion that it felt silly we had ever even doubted them.

Perhaps that’s the lesson to depart from this season thus far: Do not doubt the Seattle Mariners.

https://www.lookoutlanding.com/2022/7/14/23219711/mariners-win-11th-game-in-a-row-inside-the-park-home-run-haggerty

[Rick Plant]

Highlights: First Images from the James Webb Space Telescope (Official NASA Video)

NASA revealed the first five full-color images and spectrographic data from the world's most powerful space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, a partnership with ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). The world got its first look at the full capabilities of the mission at a live event streamed from the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on July 12, 2022.

The event showcased these targets:

- Carina Nebula: A landscape speckled with glittering stars and cosmic cliffs
- Stephan’s Quintet: An enormous mosaic with a visual grouping of five galaxies
- Southern Ring Nebula: A nebula with rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions
- WASP 96-b: A distinct signature of water in the atmosphere of an exoplanet orbiting a distant Sun-like star
- SMACS 0723: The deepest and sharpest infrared image of the distant universe to date

The full set of the telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data are available at: https://nasa.gov/webbfirstimages

Full-resolution images can be downloaded at: https://webbtelescope.org

Credit: NASA

Watch: