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Late Tuesday afternoon, the White House confirmed that it would not proceed with laying off more than 1,000 probationary employees at NASA. "NASA had sought exemptions for all of these employees, who comprise about 6 percent of NASA's workforce," notes Ars Technica. "The Trump administration has sought to fire federal employees at several federal agencies who are in the 'probationary' period of their employment. This includes new hires within the last one or two years or long-time employees who have moved into or been promoted into a new position." From the report: It was not immediately clear why. A NASA spokesperson in Washington, DC, offered no comment on the updated guidance. Two sources indicated that it was plausible that private astronaut Jared Isaacman, whom President Trump has nominated to lead the space agency, asked for the cuts to be put on hold. Although this could not be confirmed, it seems reasonable that Isaacman would want to retain some control over where cuts at the agency are made. Firing all probationary employees -- which is the most expedient way to reduce the size of government -- is a blunt instrument. It whacks new hires that the agency may have recruited for key positions, as well as high performers who earned promotions. The reprieve in these terminations does not necessarily signal that NASA will escape significant budget or employment cuts in the coming months. The administration could still seek to terminate probationary employees. In addition, Ars reported earlier that directors at the agency's field centers have been told to prepare options for a "significant" reduction in force in the coming months. The scope of these cuts has not been defined, and it's likely they would need to be negotiated with Congress.

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Greg was fighting with an academic CMS, and discovered that a file called write_helper.js was included on every page. It contained this single function:

function document_write(s) { document.write(s); }

Now, setting aside the fact that document.write is one of those "you probably shouldn't use this" functions, and is deprecated, one has to wonder what the point of this function is. Did someone really not like object-oriented style code? Did someone break the "." on their keyboard and just wanted to not have to copy/paste existing "."s?

It's the kind of function you expect to see that someone wrote but that isn't invoked anywhere, and you'd almost be correct. This function, in a file included on every page, is called once and only once.

More like the wrong helper, if we're being honest.

[Advertisement] Picking up NuGet is easy. Getting good at it takes time. Download our guide to learn the best practice of NuGet for the Enterprise.

A$AP Rocky expressed gratitude to members of the jury after being found not guilty on all counts in his felony shooting trial.

Gemma Bird has become quite the social sensation known as Money Mum

Elon Musk showed interest in an idea that would guarantee a $5,000 payment, or 'DOGE Dividend,' to every American to show off the $55 billion in taxpayer funds saved.

Dubbed Britain's 'worst' courier, the delivery company has promptly admitted that it will lose eight million packages this year, despite only being two months in.

Serena Williams shared her reaction to Drake fans calling her 'petty' for her cameo in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl Halftime Show performance.

He was given a formal warning in 2023 - but ignored it

A photography award finalist has opened a new studio above a gym in Witham, offering a range of services to the local community.

The ousted ex-president of New York University's college Republicans regrets resigning after calling Barron Trump an 'oddity' on campus.

Lisa Schiff boasted Leonardo DiCaprio and a real estate heiress among her high profile clients, before her entire scheme unraveled in 2023.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Astronomers have detected over 5,800 confirmed exoplanets. One extreme class is ultra-hot Jupiters, of particular interest because they can provide a unique window into planetary atmospheric dynamics. According to a new paper published in the journal Nature, astronomers have mapped the 3D structure of the layered atmosphere of one such ultra-hot Jupiter-size exoplanet, revealing powerful winds that create intricate weather patterns across that atmosphere. A companion paper published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics (PDF) reported on the unexpected identification of titanium in the exoplanet's atmosphere as well. [...] This latest research relied on observational data collected by the European South Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope, specifically, a spectroscopic instrument called ESPRESSO that can process light collected from the four largest VLT telescope units into one signal. The target exoplanet, WASP-121b -- aka Tylos -- is located in the Puppis constellation about 900 light-years from Earth. One year on Tylos is equivalent to just 30 hours on Earth, thanks to the exoplanet's close proximity to its host star. Since one side is always facing the star, it is always scorching, while the exoplanet's other side is significantly colder. Those extreme temperature contrasts make it challenging to figure out how energy is distributed in the atmospheric system, and mapping out the 3D structure can help, particularly with determining the vertical circulation patterns that are not easily replicated in our current crop of global circulation models, per the authors. For their analysis, they combined archival ESPRESSO data collected on November 30, 2018, with new data collected on September 23, 2023. They focused on three distinct chemical signatures to probe the deep atmosphere (iron), mid-atmosphere (sodium), and shallow atmosphere (hydrogen). "What we found was surprising: A jet stream rotates material around the planet's equator, while a separate flow at lower levels of the atmosphere moves gas from the hot side to the cooler side. This kind of climate has never been seen before on any planet," said Julia Victoria Seidel of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile and the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur in France. "This planet's atmosphere behaves in ways that challenge our understanding of how weather works -- not just on Earth, but on all planets. It feels like something out of science fiction."

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A hidden camera was found on a property owned by murderer dubbed 'worse than Jeffrey Dahmer' where 10,000 human remains have been found.

Playboy model Ariane Bellamar passed away at the age of 46. \Bellamar's cause of death was reportedly a heart attack, as stated in a GoFundMe organized by her ex-husband Tanner Slaught.

American right-wingers have begun turning on US president Donald Trump's Ukraine deal currently being negotiated with Russia

Shoppers dubbed the suitcase 'fancy' and 'amazing'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio along with special envoy Steve Witkoff and NSA Mike Waltz met with senior Russian officials in Saudi Arabia to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Police failed to probe Valdo Calocane 'properly' when he attacked two of his colleagues mere weeks before going on a stabbing rampage, a damning report has revealed. 

In a letter seen by MailOnline, General Sir Roly Walker said he was 'disgusted' by allegations of sexual abuse and that the behaviour does not match 'our Values and Standards'.

Jonathan Reynolds is facing accusations he 'fabricated his CV' after he told the Commons in 2014 he had 'worked as a solicitor in Manchester City Centre', a claim he repeated on his website.