Count the Green Bay Packers among the teams interested in acquiring defensive lineman J.J. Watt, who was released by the Houston Texans on Friday.
According to Bill Huber of Sports Illustrated, the Packers are one of around a dozen teams already interested in Watt.
The fit looks nearly perfect for both sides. The Packers could certainly use a versatile, disruptive defensive lineman like Watt to fortify the defensive front and create a championship-level pass-rush. Watt, a Wisconsin native, would get a chance to chase a Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, who have won 26 regular-season games since 2019 and advanced to the NFC title game each of the last two seasons.
It’s possible Watt could be the final piece of the Super Bowl puzzle for the Packers. And it’s almost certain that Watt has some level of interest in joining the Packers, the team he cheered for growing up.
The financial side is where the pairing gets tricky. Watt appears to be a highly-coveted player on the open market, as expected, and the Packers still need to shed over $20 million to get under the expected salary cap of 2021, even after restructuring David Bakhtiari’s deal to clear space.
GM Brian Gutekunst has plenty of ways to shed more cap space and clear enough space for Watt, but several more moves would be required.
The pros of adding Watt look to outweigh the risks, although it must be considered that the former Badgers star will be 32 years old next month and has missed big chunks of three seasons since 2016 with major injuries.
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — Police are looking for a 29-year-old Massachusetts man as a person of interest in the fatal shooting of a Yale graduate student last weekend in Connecticut, authorities said Wednesday.
The person sought for questioning in the case, Qinxuan Pan, should be considered armed and dangerous, New Haven police chief Otoniel Reyes said at a news conference.
Pan’s last known address is in Malden, Massachusetts, and he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Kevin Jiang, 26, a student of Yale’s School of the Environment, was shot multiple times and found lying outside his car on a New Haven street on Saturday night.
Police have said they are looking into whether he was killed in a road rage incident following a car crash.
Jiang, a Seattle native, had recently gotten engaged to be married. He earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies at the University of Washington and was an Army veteran and Army National Guard member, according to his LinkedIn page and Yale officials.
In the Army, he was a tank operator and a chemical, biological, radiation and nuclear officer, according to Yale.
Pan, who is wanted on a warrant for possession of a stolen vehicle, is a person of interest in Jiang’s slaying, Reyes said.
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“He is not a suspect at this time,” Reyes said.
A public phone listing for Pan could not be found.
Pan was last seen at a hotel in North Haven, Connecticut, and is believed to be out of state, police said.
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Long-term US bond yields have struck their highest level in a year in the latest sign that investors expect President Joe Biden’s stimulus plan will boost US economic growth and eventually lead to higher levels of inflation.
The 30-year Treasury yield briefly traded above 2 per cent for the first time since last February on Monday, extending a rise that has seen it climb around 0.36 percentage points since the end of last year.
The rise in yield, which reflects a decline in price of US government debt, comes as the Biden administration lobbies lawmakers in Congress to pass a sprawling $1.9tn stimulus package. The injection would follow a $900bn package passed late last year and a $3tn scheme at the start of the pandemic.
Economists have repeatedly revised up their growth forecasts for this year in light of this enormous government support, and the additional funds are likely to push already lofty estimates even higher. Morgan Stanley now reckons the US economy will expand 6.5 per cent in 2021.
Combined with the unprecedented monetary policy measures launched during the crisis by the Federal Reserve, some investors believe another aid programme will prompt a more sustained rise in inflation — something the US central bank has struggled to achieve over the past decade.
“For me it will be hard not to see inflation in something when we get what is likely to be a short-term stimulus boost,” said Jim Reid, analyst at Deutsche Bank. “Whether that will be in goods, wages or asset prices (or all three) remains to be seen but it seems inevitable there will be an impact.”
A key measure of market inflation expectations, known as the 10-year break-even rate, rose to 2.2 per cent on Monday — the highest level since 2014, according to Bloomberg data.
Still, an underlying barometer of consumer price inflation that excludes food and energy costs rose at an annual pace of just 1.6 per cent in December, according to government statistics. The labour market also remains hobbled by the coronavirus crisis, with roughly 10m fewer people employed now than at the same time last year.
Jim O’Sullivan, chief US macro strategist at TD Securities, said the mounting evidence of widespread economic weakness makes it “virtually impossible” for the Fed to even consider scaling back its ultra-accommodative monetary policy in the near-term, helping to further buoy growth. “They need to see substantial further progress,” he added.
Larry Summers, who served as Bill Clinton’s Treasury secretary, warned last week that Biden’s plan might trigger “inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation, with consequences for the value of the dollar and financial stability”.
Janet Yellen, US Treasury secretary, pushed back on these concerns in a television interview at the weekend, saying American policymakers should focus on shoring up the labour market.
“I’ve spent many years studying inflation and worrying about inflation. And I can tell you we have the tools to deal with that risk if it materialises,” she said.
Expectations that the vaccine rollout, combined with economic stimulus measures, will help lift the US economy have pushed longer-term rates up more quickly than their shorter-term counterparts. The so-called yield curve, which measures this difference in yields, last week hit its steepest since 2015.
This trend was due to “positive news around the pandemic, some better-than-anticipated economic data and increased fiscal stimulus expectation”, JPMorgan analysts said on Friday.
The Wall Street investment bank had been anticipating Congress would eventually agree a $900bn stimulus bill, but said recent manoeuvring in the Senate suggested the package could be larger than it had anticipated.
“It stands to reason that if Congress were to pass a larger package it would raise growth expectations, resulting in higher Treasury yields than our baseline forecasts,” the bank added.
Like humans, marmosets – tiny monkeys with Einstein-like ear tufts native to Brazil – eavesdrop on conversations between others, and prefer to approach individuals they view positively, a study in the journal Science Advances showed Wednesday.
While behavioral research has built up knowledge around the social lives of primates, it has tended to lack reliable ways to determine an individual’s “inside perspective,” or the inner workings of her or his mind.
Marmosets are an ideal species to study because of their close-knit social structure: They live in highly cooperative groups of around 15 family members, with the entire extended clan responsible for rearing children.
How do they decide who is reliable and who is not?
A team led by Rahel Brugger at the University of Zurich (UZH) presented 21 captive-born adult marmosets with recordings from a hidden speaker of an opposite sex adult making either food-offering calls or aggressive chatter calls in response to begging infants.
As a control, they also played the marmosets calls made by a single individual.
The scientists then pointed infrared cameras at the marmosets’ faces to record the nasal temperatures – looking for drops that indicate the monkeys were alert and engaged.
The tests found the marmosets only responded to combined and not individual calls, indicating they understood when real conversations were occurring.
After playing them the recordings, the team let the marmosets enter a room filled with toys and a mirror.
Marmosets don’t recognize their own reflection, and so believed that it represented the monkey who made the recorded call.
The researchers found that overall, the marmosets preferred to approach when the recordings indicated the individual was helpful.
“This study adds to the growing evidence that many animals are not only passive observers of third-party interactions, but that they also interpret them,” said the paper’s senior author and professor of anthropology at UZH, Judith Burkart.
The team plans to use this temperature-mapping approach for future investigations, such as into the origin of morality.
A day after news broke of Deshaun Watson requesting a trade, new Houston Texans GM Nick Caserio made it clear he hasn’t given up on keeping him in the fold, setting up a standoff with the franchise QB.
“Organizationally, we want to reiterate our commitment to Deshaun Watson” he said at Friday’s press conference to introduce head coach David Culley. “We have zero interest in trading the player.”
While Watson’s frustration with the franchise has little to do with Caserio and Culley personally, there has been no indication they will be able to change his mind.
The 25-year-old Clemson alum had expected to have a say in the team’s new leadership after a dismal 4-12 season. That didn’t appear to happen with the team hiring Ceserio without notifying Watson.
Culley, on his first official day with the team, tried to throw some optimism at the looming ugliness.
“He is a Houston Texan,” the 65-year-old first-time head coach said. “I want him to be a Houston Texan. The reason I’m in this position today is because I know he’s going to be a Houston Texan.”
That positivity may be misplaced. Watson, whose four-year, $156 million contract runs through 2025 with a no-trade clause, has most of the leverage in this case, and is reportedly “dug-in” on being dealt. The Texans can do little more than fine him if he refuses to show up, though NFL Network reported that he’s willing to “sit and lose money.”
Numerous teams are expected to be in the trade market for Watson, who led the NFL with a career-high 4,823 passing yards and threw for a personal best 33 touchdowns in 2020. The Jets could put together an intriguing package spearheaded by the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, but they’ll have to compete with AFC East foes from New England and Miami, as well as the Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers.
Of significant interest to the military are optical inter-satellite links that allow satellites to pass massive amounts of data to other satellites and to ground stations.
WASHINGTON — Among the 143 satellites that flew to orbit Jan. 24 on SpaceX’s record-breaking rideshare were technology demonstrations and payloads of interest to the U.S. military, including satellite components, in-space laser communications and remote sensing.
Blue Canyon Technologies deployed new satellite components it plans to incorporate in Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency satellites. Now owned by Raytheon, Blue Canyon is producing spacecraft for DARPA’s Blackjack low-Earth orbit constellation. The company’s CEO George Stafford said these new components include attitude control systems and reaction wheels intended to improve the performance of satellites.
Other smallsats that flew on SpaceX’s Transporter-1 were laser communications payloads — known as optical inter-satellite links — that allow satellites to pass massive amounts of data to other satellites and to ground stations. Germany’s Tesat-Spacecom sent to orbit a laser communications terminal the company claims is the smallest in the industry, weighing less than a pound.
Tesat-Spacecom spokesman Matthias Motzigemba told SpaceNews the company plans to test the optical communications payload for up to two years and conduct experiments aimed at building a global network of space and ground nodes.
Motzigemba said he could not disclose the customers for these terminals but said Tesat currently supplies optical inter-satellite links to U.S. companies building low-Earth orbit constellations.
The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency is especially interested in lightweight laser communications terminals for the fleet of LEO satellites it plans to deploy over the next few years. DARPA and SDA were hoping to launch two optical inter-satellite link cubesats on Transporter-1 but the satellites were accidentally damaged at the payload processing facility.
SDA Director Derek Tournear commented in a social media post that losing those two satellites was “painful” and that Transporter-1 would have had 145 satellites on board if the two laser comms payloads had made it.
SpaceX in this mission flew 10 of its own Starlink internet satellites equipped with laser links. The U.S. military plans to use Starlink to connect airplanes and other platforms, and optical inter-satellite links are preferred because they are more cyber secure than traditional radio-frequency communications.
The largest share of smallsats in Transporter-1 were imaging satellites from Planet as well as radar imaging satellites from Capella Space and Iceye, and radio-frequency mapping satellites from HawkEye 360. These and other companies are expanding their fleets as the Pentagon and the intelligence community plan to increase use of commercial remote sensing services.
Better technology needed for satellite tracking
The U.S. military currently serves as space traffic controller. Space Command’s 18th Space Control Squadron monitors satellites and space debris for close approaches and posts their location on space-track.org.
The unprecedented number of small satellites launched by SpaceX in a single flight is drawing attention to the challenges of managing space traffic as orbits become more congested.
Satellite tracker and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said Transporter-1 included satellites from 24 different owners and operators, most from the United States and a handful from 10 other countries.
Concerns about spaceflight safety are creating opportunities for startups like Kayhan Space Corp., which developed cloud-based software to help military and commercial satellite operators plan maneuvers so they can avoid collisions.
The company has received two Small Business Innovation Research contracts from the U.S. Air Force to support satellite tracking efforts.
“There is a lot of room for improvement in tracking of space objects,” Kayhan Space CEO and co-founder Siamak Hesar told SpaceNews. Today it is difficult to precisely establish the location of small objects like cubesats, he said. As rideshares become more frequent, said Hesar, the 18th Space Control Squadron and civilian organizations will need better tools to manage the congestion and avoid costly mishaps.