In December of 1941, Japan launched an attack on America at Pearl Harbor, worried that if they didn't do something quickly to cripple the American fleet, they would be starved of oil slowly and lose if America eventually entered anyway.

Oddly, Germany then declared war on America to support its Axis ally.

Both countries underestimated American manufacturing capacity. 

In April, the Doolittle Raid bombed Tokyo, in May the world saw its first combined air-sea battle, the Battle of Coral Sea, and in June the U.S. Navy intercepted a Japanese invasion fleet heading for Midway Island.

Marijuana oils, many illegal or of suspect origin, used in nicotine vaping devices ("e-cigarette" devices) have cause numerous health issues and even deaths recently, and so the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency has told consumers who are putting marijuana juice into nicotine vaping devices to stop immediately.

To help toxicologists narrow down what is causing these illnesses and deaths, and why so many occurred in a cluster this year, the EPA Computational Toxicology group has published a list of 37 chemicals found in the marijuana plant that give strains their aromatic and flavor profiles. 

The E-6B Mercury aircraft, a Navy "doomsday" plane, was grounded after a "touch-and-go" training maneuver (just what it sounds like, they land on the runway and take off again) resulted in a misfortunate bird strike that took out an engine and $2 million in damage.

The E-6B Mercury is a Boeing 747 modified to be shielded from EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) that would result in a nuclear strike, but more recently can also be directed to take out electronic systems. Like submarines, it also has low-frequency communications to communicate, which means it can launch Minuteman III ICBMs buried in mountain fortresses.

A scholar who spent five months at a cancer ward in a hospital that had roughly 5,000 employees studied how nurses use knowledge on the job and found something interesting;  they can smell infections.

I don't mean leprosy, or something really obvious, they can smell a type of infection.

“A urinary tract infection is very distinct. I can recognize that smell out in the corridor,” wrote one, while another said, "a urinary tract infection, or clostridium. It's super easy to smell!”

Esports, competitive video game tournaments, have risen to prominence. You can watch an Apex Legends tournament on television and the commentary might make you dizzy, with the jargon and the rapid pace, but there is no denying the skill.

Twitch and Mixer are overwhelmingly dominated by Fortnite, a loot and shoot game, to such an extent that online groups went into spasms when Fortnite took itself offline for two days (via an asteroid, which even blew up their Twitter feed) to generate some buzz for the new season. And it was already huge after Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf won the $3 million Fortnite World Cup this summer.

Apex is rolling out Halloween characters for its upcoming event, Dracula and the Wicked Witch, among others.

Worldwide, a billion people still use things like fire and wood for energy, and in more developed areas they may have gas or diesel generators.(1) Both are terrific sources of pollution but if it's all you have, you are going to use it.

In the 1970s, oil-producing countries in the OPEC cabal had the ability to control western countries using prices and supply. After a series of such crises in the 1970s, Americans began to develop two things; modern synthetic oil and lithium-ion batteries. First in line to get off the petroleum fixation was Exxon

Stanley Whittingham of Exxon was interested in superconductors and discovered that a titanium disulphide cathode could store lithium ions. Using a battery containing metallic lithium (lithium was discovered by humans in 1817 and valuable because it will readily release electrons) held a lot of promise, but the metallic lithium was explosive. This was not pure lithium, it was a salt, so no labs were burned down in the process.

CRISPR-Cas9 is the biological equivalent of the Higgs in physics; everyone knows it will get a Nobel Prize, it is just a matter of when.

What about after that? If physics is any indication, they may be in for a bit of a lull, as evidenced by the Nobel this year being split between "theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology" and "for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star." All under the blanket of the vague "for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth’s place in the cosmos”, which doesn't mean a lot. 

It's impossible to not know that there have been a rash of illnesses (and nearly two dozen deaths) that have been blamed on e-cigarettes. But while CDC continues to suggest the problem is nicotine smoking cessation and harm reduction FDA has listened to the data. The problem is what people are putting in the devices and it is in almost all cases not nicotine.