The 1920 Jones Act shouldn’t even exist anymore.

The act only allows U.S.-flagged and built ships “to transport cargo between U.S. ports.”

The ships must also be “mostly owned and crewed by Americans.”

Not a shock that President Woodrow Wilson (I hate that guy) signed the Jones Act into law. He wanted to encourage U.S. shipbuilding after World War I.

Yeah, well, it hinders competition, leading to higher costs for goods and higher operational costs.

Fewer than 100 vessels comply with the Jones Act. //

broomhandle in reply to MarkS. | March 18, 2026 at 4:52 pm
The Jones Act is a classic example of cronyist protectionism: it imposes heavy government mandates on private commerce (U.S.-built, U.S.-crewed, U.S.-owned ships for domestic routes) in the name of “national security,” yet delivers concentrated benefits to a small, politically connected maritime lobby while dispersing higher costs across American consumers, businesses and energy users.

This violates principles of limited government, free enterprise, and fiscal responsibility. Instead of fostering genuine competitiveness through innovation and open markets, it creates an uncompetitive, high-cost industry shielded from foreign (and even domestic) competition, driving up shipping expenses that ripple into everyday prices for goods, fuel, and groceries.

The national security rationale is particularly weak: the U.S. merchant fleet has shrunk dramatically under the Act’s watch, not grown stronger, and modern logistics plus targeted subsidies or direct naval investments could secure sealift needs far more efficiently without burdening the broader economy. In short, it’s textbook rent-seeking that harms the many to prop up the few, contrary to the preference for market-driven strength over regulatory favoritism.

Robert Goddard, a Massachusetts-born physicist, launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket on this date 100 years ago.

It was not an overly impressive flight. The rocket, fueled by gasoline and liquid oxygen, rose just 41 feet into the air, and the flight lasted 2.5 seconds before it struck ice and snow.

Nevertheless, this rocket, named “Nell,” represented a historic achievement that would help launch the modern age of spaceflight. Three decades later, the first objects would begin to ride liquid-fueled rockets into space, followed shortly by humans. A little more than 40 years would pass before humans walked on the Moon.

To mark this historic moment, a few Ars staffers are sharing some of their most memorable launches. Please add yours in the comments below.

Our History

rsync.net began providing cloud storage for offsite backups in the fall of 2001, for our original corporate parent, JohnCompanies.

In 2005, we became a stand-alone firm dedicated only to offsite backup. We provide this simple product and nothing else.

Our Team

While US government agencies remain the top targets for Iran's cyber weapons, all of the security professionals we interviewed told us that American businesses are more at risk.

"The NSA is really, really good at defensive operations, and so I don't see...the attacks going against government assets, I see them going after civilian assets," said Coffman, who served more than 35 years in the US Army and is now president of Forward Edge-AI, which provides AI and cybersecurity services to US government, defense, and critical infrastructure sectors.

The problem Waterline Development encountered is that commercial AI models are ill-suited to multidisciplinary research, which requires synthesizing expertise from a variety of fields.

"No single AI model does this reliably," the company explains in a white paper [PDF]. "Frontier language models hallucinate under extended multi-step reasoning. They produce plausible answers that silently break when a problem crosses domain boundaries. At best this wastes time; at worst, it poisons critical decision making." //

Bednarski said Rozum is not focused on correcting LLMs to the extent they can be used for, say, critical engineering work like bridge construction. Rather, the goal is to empower researchers, engineers, and scientists so they can do their jobs better.

"We are focused on deterministic tool implementation (ex. RDKit for Chemistry), allowing engineers, scientists, and analysts a direct path to verify outputs in a format familiar to them by domain," he explained.

"Our system orchestration method is heavily focused on deterministic validation (code execution replicated, etc.) of outputs, which roots out hallucinations that plague all models at various times. We see further improvements to this in verifying the methods used in sources we cite as well."

Technology like four-wheel steering and variable valve timing debuted in the Prelude.

Engineers have uncovered the mathematical rules fireflies follow to sync up their flashes. //

Such work could one day lead to insights into how the body’s cells sync to its internal circadian rhythm, or how neurons fire together in the brain, as well as the design of drone swarms communicating through synchronized flashes.

Canute and the Waves: A Misunderstood Story
Canute the Great (985/95 to 1035) was the most successful ruler of the Anglo Saxon period. At the height of his power he was King of England, Denmark, Norway, parts of Sweden, and overlord of Scotland. He put an end to Viking attacks on Britain and paid off the standing army, thus abolishing the enormous taxes which had been used to pay them. He reinstated the rules of King Edgar, an earlier, well-respected English king, and attended the coronation in Rome of the Emperor Conrad II, resulting in his reputation as a true partner to Europe. His achievements all but forgotten, Canute is now mainly known for a single misinterpreted story: Canute and the Waves. //

“But the sea carried on rising as usual without any reverence for his person, and soaked his feet and legs. Then he moving away said: “All the inhabitants of the world should know that the power of kings is vain and trivial, and that none is worthy of the name of king but He whose command the heaven, earth and sea obey by eternal laws”. //

The story is intended to illustrate his piety – a prominent feature in his kingship,” he says. “He knows his power is nothing besides that of God.”
(Westcott, Katheryn. “Is King Canute Misunderstood?” BBC News, May 2011.)

MRC Video @mrcvideo
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Beautiful! Best Actress winner Jessie Buckley uses her acceptance speech to praise marriage and promote motherhood.

A sharp contrast from last year's winner, Mikey Madison, who dedicated her award to sex workers.

10:02 AM · Mar 16, 2026

Jessie Buckley was a best actress nominee for the movie Hamnet, a period drama based on a fiction novel about William Shakespeare's family. The film explored Shakespeare's and his wife Agnes' marriage, particularly after the loss of their 11-year-old son, and how it shaped Agnes as a mother, as well as Shakespeare's writing. Buckley's portrayal of Agnes won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, but it is her acceptance speech that appears to be more popular than the actual film. //

Buckley's unbridled expression of love for her husband was not just heartwarming, but a biblical example of honoring her husband.

Fred, I love you man. I love you, she said.

You're the most incredible Dad, you're my best friend, and I want to have 20,000 more babies with you. I do, I do! //

Buckley also honored the writer and director of the film by saying, "To understand the capacity of a mother's love is the greatest collision of my life." Collision is probably the right word, because what I know of the mothers in my family and my life, this word embodies the massive impact of their great love for their children. A love that never goes away, no matter how old they get. One mom friend described her 18-year-old as her heart walking outside of her body. That's fierce.

Buckley ended her speech with an homage to mothers in the U.K. and all over the world. "It's Mother's Day in the U.K., so I would like to dedicate this to the beautiful chaos of a mother's heart."

This "beautiful chaos," Buckley described, illuminating that motherhood, and the passion and great love that drives it, is not supposed to be neatly packaged in illusory perfection or impossible milestones. It's meant to be messy and chaotic, as is much of life — at least the part that matters.