Welp…

Posted on by August 22, 2024

We now know who is going to be Boeing’s ‘sacrificial lamb’…

Boeing Starliner program manager Mark Nappi told the New York Times earlier this week that it’s no surprise that the company’s Starliner crewed flight test is taking longer than expected — so far, almost ten times longer than expected. NASA astronauts Butch Williams and Suni Wilmore are on Day 77 of their eight-day stay aboard the International Space Station.

Nappi says he regrets not doing a better job of managing expectations.

“I think we all knew that it was going to go longer than that,” Nappi told the NYT. “We didn’t spend a lot of time talking about how much longer, but I think it’s my regret that we didn’t just say ‘We’re going to stay up there until we get everything done that we want to go do.'”

Full article, HERE.

And they’re not saying because they have NO idea… They’re just trying to salvage their program at this point. I hope they are at least ‘thinking’ about the astronauts as they do the evaluations.

However, the impact on the ISS ‘program plan’ is putting a lot of the upcoming operations in jeopardy. Not in the least due to the lack of food (extra bodies for now 80+ days), plus blocking a parking spot, and the potential for Crew Dragon to have to go ‘light’ with only 2 astronauts vice the 4 that are planned, along with the experiments they had scheduled.

And NASA is apparently ‘not’ making the hard decision to kick Boeing to the curb so that the program plan gets back on track. The ISS only has about five more years before it gets deorbited…

Sigh… How the mighty have fallen…

Well…

Posted on by August 20, 2024

Now we know how long an EV semi fire will burn and close a road…

EMIGRANT GAP, Calif. —

Eastbound Interstate 80 is reopening nearly 16 hours after a Tesla Semi caught fire east of Nyack early Monday, Cal Fire said.

Drivers were being kept off the interstate for at least half a mile in both directions because the Tesla electric vehicle’s battery was on fire, said Jason Lyman, a California Highway Patrol spokesperson. The toxic fumes are an inhalation danger, he sai

Cal Fire crews and a hazardous materials team contracted by Tesla were on the scene.

Full article, HERE from KCRA.com

We know lithium batteries ‘feed’ on each other when they catch fire, but 16 hours to get down to 1000 degrees… wow… And untold thousands of gallons of water, plus tying up x number of fire engines.

And it happened on I-80, so there were options to get around it, but what if…

This happens in a city or in heavy traffic? Where to people go? Get out and run? If it’s in a city, what happens to the buildings adjacent to the wreck? 2000+ degrees IS going to set off other fires just from the reflected heat.

Or on a bridge, or something like the Hoover Dam? Or in the winter? I-80 gets their share of that every winter. Or in Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas, etc? Or Texas in the summer with fire danger?

And if this is in the EU, where the roads are smaller and packed? Same questions…

I don’t have any good answers folks.

Does anybody???

Blue Flu???

Posted on by August 19, 2024

Has it hit Chiraq???

“Chicago 2024 won’t be like Chicago 1968. That is the promise of law-enforcement officials and protest organizers alike as the curtain prepares to lift on this year’s Democratic National Convention,” the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend. “Each side says it aims to maintain the peace even as thousands are expected to demonstrate against the war in Gaza, abortion restrictions and on other hotly contested issues.”

That may just be wishful thinking. According to some reports on social media, more than 1,000 officers are calling in sick.

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

Interestingly, Monday night at 11pm on the east coast and STILL no Joe Biden at the DNC. It’s well past his naptime… One wonders what is going on with that.

The ‘protesters’ have apparently already started as of noon Monday, but I’m not seeing ANY coverage of it on any of the media.

With over 1000 CPD officers out, now the ‘rumors’ we were hearing last week about ‘extra’ LEOs being called in to work the DNC make a lot more sense. I can’t help but wonder if/how many National Guard have been alerted or sent to Chiraq that we’re also not hearing about.

I dipped in a couple of times (known thine enemy), and it seems like more of the same DNC blather, nothing is your fault, we’re going to ‘fix’ everything, and free (insert whatever here).

I also noted a couple of YouTube videos that had ‘ads’ asking for donations to the DNC yesterday, and that is something I’d never seen.

I wonder if the Fibbies are geofencing the cell phones up there this week?

Compare and constrast…

Posted on by August 18, 2024

The RNC went to Milwaukee, which wasn’t necessarily ‘friendly’ territory, but there were no riots, no looting, no burning, etc. The expectation was around $200M increase in business, HERE, but the Wisconsin papers seemed to downplay the actual impact without giving any numbers, HERE.

Contrast that with the DNC going into the ‘friendly’ city of Chicago, a dem stronghold for over 50 years.

Having a political convention in your city is usually seen as likely to bring a welcome economic boon, but that cannot be said of the upcoming Democratic National Convention, which is set to begin in Chicago on Monday. In fact, downtown businesses are bracing for violence, chaos, and looting as many thousands of pro-Hamas activists and protesters are expected to descend upon the city, threatening to make Chicago in 2024 look like Minneapolis in 2020.

According to a report from the New York Post, businesses started boarding up their windows and doors last week. 

Full article, HERE from PJ Media.

This coming week should be ‘interesting’, to put it mildly! And I, for one, am glad I’m not in Chiraq or the vicinity.

Oh yeah, and you can also get a vasectomy or an abortion while you’re there… Believe it or not, HERE.

We might need some popcorn to watch this cluster… 1968 anyone???

 

 

Gah!!!

Posted on by August 17, 2024

This…is just beyond the pale!!!

On Oct. 5, 2023, Jeffrey Piccolo, his mother, and his wife, Kanokporn “Amy” Tangsuan, a 42-year-old doctor from New York, dined at an Irish pub at a Walt Disney World resort, choosing the location because it was advertised on Disney’s website as offering “allergen free food.” The doctor, who had a severe allergy to nuts and dairy, informed wait staff numerous times of her allergy when ordering the vegan fritter, scallops, onion rings and a vegan shepherd’s pie, and she was “guaranteed” the items were allergen-free. Less than an hour after finishing the meal, however, Tangsuan began having trouble breathing. Despite administering an EpiPen, she eventually died at a nearby hospital, with a medical examiner determining the cause of death as “anaphylaxis due to elevated levels of dairy and nut in her system,” according to a lawsuit her husband filed in February. The tragic incident has now made headlines over Disney’s response, which Piccolo’s attorney Brian Denney said “borders on absurd.” 

Full article, HERE from TownHall.

Yet ANOTHER reason not to spend a penny on ANYTHING Disney…

Disney lawyers say he agreed to settle any lawsuits against Disney out of court via the arbitration process when he signed up for a one-month trial of Disney+ in 2019!

Vert the ferk???

Soooo, if you EVER signed up anything Disney related, you’ve just waived your ‘rights’ to sue forever?

I don’t frikking think so!

But sadly, I’m betting this one will be tied up in court for years, just like Oberlin did to Gibson’s Bakery. Filed in 2017, the case was decided for the Gibsons in 2019, but they didn’t see the money until 2022, after the senior Gibson had passed away.

Now I’m wondering what other ‘programs’ out there are pulling the same crap in their TOS???

Sigh…

A little humor…

Posted on by August 15, 2024
“Life is the leading cause of death”.

“We must recognize that, as we grow older, we become like old cars – more and more repairs and replacements are necessary.”- C.S. Lewis

“Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard there is nothing you can do about it.”- Golda Meir

“I’m so old that my blood type is discontinued.”- Bill Dane

“The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.- Mark Twain

“Wisdom doesn’t necessarily come with age. Sometimes, age just shows up all by itself.”- Tom Wilson.

“I don’t plan to grow old gracefully. I plan to have face-lifts until my ears meet.”- Rita Rudner

“I’m at that age where my back goes out more than I do.”Phyllis Diller

“First you forget names, then you forget faces, then you forget to pull your zipper up, then you forget to pull your zipper down.”- Leo Rosenberg

“Old people shouldn’t eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get”– Robert Orben

“At age 20, we worry about what others think of us… at age 40, we don’t care what they think of us… at age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all. – Ann Landers

“When I was young, I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties, I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then, and I’m labelled senile.”- George Burns

“I complain that the years fly past, but then I look in a mirror and see that very few of them actually got past.”- Robert Brault

“It’s paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn’t appeal to anyone.”- Andy Rooney

“Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.”- Larry Lorenzon

“You know you’re getting old when you can pinch an inch on your forehead.”- John Mendoza

“I was thinking about how people seem to read the bible a lot more as they get older, and then it dawned on me—they’re cramming for their final exam.”- George Carlin

“I don’t feel old. I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.”- Bob Hope

“I don’t do alcohol anymore—I get the same effect just standing up fast.”– Anonymous

“Getting older. I used to be able to run a 4-minute mile, bench press 380 pounds, and tell the truth – Conan O’Brien

“I have reached an age when, if someone tells me to wear socks, I don’t have to”- Albert Einstein

“Grandchildren don’t make a man feel old, it’s the knowledge that he’s married to a grandmother that does.”- J. Norman Collie

“You know you are getting old when everything hurts, and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.”- Hy Gardner

“When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.”- Mark Twain

“There’s one advantage to being 102, there’s no peer pressure.”- Dennis Wolfberg

“The idea is to die young as late as possible.”- Ashley Montagu

“You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.”- George Burns

More ‘settled’ science…

Posted on by August 15, 2024

Or not…

The active sun is kicking into overdrive and we could be in for yet more dazzling auroras.

In the early morning hours today (Aug. 14), the sun unleashed the most powerful class of solar flare, in a potent X-class eruption. The solar flare peaked at 2:40 a.m. EDT (0640 GMT) and caused shortwave radio blackouts over the sunlit portion of Earth at the time of the eruption, Asia and the Indian Ocean. 

Full article, HERE from Space.com

X-class are the most powerful eruptions, but I noted there is no 1-10 assigned to it yet. 1 is the lowest, with 10 being the highest. Other classes in descending order are M, C, B, and A-class with a magnitude decrease of 10 at each class.

Among other things, in addition to a coronal mass ejection (CME), it did a number on ‘radio’ frequencies over Asia which happened to be in sunlight (e.g. direct path).

Shortwave radio blackouts were observed across Asia and the Indian Ocean.  (Image credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center)

I also pity anybody trying to do MAD trapping or any magnetometer work in that region or pretty much anywhere for a couple of days.

Oh yeah, and if your GPS loses lock, that’s the reason…

You DO still carry real maps, don’t you?

Another one bites the dust!!!

Posted on by August 14, 2024

Finally…

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned, according to an email distributed to members of the campus community. Her resignation is effective as of Wednesday.

Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned, according to an email distributed to members of the campus community. Her resignation is effective as of Wednesday.

Shafik came into the national spotlight at the start of pro-Palestinian protests across the nation, the epicenter of which appeared at Columbia.

“I write with sadness to tell you that I am stepping down as president of Columbia University effective August 14, 2024,” Shafik wrote. “I have had the honor and privilege to lead this incredible institution, and I believe that—working together—we have made progress in a number of important areas. However, it has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”

Full article, HERE from the Washington Examiner.

She hung around a lot longer than most figured she would, but she’s finally ‘decided’ to leave.

I ‘wonder’ what went into that… She IS Egyptian, and I can’t help but wonder if she hates the Israeli people that much because of family issues from the 67 war…

For those that don’t remember, she failed to protect Jewish students at Columbia and negotiated with pro-Hamas terrorists who took over the campus. She also delayed getting NYPD involved in clearing the campus.

Her FIRST duty ‘should’ have been protecting the students on campus, regardless of their ethnicity!!!

Very interesting…

Posted on by August 13, 2024

Finally, after almost 30 years, geofencing got taken to the 5th Circuit on appeal!

In a major decision on Friday, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that geofence warrants are “categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.” Closely following arguments EFF has made in a number of cases, the court found that geofence warrants constitute the sort of “general, exploratory rummaging” that the drafters of the Fourth Amendment intended to outlaw. EFF applauds this decision because it is essential that every person feels like they can simply take their cell phone out into the world without the fear that they might end up a criminal suspect because their location data was swept up in open-ended digital dragnet.

Full article HERE from the Electronic Freedom Foundation. If you want to read a .pdf of the actual verdict, go to the link in the article.

Here is the Oxford definition-

ge·o·fence
/ˈjēōˌfens/
  1. a virtual geographic boundary, defined by GPS or RFID technology, that enables software to trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves a particular area.
    “they could put up a geofence around the building, meaning your phone disables itself when you enter it”
    verb
  1. create a virtual geographic boundary around (an area) by means of GPS or RFID technology, enabling software to trigger a response when a mobile device enters or leaves the area.
    “the company has now geofenced the locations of 180,000 US schools”

An ‘advertising’ use of geofencing is HERE from Tech Target.

It is nice to see that ‘somebody’ believes the 4th Amendment is still valid and we have a a reasonable expectation of privacy, even if we have a cell phone with us!

We’d actually discussed this on our livestream last week, and yes, it was used to ‘locate’ folks to prosecute for Jan 6, 2020.

There are companies that ‘sell’ geofencing programs that can be used for any number of things, and just because you turn off your locating data, doesn’t mean the phone isn’t still being ‘located’ by the cell towers it is hitting.

It’s just ‘one’ more way of tracking us, whether or not we want to be tracked… sigh

Now imagine what could happen if this was combined with ‘social media’ scores like China… Can we say ‘Internal Passports’? I knew you could…

h/t Steven