The James Webb Space Telescope will re-define the term awe-inspiring, for me at least.
The Next Big Thing In Space
Vaccine Research
“May” Not?
There’s no question about it. Why can’t people just say what they mean, and mean what they say?
The Blooming Desert Southwest
…isn’t sounding like such a great idea to alot of developers and farmers downstream from Colorado these days.
This is what it looks like naturally:
This what it looks like when people without respect for nature try to capitalize on it:
Dark Corner No More
Having been a big lemon benefactor over the years, I’ve always subscribed to the old adage “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!” So after last fall’s early hard freeze took out half the trees in the front yard, I took advantage of the situation.
“The Weed Tree” was not dead. But most of one side and half the other was. It took me almost a month to get the dead parts trimmed down, cut up and the small stuff burned. The remainder is still a decent-sized tree, now also forming a street light pole at least double the candlepower of the more decorative variety the town put on the other corner. I had to fabricate a small adapter for a clean attachment to the tree limb.
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You can get an idea of the extent of the damage from that last “before” pic with Tigger. I had started pruning the dead stuff off it a couple weeks prior to that shot. Weather extremes driven by climate change are here now. We still have quite a bit of Aspen left to come down from the one on the other side of the driveway. I’ll tackle that later this year after it cools off. Probably later than last year, not quite as cool…
Billionaire Astronauts
I’m making a rare exception to posting policy acknowledging Blue Origin’s successful mission today. Posts here are typically supported with links to relevant information, but not this one. The following is purely my opinion on the topic.
Many judgements and accusations surrounding wealth disparity and income inequality have been leveled against people like Musk, Brandon and now Bezos, with regard to the commercial space industry. I call it antithetical hypocrisy. It is a more secular non-political form of hypocrisy held by people living their daily, mundane lives in the lap of technology born from space programs.
Anyone enjoying their cellphone/Internet, powerful pharmaceuticals, high tech apparel, fashion accessories, cars, and a plethora of advances in techno-driven manufacturing can thank space exploration and research. It all sources from programs like DARPA, NASA and others, pushing the envelope to meet the next challenge and conquer another frontier.
So if it takes alot of big dick energy and billionaire dollars to get it done, – more power to ’em! And if they just want to have some fun and take their friends for a ride, that’s cool too.
Summer Fire Fun Starting Early
The start of summer also marks the start of fire season. It’s starting to look like “fire” will supplant “summer” in the seasonal weather lexicon around here.
Asked and Answered
With outbreaks gaining momentum at summer camps across the country, AP reporting seems ominously foreboding. With past pandemic warnings gone unheeded, we appear to be in for one helluva school year coming up in 2021.
Michael Collins
Sorry for the late posting on this, but it seems I’m always in catch-up mode these days. The astronaut community is large, diverse and growing fast. It wasn’t that long ago there were only a dozen or so, doing some pretty incredible stuff. Michael Collins was one of those early pioneers leading the way in space travel.
“We … know how lucky Mike felt to have lived the life he did … Please join us in fondly and joyfully remembering his sharp wit, his quiet sense of purpose, and his wise perspective; gained both from looking back at Earth from the vantage point of space and gazing across the calm waters from the deck of his fishing boat.”
Worst Fire Season Ever
This group of blazes was one of the first to start, now grown into the biggest ever. It’s been unseasonably warm right through October so far. Still can’t believe Trump had the unmitigated gall to say/do that in California. This one has burned largely un-contained for over 2 months. Flaring here right outside 5712 into the 600’s on the PM2.5 scale today.
You’ve seen it with your own eyes living out here in the West. The only flora left is near shrinking waterways or where people are watering it. Natural growth is slowly dying out – and burning. What we have here, is the epitome of willful ignorance, leading the country:
Solar Time Lapse
I just thought this was so cool: “Every second of the 61-minute video represents images taken over a single day, starting on June 2, 2010, with the last frame captured on June 1, 2020.”
Crew Dragon, Baby!!
It’s been a long time coming. Space-X and NASA did us proud, at a time when we really needed it. The greatest American space achievement so far this century was unfortunately overshadowed by civil rights unrest last week, so I waited to add a couple extra follow-on clips to round out the post. Congratulations to Elon, Space-X, NASA and the whole team of contractors and suppliers! Once again U.S. leads the way to space. Best pics.
Daily Testing
I eagerly anticipate the day we learn Trump’s daily testing regimen for him and top cronies comes to real fruition. With false result rates up to 50% in some examples, that’s not odds I’d brag about in my fantastically successful non-existent SARS-COv2 testing program. They should have been testing the tests six months ago. Get sick and die, you miserable piece ‘o shyt.
“With a few months left until a second wave of coronavirus infections is expected in the fall, that could leave the U.S. once again unprepared and vulnerable.”
A glaring omission from the Modern Healthcare article overlooks the push to re-start economic activity along with the abysmal testing situation. Countries around the world have already started banning some tests. We won’t have to wait until fall for wave #2.
Wake-Up Call?
Informed people understand how the Gov/Pharma/Christian bloc of economic and political control freaks torpedoed Cannabis research for decades. Will SARS-CoV2 be the big Wake-Up call?
With Trump still touting things like household cleaners as recently as yesterday, I suppose we can only pray to their non-existent Gawds.
How We Use Science
Elon sending a quarter-million N95s
A recent (yesterday?) poll said the majority of Americans approve of Trump’s crises handling. They must have asked 10 people what they though about getting free money. For those more reality-based readers.
These assholes called a government spent months watching the Wuhan disaster unfold as if it was some new entertainment channel on Youtube. Now the Cunt-in-Chief stands before the country spreading misinformation and lies, while his crippled administration stands behind him in stark disbelief. The good part is at least we saw it coming. The bad news is we are woefully un-prepared.
He really wanted to do a full facepalm. Is he fired yet?
Another 1st for Social Media
I suppose it was inevitable. But the first spacewalk selfie done in orbit at the ISS makes it interesting to me. Of course a girl had to be the one to do it, but the whole idea pretty much puts the gender inequality debate to rest as far as I am concerned.
