Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

So very ready.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

The lights are all blinking red.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Republicans do not trust women.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Their shamelessness is their super power.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

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106Comments

  2. 2.

    Gin & Tonic

    Yes. It’s amazing that Joe Kittinger is not only still alive, but *he* is essentially Mission Control. I find that way cool for some reason.

  3. 3.

    arguingwithsignposts

    someone mentioned on facebook that this is like a moon landing for the younger generation. Thoughts? I’m gonna say no (and I was 1 when the moon landing took place).

  4. 4.

    Schlemizel

    as a kid, sometime back in the early 60s I remember a guy trying this. I had a cousin that worked for Letten Industries who made his balloon. He had to bail out after a failure & landed in “Pigs Eye Dump”. I seem to remember he was successful some time later & break the speed of sound on the way down.

    Now I can’t find any info on that event but I am sure I am not dreaming it

  5. 5.

    lamh35

    The father of the late Ambassador Chris Stevens pleads for his son’s death not to be exploited as part of the presidential campaign.

    From Bloomberg …
    “The father of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed in the attack in Benghazi last month, said his son’s death shouldn’t be politicized in the presidential campaign.“It would really be abhorrent to make this into a campaign issue,” Jan Stevens, 77, said in a telephone interview from his home in Loomis, California, as he prepares for a memorial service for his son next week.
    Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has criticized President Barack Obama for not providing adequate security in Libya, saying the administration has left the country exposed to a deadly terrorist attack.”

  8. 8.

    Highway Rob

    @arguingwithsignposts: Not exactly an answer to your question (and the answer is “no”), but can you imagine how badly today’s generation would break the internet if the first moon landing occurred today?

  9. 9.

    Anoniminous

    While we do need some roof work done, my concern is we don’t have “people falling out of the sky and going splat on your house” insurance.

  10. 10.

    Schlemizel

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I would have guessed this was later than his jumps – 1962-64 time frame & the whole point (as I recall it) was to break the barrier. But who knows, thats a long time ago & my brain hurts

  12. 12.

    blingee

    Slow news day to be showing the slow boring ascent live. This reminds me of Evil Knievel jumping the Grand Canyon. Hours of flatulating commentary coverage and a few seconds of actual jumping. In this case it will be 10 minutes.

  13. 13.

    Corner Stone

    I tried to, when NFL Gameday was on commercial. But the split screen between a balloon climbing at 6m and the elderly gentleman with the headset doing not much of anything was riveting. Riveting, I tells ya!
    To me, personally and IMO this is nothing. It’s like that billionaire adventurer dude trying to circumnavigate in a balloon.

  14. 14.

    Corner Stone

    @gbear:

    If you’re falling at supersonic speeds, does that mean that no one hears you when you splat?

    Will the cameras cut away?

  15. 15.

    Schlemizel

    @gbear:

    Not to get all technical on your joke but he would stop being supersonic at some point inside the atmosphere. He’d only be doing about 120 when he hit the ground. Still think the sound would be unpleasant 8-{D

  16. 16.

    Cuppa Cabana

    There’s really no scientific benefit to this jump is there? Seems like the only point is break a record set over 50 years ago, when Kittinger jumped from the gondola of a weather balloon (not some wimpish capsule), with a suit held together by duct tape and baling wire.

  17. 17.

    Cuppa Cabana

    There’s really no scientific benefit to this jump is there? Seems like the only point is break a record set over 50 years ago, when Kittinger jumped from the gondola of a weather balloon (not some wimpish capsule), with a suit held together by duct tape and baling wire.

  18. 18.

    Cuppa Cabana

    There’s really no scientific benefit to this jump is there? Seems like the only point is break a record set over 50 years ago, when Kittinger jumped from the gondola of a weather balloon (not some wimpish capsule), with a suit held together by duct tape and baling wire.

  19. 19.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I don’t even know where to begin with this shit:

    “I have seen this movie before,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told CBS’ “Face the Nation,” regarding whether the White House had been too quick to assume that al Qaeda was on the run. “I went to Iraq in 2004 and everybody told me things are going fine, this is just a few dead-enders. Iraq was falling apart, and you couldn’t get the truth from the Bush administration.” …”We’re going through a ‘Mission Accomplished’ moment,” Issa continued.

    Does anyone remember Lindsey Graham criticizing the Bush administration in 2004? Do we really need to point out the differences between Libya in 2012, even assuming all of Graham’s talking points, and Iraq from 2003 to 2009? I guess we would if we were on Old Man Schieffer’s Republicans ’round the Cracker Barrell Old Time Radio Fun Show on TeeVee

  21. 21.

    Schlemizel

    BTW – the link is refusing to show me any video after 15 minutes of ‘spinning’; are they not showing the assent? If they are & this means I am missing it is there a place on tv or something I could see it?

  26. 26.

    Brachiator

    I hope he succeeds, but it’s too much like a high tech Jackass stunt for me to pay attention to it.

  27. 27.

    gbear

    @Schlemizel: Yes, I’d kind of assumed that atmospheric friction would slow him down. The views from above the capsule looking down are amazing, and he still has 35,000 feet higher to go.

  28. 28.

    Corner Stone

    Not that every endeavor must advance our knowledge or spirit or anything at all, really. Sometimes we crazy humans do things just to experience them. And all that fooforaw.
    But this seems like nothing but self-aggrandizement to me. I like to kid myself, just a little, that we should at least garner new knowledge or prove the application of known theories or models. This concept just bores me.

  29. 29.

    Highway Rob

    So he starts with his head in the clouds, then plummets to earth at amazing speed. As a Texas Longhorn fan, I can really identify with this.

  30. 30.

    Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason

    @Highway Rob:

    So he starts with his head in the clouds, then plummets to earth at amazing speed. As a Texas Longhorn fan, I can really identify with this.

    Now THAT was funny.

  31. 31.

    ShyLurker

    @arguingwithsignposts: For this generation, I’m not sure it would equate. Probably for most of them it’ll be considered the ultimate stunt or something. (Not to disparage the kidz! Things are just different nowadays and they tend to be a bit jaded)

    I was 9 at the time of the moon landing and remember it vividly. Ever since then I’ve been a bit of a space geek :-)

  32. 32.

    Redshift

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: And Darrell Issa claims he “listened” to people criticizing Bush’s Mission Accomplished statement. But he didn’t say he said anything about it at the time, so I guess he’s not technically lying.

    But if they want to remind everyone of the Bush Administration, that’s fine with me. Comparing the Libya attack to 9/11 or the Iraq War won’t come off well for them.

  35. 35.

    Joey Maloney

    So there’s something wrong with his visor heater. Can he still jump if they don’t get it working?

  36. 36.

    kooks

    @Cuppa Cabana: There is actually a scientific benefit, in designing next-gen space suits (linkage).

    More here:

    His medical director is Dr. Jonathan Clark, a NASA space shuttle crew surgeon who lost his wife, Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia accident. No one knows what happens to a body when it breaks the sound barrier, Clark said. “That is really the scientific essence of this mission,” said Clark, who is dedicated to improving astronauts’ chances of survival in a high-altitude disaster.

  38. 38.

    JWL

    My father was a WW2 Army Air Corps vet who held the belief that the only time it’s proper to parachute is if all your engines have quit.

  39. 39.

    Nerull

    You can see his visor fogging up every time he breathes. Once he’s out of the capsule that could lead to icing, which would be a problem, I imagine.

  40. 40.

    ShyLurker

    Just started commenting here; wondering how long my comments will be in moderation? I left one a few minutes ago on this thread. Not that I had anything really pithy to say :-)

  42. 42.

    Stillwater

    Well, I just linked to the live site … and what a bummer! I thought the guy was gonna do all this without a capsule. Just a man and a space-suit. The first thing I heard was “…fix the problem with his visor” and I thought holy shit! Now that’s a big fucking problem!

    But no.

  48. 48.

    Joey Maloney

    Whoa, look at that balloon, it looks ready to pop now.

    They’re starting the egress check…

  52. 52.

    Joey Maloney

    This is actually kind of exciting. It reminds me of watching the Gemini missions when I was just a wee lad.

  59. 59.

    JCJ

    @Highway Rob:
    This is Major Tom to Ground Control, I’m stepping through the door…

    Nice. I liked your Texas Longhorn comment, too. As a fan of the Purdue Boilermakers I can relate. Sadly.

  61. 61.

    Joey Maloney

    oh fuck the door opened.

    I did a tandem jump from 14,800 feet. That ground looked a loooooooong way down when they opened the door. And he’s 9 times as high.

  65. 65.

    JCJ

    “Did he say something?”

    Yeah. It was “FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK”

  66. 66.

    Joey Maloney

    He says his visor is fogging up. That kind of sucks, he doesn’t get to enjoy the view.

    Chute deploy!

  67. 67.

    Highway Rob

    And Kittinger keeps one of his records, for longest time in free fall. I don’t know why, but that adds to the cool.

  69. 69.

    FormerSwingVoter

    Best tweet about the jump, from @sincerelykirsty:

    “Keep talking Felix.” “I’M FUCKING BUSY HERE MATE.” #livejump

  74. 74.

    Corner Stone

    “And in a horrible miscalculation he flies straight into the rotors of one of his chase helicopters!”
    “Good Lord NO! NOOOOOOO!!!”

  78. 78.

    MikeJ

    @Bill:

    He didn’t quite break the sound barrier, right? The fastest I saw was 729…

    At some altitudes that is fast enough.

  80. 80.

    Bill

    @MikeJ: Oh, okay, that makes more sense. I wasn’t sure what the reference frame was in this jump for the speed of sound. Got it.

  81. 81.

    Corner Stone

    “As the Red Bull / Stratos Team collected valuable data.”
    Like how to get more caffeine into people at extreme altitudes?

  83. 83.

    Nerull

    @Bill: The speed of sound decreases with altitude. It’s 761mph at sea level, 678mph at 30000ft, At 60000 it is 660mph and it starts going back up a bit after that. At 100000ft it’s back up to 680mph.

  87. 87.

    Corner Stone

    That little blob doing gentle rolls at 700mph for 3 minutes was quite stimulating, indeed.

  88. 88.

    Mister Papercut

    @JCJ:

    “Did he say something?”

    I couldn’t hear anything over my internal soundtrack having Norm Macdonald’s “In future news, Felix Baumgartner is dead” on a constant loop.

  89. 89.

    Randy P

    Well, I was going to read BJ, but then you guys distracted me with this link. Thanks, that was amazingly cool. I was a little worried watching him tumble even though they said that was expected and safe. So glad when he came out of it.

    I knew in a vague way this was coming up, but wasn’t following it too closely. I didn’t know it was under the Red Bull name. This was all private space flight, wasn’t it? That in itself is pretty cool.

    As I often say to my wife (usually connected to some web-based technology), “we are living in a sci-fi world”. It’s a pretty great time to be alive, especially if you remember the 1960s when we thought we were living in a sci-fi world.

  91. 91.

    jhtrotter

    Felix plummets 128k feet and is fine, Jeter takes a step to his left and breaks his leg. Life is kind of funny sometimes.

  92. 92.

    Corner Stone

    @MikeJ:

    That’s halfway to the moon.

    A theory of mine I’ve believed for a while now. When we went to the moon (yeah, right) we discovered Moon Nymphos there. And we knew we could never match their insatiable sexual demands. So that explains why we’ve never been back. The fragile male ego.

  96. 96.

    Corner Stone

    If you can’t make fun of a ridiculous wastrel of a publicity spectacle with no redeeming value whatsoever, what can you make fun of?

  99. 99.

    Corner Stone

    This all reminds me of The Simpson’s episode where NASA is sending their 300th useless mission into space and the PR people there decide they need to rekindle the public’s imagination by sending a regular slob into space.

  101. 101.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    gbear:

    If you’re falling at supersonic speeds, does that mean that no one hears you when you splat?

    Nope, but if you’re listening for it, it means you’re already covered in blood & viscera before you hear the splat.

    .

  104. 104.

    KS Steve

    I’m from Kansas currently working in Austria. Live coverage began this morning as soon as the Korean F1 race ended (1,2 Red Bull finish) I watched the jump in a little bar with about half a dozen locals. For them this is as close as they get to a space program. There was a huge amount of excitement and national pride for Felix and Red Bull.

  105. 105.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Highway Rob:

    So he starts with his head in the clouds, then plummets to earth at amazing speed. As a Texas Longhorn fan, I can really identify with this.

    I think most of us here can identify with it as Democrats.

    .

  106. 106.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    Yutsano:

    Jump! You fucker!!
    __
    (seems appropriate no? now we get a few Wall Street assholes up there…)

    Let’s start with Charles Koch. (Oops, we “forgot” the parachute …)

    .

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