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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Every Now And Then, I Like This Timeline

Every Now And Then, I Like This Timeline

by Tom Levenson|  January 2, 201912:17 pm| 66 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Science & Technology

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The future comes to an MIT gym:

Yeah: it’s just a five pound test module now, but ion-drive, no-moving-parts, heavier-than-air flight has to be pretty damn cool.

Yes. I still want my flying car.

Open thread.

Image: Pieter Brueghel the elder, The Fall of Icarus, c. 1558

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Previous Post: « Border Lies
Next Post: Good News for People Who Like Bad News »

Reader Interactions

66Comments

  1. 1.

    The Midnight Lurker

    January 2, 2019 at 12:26 pm

    To hell with flying cars! Where’s my jetpack?!

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    January 2, 2019 at 12:27 pm

    Ex-fed prosecutor Dan Goldman said he’s beginning to believe conspiracy with Russian interference is not the most serious crime Mueller is investigating.

    “There may have been a much larger conspiracy to provide sanctions relief to Russia” for assistance.
    https://t.co/M90qgK7JZv

    — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 2, 2019

  3. 3.

    The Midnight Lurker

    January 2, 2019 at 12:29 pm

    Never mind.

  4. 4.

    Duane

    January 2, 2019 at 12:37 pm

    You posted an image of something I’m familiar. I have a print of Brueghel’s painting in my house. Hey, I’m one of the kool kids!

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    January 2, 2019 at 12:37 pm

    @The Midnight Lurker:
    Jetpacks will never work. It’s not a technology issue, it’s the fact that there is no way to design one whose exhaust gases won’t burn your lower extremities to a cinder.

  6. 6.

    The Pale Scot

    January 2, 2019 at 12:39 pm

    West Virginia Cracker travels to FL, goes to McDs, gets physical with young woman employee. Woman punches him 7, 8, 9, times in the face.
    My kind of Happy Meal, they’re selling Avengers HM now, right?

    Man Attacks Black Female McDonald’s Worker, Receives Large Surprise Order of ‘That Smoke’
    Best comment

    “The Florida Panthers were reportedly attempting to determine James skating skills, in hopes of signing her to a long term deal. When reached for comment, legendary Panther’s enforcer Peter Worrell stated “Sis can throw, and I put a lot of stock in tenacity.”

  7. 7.

    The Midnight Lurker

    January 2, 2019 at 12:47 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Fine, jet pack party-pooper. What about an anti-gravity suit?

  8. 8.

    zhena gogolia

    January 2, 2019 at 12:50 pm

    @The Pale Scot:

    Whoa, based on your first phrase I thought this was going to be about Cole.

  9. 9.

    Barbara

    January 2, 2019 at 12:50 pm

    @The Pale Scot: Clearly, she was acting in self-defense. That guy leaned over and grabbed her shirt and did not let go of her until one of her co-workers went to the customer side of the counter and physically pulled him off. He was holding on tight enough that they could not pull her away from him, which they tried to do. He said he wanted a straw. Every McDonald’s I have ever been to has straws out front in those little dispensers.

  10. 10.

    Barbara

    January 2, 2019 at 12:54 pm

    @rikyrah: I think this article is actually pretty good, in the sense that it largely escapes Cheryl Rofer’s earlier complaint about how many of these articles are just too dense and hypothetical to make sense of.

  11. 11.

    Matt McIrvin

    January 2, 2019 at 12:54 pm

    It’s a flying Sharper Image Ionic Breeze.

  12. 12.

    Aleta

    January 2, 2019 at 12:55 pm

    OT, some ‘held-the-line’ news about habitat conservation for birds in the revised Farm Bill:

    In addition to setting federal agriculture policy for commodities like corn and soybeans and lots of other things from food stamps to farmers markets, the Farm Bill is also the largest source of funding for habitat conservation on private lands.
    
    According to the 2017 State of the Birds report, the Farm Bill directly supports habitat for more than 100 bird species through billions of dollars of federal conservation funding. Farm Bill programs have helped spark waterfowl recoveries and growing local populations of Henslow’s Sparrows, and they’re the best hope to resuscitate declining species in farm country such as meadowlarks and bobwhite quail.

    Conservationists were concerned about preliminary drafts of this most-recent Farm Bill legislation, namely proposals to gut conservation funding even beyond levels in the 2014 Farm Bill, which slashed conservation funding by $4 billion. But the 2018 Farm Bill at least mostly holds the line on conservation funding and preserves, or even expands, some of the most important conservation programs.

    
    The link has some slides showing positive effects of the Farm Bill on bird populations when it has included conservation programs.

    Some improvements are mentioned in statements from Audubon, Ducks Unlimited and the American Bird Conservancy. There are “boosts to wildlife funding in the Farm Bill’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (which provides money for Audubon’s Conservation Ranching program) and to the Regional Conservation Partnership Program that allowed Audubon to partner with California dairy farmers on projects to protect nesting state-endangered Tricolored Blackbirds.”

    There is “increased funding and improvements to the program that operates Wetland Reserve Easements and (a) boost in enrolled acreage for the Conservation Reserve Program (cap raised to 27 million acres), which compensates farmers for not plowing up and even restoring wildlife habitat on their private lands.”

    “The final agreement also dropped numerous harmful provisions affecting federal forests, endangered species, and dangerous pesticides that kill millions of birds each year.” The American Bird Conservancy “was especially pleased with Regional Conservation Partnership Program boosts, which it said support conservation programs on private lands for Golden-winged and Cerulean Warblers.”

    Until 2023.

  13. 13.

    khead

    January 2, 2019 at 12:56 pm

    Pete Davidson is half my age, but looks older than I am. So, maybe Ariana Grande will hit me up.

  14. 14.

    donnah

    January 2, 2019 at 12:59 pm

    Open thread comment: I posted a couple of days ago about a guy who was sleeping on our front porch swing. I didn’t approach him because I didn’t know what his state of mind was. He had relieved himself on the porch, too.

    He left without any confrontation, and my husband decided to put the porch swings in the garage to discourage another visit. In the process, he found an unused hypodermic needle and an empty cigarette pack under the swing cushion. That worried me, but I figured it was a once-only thing.

    So today I left for the grocery store and when I got home, I found an apple core, neatly squared, apparently with a knife, lying on the chair by the front door. He could have taken the core with him, but it seemed like he wanted it to be found.

    It’s unnerving. I usually keep the front and back doors locked, and I will definitely keep doing that, but this seems like a weird game to this guy.

    Should I call the police to let them know? My husband thinks I’m overreacting and we have no proof, so maybe we should set up a surveillance camera to see if he comes back.

    That neatly sliced apple core really creeped me out.

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne

    January 2, 2019 at 1:00 pm

    @ThePaleScot

    That young woman is management material. She coolly and calmly defended herself until her coworker was able to pull the guy away. Find her a spot at Hamburger University, stat!

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 2, 2019 at 1:02 pm

    @Amir Khalid:

    Jetpacks will never work.

    Baloney.

    ETA Better baloney: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4Bm3cs9TFo

  17. 17.

    Brachiator

    January 2, 2019 at 1:03 pm

    Fun article on Technology, Ranked

    The world is filled with amazing technologies, many that are so old we don’t even think of them as technologies at all.

    Today, we present the definitive list of every important technology ever, ranked by their importance. These aren’t all necessarily good technologies, of course. There are plenty that have made the world a more miserable place for everybody. But they’re still on the list.

    I think that the plow should have been ranked higher.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    January 2, 2019 at 1:03 pm

    @rikyrah: Sanctions relief and a change in US posture toward Ukraine sure seems to have been the “quo” to the election interference “quid.” Naturally, Twitler is on the record confirming that suspicion, exactly two years and four days ago from today:

    Great move on delay [of sanctions retaliation] (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!

    You know what’s not “very smart”? Broadcasting to the entire planet that you’re going to undercut sanctions imposed by a sitting president on an autocratic thug who helped you cheat your way into office.

  19. 19.

    Barbara

    January 2, 2019 at 1:04 pm

    @donnah: I am pretty tolerant of loiterers I see around my neighborhood, but it would upset me if they spent a lot of time on my front porch. Not sure what I would do in this case. Certainly, don’t confront him on your own, but only with your husband, and only if you are relatively sure he is unarmed. Have a cell phone ready to call 911 at the first sign of belligerence, but my guess would be that he will not come back if you confront him and clarify that you don’t want him on the porch and will call 911 if he shows up again.

  20. 20.

    Fair Economist

    January 2, 2019 at 1:05 pm

    @rikyrah: Duh, of course Russia was doing this for its reasons. It is not just the US either.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    January 2, 2019 at 1:05 pm

    @donnah:

    Should I call the police to let them know? My husband thinks I’m overreacting and we have no proof, so maybe we should set up a surveillance camera to see if he comes back.

    Home Security Cameras are not that expensive these days and might be worth the investment.

  22. 22.

    scav

    January 2, 2019 at 1:05 pm

    @Amir Khalid: Who needs lower extremities when we have jetpacks!?!

  23. 23.

    Gravenstone

    January 2, 2019 at 1:06 pm

    @donnah:

    Should I call the police to let them know? My husband thinks I’m overreacting and we have no proof, so maybe we should set up a surveillance camera to see if he comes back.

    By all means, speak with the authorities first. If they don’t offer other guidance, then I would suggest you either set up some sort of camera system (including IR capability for night vision), or consider having a motion detection system with audible alarm that can be engaged when you’re in for the night. The latter is by far the more aggressive approach, and I can understand being reluctant to go that far if you have concerns about these situations escalating.

  24. 24.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 2, 2019 at 1:08 pm

    @donnah:

    maybe we should set up a surveillance camera to see if he comes back.

    I’d set up either a real or dummy camera.

  25. 25.

    Mnemosyne

    January 2, 2019 at 1:08 pm

    @donnah

    My browser won’t let me do actual replies right now for some reason. ? I would call the police non-emergency line and see what they advise. They may be able to adjust their patrols and have someone drive past your place a couple of times a night. And I would definitely try to travel in pairs for a while — try not to come home by yourselves if at all possible.

    Last idea: motion-activated lights on the porch and around the perimeter of the house. They’re fairly cheap these days. You’ll get startled by a lot of raccoons, but it may be worth it for your peace of mind.

  26. 26.

    donnah

    January 2, 2019 at 1:15 pm

    Thanks for all the advice, folks! I thought this guy was just a one-time trespasser, but he seems to want to hang around. We’ll find an inexpensive way to set up a camera and see if we can catch him. And if he continues to show up, at least we could have footage of him to show the police.

    Very unsettling!

  27. 27.

    Redshift

    January 2, 2019 at 1:19 pm

    Bonus: if your flying car uses an ion drive, it probably will have low enough acceleration that won’t be as much of a danger to yourself and others!

  28. 28.

    The Midnight Lurker

    January 2, 2019 at 1:19 pm

    @donnah: You should file a report with the police so there will be a record in case he returns. In a lot of areas, you can do this online. Include photographic evidence, if possible. If you are still in possession of the hypo, call the cops and ask them what to do with it. They might send a unit and you can explain the situation to them. It might rest your mind to get it off your chest to a cop.
    This is clearly a person that needs help.

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    January 2, 2019 at 1:22 pm

    @donnah:

    Should I call the police to let them know?

    Yes. I once received a bullshit bomb threat and called the cops simply because I wanted a record of harassment should one be needed in court if things escalated.

  30. 30.

    Immanetize

    January 2, 2019 at 1:22 pm

    @donnah: Call the police, not on the 911 line, but on their regular phone, tell them what happened and ask kindly for their advice. They won’t be able to do much at all, but they will have heard your concern and might send a car past more often….

    Good luck!

  31. 31.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    January 2, 2019 at 1:25 pm

    AFAIK, from my many hours playing Kerbal Space Program, an ion drive would only be good for propulsion in space, and really only for small space probes. They have a low impulse and aren’t very powerful.

  32. 32.

    Redshift

    January 2, 2019 at 1:26 pm

    @rikyrah: I still think the primary quid pro quo was weakening President HRC in return for Trump Tower Moscow (or, given what an atrocious negotiator Trump is, in return for magic beans a promise of Trump Tower Moscow.) I can’t believe Putin thought a Trump victory was likely enough to conduct an attack on the US that would only pay off if Trump won.

  33. 33.

    Aleta

    January 2, 2019 at 1:30 pm

    @donnah: Something to increase your peace of mind is worth doing. For today, even just a HW store sign saying “Security camera is recording.” If you don’t like the idea of a camera, you can put one up for a while and remove it later. Or try bright motion detector lights that are easy to put up and don’t need to be wired in. (There are solar and battery ones, LEDs, wide angle, etc.) For ideas of what’s out there. : (This place does have a great return policy.)

  34. 34.

    Immanetize

    January 2, 2019 at 1:30 pm

    @Redshift: What you say might be true — but the conspiracy regarding sanctions could have started the day after Trump was elected. Or the sanction lifting could have been ONE of the quids for the Russian quo of election interference. They are not mutually exclusive.

  35. 35.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    January 2, 2019 at 1:30 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:
    Correction: ion drives have high impulses but low thrust.

  36. 36.

    Redshift

    January 2, 2019 at 1:32 pm

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??: This isn’t that kind of ion drive. This one ionizes the air rather than using a small amount of onboard gas, so it can scale up with the size of the wing.

    NASA has also demonstrated an electric plane that uses a large number of propellers to blow air across the wing and produce lift, making the lift independent of the forward speed of the aircraft.

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    January 2, 2019 at 1:32 pm

    @Redshift

    I can’t believe Putin thought a Trump victory was likely enough to conduct an attack on the US that would only pay off if Trump won.

    Putin’s actions make perfect sense if he knew that Trump would win 4 specific states by a very small margin that would give Trump an electoral college victory.

    Just sayin’. I think we’re going to see actual vote-meddling before this whole thing is through.

  38. 38.

    Redshift

    January 2, 2019 at 1:34 pm

    @Immanetize: Oh, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had “stretch goals” in place from early on. I just don’t think that was the only conspiracy.

  39. 39.

    Betty Cracker

    January 2, 2019 at 1:36 pm

    @donnah: That would creep me out too. I don’t think the cops would do anything if you did call them, but the video camera idea seems sound.

  40. 40.

    Redshift

    January 2, 2019 at 1:37 pm

    @Mnemosyne: That could well be, but I still think the timeline of the conspiracy began well before it could be predicted that the overall election would be close enough for that to work.

  41. 41.

    zhena gogolia

    January 2, 2019 at 1:41 pm

    @donnah:

    I agree with those who say you should call the police on the non-emergency line and tell them what’s been happening.

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 2, 2019 at 1:44 pm

    @donnah: Look into what are called “game cameras” – used for shooting pictures/video of wild animals at night. They only shoot and record when there’s motion, and they’re pretty cheap.

  43. 43.

    The Pale Scot

    January 2, 2019 at 1:44 pm

    @Barbara:

    Every McDonald’s I have ever been to has straws out front in those little dispensers.

    Yea right, that’s the first thing I thought of..

    @zhena gogolia:

    based on your first phrase I thought this was going to be about Cole.

    I thought about going there, asking him to keep his crackers locked in the basement, but couldn’t come up with anything pithy

  44. 44.

    Mnemosyne

    January 2, 2019 at 1:48 pm

    @Redshift

    I still think the timeline of the conspiracy began well before it could be predicted that the overall election would be close enough for that to work.

    Well, sure. I think the Russians have been sending dark money to the Republicans since at least 2010 when Citizens United made it easy to conceal where the money was coming from. I think that dark money from Russia was what really put the Republicans over the top in local and state elections. The Kochs and Mercers and other big Republican donors were just a cover story for the Republicans to explain why they were suddenly swimming in cash.

    It seems very instructive to me that the Republicans basically got routed at almost every level in 2018 and most of their big donors (like the NRA) have been pleading poverty. I think someone in the Deep State managed to quietly turn off that spigot of Russian money and the Republicans had to try and rely on domestic donors, who came up short.

    This was absolutely a long-term game by Putin that only came to fruition in 2016.

  45. 45.

    Miss Bianca

    January 2, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    @donnah: Call the police. Never let a man – not even a beloved husband – tell you that you are “overreacting” if you perceive a threat.

  46. 46.

    The Pale Scot

    January 2, 2019 at 1:49 pm

    @donnah:

    Should I call the police to let them know?

    Hell yes, those are acts of terrorism with a small t. He’s not enjoying the views, he’s marking his boundaries, pushing on yours.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne

    January 2, 2019 at 1:57 pm

    @Redshift

    Also, when I REALLY get paranoid, I suspect that Republican election officials in WI, PA, OH, and MI cooperated with the Russians to fix the elections. And those may not have been the only Republican-controlled states that did.

  48. 48.

    khead

    January 2, 2019 at 1:59 pm

    @donnah:

    Police. Call them. We have folks that roam our neighborhood. The only way to get the police to act is to let them know. Cameras too if you can afford it.

  49. 49.

    donnah

    January 2, 2019 at 2:00 pm

    You all are great; I knew I could count on some good advice and tips. I’m not the type to be panicky or afraid, but this is flat-out weird and I am not going to be scared in my own house.

    Our front porch is a few steps up from the front yard and there’s a brick wall all around the porch about three feet high, so it’s not easy to see from the street. However, we have always had a porch light that stays on overnight and my son just replaced it with an even larger and brighter one while he was here for Christmas. But a security camera is our next decision. I would feel better with one.

    So here we go.

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    January 2, 2019 at 2:00 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Just sayin’. I think we’re going to see actual vote-meddling before this whole thing is through.

    I will always believe that the state elections in Kansas the previous year were the test case for 2016

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    January 2, 2019 at 2:02 pm

    @donnah: You’ve gotten excellent advice here. Let us know that you have called the police non-emergency line. I would guess they might step up patrols in your neighborhood. This gentleman does not materialize out of nowhere.

    All the best to you.

  52. 52.

    Elizabelle

    January 2, 2019 at 2:04 pm

    @rikyrah: I agree with Mnemosyne’s comments. I just do not believe Trump was legitimately elected.

    There is an enormous story here. It’s sad we have such an incurious press.

    Have we still been hearing the drumbeat of “Mueller’s gonna finish in February?”

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    January 2, 2019 at 2:04 pm

    @rikyrah

    I think that Karl Rove’s famous 2012 election night meltdown was because he thought his voter suppression scheme had worked and Romney was going to do what Trump did in 2016. That’s why places like Wisconsin ratcheted up their voter suppression laws in the 4 years in between.

    But I think all of that voter suppression got a little extra boost of help from the Russians. It’s not a coincidence that their social media propagandists spent a LOT of time trying to suppress and depress the Black vote in 2016. ?

  54. 54.

    Mnemosyne

    January 2, 2019 at 2:07 pm

    @Elizabelle

    Oh, you, me, and rikyrah are all singing from the same hymnal. My main claim that may be slightly different is that I think the Russians started their long-term meddling program in 2010 when Citizens United allowed them to start sending unregulated dark money to the Republicans

  55. 55.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    January 2, 2019 at 2:09 pm

    @Redshift:
    Oh, so this isn’t a Hall effect thruster? Wow, that sounds infinitely more interesting with more applications to boot.

  56. 56.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    January 2, 2019 at 2:14 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    That’s actually scarily plausible. 2010 was a year when a lot started going wrong, Citizens United having been decided just in time for the midterms, which helped also spawn the gerrymandered maps we’re currently stuck with.

    I wonder if Putin attempted to meddle even further back in the past, during the Shrub Admin? There was some funny stuff going on with Ron Paul in 2007.

  57. 57.

    oldster

    January 2, 2019 at 2:19 pm

    On the ion-drive plane, my first reaction is, “Neato, but there’s no way it will scale.”

    Then I think about how people claimed that the first Montgolfier balloons were useless novelties, and Ben Franklin replied, “What good is a newborn baby?”

    In a more extended version of the same thought, he wrote to an English correspondent:

    “It does not seem to me a good reason to decline prosecuting a new Experiment which apparently increases the Power of Man over Matter, till we can see to what Use that Power may be applied. When we have learnt to manage it, we may hope sometime or other to find Uses for it, as Men have done for Magnetism and Electricity of which the first Experiments were mere Matters of Amusement.”
    https://www.americanheritage.com/content/“what-good-new-born-baby”

    So, now I’ll take the more optimistic view, along with Ben: the first Experiments on the new Ionic Drive are mere Matters of Amusement. But we may hope sometime or other to find Uses for it!

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    January 2, 2019 at 2:23 pm

    @donnah: I would be creeped out by that, too. You need a knife to have a square apple core. So far that’s a knife, a hypodermic needle, and pee. Time to do something, I think.

    I think you should report it to the police right away (non-emergency number, like when your bike is stolen). They will surely send officers out to take your report. They may not do anything other than that, but at least you’re on record.

    And then get your camera. A real one.

  59. 59.

    Yutsano

    January 2, 2019 at 2:29 pm

    Yes. I still want my flying car.

    Really Professor? You’d be willing to give your fellow Massholes an extra dimension to be jerks in? And you thought driving in Boston was bloody now…

  60. 60.

    Tom Levenson

    January 2, 2019 at 2:38 pm

    @Yutsano: phasers set on stun!

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    January 2, 2019 at 2:47 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    Well, sure. I think the Russians have been sending dark money to the Republicans since at least 2010 when Citizens United made it easy to conceal where the money was coming from. I think that dark money from Russia was what really put the Republicans over the top in local and state elections. The Kochs and Mercers and other big Republican donors were just a cover story for the Republicans to explain why they were suddenly swimming in cash.

    It seems very instructive to me that the Republicans basically got routed at almost every level in 2018 and most of their big donors (like the NRA) have been pleading poverty. I think someone in the Deep State managed to quietly turn off that spigot of Russian money and the Republicans had to try and rely on domestic donors, who came up short.

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

  62. 62.

    Gravenstone

    January 2, 2019 at 3:08 pm

    @Redshift: Deceleration isn’t going to be too spiffy, either. Assuming the ionic drive is your sole means of movement.

  63. 63.

    Gravenstone

    January 2, 2019 at 3:12 pm

    @Mnemosyne:

    I suspect that Republican election officials in WI, PA, OH, and MI cooperated with the Russians to fix the elections.

    Russians had jack shit to do with what the WI state leg did with targeted vote suppression. It was the tried and true race and class based shit they’ve been perfecting for decades.

  64. 64.

    Captain C

    January 2, 2019 at 3:20 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Florida comes to mind.

  65. 65.

    lurker dean

    January 2, 2019 at 4:21 pm

    @The Pale Scot: good lord, thank goodness that woman knew how to protect herself. what a jackass he is for grabbing her like that. glad they charged him with battery.

  66. 66.

    Amir Khalid

    January 2, 2019 at 7:38 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Dude, that’s an amusement-park ride, not a means of transport.

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