Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty. ~Thomas Jefferson

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

Let me file that under fuck it.

The lights are all blinking red.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

They spent the last eight months firing professionals and replacing them with ideologues.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

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

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

“Facilitate” is an active verb, not a weasel word.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Evening Open Thread: A Final Frontier

Monday Evening Open Thread: A Final Frontier

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  4. 4.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    I used to have a really cool large poster of an astronaut with the MMU posing with the robotic Canadarm on the Space Shuttle that was so cool, with the Earth in the background. I’ve always thought that McCandless photo was very humbling

  5. 5.

    Old School

    FYI – You need to click through to Twitter to see the untethered astronaut. He’s cut off in the imbedded photo.

  7. 7.

    Scout211

    From space to history, we all have much to learn.

    3,400-year-old city in Iraq emerges from underwater after a period of extreme drought.

    The archaeological site, Kemune, is believed to be the Bronze Age city Zakhiku, a major hub of the Mittani Empire that reigned from 1550 to 1350 BC. The kingdom’s territory stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to northern Iraq

     

    Little is known about the ancient Mittani people who built the city, largely due to the fact that researchers have not identified the empire’s capital or discovered their archives, Puljiz said. However, certain artifacts unearthed during the latest excavation could help provide insight.

    Archaeologists found five ceramic vessels holding over 100 clay cuneiform tablets, dating back to closely after the earthquake event. They are believed to be from the Middle Assyrian period, which lasted from 1350 to 1100 BC, and could shed light on the city’s demise and the rise of Assyrian rule in the area, according to a news release.
     

  9. 9.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @debbie:

    Truth be told, there might be a chance that if we ever do discover intelligent alien life, it might be technological in nature, such as an alien AI and/or tens of billions of biological beings that have uploaded themselves. One benefit, aside from functional immortality, would be the ability to control a civilization’s perception of time, especially for the purposes of interstellar/intergalactic trave

    Sorta like the Borg from Star Trek TNG or the Culture

  12. 12.

    oatler

    That spacewalk stunt sounds cool but they didn’t accept my advice. Do they understand how much Heinlein I’ve read??

  14. 14.

    PaulB

    That’s sad to hear that the Voyager spacecraft are powering down. I used to work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the Multi-mission Image Processing Lab. We were the group that got the image data from the spacecraft, processed it, and made it available to the scientists, as well as generating those lovely pictures. The Voyager missions were a stunning success, far exceeding even the wildest hopes of those involved.

    One thing that stood out for me is just how antiquated some of the equipment was. You see, when JPL got the NASA contract, they bought all of the equipment at that time, even though it would be years before it would be needed. By the time the spacecraft hit Jupiter and Saturn, the equipment was already dated. By the time I got there, in the late 80s and early 90s, it was primitive. One of the machines I was working with was a file-cabinet-sized mainframe which could perform instructions at the rate of 1 million instructions per second. A typical home computer then could easily do 30 to 40 times that.

    It was a relief to work on the Magellan project, exploring Venus, which had equipment that was only a few years old.

  15. 15.

    CarolPW

    Way back when I donated to the Planetary Society for funding support of the Voyagers. In 1989 for the Voyager 2 flyby and solar system exit the Society threw a gigantic 5 day long party, and I got to see Chuck Berry play at JPL. Carl Sagan was still alive, and the whole thing was a blast.

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    There’s lots of pictures of Bruce McCandless II and a video of his trip at NASA.gov. He died at age 80 on December 21, 2017.

    Of his famous spacewalk, he wrote in 2015: “My wife [Bernice] was at mission control, and there was quite a bit of apprehension. I wanted to say something similar to Neil [Armstrong] when he landed on the moon, so I said, ‘It may have been a small step for Neil, but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.’ That loosened the tension a bit.”

    :-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    9 weird transients from 1950 still unexplained

    Interestingly, rotating satellites or debris in geosynchronous orbits can produce similar point sources like those seen in 1950. But there is one big problem with that scenario. That is, the first satellite, Sputnik 1, wasn’t launched until 1957.

    A process of elimination

    As of now, it seems that out of the possibilities mentioned, satellites would be the closest match. Yet this happened a full seven years before the launch of the first satellite. From the paper:

    “A follow-up critique showed that the … transient is more likely explained by a solar system satellite of artificial or natural origin. Small, flat and highly reflective objects at, or near, geosynchronous orbits around the Earth could produce multiple, fast glints.”

    The only other possibility still under consideration at this point is some kind of unknown contamination of the plates. From the paper:

    “In comparison to this, one may find the first proposed scenario with radioactive bomb particles more down-to-Earth. As this case of simultaneous transients is not unique, contamination cannot be excluded as an explanation.”

    Pretty spooky stuff, potentially

  28. 28.

    bbleh

    The way things are going right now, that McCandless thing looks like a pretty good option …

  29. 29.

    J R in WV

    That guy was the furthest away from everyone of anyone ever.

    Just look at the guy, floating in space, totally not connected to the Earth, not connected to anyone –oh, wait, except Mission Control who knew every breath he took, and how much O2 he had left before he would expire — but still fired up for the mission.

    So jealous. I’m in my 70s now, and so not qualified for a space mission. But since I was in Jr High I wanted to be launched into space, to the moon, into the deep space of the solar system… never gonna happen now! But someone got to do it, and send back video.

    I remember when Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon, wife and I watched that with my parents, years before we were wed. Will never forget that night.

  30. 30.

    Another Scott

    @J R in WV:

    At the start of the NASA video he keeps fidgeting with his left arm and wrist and shoulder. As if something was not right or was irritating him. But he kept going, to do his job to complete the mission, knowing he was out there by himself with no net or rope and that his life depended on the suit working properly.

    Nerves of steel.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  31. 31.

    RobertDSC-Mac Mini

    That McCandless photo was one of my most favorite images in my space library of images. Such a magnificent feat.

  32. 32.

    JAFD

    Minor historical sidelight: Bruce McCandless’ father graduated from Annapolis in ’38. On November 13th, 1942 (yes, a Friday), was a Lt. Commander on duty on the heavy cruiser USS San Francisco
    Should you ever read any historical / military / science fiction which puts the young hero / heroine as the only surviving officer on the flagship’s bridge in the middle of a battle – he was the inspiration.
    ( The senior McCandless, unfortunately, died of multiple sclerosis at an early age. )

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