Merely a Cycle of the ONT - 05/30/2023 [Roger Ball]

Greetings, all humans of the most marvelous horde! I readily admit to excluding all AI players, NPCs and bots, though it likely is considered racist these days. My bad.

Reflecting on the current world situation made me wonder about the cycles of human existence. There are those times of excellence and those times of complete suck, interspersed with periods of mediocrity.

Some guy once wrote “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Of course, it wasn’t “some guy”. It was likely Solomon in Ecclesiastes.)

But what are those cycles and where are we because things seem to be sucking right now? Or are things really sucking as bad as it seems? Or are things just really great and we are too jaded to see it? Is anyone else wondering about this too?

Internet searches are often entertaining, but you must be specific. Searching for “cycle” immediately returned many of the usual definition links; about 4,460,000,000 results (0.70 seconds). But a search for “the cycle” was far more “successful” returning about 8,200,000,000 results (0.67 seconds)> The first links were for a video game called The Cycle: Frontier. I guess I’m sheltered: never heard of it.

Hmm…not really what I was looking for. Fun music and graphics, though. So I tightened up the search to the cycle of suck.

About 74,800,000 results (0.39 seconds) Now we are talkin’! Except the google seemed to treat “cycle” and “circle” with equal weight. Many links referred to gaming or property management. Again, not really what I was looking for despite the miracle of seventy million results in less than half a second. Well, that sucks a little.

Jonas Koffler addressed the first question a few years ago:

What is the “Cycle of Suck”? By Jonas Koffler, Author of Hustle

Jonas Koffler addresses the problem of employees who feel trapped or stuck in a job and offers suggestions for moving past this problem.

Nice narrative, Jonas, but you are a little too limited in scope. Again, not what I was looking for.

I think the cycle of suck must imply a “cycle of excellence" too, because things don’t suck all the time, at least in my experience. Predictably, excellence is a continuing topic for businesses, so it is covered extensively in various media and venues.

The Cycle of Excellence: 5 Steps to Peak Performance

Psychiatrist Edward Hallowell says that to bring out the best in people you have to focus on the interaction between what is within a person and what lies outside. Properly aligned, you can achieve peak performance. By peak performance he means “consistent excellence with improvement over time at a specific task or set of tasks.”

Great. Sounds like a useful endeavor. But if there is a cycle of suck and excellence, there must be a cycle through mediocrity, no? This website offers a diagram of the cycle of mediocrity. Pictures! (Full disclosure: I didn’t post the actual picture because it made me a little nauseous.)

If you’re just skimming so far, good for you. You are trending to excellence by saving time because, as interesting as the links above are, they are limited in scope and oriented to the individual. I’m thinking on a more global scale.

My adult life has been spent in transportation. I’m guessing most of the horde must have been exposed to some excellent and some sucky transportation at some point.

Check this out. An example of an Excellent /Awesome subway: Dubai

Really awful and sucky, New York, no surprise:

Aviation being my specialty for half a century, I have experienced much excellence, mediocrity and suckiness. I am lucky to say that incidents of suckiness have been rare and not spectacular. But I think our space program and NASA define the standard for the entire range from spectacular excellence to suck.
I was not shocked to find my thoughts had already been addressed.

Check out this blogger’s specific examples of NASA sucking: 5 Reasons NASA Sucks

Considering we supposedly had people walking the Moon's surface 50 years ago, NASA's main course at the moment is under cooked technological de-evolution, served with a side dish of stone cold deceit.

Ouch. Obviously “psydonia” has some unresolved issues.

Growing up when I did, the early manned space program was a major influence and probably partly responsible for my career choices. Yes, I wrote a letter to John Glenn and received a reply (which I can’t find now. That sucks.)

In my opinion, the Mercury program was excellence seasoned with luck. The engineers and pilots had a vague idea of what was supposed to happen, but they didn’t know with certainty. I think the excellence was evident that the program was completed in good order and the lucky part was that they didn’t kill anyone. And they did it all with slide rules and glorified calculators.

Gemini was not spectacular but very necessary to develop the skills and procedures to get to the moon and back. I also think this is when the “success disease” started to grow within NASA. The whole structure began to believe that they really did know what they were doing and that all possible precautions and contingencies were covered.

Then, on January 27, 1967, there was Apollo 1. Three dead astronauts and a hard stop to the whole program. It was a minor miracle that none of the support crew were killed or injured when “fire shot out of access panels into the adjoining room. With a loud whoosh and a blast that sent Pad Leader Donald Babbitt reeling, the spacecraft’s hull ruptured, spewing a sheet of flame that charred the papers on Babbitt’s desk.”

The Apollo program changed forever on Jan. 27, 1967, when a flash fire swept through the Apollo 1 command module during a launch rehearsal test. Despite the best efforts of the ground crew, the three men inside perished. It would take more than 18 months of delays and extensive redesigns before NASA sent any men into space.

I think it’s safe to say that the Apollo 1 fire was a major sucking point. They really didn’t know everything that they thought they knew.

At least high-profile incidents of suck like Apollo 1 usually result in serious discussion and planning about what went wrong and how fix it. The expeditious reboot of the Apollo program was a great moment in human excellence. The whole planet watched as Eagle landed and then Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon.

I remember watching it on a black and white TV. Do you? And, with that achievement of excellence, the predictable slide through mediocrity commenced. By the eighth trip to the moon and back, only true believers and geeks like me were paying attention.

Oh, Apollo 13 provided some drama. But other than that, I mean, they had pretty much blazed the trail to and from the moon. Besides, by 1972, we were busy losing the war in Vietnam and electing Richard Nixon, so the people had bigger concerns than wondering about more moon rocks.

The next cycle was the Space Transport System, which was developed to be different than previous programs by being low cost, high reliability, ease of operation, inherent safety, and the capability for a high level of use. Now, NASA was pretty sure they knew how to do all this space stuff. Even the orbiter, though being claimed as “the most complex machine ever built, is made up of 2.5 million parts and its engines produced 44 million horsepower on takeoff”, was nicknamed the Shuttle”. See? Just shuttling back and forth to the space station, routinely doing whatever those space people do. It certainly was a spectacular launch sequence and the sonic boom of the return to earth made it even more immersive and excellent…for those paying attention. But that was about it.

Of course, operating a complex system seemingly competently is routine until it isn’t. On a cold January 28th, 1986, Challenger was the first disaster to strike, and it was spectacular and tragic, in full view of the world.

The problem of the seals on the Solid Rocket Boosters was known but thought to be an acceptable risk. Well, it was acceptable until it wasn’t. The acceptable rick resulted in the loss of seven astronauts and a billion-dollar vehicle because of O rings. Really? That certainly sucked. But NASA and the manufacturers got together and fixed the problem. Then the Shuttle went on to fly for seventeen years and almost a hundred missions making space flight so routine it was hardly even noticed. Could that record be considered excellent? I think it must be at least in the neighborhood of excellent. But in the cycle, it’s routine and excellent until it isn’t. On February 1, 2003 Columbia disintegrated as it reentered the atmosphere.

The remaining shuttles flew twenty-two more missions before the end of the program. Was the Space Transport System excellent or did it suck? As it is in our now binary world, the answer depends on where you sit.

NASA and amateur space enthusiasts portray the Shuttle program as a resounding success, but a more sober appraisal of the program’s impact leads to a much less favorable verdict. The Space Shuttle was expected to provide inexpensive and reliable access to space for a multitude of missions. It never came close to achieving this goal.

We are now in the realm of private and commercial spaceflight with bazillionaires figuring out how to make spaceflight fun and profitable. Of course, the government is also involved and where that takes place sometimes metastasizes into fascism. But that’s a whole different discussion.

Will private and commercial spaceflight be excellent, or will it suck? I’ll be watching. How about you?

******
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Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:00 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Mhmm.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 30, 2023 10:00 PM (k1Qly)

2 first

Posted by: JohnFNotKerry at May 30, 2023 10:00 PM (lNUkA)

3 1st?

Posted by: Theodore at May 30, 2023 10:00 PM (pGonq)

4 Damn

Posted by: JohnFNotKerry at May 30, 2023 10:00 PM (lNUkA)

5 Fist

Posted by: ghost of hallelujah, thinks it's all ops at May 30, 2023 10:00 PM (sJHOI)

6 nope.

Posted by: Theodore at May 30, 2023 10:00 PM (pGonq)

7 Hola horde

Posted by: Zeera. 'We want fun and we wanna get wasted!' at May 30, 2023 10:02 PM (zC17c)

8 Good evening everyone. Thank you Roger Ball.

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 10:02 PM (qoGsy)

9 Thanks for the thoughtful and educational ONT, Roger Ball! Interesting tidbits for the Horde to digest.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at May 30, 2023 10:03 PM (vfKOf)

10 the final frontier

Posted by: ghost of hallelujah, thinks it's all ops at May 30, 2023 10:04 PM (sJHOI)

11 Is Roger Ball a real person, or just Buck Throckmorton in a trench coat and fake mustache and sunglasses?

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at May 30, 2023 10:05 PM (KFhLj)

12 Is there a Venn Diagram for Excellence and Sucking?

Posted by: VP Kamala at May 30, 2023 10:05 PM (4I/2K)

13 Yay Elon

Our Edison/RocketMan

Posted by: Zeera. 'We want fun and we wanna get wasted!' at May 30, 2023 10:06 PM (zC17c)

14 Heritage America was good at building virtuous cycles - aligning positive personal outcomes with actions that had positive impact on society.

Find a better way to slice bread? Here's a ton of money, and respect from society, and a social circle, and on and on...

Soviet America generally does the opposite. Invent a better way to slice bread? Here's some lawsuits. Oh, still making money? Here's some regulations. Oh still making money? Here's some taxes. Oh still at it? Here's protestors claiming you are a white supremacist.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 10:06 PM (lc5cP)

15 Is there a Venn Diagram for Excellence and Sucking?
Posted by: VP Kamala

Two nonoverlapping circles.

The left one says "Excellence."

The right one says "Sucking" and "Government" and "Kamala Harris".

Posted by: mikeski at May 30, 2023 10:06 PM (DgGvY)

16 I remember Feynman pointing out that if your system has a 1 out of 100 chance of failure, after 100 missions you're probably guaranteed to see that failure happen. And if it means loss of the vehicle and crew, then that is an unacceptable level of risk to accept.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:07 PM (S6gqv)

17 I had occasion (business travel) to ride the D.C. Metro and it did not suck. Maybe I was lucky, but everything was on time, people were helpful to this out-of-towner, and I actually enjoyed the ride.

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at May 30, 2023 10:07 PM (vfKOf)

18 In space, no one can hear you suck.

Posted by: fd at May 30, 2023 10:07 PM (iayUP)

19 Considering we supposedly had people walking the Moon's surface 50 years ago,

Glad to see more doubt being cast on the alleged moon landings.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger at May 30, 2023 10:08 PM (Zqeqr)

20 I had occasion (business travel) to ride the D.C. Metro and it did not suck. Maybe I was lucky, but everything was on time, people were helpful to this out-of-towner, and I actually enjoyed the ride.

For which DC can thank the rest of the country who funded it.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2023 10:08 PM (eOEVl)

21 SEPTA

omg the suck

Posted by: BlackOrchid at May 30, 2023 10:08 PM (w0NJk)

22 I had occasion (business travel) to ride the D.C. Metro and it did not suck. Maybe I was lucky, but everything was on time, people were helpful to this out-of-towner, and I actually enjoyed the ride.
Posted by: Legally Sufficient

That must have been the train just after it dropped off all the Patriot Front guys back at FIBHQ.

Posted by: mikeski at May 30, 2023 10:10 PM (DgGvY)

23 Glad to see more doubt being cast on the alleged moon landings.

Once you accept that the earth is flat moon landings are no big deal. You just slingshot yourself over to the moon, which is also flat, of course.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at May 30, 2023 10:10 PM (KFhLj)

24
Will private and commercial spaceflight be excellent, or will it suck?

Yes, it will.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 30, 2023 10:10 PM (63Dwl)

25 Hey Roger Ball!

London's subway system is f*cking awesome! Trains come every two minutes, they are clean, the stations are clean, the maps make sense, and if I had to complain about one thing, it is that they are a bit pricey. But compared to a taxi or an Uber...it is faster and about 20% of the cost!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:10 PM (ZCCyW)

26 Very cool ONT! Thank you Mr Ball!

To infinity and beyond!

Posted by: nurse ratched at May 30, 2023 10:10 PM (U2p+3)

27 The shuttle was a good vehicle, but it was vastly oversold with regard to turnaround times. This put pressure on the support crews and management to cut corners and take risks they shouldn't take.

Going with disposable rockets would have been a far more economic decision.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:11 PM (S6gqv)

28 The America of 60 years ago would beat modern America in a war without much difficulty.

And such liberation would be about the best thing we could hope for.

I saw Justin Castro ranting about the danger of Heritage Canadians...and it made me laugh. If only Justin...if only.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 10:11 PM (lc5cP)

29 Ralph Cramden had the Lunar Trajectory figured out in the 1950s.

Or, so he claimed. Alice would neither confirm nor deny.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 30, 2023 10:11 PM (e6UQI)

30 Hard to believe that tomorrow is the last day of May. Spring seemed to crawl along this year. And then it just zoomed by.

Gradually and then suddenly...

Posted by: Legally Sufficient at May 30, 2023 10:12 PM (vfKOf)

31 London's subway system is f*cking awesome! Trains come every two minutes, they are clean, the stations are clean, the maps make sense, and if I had to complain about one thing, it is that they are a bit pricey. But compared to a taxi or an Uber...it is faster and about 20% of the cost!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:10 PM (ZCCyW)

Paper ticket or card or phone, CBD? Eldest flying out there for ten days tomorrow. You recommend using atm/debit card, or taking cash?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 30, 2023 10:12 PM (Angsy)

32 25 Hey Roger Ball!

London's subway system is f*cking awesome! Trains come every two minutes, they are clean, the stations are clean, the maps make sense, and if I had to complain about one thing, it is that they are a bit pricey. But compared to a taxi or an Uber...it is faster and about 20% of the cost!
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:10 PM
What's the chances of being stabbed by some austere scholar?

Posted by: Eromero at May 30, 2023 10:13 PM (Uv0D2)

33 Dubai is a shining pillar of what's possible when you've got unlimited oil-sheikh money and don't squander it all on Islamist crap like most of the countries over there did.

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 10:14 PM (PZvjL)

34 I bet Singapore has great public transportation.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger at May 30, 2023 10:16 PM (Zqeqr)

35 As a Moonwalker-American, I'm very interested in this safe, efficient London subway system. Do you have a newsletter perchance, good sir?

Posted by: chokeholded zombie at May 30, 2023 10:17 PM (KFhLj)

36 Compare London's Underground to San Fran's BART, which has now been turned into a traveling open air latrine for the homeless. The best technical solutions can't work when the system is so incompetently managed.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:17 PM (S6gqv)

37 Once you accept that the earth is flat moon landings are no big deal. You just slingshot yourself over to the moon, which is also flat, of course.

I notice you left out the infinite regression of turtles. How convenient.

Posted by: Archimedes at May 30, 2023 10:18 PM (eOEVl)

38 I took the Italian train system a few years ago and it was actually pretty good.

The trains, except the bathrooms, were clean. And the conductors were all polite and well dressed, including one conductress who was one of the most beautiful women I've met in person.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 10:18 PM (lc5cP)

39 I bet Singapore has great public transportation.
Posted by: Bitter Clinger

According to #4 son, it does. After a wee too much of frivolity, he dozed off. Missed his stop and when he awoke, some good citizen had covered him with a shawl.

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 10:18 PM (qoGsy)

40 I have four words for anyone who looks forward to en masse commercial space travel:

zero gravity public toilet

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2023 10:19 PM (z+89e)

41 Yay, ONT!

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at May 30, 2023 10:19 PM (Bd6X8)

42 I grew up in Dallas and then moved to Seattle. The first time I was on a train/subway was the T in Boston in the early 90s. It was super cool!

We have light rail here in Seattle. I can get to the airport in 25 minutes and be dropped off 100 yards from the terminal (thank you 9/11). It's easy and safe and cheap.

Posted by: nurse ratched at May 30, 2023 10:19 PM (U2p+3)

43 According to #4 son, it does. After a wee too much of frivolity, he dozed off. Missed his stop and when he awoke, some good citizen had covered him with a shawl.

Hey we'd do the same thing here in the US. Oh wait...you said shawl, not vomit.

Posted by: Some Mostly Peaceful Michael Jackson imitator at May 30, 2023 10:20 PM (lc5cP)

44 I remember all those Mercury, Gemini and Apollo moments

Posted by: Tuna at May 30, 2023 10:22 PM (gLRfa)

45 On the whole, given the science, engineering, and manufacturing involved, our space program has been remarkably safe. Compare it to the early years of transoceanic voyaging when they didn't even know if there'd be dragons there. Of course, the 70's ruined the space program.

Posted by: SFGoth at May 30, 2023 10:22 PM (KAi1n)

46 Best public transport ever is the water taxi I take to work every day.

Clean. Efficient. The crew know me by name (I gift them a six pack every now and again). The views are spectacular. I see Orcas and seals and sea lions and eagles and hawks. And mountains.

5 bucks a ride. People do it for fun. And it's public transportation.

Posted by: nurse ratched at May 30, 2023 10:23 PM (U2p+3)

47 The Bible verse I've been considering is Isaiah 5:20.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:23 PM (FVME7)

48 The trains, except the bathrooms, were clean. And the conductors were all polite and well dressed, including one conductress who was one of the most beautiful women I've met in person.
Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 10:18 PM (lc5cP)

this reminded me of the apocryphal quip credited to Churchill about why Italian Cruise ships were the best. "The cuisine is always superb; the service is excellent; and if there is an emergency, there's none of this nonsense about women and children first."

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:24 PM (S6gqv)

49 Evening, ONTers! Got two wheels of trailer brakes done on my car trailer today, and both work when the juice is supplied. Other two tomorrow, hopefully. Repacked the wheel bearings, too.

And got about 3/4 acre of grass mowed, before the mosquitos drove me inside.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:24 PM (H/Wga)

50 I've been on so few trains that even sucky ones seem cool. Taking a train from Penn Station to Newark Airport a couple years ago was fun, and I even enjoyed seeing the New Jersey "countryside" roll by.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at May 30, 2023 10:26 PM (d9Cw3)

51 I remember all those Mercury, Gemini and Apollo moments
Posted by: Tuna

My favorite moments were when Jules Bergman would explain how all this fancy schmancy rocketry worked and would show us with rocket models suspended by strings in front of outer spacy slides.

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 10:26 PM (qoGsy)

52 zero gravity public toilet
Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2023 10:19 PM (z+89e)

That would, by definition, have to suck.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:26 PM (H/Wga)

53 And got about 3/4 acre of grass mowed, before the mosquitos drove me inside.

Imagine if we spent the resources we've spent on COVID or global warming on getting rid of skeeters. Well...and did just use it as a way to pay people off but really tried like we did with the moon landing...

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 10:26 PM (lc5cP)

54 Once you accept that the earth is flat moon landings are no big deal. You just slingshot yourself over to the moon, which is also flat, of course.

-
Ah, the hey diddle diddle theory.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:26 PM (FVME7)

55 The top pic looks like an Eisenhower Matrix.

I can't escape thinking about work, EVER!!!

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2023 10:27 PM (up/3i)

56 I'm a dirty millennial so I never knew a time when government space exploration wasn't a massive boondoggle that cost loads but delivered little, and existed mostly because it had been hijacked by diplomats as a vehicle for pushing various globalist bad ideas.

And then some guy from PayPal came along and embarrassed NASA by doing more in a few years than they did in a few decades.

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 10:27 PM (PZvjL)

57 Compare London's Underground to San Fran's BART, which has now been turned into a traveling open air latrine for the homeless. The best technical solutions can't work when the system is so incompetently managed.
Posted by: Tom Servo

It's not San Fran's BART. In fact, there are only 8 BART stations in SF. It stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit.* It links SFO/northern part of the South Bay with the various parts (East, NE, NW, SE) of the East Bay. SF's main pubtrans is MUNI.

*Like gender, "rapid transit" is a social construct. It may identify with rapid transit and insist you call it that, but mechanically it's not.

Posted by: SFGoth at May 30, 2023 10:28 PM (KAi1n)

58 "My favorite moments were when Jules Bergman would explain how all this fancy schmancy rocketry worked and would show us with rocket models suspended by strings in front of outer spacy slides."

OMG. Yes I remember that too.

Posted by: Tuna at May 30, 2023 10:28 PM (gLRfa)

59 I would not go on the streetcars in Calgary, Vancouver, or Edmonton if you paid me. And they positively hate them being called "streetcars". They are "light rail transit" if you please. Fuck that! They clog up the streets in the downtown, so they are streetcars.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:28 PM (H/Wga)

60 @23

>>Once you accept that the earth is flat moon landings are no big deal. You just slingshot yourself over to the moon, which is also flat, of course.

I think the bulk of Flat Earthers are simply taking the piss and love it when I Love Science Sexually Twerps like Neil Degrasse Tyson catch the vapors.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2023 10:29 PM (up/3i)

61 50 I've been on so few trains that even sucky ones seem cool. Taking a train from Penn Station to Newark Airport a couple years ago was fun, and I even enjoyed seeing the New Jersey "countryside" roll by.
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at May 30, 2023 10:26 PM (d9Cw3)

I'm hoping to catch a ride on a TGV sometime this summer. Not terribly expensive, cool train, and a day trip into France will let me say that I've been there.

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 10:29 PM (PZvjL)

62 "Really awful and sucky, New York, no surprise:"

It's true that the NY Subway system is not the most attractive - especially these days. One argument in its defense, however; there's well over 250 miles of subway connecting four of the five boroughs, and it's open 24/7/365. Probably the only major subway system that is in the world. I bet Dubai's closes for cleaning, and is not nearly as extensive.

Posted by: Darrell Harris at May 30, 2023 10:30 PM (ne4eH)

63 The "5 Reasons NASA Sucks" article is crap and the guy who wrote it is a clueless idiot.

NASA does suck at space exploration, because that's not their primary mission. Their purpose is to spread money around to the districts of powerful congress people, without regard for efficiency or waste.

Posted by: a.moron at May 30, 2023 10:31 PM (F6Xpw)

64 Chicks dig the trains!

Posted by: Gomez Addams at May 30, 2023 10:31 PM (4I/2K)

65 You know who else liked trains?

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at May 30, 2023 10:31 PM (KFhLj)

66 ..Once you accept that the earth is flat moon landings are no big deal. You just slingshot yourself over to the moon, which is also flat, of course. ~~~

Ah, the hey diddle diddle theory.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:26 PM (FVME7)

The Earth is 3/4 oceans. None of this water is carbonated.

Proof, that the World is Flat.

/s

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 30, 2023 10:31 PM (e6UQI)

67 Good evening morons and thank you Roger Ball.

That ONT was a little disorienting. Am I supposed to be dizzy?

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 30, 2023 10:33 PM (RIvkX)

68 Proof, that the World is Flat.

/s

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Posted by: Jim at May 30, 2023 10:31 PM (e6UQI)

All the water in the oceans has been processed through some critters' kidneys.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:33 PM (H/Wga)

69 Once you accept that the earth is flat moon landings are no big deal. You just slingshot yourself over to the moon, which is also flat, of course.

I notice you left out the infinite regression of turtles. How convenient.
Posted by: Archimedes

The moon is Up. The turtles are Down. The only hard part is recalibrating your GPS when you hit the boundary where suddenly the moon is Down and the earth and the turtles are Up.

Posted by: mikeski at May 30, 2023 10:34 PM (DgGvY)

70 On August 29, 1989 I was sitting with my brother in Goddard Flight Control in Maryland as Voyager 2 passed Neptune. He was, and is, a "rocket scientist" and Goddard had a live feed. He was part of the flight telemetry team at the time. Goddard was one of several ground stations pulling data from the spacecraft.

The pictures were... meh by today's standards but the electricity in the control center was... awesome. Line by line we'd see photos in real time displayed on "the big screen."

Posted by: Martini Farmer at May 30, 2023 10:34 PM (Q4IgG)

71
We're no longer conditioned to accept that in advancing flight, vehicles will fail and people will die. In the 1950s, test pilots were getting killed at the rate of nearly one per week. This was understood to be the price of understanding supersonic flight.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 30, 2023 10:34 PM (MoZTd)

72 Speaking of Foggy Bottom's orbital greatest shits list, weren't all those untold billions we spent on the ISS and that other one, and using Soyuz to launch a bunch of crap because our own program was such an epic failure, supposed to make us great frenz with the Russians? How did that work out, assholes?

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 10:34 PM (PZvjL)

73 I remember collecting the Gemini mission badges (and later, Apollo) from some cereal boxes or something similar. I made sure to get the full set.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:34 PM (S6gqv)

74 As someone who has lived the bulk of his life in NYC, I got over trains when I had to depend on them to get to work on time.

Going from say Astoria to Houston could take an hour or it could take 3 hours.

Do that for 25 years and it gets old, real quick.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2023 10:35 PM (up/3i)

75 All the water in the oceans has been processed through some critters' kidneys.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:33 PM (H/Wga)

Interesting claim. has every molecule of water been through the digestive tract of an organism?

Nah...I'll bet the math doesn't support that.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:36 PM (ZCCyW)

76 33 Dubai is a shining pillar of what's possible when you've got unlimited oil-sheikh money and don't squander it all on Islamist crap like most of the countries over there did.

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 10:14 PM (PZvjL)

. . . and don't tolerate "diverse" mental patients turning the subway into a shithole.

Posted by: a.moron at May 30, 2023 10:36 PM (F6Xpw)

77 We're no longer conditioned to accept that in advancing flight, vehicles will fail and people will die. In the 1950s, test pilots were getting killed at the rate of nearly one per week. This was understood to be the price of understanding supersonic flight.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 30, 2023 10:34 PM (MoZTd)

Test pilots accept the risk - but we should never have a put a schoolteacher who's supposed to talk to all the kids onto an experimental system like that.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:36 PM (S6gqv)

78 We could be mining the Moon today but for obstruction from Big Cheese.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:36 PM (FVME7)

79
Already sick of knee braces and crutches, but was informed that the therapist would decide when they weren't needed, in no uncertain terms, i.e. "When I say so and not before."

Not certain if I like her or not.

Posted by: irongrampa at May 30, 2023 10:37 PM (KATBx)

80 I done told ya how it could be done.

Posted by: Jules Verne at May 30, 2023 10:37 PM (4I/2K)

81 Roger, I am a little disappointed there were no mentions or pictures of the Pan Am stewardesses from 2001.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 30, 2023 10:38 PM (k1Qly)

82
Interesting claim. has every molecule of water been through the digestive tract of an organism?

Nah...I'll bet the math doesn't support that.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:36 PM (ZCCyW)

I wonder - if you look at the fullness of time, it might have happened. This Earth has thousands and thousands of feet of limestone and chalk formations, and their derivatives. All made up of the bodies of ancient tiny organisms.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:39 PM (S6gqv)

83 I remember collecting the Gemini mission badges (and later, Apollo) from some cereal boxes or something similar. I made sure to get the full set.
Posted by: Tom Servo

iirc Apollo 1's badge was on the Kaboom cereal box.

Too soon?

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 10:39 PM (qoGsy)

84 Posted by: Darrell Harris at May 30, 2023 10:30 PM (ne4eH)

I think the NYC subway system is more than 600 miles of track. But it still sucks.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:39 PM (ZCCyW)

85 Interesting claim. has every molecule of water been through the digestive tract of an organism?

Nah...I'll bet the math doesn't support that.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:36 PM (ZCCyW)

Well, the ocean has supported life of some kind for nigh-on a billion years, and by the Devonian, fish had actual kidneys. Now volcanoes emit "new" water, but is it really "new", or is it recycled water that was carried down into the mantle in a subduction zone?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:40 PM (H/Wga)

86 Engineering in the 50's and 60's had considerably less baggage in overhead from FedGov.

And nothing remotely like woke.

Also a fairly liberal bank account to do whatever shit they wanted to. Mostly because the Soviets were doing the same thing. National survival was a thing... even if manufactured.

Not so much now.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at May 30, 2023 10:40 PM (Q4IgG)

87 Kaboom - LOL!

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:40 PM (S6gqv)

88 Test pilots accept the risk - but we should never have a put a schoolteacher who's supposed to talk to all the kids onto an experimental system like that.
Posted by: Tom Servo

NASA's been politically driven for most, if not all, of it's existence.

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 10:40 PM (qoGsy)

89 What didn't suckered was dinner, which was various cheap bony pork cuts marinated and stewed with veggies in a Dutch oven over a small fire, and the only problem is that I didn't make extra.

And that I didn't make dessert. I regret that now

Posted by: Kindltot at May 30, 2023 10:40 PM (xhaym)

90
Test pilots accept the risk - but we should never have a put a schoolteacher who's supposed to talk to all the kids onto an experimental system like that.
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:36 PM (S6gqv)

___________

I think if there had been no schoolteacher, or even a male one, there wouldn't have been a tenth of the amount of grief.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 30, 2023 10:40 PM (MoZTd)

91 62
'It's true that the NY Subway system is not the most attractive - especially these days. '

The NY Subway system would be perfectly adequate if they'd clear the bums and the thugs off them.

Alas, they'll always get a bum rap.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 30, 2023 10:41 PM (roH4R)

92 I have never understood this helplessness and anxiety that people feel on a daily basis. It must come from being burdened by massive debt, feeling trapped by living large. I have no debt and civilization can suck my balls!

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 30, 2023 10:41 PM (mVWA6)

93 SF's main ~~pubtrans~~ traveling open air latrine is MUNI.

Posted by: SFGoth at May 30, 2023 10:28 PM (KAi1n)
===
Fixed.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 30, 2023 10:42 PM (RIvkX)

94 @82

>>I wonder - if you look at the fullness of time, it might have happened. This Earth has thousands and thousands of feet of limestone and chalk formations, and their derivatives. All made up of the bodies of ancient tiny organisms.

Well, it's a closed system and we ain't acquiring any new water, so it's either been through an organism or filtered through some substrate and is largely a question best left to when you need a subject to chew on during a DMT Journey.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at May 30, 2023 10:42 PM (up/3i)

95 Posted by: Darrell Harris at May 30, 2023 10:30 PM (ne4eH)

Nope...I was wrong...you are correct...about 250 miles long.

But it still sucks.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:42 PM (ZCCyW)

96 You aren't supposed to like your PTL therapist Irongrandpa. You are just supposed to not cuss loudly.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 30, 2023 10:44 PM (xhaym)

97 Just think of a subway trip like a stagecoach journey through Indian country except with more chance to get killed. You know, make it an adventure.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:44 PM (FVME7)

98 Now volcanoes emit "new" water, but is it really "new", or is it recycled water that was carried down into the mantle in a subduction zone?

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:40 PM (H/Wga)

Let's limit it to the surface water...oceans and lakes.

I still think there are far more water molecules that are virginal.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:45 PM (ZCCyW)

99 On February 1, 2003
-
Over twenty years. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago, but I remember Saddam Hussein being snarky about it because one of the crew was part of the Israeli strike that destroyed his nuclear reactors.

Posted by: Methos at May 30, 2023 10:45 PM (kOpft)

100 I think if there had been no schoolteacher, or even a male one, there wouldn't have been a tenth of the amount of grief.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 30, 2023 10:40 PM (MoZTd)

Shoulda sent Randi Weingarten.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:45 PM (H/Wga)

101 Pre-flight, Kristi McCullough taught math. But now, it'sew history.

/toosoon?

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 30, 2023 10:45 PM (e6UQI)

102 83
'iirc Apollo 1's badge was on the Kaboom cereal box.'

At least you didn't say smoked sausages. That would have been in poor taste.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 30, 2023 10:45 PM (roH4R)

103 SF's main pubtrans traveling open air latrine is MUNI.

Posted by: SFGoth at May 30, 2023 10:28 PM (KAi1n)
===
Fixed.
Posted by: San Franpsycho

Only with the windows cranked.

Posted by: SFGoth at May 30, 2023 10:46 PM (KAi1n)

104 Not certain if I like her or not.

Posted by: irongrampa at May 30, 2023 10:37 PM (KATBx)

Nice ass? Nice rack?

Focus on the important things!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:46 PM (ZCCyW)

105 'iirc Apollo 1's badge was on the Kaboom cereal box.'

At least you didn't say smoked sausages. That would have been in poor taste.
Posted by: Dr. Claw

D'oh!

Posted by: SFGoth at May 30, 2023 10:46 PM (KAi1n)

106 NASA got stuff done in the early days when it was run like a military unit. But then the civilians took over and had little drive to achieve anything beyond securing the next budget cycle.

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 10:46 PM (PZvjL)

107 Evening Horde, thx for the ONT Roger Ball. I remember my folks sitting me down in front of the TV for both the landing and then after a nap for the moon walk by Armstrong and Aldrin. I was 6 but even then I understood it was something special. Unfortunately humans fell back into the mundane tasks of trying to control one another and failed to keep the inertia going after Apollo 17. We should have already had a manned base there .

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (AxN/S)

108 The original studies claimed that the chances of a Shuttle accident were 1 in 100,000. It turned out to be 1 in 100.

Similar to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimates before Fukushima that the chance of a serious reactor accident was once per million years of operation.

Complex systems fail in unexpected ways.

An interesting NASA paper on this:

https://tinyurl.com/2p8yavav

Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (2tUFv)

109 ...damn typo

/"w"

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (e6UQI)

110 Keep in mind that water doesn't just exist through the kidneys.... You can't make Hershey squirts without the squirt.

Posted by: SFGoth at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (KAi1n)

111 The London Underground was turning into a shithole 30 years ago.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (oJm/a)

112 I still think there are far more water molecules that are virginal.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:45 PM (ZCCyW)

Best not to take chances, drink only beer or distilled spirits.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (H/Wga)

113 Audit Finds NASA’s Space Launch System Rocket Is $6 Billion Over Budget, 6 Years Behind Schedule

-
They should check Hunter Biden's pockets.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:49 PM (FVME7)

114 Keep in mind that water doesn't just exist through the kidneys.... You can't make Hershey squirts without the squirt.

Every night somebody's got to start talking shit.

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at May 30, 2023 10:49 PM (Bd6X8)

115 I think that part of Ecclesiastes keeps film critics who claim everything is derivative in business. It's true, there is nothing new under the sun.

Posted by: InZona at May 30, 2023 10:49 PM (bfyic)

116 The London Underground was turning into a shithole 30 years ago.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (oJm/a)

And they fixed it.

It's fantastic now.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:50 PM (ZCCyW)

117 Best not to take chances, drink only beer or distilled spirits.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (H/Wga)

My favorite food...yeast sh*t!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:51 PM (ZCCyW)

118 Complex systems fail in unexpected ways.

An interesting NASA paper on this:

Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month!

The very first sentences:

"Mathematical risk analysis was used in Apollo, but it gave unacceptably pessimistic results and was discontinued. Shuttle was designed without using risk analysis, under the assumption that good engineering would make it very safe. This approach led to an unnecessarily risky design, which directly led to the Shuttle tragedies.

Jeebus. And this outfit was suppose to be rocket surgeons.

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 10:51 PM (qoGsy)

119 I've always figured that I would be less hyper-cynical about all things public sector in nature had I been alive in the 1960s when NASA was getting stuff done.

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 10:51 PM (PZvjL)

120 Nick Taleb has made a very good case that our understanding of odds (chances of an extreme event happening) are badly flawed on a basic, conceptual level. Events on the extreme ends of the bell curve happen far more often than we think they should, because our mathematical understanding of probability is wrong.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:51 PM (S6gqv)

121 Nope...I was wrong...you are correct...
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo

See, this is why we lose to the left. When we're wrong, we admit it and move on like adults, rather than screaming and doubling down like toddlers.

Posted by: mikeski at May 30, 2023 10:51 PM (DgGvY)

122 >>> 108 The original studies claimed that the chances of a Shuttle accident were 1 in 100,000. It turned out to be 1 in 100.

Similar to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimates before Fukushima that the chance of a serious reactor accident was once per million years of operation.

Complex systems fail in unexpected ways.

An interesting NASA paper on this:

https://tinyurl.com/2p8yavav
Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 10:47 PM (2tUFv)

Unpossible. We are SMAHHHHHRRRT!!!!!

Posted by: Top. Men. at May 30, 2023 10:51 PM (llON8)

123 A big difference between NASA and Elon's rockets is that NASA had to figure it all out the first time. Invent how to send humans into space. Elon's scientists are making a proven commodity faster, cheaper, etc. Not unlike the Japanese auto invasion of the late '70's and '80's. Japan introduced the world to their concept of incremental improvement and so many drive Japanese car brands today. Elon and Bezos are doing that with rockets, as it should be. It's time to make space travel commercial and fun watching it happen.
I still smh how NASA created JFK's race to the moon before 1970 with slide rules and a pre-historic concept of a computer.

Posted by: LeftCoast Dawg at May 30, 2023 10:52 PM (i+mOk)

124
Audit Finds NASA’s Space Launch System Rocket Is $6 Billion Over Budget, 6 Years Behind Schedule

__________

SpaceX failure: Let's figure it out, fix it and get going again.

NASA failure: Blue-ribbon commission, hundreds of PowerPoint presentations, two years lost.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 30, 2023 10:52 PM (MoZTd)

125 Paris Metro is clean, efficient and cheap.

Posted by: javems at May 30, 2023 10:53 PM (AmoqO)

126 I remember watching it on a black and white TV. Do you?

Yep. Will never forget that moment. To me, Apollo 8 was the most memorable, though.

"From the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth".

Posted by: Notorious BFD at May 30, 2023 10:53 PM (Xrfse)

127 Law school story. We read a case about a lawsuit arising from
a stagecoach accident caused by a broken single tree. The professor asked a girl what a single tree was. She answered, "I think it's a low tech O ring!"

Well, I thought it was funny.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:53 PM (FVME7)

128 34 I bet Singapore has great public transportation.
Posted by: Bitter Clinger at May

Singapore is very tiny. Impossible to get lost in, just keep driving and you eventually end up back where you started and by eventually, I mean 20 minutes later. I never used their public transport beyond taxis which were right there from an app. Like they teleported to you.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 10:53 PM (ZdaMQ)

129 Jeebus. And this outfit was suppose to be rocket surgeons.

Via e-mail, I was making fun of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's outrageously optimistic estimates of reactor accident risk one night with an eminent professor.

The next day, Fukushima happened.

I support nuclear power, but you need a clear-eyed assessment of the risks.

Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 10:54 PM (2tUFv)

130 Shuttle was designed without using risk analysis, under the assumption that good engineering would make it very safe."

I think this is what we're seeing more and more of as this century rolls along. "The risk analysis was looking really bad, so we quit doing it and just assumed it's all good. Because we're that good."

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:54 PM (S6gqv)

131 Paris Metro is clean, efficient and cheap.
Posted by: javems

The complete opposite of French putains!

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 10:55 PM (qoGsy)

132 After forty or some years of screwing around, Omaha has approved some gawdawful trolley system. I spent forty years screaming "Stick a stake in its heart, cut off its head, and stuff it's mouth full of garlic!" Okay and will not use a mass transit anything. Many, many years ago, I rode the bus to work in the morning. It picked me up about a block from my house and dropped me off a hop and a skip from my buiding. But every time I turned around, the bus company dropped routes because there were so few passengers. Now we've got "The bus to nowhere." The city bought these super sized buses the go from downtown to a totally stalled building site about seven miles away. And the finally got their fucking trolley. I have no idea who they expect to ride it.

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin -- I wasn't particularly fond of the '70s the first time around at May 30, 2023 10:55 PM (B7rlW)

133 >>> 129
==
Via e-mail, I was making fun of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's outrageously optimistic estimates of reactor accident risk one night with an eminent professor.

The next day, Fukushima happened.

I support nuclear power, but you need a clear-eyed assessment of the risks.
Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 10:54 PM (2tUFv)

How dare you make fun of us!! Our nuclear power management is perfect.

Posted by: Top. Men. at May 30, 2023 10:56 PM (llON8)

134 Insistence on safe, reliable public transport comes from a place of privilege and is emblematic of white supremacy. Equity requires that your daily commute resemble scenes cut from Death Wish to prevent an X or NC-17 rating.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - whiteness expert at May 30, 2023 10:56 PM (KFhLj)

135 I still smh how NASA created JFK's race to the moon before 1970 with slide rules and a pre-historic concept of a computer.

Posted by: LeftCoast Dawg at May 30, 2023 10:52 PM (i+mOk)

Because they were men. Men who knew how to get things done. Sure, there were women involved, but the men did the heavy work. Don't like it, ladies and soy bois? Tough, that's the way it was.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 30, 2023 10:56 PM (Angsy)

136 What got us to the Moon was a cycle of build, fly, redesign. NASA started with a basically known rocket design, tested it in flight, redesigned, and so on.

The "Space Race" spent so much money that it was inevitable that NASA's budget would be cut. But IMHO it was a mistake for NASA to say "we don't need to build/fly/redesign anymore, we can save money by skipping that; just design on paper and get it perfect in one try." It wasn't perfect.

Some of the design compromises weren't NASA's fault, but I do fault them for thinking they could jump to a perfect vehicle in one attempt.

The Space Shuttle was supposed to be reusable but it took so much manpower to refurbish between flights that it wasn't really very reusable. Thank goodness for Elon Musk and SpaceX.

Posted by: mr_jack at May 30, 2023 10:56 PM (LNPSJ)

137 Also, Roger, I hate to nitpick, but "cycle of suck" when properly googled as a phrase in quotes only returns 136k results; 0.2% of the claimed ~75m.

*wags his finger disapprovingly*

Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 30, 2023 10:57 PM (k1Qly)

138 Check out Giant Springs in Great Falls, MT. They say it takes 3000 years for the water to surface from the source. I think that qualifies as a long enough time for virginity to grow back.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 30, 2023 10:57 PM (mVWA6)

139 See, this is why we lose to the left. When we're wrong, we admit it and move on like adults, rather than screaming and doubling down like toddlers.
Posted by: mikeski at May 30, 2023 10:51 PM (DgGvY)

Pet peeve of mine. How fucking hard is it to say "I got that completely wrong, my bad, Imma fix it."

Incompetence isn't just doing it wrong, it's doing it wrong and saying it's right. Finish yer damned job, you dolt.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 30, 2023 10:58 PM (LOVUx)

140 Compare London's Underground to San Fran's BART, which has now been turned into a traveling open air latrine for the homeless.

VirtualRailFan has a couple cameras, viewable on YouTube mounted to a pole on the west side of Big Sandy.

This morning I watched the Amtrak train out of Longview heading west to Mineola stop, blocking Tyler street. There was a Big Sandy patrol car there to meet it. The conductor handed over a handcuffed person to the Big Sandy LEO who stuffed the perp into the SUV and drove off.

I don't know if the arrestee had too many Bloody Marys that morning or if this is some new prisoner transport pilot.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at May 30, 2023 10:58 PM (YXHzG)

141 I think this is what we're seeing more and more of as this century rolls along. "The risk analysis was looking really bad, so we quit doing it and just assumed it's all good. Because we're that good."
-
How'd you guess?

Posted by: Janet Yellen at May 30, 2023 10:59 PM (kOpft)

142 The next day, Fukushima happened.

I support nuclear power, but you need a clear-eyed assessment of the risks.
Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 10:54 PM (2tUFv)

And the reactor didn't fail; it was the cooling pond for spent fuel rods that lost its water supply. The radiation release did not cause any deaths, AFAIK.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 10:59 PM (H/Wga)

143
Complex systems fail in unexpected ways.
-----

From time-to-time John Gall's book, 'Systemantics: How Systems Work and Especially How They Fail' becomes a topic here.

Having just come off a month long struggle with the DMV, this has been much on my mind. There isn't enough room here to describe the total FUBAR that the system is.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 30, 2023 10:59 PM (xFD/0)

144 Cycle of suck? Are we doing a Little Green Footballs retrospective?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:59 PM (FVME7)

145
I very much doubt that all these amazing urban transit systems actually pay their own way. If it wasn't for MTA Bridge and Tunnels, the New York subway system would be out of business in 20 minutes.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 30, 2023 10:59 PM (MoZTd)

146 I support nuclear power, but you need a clear-eyed assessment of the risks.
Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 10:54 PM (2tUFv)

Not great. Not terrible.

Posted by: Anatoly Dyatlov at May 30, 2023 11:00 PM (4I/2K)

147 135 Because they were men. Men who knew how to get things done. Sure, there were women involved, but the men did the heavy work. Don't like it, ladies and soy bois? Tough, that's the way it was.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May

Umm..

Katherine Johnson
Dorothy Vaughn
Mary Jackson

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:00 PM (ZdaMQ)

148 And the reactor didn't fail; it was the cooling pond for spent fuel rods that lost its water supply. The radiation release did not cause any deaths, AFAIK.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon
--------
I believe it was coolant pumps that were washed out by the tsunami?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 30, 2023 11:00 PM (xFD/0)

149 - -
Will private and commercial spaceflight be excellent, or will it suck? -
-

The "TSA" screening will include your intestinal flora. Taking off your shoes will be a fond memory.

Posted by: irright at May 30, 2023 11:01 PM (NTUk0)

150 And just like that - since Trump had the audacity to (get this), SAY SOMETHING about how illegal aliens shouldn't be allowed to have babies in the U.S for the sole purpose of them gaining citizenship - RedState.com has one Briitany Sheehan take the side of the illegal aliens!

I guess having gushing anti-Trump assholes like Mike Miller and Joe Cunningham wasn't enough, so now we have whoever this chick is, attacking President Trump on a topic that Republican voters are nearly unanimous on, in total opposition to anchor babies!

And Brittany Sheehan's reasoning? Well, she states achor babies grow up to be taxpayers. And that's her argument in a nutshell.
She supports an unethical practice, when literally THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS who have played by the rules still wait in lines for the opportunity to gain American citizenship.
Are RedState's writers so against Trump that they will speak up IN FAVOR of illegal immigration now? Apparently so.

Posted by: Tracy at May 30, 2023 11:01 PM (I/6xK)

151 See, this is why we lose to the left. When we're wrong, we admit it and move on like adults, rather than screaming and doubling down like toddlers.
Posted by: mikeski

30 years from now we'll be hearing how Trump paid some Russian whores to piss on him.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 11:02 PM (FVME7)

152
Pet peeve of mine. How fucking hard is it to say "I got that completely wrong, my bad, Imma fix it."

___________

In a previous life I learned to say that. People were more forgiving than I expected.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 30, 2023 11:02 PM (MoZTd)

153 I still smh how NASA created JFK's race to the moon before 1970 with slide rules and a pre-historic concept of a computer.

Posted by: LeftCoast Dawg at May 30, 2023 10:52 PM (i+mOk)

The math didn't change, just the hours it took to get there. I'm amazed that nobody can do that math anymore without a computer. My dad had one of those huge slide rules that went above the chalkboard to teach how to use it. He gave it to my nephew who teaches math at Indiana U. Most cool thing he owns, I suspect.

My dad also developed a slide-rule type calculator for the army in the field to determine the fallout from a tactical nuclear device, should they choose to use it. About 10 years later, they had primitive computers to figure that out. But in the early 1950's the slide-rule thingy was about the best thing ever.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 30, 2023 11:02 PM (LOVUx)

154 Having just come off a month long struggle with the DMV, this has been much on my mind. There isn't enough room here to describe the total FUBAR that the system is.

The DMV has no incentive to improve customer experience.

Are LIVs going to go vote for "the other guy" because the DMV sucks? And will "the other guy" fire the DMV leadership if he does get elected? No? Then...they will never improve. Or more accurately never improve the experience their normal customers have.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 11:02 PM (lc5cP)

155 >>> 144 Cycle of suck? Are we doing a [insert Cris Carter c'mon man image here] retrospective?
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? at May 30, 2023 10:59 PM (FVME7)

I take it you did not know that dipshit googlag searches for mentions of itself or its blog?

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at May 30, 2023 11:02 PM (llON8)

156 Insistence on safe, reliable public transport comes from a place of privilege and is emblematic of white supremacy. Equity requires that your daily commute resemble scenes cut from Death Wish to prevent an X or NC-17 rating.
Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - whiteness expert at May 30, 2023 10:56 PM (KFhLj)
===
I know you meant this to be snarky. But it is also true,

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 30, 2023 11:03 PM (RIvkX)

157 Last night, we briefly discussed Uncle Vlad's plan to convert Lindsey Graham to nuclear power. The house seemed divided on it. Sounded like a good idea to me, but I'm a well-known Russian bot.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - whiteness expert at May 30, 2023 11:03 PM (KFhLj)

158 Pet peeve of mine. How fucking hard is it to say "I got that completely wrong, my bad, Imma fix it."
----------

Complex systems, and politics, shift into self-protective deflect/deny mode.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at May 30, 2023 11:04 PM (e8qft)

159 But what are those cycles and where are we because things seem to be sucking right now? Or are things really sucking as bad as it seems? Or are things just really great and we are too jaded to see it? Is anyone else wondering about this too?
------------------

We are in the midst of a massive mind control (for lack of a more accurate term) operation. The research that has been done by the military, academia and by private marketers has been leveraged (ha) against us on a massive scale.

And remember it doesn't have to affect everyone. In fact, those it doesn't affect are simply ostracized and turned into enemy fodder. By nature those who are not warped by the operation in all the right ways actually appear to be the enemy, as in the way cults work. It's such a clever, organized and scaled strategy it can only be demonic in nature. Every lefty plays their part because they are wide open to demonic influence and have nothing to combat it.

But please remember this operation pretty much affects us all. Anyone who takes our politics even one tenth seriously is being manipulated in one way or another.

Posted by: ... at May 30, 2023 11:04 PM (lX8VI)

160 How fucking hard is it to say "I got that completely wrong, my bad, Imma fix it."

Depends on who you are saying it to.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger at May 30, 2023 11:05 PM (Zqeqr)

161 Oh and the state next to mine had a CPS "scandal" recently.

Child Protective Services had a sudden increase in number of children they just lost. Not dead (those numbers were bad too) but just children in the system they could no longer find. Note...this was an *increase* the base number was apparently never expected to be 0.

They did eventually force the head of CPS to resign. And then called it a day. He wasn't arrested nor was there much of an investigation into why they were losing kids and what actually happened to them - slapping one guy on the wrist was as far as they were willing to go.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 11:05 PM (lc5cP)

162 The Tree of Life Synagogue trial started today. This guy needs to fry.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory at May 30, 2023 11:05 PM (oJm/a)

163 Farebox revenue is a small portion of operating revenue. Thank you state and federal taxpayers.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 30, 2023 11:06 PM (RIvkX)

164 Are LIVs going to go vote for "the other guy" because the DMV sucks? And will "the other guy" fire the DMV leadership if he does get elected? No? Then...they will never improve. Or more accurately never improve the experience their normal customers have.
Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 11:02 PM (lc5cP)

Vote for the candidate that promises to privatize the DMV "storefront". Alberta and Arizona both have private (and public) DMV portals, that don't suck.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 30, 2023 11:06 PM (H/Wga)

165 In re the Fukushima event: the guy in charge of our spent rods was stealing luggage in airports and wearing lipstick to work.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:07 PM (ZdaMQ)

166 My personal cycle of suck is my job. Boss hires incompetent asses to work in my section. Boss gives incompetent asses projects they couldn't possibly do properly. After the due date has come and gone, and said project gets handed back for being completely fucked up, tcn proceeds to completely redo said project properly, all while trying to get her work done on time as well.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

And so far, nobody gets fired, because we come out smelling like a rose once I apologize for having delivered a crappy product and then fixing it.

I yell at boss, boss "manages" my situation, and it all starts again. Ad nauseum.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 30, 2023 11:08 PM (LOVUx)

167 @150: "... Trump had the audacity to (get this), SAY SOMETHING ..."

Something? What Trump said was as clever as Biden's promise to eliminate student debt, but even less legal. I didn't think it was possible to out-dumb Brandon, but here we are.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 30, 2023 11:08 PM (k1Qly)

168 Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:00 PM (ZdaMQ)

I said:

Sure, there were women involved, but the men did the heavy work.

They were part of the whole, they didn't develop or run the operation.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 30, 2023 11:08 PM (Angsy)

169
What's wrong with the DMV

60% the kind of people who work there
40% the kind of people who go there

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at May 30, 2023 11:09 PM (MoZTd)

170 165 In re the Fukushima event: the guy in charge of our spent rods was stealing luggage in airports and wearing lipstick to work.
Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:07 PM (ZdaMQ)

The Anchorage Assembly hired that asshat to "consult" on legislation banning "conversion therapy" in Anchorage. If you want to quit being a pervert, you have to leave the Anchorage municipality, First Amendment be damned.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 30, 2023 11:09 PM (LOVUx)

171 129 The next day, Fukushima happened.

I support nuclear power, but you need a clear-eyed assessment of the risks.
Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 10:54 PM (2tUFv)

Risk assessment or no, what irritates me about anti-nukers who whine about Fukushima is that it was the product of a massive tsunami that literally swallowed entire towns whole but they* tell us the most worstest thing is that a reactor building was damage and a couple of the staff might get cancer early. Talk about unrealistic assessments...

*that it's the same 'they' that constantly whines about global warming but offers no practical solutions and would probably also hate on windmills if they actually worked is very much not lost on me

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 11:09 PM (PZvjL)

172 160 How fucking hard is it to say "I got that completely wrong, my bad, Imma fix it."

Depends on who you are saying it to.
Posted by: Bitter Clinger at May 30, 2023 11:05 PM (Zqeqr)

I have never found any situation where I made a mistake that I didn't own up to. Take ownership, fix it. If they don't like it, they will eventually realize that it is better to fix the problem than have somebody covering ass.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 30, 2023 11:12 PM (LOVUx)

173 @shitbiscuit
·
1h
I was on the verge of letting out a very loud fart and the guy in the stall next to me covered the sound up by dropping the most rancid wet sphincter exorcism I’ve ever heard in my life

Posted by: BourbonChicken at May 30, 2023 11:13 PM (ybIRR)

174 If you want your blood to boil there's a post at Hot Air about the Loudoun County school board cover up of the trans rapist. A judge order the release of the report the board had commissioned but were refusing to release citing attorney client privilege. Every dirtbag involved should be jailed for a long time

Posted by: Smell the Glove at May 30, 2023 11:14 PM (AxN/S)

175 *taps suck meter with finger*

Meter needle jumps

Yup. Suck systems nominal. Go for throttle up to 100% suckitude.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:14 PM (YGqO/)

176 I have never found any situation where I made a mistake that I didn't own up to.

I have.

But it was usually to avoid 20 lashes with a leather belt.

Posted by: Bitter Clinger at May 30, 2023 11:16 PM (Zqeqr)

177 *taps suck meter with finger*

Meter needle jumps

Yup. Suck systems nominal. Go for throttle up to 100% suckitude.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:14 PM (YGqO/)

105% Suckitude possible, not recommended.

Posted by: Engineering Section at May 30, 2023 11:17 PM (4I/2K)

178 168

https://www.insider.com/female-astronauts-nasa-2019-5

Here. No one man did it either. These women calculated trajectories, did engineering, created entire communications networks. They weren’t making coffee…

Listen, I am the last one to be “I am woman hear me roar” but to denigrate women as less than men truly is ugly. Just look at contributors right on this blog. We have women who are hella smart. True misogyny is not something to be proud of.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:18 PM (ZdaMQ)

179 174 If you want your blood to boil...

Oh yeah. There's nothing I want more than that.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 30, 2023 11:18 PM (roH4R)

180 173 @shitbiscuit
·
1h
I was on the verge of letting out a very loud fart and the guy in the stall next to me covered the sound up by dropping the most rancid wet sphincter exorcism I’ve ever heard in my life
Posted by: BourbonChicken at

Just because it popped in your head doesn’t mean you have to type it out and share. 😂😂😂

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:20 PM (ZdaMQ)

181 'the guy in the stall next to me covered the sound up by dropping the most rancid wet sphincter exorcism I’ve ever heard in my life'

Miracles like this never made the cut for the Bible.

Posted by: Dr. Claw at May 30, 2023 11:21 PM (roH4R)

182 Oliver Stone did a Rogan podcast that was released this afternoon. He's got a pro-nuclear power documentary making the rounds. It premiered last September in Venice, but this was the first I'd heard of it.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 30, 2023 11:21 PM (k1Qly)

183 I was on the verge of letting out a very loud fart and the guy in the stall next to me covered the sound up by dropping the most rancid wet sphincter exorcism I’ve ever heard in my life
Posted by: BourbonChicken at May 30, 2023 11:13 PM (ybIRR)

When crop dusting, always visit another section of cubicles.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:21 PM (YGqO/)

184
I yell at boss, boss "manages" my situation, and it all starts again. Ad nauseum.
Posted by: tcn

Sometimes, ya gotta let them fail. CYA. Document advice, coaching, and ignored instances where you did so.

Fortunately, the lady I work for has rewarded me for eliminating dumbasses through that process. It works, but sometimes...ya gotta let the shitheads fail. Anything you subsidize, you get more of. Welfare. Homeless. Drugs. Fucking shithead coworkers.

Posted by: BifBewalski at May 30, 2023 11:22 PM (3CCua)

185 Sorry.

Posted by: Ed at May 30, 2023 11:22 PM (4I/2K)

186 Please say a quick prayer for Andrew Walker. A kid both my boys knew in high school. Dropped dead yesterday cardiac arrest after a run.

Posted by: nurse ratched at May 30, 2023 11:23 PM (U2p+3)

187 I was on the verge of letting out a very loud fart and the guy in the stall next to me covered the sound up by dropping the most rancid wet sphincter exorcism I’ve ever heard in my life
Posted by: BourbonChicken at May 30, 2023 11:13 PM (ybIRR)

When crop dusting, always visit another section of cubicles.
Posted by: Diogenes

I have two favorites. 1) a sealed sunny glassed in building entrance vestibule, and 2) an elevator

Posted by: BifBewalski at May 30, 2023 11:24 PM (3CCua)

188 167 @150: "... Trump had the audacity to (get this), SAY SOMETHING ..."

Something? What Trump said was as clever as Biden's promise to eliminate student debt, but even less legal. I didn't think it was possible to out-dumb Brandon, but here we are.
Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 30, 2023 11:08 PM (k1Qly)

I hate to agree, but I have to. The analysis is correct; it's the same idea as Biden's student debt "plan" - just have the President sign a piece of paper declaring it. Well we don't have full Imperial govm't yet, so no, that is not going to work and it's idiotic to pretend that it will. I think we *should* do something about birthright citizenship, but we need a real plan that acknowledges how much work it is going to take, not some idiotic back of the napkin plan that's guaranteed to fail in the first 5 minutes.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 11:24 PM (S6gqv)

189 You recommend using atm/debit card, or taking cash?

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 30, 2023 10:12 PM (Angsy)

Credit or debit card. I go to London frequently, and I never get cash.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 11:24 PM (lIySD)

190 186 Please say a quick prayer for Andrew Walker. A kid both my boys knew in high school. Dropped dead yesterday cardiac arrest after a run.
Posted by: nurse ratched at May 30, 2023 11:23 PM (U2p+3)

This is awful news. I am sorry @nurse! Prayers said for sure.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:24 PM (ZdaMQ)

191 105% Suckitude possible, not recommended.
Posted by: Engineering Section at May 30, 2023 11:17 PM (4I/2K)

Go to 105%! We're going to suck a friend Yuri.

Ya know, that sounded funnier in my head.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:26 PM (YGqO/)

192 I remember the Columbia return burning up distinctly. I was out at White Sands Missile range launching a sounding rocket. We noted they were supposed to go overhead in the morning hours, but then they had the failure. We dedicated our launch to the crew.

Posted by: InZona at May 30, 2023 11:27 PM (bfyic)

193 Listen, I am the last one to be “I am woman hear me roar” but to denigrate women as less than men truly is ugly. Just look at contributors right on this blog. We have women who are hella smart. True misogyny is not something to be proud of.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:18 PM (ZdaMQ)

That is not what I said.

"Because they were men. Men who knew how to get things done."

This is not the society we have today. We are being cowed by whiners and evildoers denigrating all that was achieved, as if it was done by stealing the work of others, and not by the civilization that allowed these ideas to flourish. Men, and women, of that time were motivated by getting the job done. Doing something great for all of society, not like the critics who only tear down to aggrandize themselves because they hate what was achieved.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 30, 2023 11:28 PM (Angsy)

194 I have.

But it was usually to avoid 20 lashes with a leather belt.
Posted by: Bitter Clinger at May 30, 2023 11:16 PM (Zqeqr)

I got over that early. Mom would hit anybody close, figuring it would even out over time. Less chasing, more smacking. And Dad? He had mom hold me down while he beat me with a stick. It's not like they didn't know, but the response was, well, over the top. Particularly for kids who routinely got A's in AP classes and never had trouble with the law.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 30, 2023 11:28 PM (LOVUx)

195 Larry Kudlow is on the Gutfeld show. He says McCarthy defeated Biden in the debt ceiling fight. It sounds as if Larry has been drinking.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 30, 2023 11:28 PM (63Dwl)

196 I have two favorites. 1) a sealed sunny glassed in building entrance vestibule, and 2) an elevator
Posted by: BifBewalski at May 30, 2023 11:24 PM (3CCua)

My personal best was on a down escalator. Ripped a real tear jerker that was muffled by my coat. Looked back as I walked away. Three ladies behind me were holding their noses.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:29 PM (YGqO/)

197
Credit or debit card. I go to London frequently, and I never get cash.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 11:24 PM (lIySD)

Thanks, CBD.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 30, 2023 11:30 PM (Angsy)

198 Prayers up Nurse.
So very sorry to hear.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:30 PM (YGqO/)

199 There is no defense against the “Granny has the walking farts” strategy.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 30, 2023 11:32 PM (mVWA6)

200 My personal best was on a down escalator. Ripped a real tear jerker that was muffled by my coat. Looked back as I walked away. Three ladies behind me were holding their noses.
Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:29 PM (YGqO/)

Both dogs fired off missiles today under my desk while I was working, on a phone call. I literally couldn't breathe. I expect we need to revisit the treat schedule with these animals.

And I thought DH first thing in the morning was awful.

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 30, 2023 11:32 PM (LOVUx)

201 Felt like some Tarantino, so I just watched Django Unchained for the first time. Better than I expected. Surprised to see Christoph Waltz was a main star. I just saw him for the first time in the Prime series The Consultants, which was (to me) a very dark black comedy.

Checking out another Pam Grier flick, Friday Foster.
What a figure.
Hubba, hubba.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at May 30, 2023 11:33 PM (ufFY8)

202 The Consultant. Singular.
Stupid phone.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at May 30, 2023 11:35 PM (ufFY8)

203 193 This is not the society we have today. We are being cowed by whiners and evildoers denigrating all that was achieved, as if it was done by stealing the work of others, and not by the civilization that allowed these ideas to flourish. Men, and women, of that time were motivated by getting the job done. Doing something great for all of society, not like the critics who only tear down to aggrandize themselves because they hate what was achieved.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 30, 2023 11:28 PM

This is a much more clear statement than the original, and I agree with you 100%. I am sorry for misinterpreting.

Meanwhile, there are people here in need of Jesus. Walking granny farts indeed.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:36 PM (ZdaMQ)

204 165 In re the Fukushima event: the guy in charge of our spent rods was stealing luggage in airports and wearing lipstick to work.
Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:07 PM (ZdaMQ)

Yeah, as risk assumption goes, I'll take a pass on risking a dirty bomb somewhere because the esteemed, Mr. Ladyballs found a stray "puppy".

Technocrats should be at least moderately credible if you want to put more things under control of the gov't.

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2023 11:36 PM (z+89e)

205 The settlement of the Debt Ceiling problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which Americans may find peace. This morning I had another talk with the President, Herr Biden, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. Some of you, perhaps, have already heard what it contains but I would just like to announce it to you:

My good friends, for the second time in our history, a Republican Speaker of the House has returned from a Democrat White House bringing peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.

Posted by: Kevin "Neville" McCarthy at May 30, 2023 11:37 PM (4I/2K)

206 Good night y’all. Early morning, again.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:38 PM (ZdaMQ)

207 One advantage of working late is if I need to fire a mighty blast from the main guns I can just go downstairs to the shipping room and nobody will notice.

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 11:38 PM (PZvjL)

208 My personal best was on a down escalator. Ripped a real tear jerker that was muffled by my coat. Looked back as I walked away. Three ladies behind me were holding their noses.
Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:29 PM (YGqO/)

having been driving for 3 hours, I just barely made it to the convenience store, bravely holding the passage closed while an army of tiny orcs beat on it from the inside like it was the gate to Helm's Deep. Didn't buy anything, didn't get gas, just raced into the little room and proceeded to destroy the commode there. Thing wouldn't even think about flushing, packed full and water about to run over the top. Composed myself and walked out, looked at the young paki guy behind the counter (only employee there) and as I walked by, I just said "hey I think something's wrong with the commode in there, you should check it out." Then I just jumped in the car and left.

I know I deserve some karmic retribution for that one.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 11:40 PM (S6gqv)

209 I know I deserve some karmic retribution for that one.
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 11:40 PM (S6gqv)

VishServo, Destroyer of Porcelain.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at May 30, 2023 11:41 PM (ufFY8)

210 I love it when women blame the dog. I prefer to blame the old lady’s lousy cooking. And machismo.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at May 30, 2023 11:44 PM (mVWA6)

211 I believe it is peace for our time. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Go home and get a nice quiet sleep.
Posted by: Kevin "Neville" McCarthy at May 30, 2023 11:37 PM (4I/2K)

So...I think I'll see if I can download plans for a Spitfire.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:44 PM (YGqO/)

212 This is a much more clear statement than the original, and I agree with you 100%. I am sorry for misinterpreting.

Meanwhile, there are people here in need of Jesus. Walking granny farts indeed.

Posted by: Piper at May 30, 2023 11:36 PM (ZdaMQ)

Well, I don't claim to be a coherent writer. As can be told by the fact I've never been able to sell anything. After re-reading the first post, I can see how it could have been taken the way you saw it. I had no intentions of being rude or dismissive of anyone. Sorry.
Just dashing off thoughts can sometimes cause trouble. I don't aim to cause trouble with the other posters here, most are a lot smarter than me, and more successful. I'm just a dumb old man, from a hick town, in a jerkwater part of the country....
One thing I can tell you though, is I keep my nose out of the fart posts. Er, I mean....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at May 30, 2023 11:45 PM (Angsy)

213 Apparently why the Ukrainian intelligence services greenlighted the attack on Moscow is that the Russians used a bunker buster to take out whatever was under the headquarters of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine in Kiev.

They are pissed, allegedly.

Given that the Ukrainians have been dropping numerous hints that the counteroffensive is imminent, it's not surprising that the Russians are shifting to taking out various headquarters to disrupt the pending operation.

Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 11:45 PM (2tUFv)

214 I know I deserve some karmic retribution for that one.
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 11:40 PM (S6gqv)

You will be reincarnated as a statue in a park that's home to a large flock of well-fed pigeons.

Posted by: Vishnu at May 30, 2023 11:45 PM (4I/2K)

215 Never cut loose while sitting in a metal chair. The reverb can be astounding, unless of course, you are sitting with a bunch of buddies.

Posted by: javems at May 30, 2023 11:46 PM (AmoqO)

216 Just because it popped in your head doesn’t mean you have to type it out and share. 😂😂😂
Posted by: Piper

Love ya girl but boy, did I just hear my Mom saying that to my brothers and I. LOL

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 11:47 PM (qoGsy)

217 Fart in an elevator just before you leave.

Posted by: nurse ratched at May 30, 2023 11:47 PM (U2p+3)

218 Given that the Ukrainians have been dropping numerous hints that the counteroffensive is imminent, it's not surprising that the Russians are shifting to taking out various headquarters to disrupt the pending operation.
Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 11:45 PM (2tUFv)

I PREDICT! that the Ukrainians will keep dropping hints that the counteroffensive is imminent, all the way up til next winter. KARNAK KNOWS.

Posted by: The Amazing Karnak at May 30, 2023 11:48 PM (S6gqv)

219 Summer travel trip:

If you're planning on driving through mountainous areas, don't crash your vehicle in such a way that it starts a brush fire and closes the road to all traffic along a 50 mile stretch for about four hours.

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at May 30, 2023 11:48 PM (Bd6X8)

220 If the Ukes are spending six months telegraphing their plans so the Rooooooskies are guaranteed to counter them, I say that's proof positive that our dumbass neocons are pulling the strings. It's kind of their calling card, yeah?

Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 11:50 PM (PZvjL)

221 it's not surprising that the Russians are shifting to taking out various headquarters to disrupt the pending operation.
Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 11:45 PM (2tUFv)

I PREDICT! that the Ukrainians will keep dropping hints that the counteroffensive is imminent, all the way up til next winter. KARNAK KNOWS.
Posted by: The Amazing Karnak at May 30, 2023 11:48 PM (S6gqv)

Funny how the Ukes are going after a Russian Admiral for using cruise missiles against civilians... when just yesterday they were bragging about long range coordinated drone strikes, against Moscow... which hit civilian targets.

IMO there are not good guys here.

Posted by: Romeo13 at May 30, 2023 11:51 PM (oHd/0)

222 I PREDICT! that the Ukrainians will keep dropping hints that the counteroffensive is imminent, all the way up til next winter. KARNAK KNOWS.

That would be funny, but the Ukrainians are in a box. Particularly if the war extends into next year, there is going to be increasing pressure to have a Korea-style armistice along the current front lines.

The Russians appear to be comfortable with that, and are keeping their reserves ready to blunt a Ukrainian counterattack, rather than launching their own offensive.

If the Ukrainians don't want to accept the status quo, they are going to have to roll the dice.

Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 11:52 PM (2tUFv)

223 Apparently why the Ukrainian intelligence services greenlighted the attack on Moscow is that the Russians used a bunker buster to take out whatever was under the headquarters of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine in Kiev.

They are pissed, allegedly.
***

I suspect not as pissed as Putin. I predict that the commander of the Moscow District Air Defense Command will fall out of a window from the 10th floor, by this coming weekend.

Posted by: Diogenes at May 30, 2023 11:52 PM (YGqO/)

224 Funny how the Ukes are going after a Russian Admiral for using cruise missiles against civilians... when just yesterday they were bragging about long range coordinated drone strikes, against Moscow... which hit civilian targets.

IMO there are not good guys here.
Posted by: Romeo13

But, that's impossible! We've been pressured to call it "Keeeeeeve" all of a sudden to telegraph our solidarity with them.

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 11:54 PM (qoGsy)

225 US land owners, your property rights are null and void. South Dakota:

https://tinyurl.com/m9nwnd3

(Nitter)

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 30, 2023 11:54 PM (Dzf2t)

226 Funny how the Ukes are going after a Russian Admiral for using cruise missiles against civilians... when just yesterday they were bragging about long range coordinated drone strikes, against Moscow... which hit civilian targets.

Mark Ames, who ran the notorious publication The Exile in Moscow in the 1990s, observed that attacking the rich Moscow suburbs where the Russian ruling class lives is likely to be a lot more popular with Russians than shelling the Russian peasants unfortunate enough to live close to the Ukraine border.

Posted by: TWO Days Until Pride Month! at May 30, 2023 11:55 PM (2tUFv)

227 I often reflect on the sense of wonder, determination and destiny that guided our westward expansion.

I hope we can recapture that spirit and go to the stars. The alternative is stagnation and despair.

Posted by: Pete Bog at May 30, 2023 11:56 PM (OsP9+)

228 Does the Ukrainian Pride Offensive start Thursday?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 30, 2023 11:56 PM (63Dwl)

229 Does the Ukrainian Pride Offensive start Thursday?
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr.

I find the pride folks offensive all of the time.

But that's just me.

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 11:57 PM (qoGsy)

230 Last night, we briefly discussed Uncle Vlad's plan to convert Lindsey Graham to nuclear power. The house seemed divided on it. Sounded like a good idea to me, but I'm a well-known Russian bot.
Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - whiteness expert at May 30, 2023 11:03 PM (KFhLj)

I think that if we are targeting and issuing arrest warrants on Russian oligarchs getting rich off of the unconstrained militarism exemplified in the war in Ukraine, the Russians are well within their rights to target and issue arrest warrants on American oligarchs getting rich the same way.

Fair is fair!

Posted by: Kindltot at May 30, 2023 11:57 PM (xhaym)

231 215 Never cut loose while sitting in a metal chair. The reverb can be astounding, unless of course, you are sitting with a bunch of buddies.
Posted by: javems at May 30, 2023 11:46 PM (AmoqO)

---------

One theory has it that Nenderthals invented the first diatonic musical scale by farting on carefully selected boulders.

I buy it.

Posted by: Cicero (@cicero43) at May 30, 2023 11:58 PM (s12c9)

232 Does the Ukrainian Pride Offensive start Thursday?

Under The Rainbow Flag We Will Triumph!

Hitler attacked on June 22nd, and Napoleon attacked on June 24th, so it is traditional to wait until the third week of June.

Posted by: The Ukranian Army! at May 30, 2023 11:59 PM (2tUFv)

233 I often reflect on the sense of wonder, determination and destiny that guided our westward expansion.

I hope we can recapture that spirit and go to the stars. The alternative is stagnation and despair.

Out amongst the stars we are free from the state. Since the state cannot abide that, stagnation and despair have been chosen.

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at May 31, 2023 12:01 AM (Bd6X8)

234 Hitler attacked on June 22nd, and Napoleon attacked on June 24th, so it is traditional to wait until the third week of June.

Still Pride Month, fortunately.

Posted by: The Ukrainian Army! at May 31, 2023 12:01 AM (2tUFv)

235 I'm slowly but surely moving out of Loudoun. I have lived there 40 years and have a wonderful place in the country to live, but it is not the place it once was.

For those not familiar with it, Eastern Loudoun is fairly densely populated, high income, and with substantial Indian tech, and Latin minorities. Western Loudoun is far larger, low density, with the remnants of its farming past and lots of new Agri-tourism ventures. Wealth generally prevails and they just keep me around for local color.

Posted by: Jinx the Cat at May 31, 2023 12:04 AM (BcWEu)

236 Not having Rush and now Tucker's essential silencing leaves a lot of huff and puff for news these days.

And I was just thinking about Tucker's sense of one off blockbusters namely this one.

You recall after the great withdrawal from 'ghani that Fox dragged out Jennifer Griffin to squee with Milley? Tucker had a show shortly thereafter highlighting all the pretense of how great things were proceeding in the war against terrorism. All the media and various generals all stated the same vague 'making steady progress line' I found it one of Tucker's best shows in retrospect. Essentially the 'splainer for the trillions which now that bigK has made his big play will seem like a pittance.

Posted by: micky at May 31, 2023 12:04 AM (3byMq)

237 . one missing, ha!

Posted by: micky at May 31, 2023 12:06 AM (3byMq)

238
Evening, all. I wonder who Elizabeth Holmes's bunkies are.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at May 31, 2023 12:07 AM (lCaJd)

239 192 I remember the Columbia return burning up distinctly. I was out at White Sands Missile range launching a sounding rocket. We noted they were supposed to go overhead in the morning hours, but then they had the failure. We dedicated our launch to the crew.
Posted by: InZona at May 30, 2023 11:27 PM (bfyic)

I was living in West of Eau Gallie (Melbourne), Florida at that time. When they started the entry, I went outside to see if I could see Columbia, and hear the double Mach. Then the tv started with the Capcom, "Columbia, Houston." Silence. "Columbia, Houston" Silence. Several more times. Still silence. Some time in there, the Reentry Director must have flipped to the Disaster Checklist. Step One: Lock the Control Room doors.

Posted by: Fox2! at May 31, 2023 12:07 AM (4GxJn)

240 Evening.

Roger Ball, huh?

Sounds porny.

Tomorrow night's ONT to be written by Harry Johnson. Thursday night's will be handled by his big brother, Tiny.

Whoops! Time.

Good night, ever'buddy!

Posted by: Robert at May 31, 2023 12:08 AM (1Yy3c)

241 To think Hitler launched Operation Barbosa during pride month.

Posted by: BourbonChicken at May 31, 2023 12:16 AM (ybIRR)

242 tap, tap, tap. Is this thing on?

Posted by: Jinx the Cat at May 31, 2023 12:16 AM (BcWEu)

243 I'm number one?

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at May 31, 2023 12:17 AM (DhOHl)

244 Step One: Lock the Control Room doors.

At some point in there, they get on the horn to WSGT and STGT and tell them to preserve all mission data tapes. Which the on site manager has most likely already done. The next 30 to 45 days is spent replaying the telemetry over and over trying to recover every last second of data. ISTR they did get an additional 30 seconds recovered.

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at May 31, 2023 12:17 AM (Bd6X8)

245 O/T: Serious question: I am (apparently) getting a speeding ticket from a recent trip to Germany. I was on the Autobahn, and despite its reputation as having no speed limit, they have the ability to regulate speed at any old random time. Especially in the south, they picked up my (Hertz) rental car over the 80kph speed limit. I actually saw the flash of the speed camera going off. So my question is: do I pay it? Hertz just sent me a bill for ~$30.00 USD for providing my info to the authorities, so I'm sure the ticket is coming. (I live in MO, USA.) Do they have any recourse? I'm not planning on being back in Germany any time soon.
Thought? Nickle legal advice?

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at May 31, 2023 12:17 AM (7Fj9P)

246 To think Hitler launched Operation Barbosa during pride month.

You think that was bad - I started the Night of the Long Knives, to eliminate the famously gay-friendly SA, on June 30, 1934.

DURING PRIDE MONTH!

Posted by: Zombie Adolph! at May 31, 2023 12:18 AM (2tUFv)

247 Do you have relatives now living in Chermany?

Posted by: Jinx the Cat at May 31, 2023 12:19 AM (BcWEu)

248 Do you have relatives now living in Chermany?
=======================
No, I was there on biz.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at May 31, 2023 12:23 AM (7Fj9P)

249 Thought? Nickle legal advice?

This is most decidedly not legal advice. Whatever the opposite of legal advice is, is what I'm doing here.

Pay it. While I doubt they'd go to the trouble, there is an extradition treaty in place between the US and Germany so there's a non-zero chance of getting shipped back there.

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at May 31, 2023 12:25 AM (Bd6X8)

250 US land owners, your property rights are null and void. South Dakota:

Quick! Pass something so I can veto it.

Posted by: Kristi Noem at May 31, 2023 12:25 AM (xttsV)

251 At least then, you won't have to worry about German Shepherds in the night.

I am sorry I can offer nothing more than flippant remarks. Good luck to you.

Posted by: Jinx the Cat at May 31, 2023 12:25 AM (BcWEu)

252 There is of course the chance you will be listed with Interpol, which means you could be picked up with some equivalent of a bench warrant, or surrendered via some treaty.
Then again, you might get lucky and everyone will hate the Germans that week.

Posted by: Kindltot at May 31, 2023 12:27 AM (xhaym)

253 Brave Sir Robin.

Everything about how to handle that ticket will be in your Rental Car Agreement.

FYI. The German Authorities can "reach over" with a writ, and your local State Authorities will do interesting things, such as deny you a CHL, a Hunting License, and other wonderous gestures.

Usually, the ticket is payable THROUGH the Rental Company. They'll handle the Germanic admin, and you'll be off the hook.

IIRC, it's all supported by International Treaty, so you've got recourse somewhere between Zero and None. Further, you're cited in a Prima Facia jurisprudence system. They've cited you, therefore you ARE guilty. The U.S. system of "contesting" a traffic ticket is bewildering to the Euros.

To them? You're cited, you pay, and that is THAT!

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 31, 2023 12:27 AM (e6UQI)

254 Don't end up like Brittney Griner.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 31, 2023 12:30 AM (63Dwl)

255 Pay the $30 and expense account it. See what happens next.

Posted by: Pete Bog at May 31, 2023 12:30 AM (OsP9+)

256
Thought? Nickle legal advice?
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin

==========

You could make a whole social media channel about it. Day One being a refugee from international justice. Don't reveal the specific offense at first. Show tantalizing bits of the official correspondence. Drag it out, and when you've got 100,000 followers, make the big reveal.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at May 31, 2023 12:31 AM (lCaJd)

257 Pay the $30 and expense account it.
==================
The $30.00 US is just my bill from Hertz, for narcing me out.
I haven't seen the ticket yet, I'm thinking it will be $100's in USD.

Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at May 31, 2023 12:33 AM (7Fj9P)

258 254 Don't end up like Brittney Griner.
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at May 31, 2023 12:30 AM (63Dwl)

With man hands and munching carpet while toking?

Posted by: tcn in AK, Hail to the Thief at May 31, 2023 12:36 AM (LOVUx)

259 I'm on the case!

Posted by: Inspector Clouseau at May 31, 2023 12:36 AM (4I/2K)

260 225 US land owners, your property rights are null and void. South Dakota:

https://tinyurl.com/m9nwnd3

(Nitter)
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at May 30, 2023 11:54 PM (Dzf2t)

So, they use a bunch of energy to capture CO2 from the air, ship it via pipeline, then force it into oil wells... where the undestroyed CO2 then comes back up in the oil, where it is released back into the atmosphere during refining? or when the oil is burned?

Uh, how the hell is this better than growing trees, which store the CO2 until burned?

Green... it's all a scam.

Posted by: Romeo13 at May 31, 2023 12:40 AM (oHd/0)

261 So, kid, what are ya in for?

Litterin'...

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at May 31, 2023 12:47 AM (ZSK0i)

262 Anyone who's ever spent an evening or two with a couple of fired-up, pissed off American cops will never fear a frog or a kraut.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 31, 2023 12:47 AM (oINRc)

263 I sat in on a meeting discussing an upcoming Shuttle launch pre-Challenger. Someone else asked how much variance there was in the Shuttle's altitude during orbit. A NASA-JSC employee said, "None. When we say 200 nm, it's exactly 200nm." The questioner replied, "That's not realistic. Orbits are never exactly circular. The Earth isn't a perfect sphere either. And 200 nm measured from what? Sea-level? Mt. Everest?" The NASA-JSC guy refused to budge. It was one of the most arrogant attitudes I ever encountered in an engineer.

Posted by: Shuttlecock up at May 31, 2023 12:50 AM (psq2p)

264 I think the cycle of suck must imply a “cycle of excellence" too, because things don’t suck all the time, at least in my experience.

---------

Wagner's "The Ring Cycle" FTW, philistine!

Posted by: ShainS -- Oppression Scientist at May 31, 2023 12:53 AM (sJSOG)

265 Uh, how the hell is this better than growing trees, which store the CO2 until burned?

Green... it's all a scam.
Posted by: Romeo13 at May 31, 2023 12:40 AM (oHd/0)

Uh, you don't have to give up your land for a pipeline. They dig a trench, lay the pipe in it, and backfill the trench. You can still cultivate the land; the pipeline is well below the reach of any farm implement. The only restriction on the landowner is he can't dig a foundation, or a septic tank on the right of way.

I agree the notion that we "need to" sequester CO2 is a crock of shit, but pumping it into oil reservoirs can actually enhance recovery, so it's not a total waste.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 31, 2023 12:54 AM (8l3hZ)

266 Cops in Europe are soft. Even the crooked ones. American cops are much tougher. Even the honest ones.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 31, 2023 12:54 AM (oINRc)

267 Check out this blogger’s specific examples of NASA sucking: 5 Reasons NASA Sucks

---------

Please tell me that NASA's Primary Mission of "Muslim Outreach" during DogEater's Reign of Error made the list.

Posted by: ShainS -- Oppression Scientist at May 31, 2023 12:55 AM (sJSOG)

268 Everyone always holds up the space program as an example of "something big enough that only governments can pull it off."

For that reason alone, I'd like to see a private company embarrass NASA.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 31, 2023 01:00 AM (oINRc)

269 Uh, how the hell is this better than growing trees, which store the CO2 until burned?

Green... it's all a scam.
-
Hey, they get to tear down trees to make space for the pipe, and ruin a bunch of farmland so we have less food. So the plan is spectacularly efficient in wasting resources.

Posted by: Methos at May 31, 2023 01:03 AM (kOpft)

270 @264: "And 200 nm measured from what?"

Never mind that's two magnitudes smaller than the width of a human hair, and unforeseen gravitational effects from other objects in orbit might be enough to perturb the shuttle as much. What a jerk!

Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 31, 2023 01:04 AM (k1Qly)

271 Well, past 11:00 here. Time for me to get my beauty sleep. Maybe one day it will work. Night, Horde.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at May 31, 2023 01:06 AM (8l3hZ)

272 Or nautical miles. Good grief. Sleepy time.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 31, 2023 01:07 AM (k1Qly)

273 Six years back, a friend of mine from the Cigar World retired from NASA.

Orbital Dynamics Engineer, assigned to maintain the ISS orbit as well as managing de-conflicting with space debris endangering that orbit.

He'd designed orbits for a good many conventional rocket launched satellites during his career, and got to Press the Button (launch the rocket) twice.

Very normal, regular, down to earth guy. Until you "spoke math". And quickly realized, you did not Speak Math at his level. Not even in the same Universe. And he'd NEVER have projected the arrogance as mentioned above. Hell, he once even admitted I was right on a factoid which he'd mis-remembered. But, he looked it up, came back the next day and told all the guys I had it right. (but it wasn't a math question, I assure you!) lol

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 31, 2023 01:08 AM (e6UQI)

274 >> "None. When we say 200 nm, it's exactly 200nm."

I was reading that, and my mouth just hung agape. Then it hit me, the "nm" there must be nautical miles, and not nanometers. :-)

There for a little bit, I thought someone was claiming that they could measure orbital variables to nanometer precision. :-)

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:08 AM (Mzdiz)

275 The whole planet watched as Eagle landed and then Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon.

--------

Not many know that Armstrong barely escaped death a year before during a Lunar Landing Module test flight simulating a moon landing in Houston on May 6, 1968 -- ejecting just before explosion about 100 feet above the ground.

Those guys were crazy bad-asses, and mister we could use some men like them again ...

https://tinyurl.com/2x4r2vyy

Posted by: ShainS -- Oppression Scientist at May 31, 2023 01:08 AM (sJSOG)

276 @274: "Then it hit me ... There for a little bit ..."

Whew! I thought I was alone there for a moment.

Posted by: Walter Freeman at May 31, 2023 01:10 AM (k1Qly)

277 I haven't seen the ticket yet, I'm thinking it will be $100's in USD.
Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at May 31, 2023 12:33 AM (7Fj9P)

Quit thinking. You are trusting government to follow up. On the off chance they do see what the fine actually is. Were you going over 100 metric or English?

Posted by: Pete Bog at May 31, 2023 01:14 AM (OsP9+)

278 Ciampino's Rescue kitties - LIVE STREAMING!!
https://www.twitch.tv/kittenwatch

Biscuits' kittens ON CAMERA.

There's another photo update, #68, at link below.
Take a look if interested. Make sure to click on
"See Older Updates" as well if it's your first time.
https://is.gd/WQ5JcT

Posted by: Ciampino --- felines, cats, kitties at May 31, 2023 01:16 AM (qfLjt)

279
Just quickly looking things up. The accuracy of ground based orbital measurement is around 1m for position and about 1 mm/s for velocity. That's just ballpark. Who knows, maybe something classified is even more accurate.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:17 AM (Mzdiz)

280 Shain S.

And after that ejection, he completed his workday in his office, as if nothing special had happened.

Mr. Cool, ladies and gentlemen. Mister. Cool.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 31, 2023 01:20 AM (e6UQI)

281 LOL, Pam Grier driving a stolen milk truck to Scatman Crothers place.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at May 31, 2023 01:21 AM (ufFY8)

282 Speaker McCarthy has to answer to the donor class that funds him and other corporate republicans who know that default is bad for corporate profits. McCarthy answers to them not the far right populists. He will have to get corporate democrats who are also funded by the donor class to pass moderate compromise. He will except democrat votes to remain speaker if it comes to that. McCarthy can't drain the swamp he is the swamp!

Posted by: exodus 21:22-25 at May 31, 2023 01:21 AM (XxqLn)

283
And this is for near earth objects of course, our own spacecraft and space junk very close to earth.

High precision measurements of far off objects in the solar system are possible, but it take a lot of time and fancy math. You don't measure these things in real time to that kind of accuracy.

Over the decades since the Moon landing, using lunar laser ranging, they've managed to map the orbit of the Moon (I should say Earth-Moon system) to about 2cm accuracy. The Moon is where General Relativity says it should be at any time to within 2cm.

They were working on getting it down to mm precision, but I don't know if they're there yet. This was the result of decades of data.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:21 AM (Mzdiz)

284 The Cycle:
A) Come up with something Good
B) Enjoy it and coast for a while (Mediocrity phase)
C) Assholes come along and eff it up (Suck phase 1)
D) Get rid of C, try to fix damage (Suck phase 2)
E) Go back to A

Posted by: formerly known as at May 31, 2023 01:26 AM (1phq4)

285
Ciampino's Rescue kitties - LIVE STREAMING!!
https://www.twitch.tv/kittenwatch

Posted by: Ciampino --- felines, cats, kitties

==========

I'd move the food a tad further from the litterbox.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at May 31, 2023 01:27 AM (lCaJd)

286 ..They were working on getting it down to mm precision, but I don't know if they're there yet. This was the result of decades of data. Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:21 AM (Mzdiz)

One of the primary lasers for those measurements is in the West Texas mountains near Van Horn, TX.

IIRC, wasn't the placement of that reflector an Apollo 14 procedure?

And yeah. The predictions of Relativity and the accuracy of those rangings, sure did thrill a great many physicists, and pissed off a like number more.

We owe it each to Mr. Einstein, to carry a pouch of his favorite pipe t'baccy into the hereafter. May his supply endure, forever.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at May 31, 2023 01:31 AM (e6UQI)

287 Those guys were crazy bad-asses, and mister we could use some men like them again ...

----------

Hi there!

Posted by: Dylan Mulvaney at May 31, 2023 01:39 AM (s12c9)

288
Apollo 11 placed some reflectors, I believe. That was considered important enough for the first mission. Apollo 14 and 15 finished the job. Some of the Rooskie unmanned rover problems landed some reflectors as well.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:42 AM (Mzdiz)

289 Rover probes, I meant to say, not problems.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:43 AM (Mzdiz)

290
General Relativity is the Yanet Garcia's ass of physical theory, I like to say.

Now, GR is entirely classical and deterministic. It ain't quantum. Gravity has not been quantized, and likely won't be for some time. At some point, GR should be wrong, and quantum gravity should take over.

So, they are searching for some point where GR fails. They haven't found it yet, and the precision is getting more and more.

Solar system measurements (and strong field measurements from observations of binary pulsars) and such, have confirmed the predictions of GR to incredible precision.

Uncle Al knew what the fuck he was talkin' 'bout.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:46 AM (Mzdiz)

291
Getting gravity and quantum theory unified, and playing nice together is the holy grail. So far, they've just been spinning their wheels. In a rut.

It will take another revolution, some keen insight by somebody like Einstein or Feynman, but more advanced in knowledge but standing on their shoulders to figure it out.

No one is anywhere near it.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:54 AM (Mzdiz)

292
Just looking up the latest. They've now achieved mm precision of the Lunar laser ranging. We'll see how well Uncle Al does at mm precision soon.

I predict he will pass with flying colors.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 01:58 AM (Mzdiz)

293 Risk assessment or no, what irritates me about anti-nukers who whine about Fukushima is that it was the product of a massive tsunami that literally swallowed entire towns whole but they* tell us the most worstest thing is that a reactor building was damage and a couple of the staff might get cancer early. Talk about unrealistic assessments...

*that it's the same 'they' that constantly whines about global warming but offers no practical solutions and would probably also hate on windmills if they actually worked is very much not lost on me
Posted by: CppThis at May 30, 2023 11:09 PM (PZvjL)

Same here. Annoys me to no end that so many people focus on the reactor meltdown that killed no one compared to the tsunami which caused it that killed 3000 people. Hell, the panicked evacuation in response was by far more dangerous and costly to human life then the meltdown.

Posted by: Sjg at May 31, 2023 01:59 AM (Lstct)

294 25 Hey Roger Ball!

London's subway system is f*cking awesome! Trains come every two minutes, they are clean, the stations are clean, the maps make sense, and if I had to complain about one thing, it is that they are a bit pricey. But compared to a taxi or an Uber...it is faster and about 20% of the cost!

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:10 PM (ZCCyW)
----
But the intercity trains were expensive, at least back in 1975 (I'm only 29).

Posted by: Ciampino -- felines, cats, kitties at May 31, 2023 02:03 AM (qfLjt)

295 My instinct tells me that quantum won't be understood "within the envelope". Long as Relativity describes it, quantum won't.

But, exceed lightspeed, dip below Absolute Zero, and other beyond physics acrobatics, and then quantum might begin to describe itself.

Closest I've seen to those riddles not "being answered" but describing themselves, are the teleportation experiments, where certain particles are changed in an instant to as one and the same, across a measurable distance, with no measurable lag or micro-delay in time.

Might even explain the Horde Mind phenomenon, no?

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

/zzz Hasta la nite nite, Horde!

Posted by: Jim at May 31, 2023 02:06 AM (e6UQI)

296 38 I took the Italian train system a few years ago and it was actually pretty good.

The trains, except the bathrooms, were clean. And the conductors were all polite and well dressed, including one conductress who was one of the most beautiful women I've met in person.

Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 10:18 PM (lc5cP)
----
Ah, the Benito Mussolini legacy.

Posted by: Ciampino - felines, cats, kitties at May 31, 2023 02:07 AM (qfLjt)

297
Interesting. The Apollo 15 reflectors are the "best". They use all of them however, including the Rooskie ones.

The amazing thing is this takes decades of data. They've achieved their 1mm precision. It will take decades to take all this data and draw conclusions from it.

Another fun fact: This mm LLR precision requires clock accuracy of about 6 ps. That is picoseconds. Atomic clocks can do that now. You've got to know the time of flight, from a reference clock on Erf (and knowing how GR affects the "significance of the passage of time" as Kamala says) to within not nanoseconds, but picoseconds.

A picosecond is a trillionth of a second, 10^-12 s.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 02:12 AM (Mzdiz)

298 Mussolini cut about 80% of the current trains OUT of the schedules.

The 20% remaining, could "run on time", given the lack of conflicts at crossings, sidings and stations.

That there were far fewer trains running, making it all the MORE difficult to get "from here to there", the benefit of them running On Time, was the pain hidden within the cliche'

"At least he made the trains run on time". Was not praise. Far from it. Italian version of Horde humor, if you will. #twoweeks.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

/zzzz

Posted by: Jim at May 31, 2023 02:14 AM (e6UQI)

299 40 I have four words for anyone who looks forward to en masse commercial space travel:

zero gravity public toilet

Posted by: Bilwis Devourer of Innocent Souls, I'm starvin' over here at May 30, 2023 10:19 PM (z+89e)
----
Ah, the fighting through the floating turds maneuver.
I imagine Chief Inspector Clouseau going through that.

Posted by: Ciampino - Non, I do not have a leesonce for the minkee at May 31, 2023 02:15 AM (qfLjt)

300 299
Also known as the Dance of the Seven Turds.

Posted by: Ciampino -- Non, I do not have a leesonce for the minkee at May 31, 2023 02:16 AM (qfLjt)

301 48 The trains, except the bathrooms, were clean. And the conductors were all polite and well dressed, including one conductress who was one of the most beautiful women I've met in person.
Posted by: 18-1 at May 30, 2023 10:18 PM (lc5cP)

this reminded me of the apocryphal quip credited to Churchill about why Italian Cruise ships were the best. "The cuisine is always superb; the service is excellent; and if there is an emergency, there's none of this nonsense about women and children first."

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:24 PM (S6gqv)

----
LOL.
That should be reserved for the Greek captain of the Oceanus, which ship sunk off the Wild Coast (South Africa) around August 1990, with no loss of life. The cruise was organized by TFC Tours. One of the many jokes was that TFC stood for 'Try Find Captain' since he was one of the first ashore.

Posted by: Ciampino --- Non, I do not have a leesonce for the minkee at May 31, 2023 02:23 AM (qfLjt)

302
NASA has spent no telling how much money on a zero-g terlet. It's still a work in progress. Female womyns in space complicated that, of course.

Taking a dump in zero-g is problematic. Very problematic. See the infamous Apollo 10 floating turd incident. The radio transcripts of that are available to read. A floating turd was discovered in the capsule. All three astronauts denied it was theirs. So, either an alien snuck aboard and took a dump, or somebody was ... mistaken.

They've spent no telling how much money on improving that. Without too much success.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 02:23 AM (Mzdiz)

303
No imagine explosive diarrhea in zero-g. Norovirus, coming out both ends fast and furious. In zero-g.

That's what the self-destruct mechanism is for, I think. Some things, you just can't handle.

With Apollo, short duration, the game plane was "low residue" diet. Minimize the amount of turd generated during the mission.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 02:26 AM (Mzdiz)

304 Oh, joy. Sean McGee hosting DJT townhall, June 1.

DJT: Sean, let me ask you. Do you really believe there wasn't 'substantial' election fraud in 2020 and more recently in 2022?

Tik-tok: homina-homina-homina... Bang! Zoom! Sheetrock and MMA doom!

Performative art. bigK will be out in the next day or two to reinforce the great and wonderful 'debt deal'.

Or they can all fuck off.

Posted by: micky at May 31, 2023 02:28 AM (3byMq)

305 publius. Dammit, I keep trying to zzzz here, but y'all keep draggin' me back in.

Nowdays, the floating turd is the Pro Tem of whichever legislative body appoints such a post.

Self explanatory, when you think of it?

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

/I SAID ZZZZ DAMMIT!

Posted by: Jim at May 31, 2023 02:28 AM (e6UQI)

306 50 I've been on so few trains that even sucky ones seem cool. Taking a train from Penn Station to Newark Airport a couple years ago was fun, and I even enjoyed seeing the New Jersey "countryside" roll by.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at May 30, 2023 10:26 PM (d9Cw3)
----
I used to take a choo-choo train 6 times a year to-and-fro home and school, as we had 3 x 3 month school terms and 1+2 months vacation each year. The journey from Nairobi to Tanga, on the Indian Ocean, took about 2 days and a bit.

Posted by: Ciampino - Steam trains are still the best. Dirty though. at May 31, 2023 02:29 AM (qfLjt)

307 Posted by: Brave Sir Robin at May 31, 2023 12:17 AM (7Fj9P)

My non-legal advice: If you ever want to go back to Europe, pay the ticket. If you don't, Germany will enter you into the European database stating you have unresolved legal issues. If you don't clear up the ticket, and try to enter, say, Spain, you will be denied entry because of the outstanding legal issues in another Schengen country.

Saw this happen on 'To Catch A Smuggler', in Spain I believe.

Posted by: RickZ at May 31, 2023 02:33 AM (emlEe)

308
Wiki has a bit on the zero-g space terlets:

https://tinyurl.com/zhj76jf

It took hours of training. The even mounted a butthole camera in the thing, to aid the trainees in getting their bungholes aligned just right.

You had crosshairs on a display. Got to align that butthole just right. Docking maneuver, you might call it.

Shitting in space. It's a big fucking deal.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 02:39 AM (Mzdiz)

309 82
Interesting claim. has every molecule of water been through the digestive tract of an organism?

Nah...I'll bet the math doesn't support that.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at May 30, 2023 10:36 PM (ZCCyW)

I wonder - if you look at the fullness of time, it might have happened. This Earth has thousands and thousands of feet of limestone and chalk formations, and their derivatives. All made up of the bodies of ancient tiny organisms.

Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 10:39 PM (S6gqv)

----
Are you priming us for a continuation of the Geology Puns? Gneiss going if so.

Posted by: Ciampino - Hexagonally yours at May 31, 2023 02:41 AM (qfLjt)

310 Prayers up for Andrew, nurse, my kids have lost a lot of their friends, mostly to drugs, not the so called vaccine. Prayers for his parents who will have difficulty bearing his loss. Good night, Horde, I am tired, will try to sleep.

Posted by: Debby Doberman Schultz at May 31, 2023 02:43 AM (a4EWo)

311 75 late to the party. It is possible to estimate (using laws of entropy, gas, etc) how many molecules of air that we breathe were previously breathed by Socrates (or Plato, or take your pick). Have not seen this done for water, seems like it would be much more complicated.

Posted by: EdmundBurkesShade at May 31, 2023 02:44 AM (mCh4j)

312
There is a Hope Solo joke in this butthole alignment procedure. But I'm too lazy to make it.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 02:51 AM (Mzdiz)

313 114 Keep in mind that water doesn't just exist through the kidneys.... You can't make Hershey squirts without the squirt.

Every night somebody's got to start talking shit.

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at May 30, 2023 10:49 PM (Bd6X

----
On topic https://is.gd/ip9jAj

Hey, it's all a pile of schist.

Posted by: Ciampino - it's just a pile of schist at May 31, 2023 02:56 AM (qfLjt)

314 118
Jeebus. And this outfit was suppose to be rocket surgeons.

Posted by: Tonypete at May 30, 2023 10:51 PM (qoGsy)
----
I thought they were brain engineers ....

Posted by: Ciampino -- it's just a pile of schist at May 31, 2023 02:59 AM (qfLjt)

315
This question of how many time has some mass of water on this earth been through some living organism is fascinating. Apparently the answer is, depending on how you define living organism, many times.

One number I saw was the current biomass of all "animals" (this includes everything known as animal) would go through the Erf's supply of water in 13 million years.

That is, in 13 million years, the entire supply of water gets cycled through the animals. This is just based on mass per time. Some isolated sample of water somewhere might not go through such a cycle. But in terms of mass flow per time, that's the value.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 03:04 AM (Mzdiz)

316
This is related to another question along these same things. Air molecules of breathing, or the Caesar's last breath question.

Have all of us breathe in a molecule of air expelled by Julius Caesar's last breath?

Apparently it takes about 7 years for every molecule of a given exhalation of a human to become uniformly mixed over the planet.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 03:12 AM (Mzdiz)

317 173 @shitbiscuit
·
1h
I was on the verge of letting out a very loud fart and the guy in the stall next to me covered the sound up by dropping the most rancid wet sphincter exorcism I’ve ever heard in my life

Posted by: BourbonChicken at May 30, 2023 11:13 PM (ybIRR)
----
most rancid wet sphincter exorcism

That is too funny.

Posted by: Ciampino --- it's just a pile of schist at May 31, 2023 03:21 AM (qfLjt)

318
A fart gas expulsion is probably on the same order of magnitude for universal distribution. Now, the gases expelled will likely have some chemical reaction pathway as well.

But basically, you're breathing in a molecule or two of the fart from any individual on the planet from something on the order of decades ago.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at May 31, 2023 03:25 AM (Mzdiz)

319 214 I know I deserve some karmic retribution for that one.
Posted by: Tom Servo at May 30, 2023 11:40 PM (S6gqv)

You will be reincarnated as a statue in a park that's home to a large flock of well-fed pigeons.

Posted by: Vishnu at May 30, 2023 11:45 PM (4I/2K)

----
There is a good joke about two statues, male and female, which get to be alive for one hour (kindly angel), and go behind a bush ......

Posted by: Ciampino - it is just a pile of schist at May 31, 2023 03:35 AM (qfLjt)

320 Earth air tastes like dinosaur farts.

Posted by: little green men with the anal probes at May 31, 2023 03:36 AM (KFhLj)

321 Morning, folken! A Wednesday that feels like a Tuesday, huh? I'm up early to work out. It's payday for me, but I also need to pay some bills, so, an example of the cycle of what Roger was talking about.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2023 03:44 AM (omVj0)

322 285
I'd move the food a tad further from the litterbox.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at May 31, 2023 01:27 AM (lCaJd)
----
I'll mention it to the girls. Thanks.

Posted by: Ciampino -- it is just a pile of schist at May 31, 2023 03:46 AM (qfLjt)

323 Time to get rolling

Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2023 03:47 AM (xhxe8)

324 Good morning morons

Awake before Pixy is awake way too early

Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 31, 2023 03:49 AM (RIvkX)

325 266 Cops in Europe are soft. Even the crooked ones. American cops are much tougher. Even the honest ones.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at May 31, 2023 12:54 AM (oINRc)
----
Riot cops in Europe will beat you with batons and bigger sticks. Here the cops rarely get violent - law suits, etc.

Posted by: Ciampino --- it is just a pile of schist at May 31, 2023 03:52 AM (qfLjt)

326 >>Or they can all fuck off.

Seconded.

Call for a vote.

Posted by: lurk at May 31, 2023 03:56 AM (MIODZ)

327 Good morning morons

Awake before Pixy is awake way too early
Posted by: San Franpsycho at May 31, 2023

***
True. Though Pixy is way at the *end* of his workday.

'Tis 75 F., nasty and humid. F. degrees outside. The only consolation is that soon it will be over 80 at 3 am with a heat index of 90, and just walking will be an effort.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2023 03:57 AM (omVj0)

328 All this talk of ¡ poop ! and nobody says one word about the Brattleboro fart tubing project.

Who are you people?

Posted by: Somewhere South of I-80 at May 31, 2023 04:01 AM (89Sog)

329 Noodus pixyana

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at May 31, 2023 04:01 AM (omVj0)

330 PIXY IS UPSTAIRS

Posted by: Skip at May 31, 2023 04:02 AM (xhxe8)

331 Wondering why I haven't seen a contributor here in the comments for quite some time. Think he posted under "Viking Berserker - Dragonshead Division." Our resident metalhead.

Anyone have any idea?

Posted by: Sam Adams at May 31, 2023 04:09 AM (VDbGO)

332 And just like that, I killed the effing thread.

Posted by: Sam Adams at May 31, 2023 04:10 AM (VDbGO)

333
The space shuttle program: stunning success or dismal failure?

Oh, stunning, nay, smashing success! We wiuld not have had the documentary movies "Armageddon" and "Space Cowboys" without it. It is a pity that they were pushed to the background by the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" documentaries.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at May 31, 2023 04:18 AM (pNxlR)

334 To expand on psydonia's thoughts...

You want bang for the taxpayers' buck?

Wikipedia notes under Apollo Lunar Module

The GRUMMAN Lunar Module (LM) "remains the only crewed spacecraft to land anywhere beyond Earth".

It adds "the LM became the most reliable component of the Apollo-Saturn space vehicle. The total cost of the LM development and the units produced was 21.3 billion in 2016 dollars, adjusting from a nominal total of $2.2 billion using the NASA New Start Inflation Indices."

Counting the eight crewed Apollo 9 through 17 missions with a designed crew size of two astronauts each (a nominal sixteen astronauts), the LMs returned seventeen astronauts "safely to the Earth".

BTW I was a plank owner of Grumman Aerospace, the successor to the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, a publicly traded company, not a branch of the government. The LMs were built in Bethpage, New York; not in Florida, Alabama or Texas.

Posted by: MachiasPrivateer at May 31, 2023 08:17 AM (EMi53)

335

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Posted by: Stephanie White at May 31, 2023 09:03 AM (BrM9u)

336 MachiasPrivateer, congrats on an awesome legacy with Grumman. My first fleet jet was the A-6E. Grumman was an amazing company in those days, from Iron Works to Elegant (like the F-11).

Posted by: FINGERS at May 31, 2023 03:22 PM (MUiZS)

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