Daily Tech News 30 August 2026

Top Story

Positive reception of the Grand Theft Auto VI preview suggests positive reception of Grand Theft Auto VI, say analysts. (CNBC)

Where would we be without analysts? I mean, at the beach sipping Mai Tais, yes, but which beach?
GTA VI will only run at 30fps on consoles. (Tom's Hardware)
Following that track record, we likely won't see 60 FPS support on consoles till the PS7, while PC will enjoy unlocked frame rates once its port drops down the line.
GTA VI will not be available on PC at launch, and there's no indication as to when that might happen.

Not really an issue for me, personally. I don't even own GTA V and I picked up GTA IV in a bundle somewhere but have never played it. So I can keep running Hytale at 60Hz on my 9070 XT... Needing about 10% of its available performance.

Tech News

Continuing work on my programming language, which last I checked weighed in at 3.4MB uncompressed and 1.2MB compressed - compiler and standard library included. Working on extending the standard library now.

It's implemented in Rust, is stricter than Rust, inherits Rust's semantics otherwise, and compiles a couple of orders of magnitude faster than Rust precisely because of that strictness - but borrows syntax from Ruby so it doesn't feel like Rust.
I used AI to ask 100 companies for my personal data that I had idiotically handed over to them so that McDonald's had a novel-length dossier on me and now I'm mad that I'm getting AI replies. (Ars Technica)

AI slop posted to Wired and cross-posted to Ars Technica, but at least journalists are losing their jobs.
They wrote their criminal intent on the wall of the local police station. You won't believe what happened next. (Yahoo)

Oh. You do believe.
Anthropic pounces. (WCCFTech)

And for once not in a bad way. OpenAI (which owns ChatGPT) cancelled its partnership with coding tool Cursor, now owned by SpaceX. Anthropic took the opportunity to put the boot in, not against Cursor or SpaceX but against OpenAI.

I do not like OpenAI. I have Grok because it's useful for search and image generation, Claude because it's useful for coding, and Gemini because... It comes with my Google account, really. ChatGPT I tried and canceled.
Sony and Warner Music are suing Anthropic over a demarcation dispute. (Axios)

You are trying to kidnap what I have rightfully stolen, and I think it quite ungentlemanly.
Cutting cholesterol - with genetic scissors. (CNN)

A health problem I don't have. At the last checkup my doctor asked if I was on medication for cholesterol because my numbers were on the low side of normal. Nope, just luck of the genetic lottery.

And now the unlucky can snip the bad genes out rather than having to take a daily pill for the rest of their lives.

Which I do, but for other reasons.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: 1.0 < 2.00 evaluates as false? I'd mark that as an oops.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:40 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 w00t

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 04:40 AM (odBC9)

2 I totally did not forget to push the button.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 04:41 AM (BLOW1)

3
I have ChatGPT and its images are much better than Grok's. I'm about to ask Grok if its images are better in the paid version. I wonder what it will say.

Posted by: Blonde Morticia at August 30, 2026 04:47 AM (mmrXZ)

4 >>>AI slop posted to Wired and cross-posted to Ars Technica

It's gonna get boring, really fast, reading the kind of disclosure that's included in the article (7th paragraph)

"In accordance with WIRED’s policies, I am disclosing that I used generative AI to draft bureaucratic emails and update my tracking spreadsheet as part of this report. I wrote the body of this article mainly by hand in my scratch notebook."

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 04:50 AM (odBC9)

5 >>>but at least journalists are losing their jobs.

I think the technical term is "urinalists."

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 04:51 AM (odBC9)

6 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at August 30, 2026 04:57 AM (V0/Sp)

7 from the ChatGPT article:

"OpenAI has said the company uses software to scan conversations for signs of dangerous behavior and flag them to human reviewers."

That's disturbing.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 04:59 AM (odBC9)

8 from the ChatGPT article:
remember, kids:

When police ask someone to open their phone during questioning or after an arrest, they often do so, allowing officers to scroll through the apps they use, he said.

In general, the Fourth Amendment, which protects people against unreasonable searches and seizures of their property, provides the right to refuse a search of the contents of their phone unless police have a warrant.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 05:07 AM (odBC9)

9 Pixy,

Last November I bought a Minisform X1AI. And a 2tb memory stick because I was informed by this prestigious blog that it was a great deal and wouldn’t last. I had a vague notion of trying to make it into a music server.

Now I have a vague notion of trying to make it a home brew AI server with a couple of open source models. My goal would be to have a “private” or segregated server that would not be sharing my stuff with Sam or Dario. Is this machine capable of serving as such and how unrealistic is this notion?

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 30, 2026 05:08 AM (hsmPe)

10
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at August 30, 2026 05:10 AM (AMvSw)

11
*ChatGPT article = (Yahoo) article, which is a WaPo article

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 05:10 AM (odBC9)

12 Pete Bog - It should work - not as fast as a Mac but a lot cheaper. Did you get the 32GB or 64GB model?

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 05:11 AM (BLOW1)

13 (It's the Borg.)

A spokesperson for OpenAI declined to disclose how many times the company had reported users to police. (The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 05:13 AM (odBC9)

14 64 GB.

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 30, 2026 05:13 AM (hsmPe)

15 Same as me. You should be good to run a wide variety of models then, as long as you don't expect top performance. The advantage Macs have is the memory bandwidth - twice as fast as this PC so twice the performance for AI, which is very demanding there (and the Pro, Max, and Ultra models are even faster but also more expensive).

I'll look up some recommendations - a lot of things will fit but some of them will be slow.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 05:17 AM (BLOW1)

16 My far more technically competent Kid would be a coconspirator in this attempt. We were discussing the concept and he brought up the Mac Studio. I remembered that I had this machine.

I suspect this endeavor would rapidly consume more resources than just biting the bullet on a more appropriate host box. But that’s not really the point is it?

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 30, 2026 05:18 AM (3jdt5)

17 Mornin'

Posted by: Puddleglum at work at August 30, 2026 05:18 AM (AdHga)

18 Pete - Gemma 4 26B-A4B or Qwen3.6 35B-A3B at Q4 should run pretty well. They're both "MoE" models ("mixture of experts") so they're not as demanding of bandwidth as "dense" models.

They'll fit comfortably on that system and leave plenty of room for real work.

Use llama.cpp and Vulkan for efficiency.

A Mac Studio will be a a lot faster but cost a lot more. A 64GB Mac Mini already costs 4-5x the price of that Minisforum late last year, and the Mac Studio moves up to the next tier from there.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 05:24 AM (BLOW1)

19 Good morning morons

I would be asleep but for the chaos snd civilizational breakdown in my part of the city tonight.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 30, 2026 05:24 AM (RIvkX)

20 SanFranpsycho, I hope that doesn't include gunfire.

Posted by: Ben Had at August 30, 2026 05:31 AM (PbWRL)

21 G'Day everyone

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2026 05:33 AM (Ia/+0)

22 Thank you Pixy.

If and when we try this I’ll keep you updated on the results. You’ll be the first to hear we’ve cured cancer, successfully turned lead to gold and figured out time travel.

Posted by: Pete Bog at August 30, 2026 05:33 AM (3jdt5)

23 SanFranpsycho, I hope that doesn't include gunfire.
Posted by: Ben Had at August 30, 2026 05:31 AM (PbWRL)
=====

No gunfire but nonstop street racing and squealing wheels.

Not enough sirens.

Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 30, 2026 05:39 AM (RIvkX)

24 Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

Rejoinder: 2 + 2 = 5 for sufficiently large values of 2.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea at August 30, 2026 05:58 AM (amcLV)

25
The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope is set for launch at 7:20ish AM this morning. NASA's Youtube channel live page will be covering it, starting around 6:30AM.

It's going to launch on a Falcon 9 Heavy. The two side boosters will be recovered, but the main center one is going to be expendable (has to for the payload). L2 is technically still in Erf's gravity well, but not by much.

Anyway I like the idea of launching Nancy Grace nearly to Earth escape.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:04 AM (w6EFb)

26
I did not know this until recently, but the $250M main mirror for Nancy Grace was "donated" by the NRO. This mirror was part of some super secret black budget spy satellite tech they weren't going to need. So they gave it to NASA for Nancy Grace. So, $$$ classified stuff we likely wouldn't even know about is going to be used for public domain use.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:07 AM (w6EFb)

27 I am so sorry you are having loud street racing. SFP

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:08 AM (rHgXV)

28 Thanks Fen glad everyone else is still sleeping

Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 30, 2026 06:10 AM (RIvkX)

29 Good morning, Skip and all!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:10 AM (rHgXV)

30 Posted by: San Franpsycho at August 30, 2026 06:10 AM (RIvkX)

I am glad they are too. Not being able to sleep makes one miserable. Maybe you could take a nap later today when- hopefully- people won't be racing.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:12 AM (rHgXV)

31 NRO = National Review Online?

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:12 AM (odBC9)

32
They actually donated two of these mirrors, turns out. NASA hasn't decided on what to do with the second mirror.

They are prohibited from using the mirrors for any sort of earth observing application. Why? Well, any public release of that data would instantly disclose too much about our secret mirror tech.

The Nancy Grace use, however will not. Don't ask me why.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:12 AM (w6EFb)

33 Evening and morning to all the Sunday toilers and early risers across the System! (Titan, dammit, we've told you and *told* you to scrommage that frannistan!)

Stirling was leaping over and kicking me, but somehow I went back to sleep for another hour. Now, over coffee, I am trying to find the motivation to work out. Oy.

Whatchoo doin'?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 30, 2026 06:13 AM (wzUl9)

34 Good morning! Moose was out by the pond yesterday chillaxin' amongst the day lilies and the verbena and snapping at the dragon flies and other insects as they flew by. Fortunately, he hasn't caught any of the spicey flies. Yet.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at August 30, 2026 06:14 AM (3Ope8)

35 Sadly, it's that last Falcon Heavy manifested. He is betting on StarShip replacing ALL of the payloads for Heavy with the Falcon 9 to follow.

I think Elon is way premature in announcing this. I can't believe Gwen didn't push back on this.

He says he wants the company to focus on StarShip development.

I hope he's just blowing hot air and not turning down customers and sending them to Blue .

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 06:16 AM (c/R9o)

36 2 I totally did not forget to push the button.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 04:41 AM (BLOW1)

Pffft. A basic job requirement.

Posted by: TV's Frank at August 30, 2026 06:17 AM (967/Q)

37 Two boys pay their respects to a deceased veteran at a funeral procession. Faithpot site:

https://tinyurl.com/5bjy9n4s

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:18 AM (rHgXV)

38 Last night we watched the 1970 Billy Wilder flick, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. It starts off as almost a mild parody, and develops into an actual Holmesian adventure and mystery involving SH's brother Mycroft, carboys of sulfuric acid, six missing midgets, and a cage of canaries.

Odd to say, *I* solved it before Holmes revealed the answer!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 30, 2026 06:18 AM (wzUl9)

39 Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at August 30, 2026 06:14 AM (3Ope

I'm guessing that Moose is your dog and not your pet moose?

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:19 AM (rHgXV)

40 >> NRO = National Review Online?

National Reconnaissance Office. The US govt didn't officially acknowledge it existed until 1992. The NY Slimes revealed it's existence in 1971, and a Senate committee report accidentally revealed it it was a thing in 1973.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:19 AM (w6EFb)

41 I wouldn't judge, a pet moose might be fun

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2026 06:20 AM (Ia/+0)

42 >>NRO = National Review Online?

National Reconnaissance Office. Fun story: the existence of this agency was secret until some time in the '90s. Read an article by someone who had sufficient clearance that he could refer to information from it but used really mind-bending language not to directly name it.

Posted by: Not in bed but should be at August 30, 2026 06:20 AM (NcvvS)

43 And publius answered while I was typing.

Also, off sock.

Posted by: Nazdar at August 30, 2026 06:22 AM (NcvvS)

44 NASA is hosting "live event" information at:

https://plus.nasa.gov

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:22 AM (odBC9)

45 NRO

Thanks!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:22 AM (odBC9)

46 Birdbath status?

Posted by: Just Wondering at August 30, 2026 06:23 AM (2Ez/1)

47
NASA's basic Youtube channel is usually just as good as NASA+, which has some hiccups from time to time, at least with me and my systems.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:24 AM (w6EFb)

48 The weather here at the Cape is looking a bit odd this AM. We're looking at morning storms forming up very early today near the coast including the Cape area.

The launch will probably be OK but if there's a delay things get dicey.

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 06:25 AM (c/R9o)

49 Stirling, on his sixth day of dieting, is sitting next to me doing his impression of a starving Somali who has just stumbled into an oasis in the Sahara.

Not fooling anybody, big cat. Breakfast is at six as usual.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 30, 2026 06:26 AM (wzUl9)

50
SpaceX feed is live here:
https://t.ly/FjP1U

And NASA's Youtube is the same feed, here:
https://t.ly/DAgWa

I thought the gal there was a NASA spokesgal I remember, and she was.

Anway, they'll be going on over just who Nancy Grace Roman was, and what her namesake telescope will be doing.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:26 AM (w6EFb)

51 T- 01:00:00

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:26 AM (odBC9)

52 Sisters sing old time Christian hymn from 1896- " I surrender all.":

https://tinyurl.com/ydrmwjzh

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:28 AM (rHgXV)

53 47
NASA's basic Youtube channel is usually just as good as NASA+, which has some hiccups from time to time, at least with me and my systems.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:24 AM (w6EFb)

Ah. Moving to

NASA's Youtube is the same feed, here:
https://t.ly/DAgWa

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:30 AM (odBC9)

54 Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:19 AM (rHgXV)

Moose is some kind of mini bull terrier/border collie mashup. He's a very affectionate stray that my son and his family took in and then gifted us (along with his room mate Pancho) when they moved.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at August 30, 2026 06:30 AM (3Ope8)

55 Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at August 30, 2026 06:30 AM (3Ope

Sounds cute.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:32 AM (rHgXV)

56 SpaceX - Falcon Heavy - Roman Space Telescope "Nancy Grace Roman"
LC-39A - Kennedy Space Center - SPACE AFFAIRS
Launch Date: August 30, 2026
7:25 a.m. EDT (August 30, 1125 UTC, 13:25 CEST)

https://youtu.be/5q6XP71_LYI

(In memory of Ciampino.)

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at August 30, 2026 06:32 AM (O7YUW)

57 50 I thought the gal there was a NASA spokesgal I remember, and she was.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:26 AM (w6EFb)

Megan Cruz

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:33 AM (odBC9)

58 The NRO built a huge mini-VAB Capeside. It's a seriously hush-hush facility.

It's where they put together all the spy satellites and prep them for launch.

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 06:33 AM (c/R9o)

59 Instead of paying $100 for a game you do not own that may release on 19 November, coming on 15 Jan 2027 is Ananta.

https://youtu.be/Wf6JmVT3qBY

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 30, 2026 06:34 AM (2GVsD)

60 Megan seems to have had a lotta caffeine this morning.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:35 AM (odBC9)

61 English actor David Suchet reads Psalm 63:

https://tinyurl.com/aebhpwbv

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:35 AM (rHgXV)

62 It's been a few weeks since I poked at things, but I suspect for 'free anon' (not that anything's truly anon anymore) users, chatgpt and gemini are getting the bulk of the initial ingress these days - claude, grok, copilot, and others often want you to sign up/sign in before answering more than 1 question. duck.ai is less rude but still has daily and weekly caps for 'free no-logon' answers (they're just using an instance of one of the others and giving you the results).

Copilot *used* to allow free-anon access, but stopped that about 1-2 months ago.

Posted by: RandomDave (if you can spare a bit, please click) at August 30, 2026 06:35 AM (aJQbY)

63
The mirror on this thing just blows my mind. They can make *pico*meter adjustments to the shape of the thing with a whole bunch of tiny little actuators. Now, how they get that down to the picometer level, I can't fathom, but that's what they say.

Anyway, this thing has a coronagraph on it, the most advanced one to date. This will be able to see exoplanets orbiting their host stars within 10 to 100 ly, depending on things.

It does this by using that picometer control to cancel out the starlight via destructive interference, yet let the light from any little planets close by through. This just blows my mind.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:36 AM (w6EFb)

64 Sisters sing old time Christian hymn from 1896- " I surrender all."

Thanks FenelonSpoke!

Posted by: RandomDave (if you can spare a bit, please click) at August 30, 2026 06:37 AM (aJQbY)

65 dangit

Posted by: RandomDave (if you can spare a bit, please click) at August 30, 2026 06:38 AM (aJQbY)

66 Heh.

Posted by: The Barrel at August 30, 2026 06:39 AM (amcLV)

67 I woke up this morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.

Posted by: Savage Henry at August 30, 2026 06:40 AM (ZxPkt)

68 They need to keep Cruz away from the buttons this morning. Chick is seriously wired to the gills.

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 06:40 AM (c/R9o)

69
Jared Isaacman
Administrator of NASA

Space career:
Commercial astronaut
Inspiration4 mission
Polaris Dawn mission

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:40 AM (odBC9)

70 It does this by using that picometer control to cancel out the starlight via destructive interference, yet let the light from any little planets close by through. This just blows my mind.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:36 AM (w6EFb)

It's probably like a reverse Archimedes. One microstepper and a whole bunch of old school brick and mortar MEMS.

"Give me a big enough lever, and I can move a single atom."

That or maybe it's some kind of piezo grid.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 30, 2026 06:41 AM (Ot/FD)

71 My son likes to swim at the YMCA. Unfortunately, frequently when he comes back it's with books they're discarding from their library. This time it's Leon Uris' " Trinity" , Three One Act Plays
by Anton Chekov, and "The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" ( from the early 70's, I think ) I've only read the Chekov plays. The last thing this house needs is more books! I am glad that my son likes to read, however.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:43 AM (xSAlF)

72
Roman Space Telescope
scheduled to lift off at 7:26 a.m. EDT (1126 UTC)

on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:45 AM (odBC9)

73 I think that might be "small enough lever."
But, yeah...

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 30, 2026 06:48 AM (2Ez/1)

74
And even more impressive and mind-boggling to me is how the hell they can launch that incredibly precise and delicate instrument on top of of rocket without knocking it all out of alignment. Just think of the vibration and shaking and jostling.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:49 AM (w6EFb)

75 Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a pretty good book. It's not really about fixing motorcycles though.

Posted by: fd at August 30, 2026 06:49 AM (MWfyi)

76 I woke up this morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.

That'd be a good opening line for a country song.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 06:50 AM (qRla/)

77 mornin yall. Autocross today. Hopefully it will keep my mind off of other things. You never really know what people are going thru.

Posted by: fd at August 30, 2026 06:50 AM (MWfyi)

78 Morning, 'rons and 'ronettes. 60 cool degrees here at Stately Poppins Manor. It's supposed to be another lovely day, so I may just go for a drive after I edit a few more chapters of my book.

Speaking of which, I apologize for today's Book Thread post. It's not one of my best.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 06:51 AM (qRla/)

79 And even more impressive and mind-boggling to me is how the hell they can launch that incredibly precise and delicate instrument on top of of rocket without knocking it all out of alignment. Just think of the vibration and shaking and jostling.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:49 AM (w6EFb)
---
That's true of *any* of the super precise instruments they've been launching into space over the past several decades.

I'm sure there's a calibration phase once it's been deployed.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 06:51 AM (FZ29D)

80 Speaking of which, I apologize for today's Book Thread post. It's not one of my best.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 06:51 AM (qRla/)
----
So...still better than mine?

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 06:52 AM (FZ29D)

81 59 Instead of paying $100 for a game you do not own that may release on 19 November, coming on 15 Jan 2027 is Ananta.

https://youtu.be/Wf6JmVT3qBY
Posted by: Anna Puma

That one does look cool.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 06:53 AM (BLOW1)

82 73 I think that might be "small enough lever."
But, yeah...
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 30, 2026 06:48 AM (2Ez/1)

allow me some poetic license, man! "Give me a pretty tiny lever with the pivot point far enough to one end and..." just doesn't pack the same amusing subversive punch.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at August 30, 2026 06:53 AM (Ot/FD)

83 Don't sweat it, MPPP. We appreciate you putting forth the effort. It gives us a springboard from which to launch our lofty and esoteric dialogue. No doubt this morning there will be ample discussion about a particular Tennessean best known for sporting pronounced hooterage.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 30, 2026 06:57 AM (2Ez/1)

84 76 I woke up this morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.

That'd be a good opening line for a country song.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 06:50 AM (qRla/)

"... so the Headless Horseman's doctor tells him 'I see the problem here, your finger is broken!"

Posted by: just the horriffically long walk to get to the punch line... at August 30, 2026 06:57 AM (Ot/FD)

85 Posted by: fd at August 30, 2026 06:49 AM (MWfyi

Yes, I knew that much about it. My mother read it.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 06:58 AM (W90Ou)

86 No doubt this morning there will be ample discussion about a particular Tennessean best known for sporting pronounced hooterage.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 30, 2026 06:57 AM (2Ez/1)
----
She was quite the supporter of the literary arts!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 06:58 AM (FZ29D)

87 It does this by using that picometer control to cancel out the starlight via destructive interference, yet let the light from any little planets close by through. This just blows my mind.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:36 AM (w6EFb)
------
I could have invented that, I just didn't want to.

Posted by: Nobel Prize-winning President Barack H. Obama, Jr., still the Smartest Man in the Room at August 30, 2026 06:59 AM (eOFY+)

88 At the NASA youtube channel, there are only 25,480 watching??!!!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:59 AM (odBC9)

89
I had Grok go through just how they handle the launch stresses. The whole structure is designed to be stiff and lightweight. The idea is no permanent deformation from the stresses. It bounces back to the design shape.

And said design shape is under 1g here on earth. You build that once the 1g is gone, it "bounces" back into the shape you want in space.

Movable parts have to be locked down to take all the stress off the "bearings" and "soft parts". Careful design to make sure its all stiff in the launch configuration.

And then engineering in some calibratin margin to handle the slight errors in the "stiffness" vs "bouncing back" design.

And then test the hell out it of under forces far larger than you expect it to experience under launch.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:59 AM (w6EFb)

90 If past precedence is anything to go by GTA VI will take about a year to be ported to PC and released.

Rockstar is probably hot to trot to make more ca$h, though, so they might speed that up to six or nine months.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at August 30, 2026 06:59 AM (6ydKt)

91 At the NASA youtube channel, there are only 25,480 watching??!!!
Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 06:59 AM (odBC9)
----
Not quite as exciting as the Artemis II launch, I suppose.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 07:02 AM (FZ29D)

92 89
I had Grok go through just how they handle the launch stresses. The whole structure is designed to be stiff and lightweight. The idea is no permanent deformation from the stresses. It bounces back to the design shape.

And said design shape is under 1g here on earth. You build that once the 1g is gone, it "bounces" back into the shape you want in space.

Movable parts have to be locked down to take all the stress off the "bearings" and "soft parts". Careful design to make sure its all stiff in the launch configuration.

And then engineering in some calibratin margin to handle the slight errors in the "stiffness" vs "bouncing back" design.

And then test the hell out it of under forces far larger than you expect it to experience under launch.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:59 AM (w6EFb)

They were showing a "shaking table" a little while ago on the NASA feed.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:03 AM (odBC9)

93 Posted by: just the horriffically long walk to get to the punch line... at August 30, 2026 06:57 AM
+++
I heard it put this way once when a long winded joke fell flat:

'Well, that was a long walk on a cold windy beach to a restaurant that was closed."

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at August 30, 2026 07:03 AM (2Ez/1)

94 Wow, great rabbit hole to explore this AM. The Roman Coronagraph Instrument was cobbled together by JPL using hardware from a couple different sources plus some homebrew magic.

I always wanted to work at JPL.

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 07:06 AM (c/R9o)

95 T- 00:20:00

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:06 AM (odBC9)

96 Exactly, Ananta looks like it is fun.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 30, 2026 07:08 AM (2GVsD)

97 And now the unlucky can snip the bad genes out rather than having to take a daily pill for the rest of their lives.

Cholesterol is a necessary molecule; it is a necessary component to your cell walls. If you didn't ingest it, your body would make it. Some folks with very high levels live a long time despite the "risks". As for me, I really don't care anymore. Doc put me on Atorvastatin before I needed dialysis, and I'm still on it. Does it help? Dunno. My triglycerides and so-called "bad" cholesterol (LDL) are high, my "good" cholesterol (HDL) is low. Oh well, what do I care?

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:09 AM (l3cgK)

98 94 Wow, great rabbit hole to explore this AM. The Roman Coronagraph Instrument was cobbled together by JPL using hardware from a couple different sources plus some homebrew magic.

I always wanted to work at JPL.

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 07:06 AM (c/R9o)

I thought a Roman Coronagraph Instrument was a fancy name for a sundial...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:09 AM (l3cgK)

99 Bitch keeps touching me!

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 07:09 AM (c/R9o)

100 100

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:09 AM (odBC9)

101 W00t! Only 5 more assessments to grade this morning!

(Though several students haven't completed all their homework for the week--I told them on the first day of class how important it was to DO THE WORK...)

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 07:10 AM (FZ29D)

102 99 Bitch keeps touching me!
Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 07:09 AM (c/R9o)

It IS funny.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:10 AM (odBC9)

103 >> They were showing a "shaking table" a little while ago on the NASA feed.

That tests the low frequency vibrations. For the higher frequencies they use acoustic chambers and subject the thing to 138 dB sound levels at the frequencies it will be subject to at launch.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:11 AM (w6EFb)

104 @88/m: "At the NASA youtube channel, there are only 25,480 watching??!!!"

There are multiple feeds and channels covering this. This spreads out the total viewing audience.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant, a Moron behind enemy lines at August 30, 2026 07:11 AM (O7YUW)

105 103 >> They were showing a "shaking table" a little while ago on the NASA feed.

That tests the low frequency vibrations. For the higher frequencies they use acoustic chambers and subject the thing to 138 dB sound levels at the frequencies it will be subject to at launch.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:11 AM (w6EFb)

Oh! Good info, publius!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:11 AM (odBC9)

106 81 59 Instead of paying $100 for a game you do not own that may release on 19 November, coming on 15 Jan 2027 is Ananta.

https://youtu.be/Wf6JmVT3qBY
Posted by: Anna Puma

That one does look cool.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 06:53 AM (BLOW1)

Just watched the trailer from the website...in the opening...how DOES one stand on the wing of a flying jetliner? Seems impossible...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:12 AM (l3cgK)

107 105 103 >> They were showing a "shaking table" a little while ago on the NASA feed.

That tests the low frequency vibrations. For the higher frequencies they use acoustic chambers and subject the thing to 138 dB sound levels at the frequencies it will be subject to at launch.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:11 AM (w6EFb)

Oh! Good info, publius!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:11 AM (odBC9)

We had a shake table at one place I worked at...
Was told a story of how someone hooked up the subwoofer feed into the shake table, making the world's best subwoofer...until the company found out and was pissed. LOL

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:13 AM (l3cgK)

108 Assuming that all aircraft have been grounded in the area: in how big an area, and for what amount of time?

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:15 AM (odBC9)

109 "Cum on Feel the Noize"...I'm used the Quiet Riot version...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:15 AM (l3cgK)

110 T- 00:10:00

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:16 AM (odBC9)

111 Just watched the trailer from the website...in the opening...how DOES one stand on the wing of a flying jetliner? Seems impossible...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:12 AM (l3cgK)

I suppose it can be done, depending on how slow the jet is flying. I've seen clips from the 1920s showing men playing tennis on the top wing of a biplane.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 07:16 AM (qRla/)

112 Wikipedia

Nancy Grace Roman
(May 16, 1925 – December 25, 201

an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and stellar motions

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:18 AM (odBC9)

113 109 "Cum on Feel the Noize"...I'm used the Quiet Riot version...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:15 AM (l3cgK)
--------------
What? What??

Posted by: Concertgoer who stood too close to the left speaker at August 30, 2026 07:18 AM (eOFY+)

114 "Cum on Feel the Noize"...I'm used the Quiet Riot version...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:15 AM (l3cgK)

I never went to a Slade or Quiet Riot concert, but I am certain the audiences never sang the line, "Girls, rock your boys" as written.

Slade also wrote the song "Merry Christmas, Everybody" which Robbie Williams nicely covered a few years back.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 07:19 AM (qRla/)

115 *(May 16, 1925 – December 25, 2018 )

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:19 AM (odBC9)

116 "And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad, so I had one for dessert."

Posted by: Notsothoreau at August 30, 2026 07:21 AM (bkuEU)

117 111 Just watched the trailer from the website...in the opening...how DOES one stand on the wing of a flying jetliner? Seems impossible...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:12 AM (l3cgK)

I suppose it can be done, depending on how slow the jet is flying. I've seen clips from the 1920s showing men playing tennis on the top wing of a biplane.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 07:16 AM (qRla/)

In the vid, the plane is flying fast enough that the guy is handing off the trailing end, almost horizontal while she's just standing there...and the flaps and slats didn't look like they were extended either, so minimum non-stall speed in that configuration is above 140mph...that'd be like standing in a hurricane.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:22 AM (l3cgK)

118 Fun to watch this during a Pixy tech thread!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:23 AM (odBC9)

119 hanging not handing...geesh.

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:23 AM (l3cgK)

120 rocket figna go up

Posted by: Savage Henry at August 30, 2026 07:24 AM (ZxPkt)

121
This is the storied Pad 39A, which SpaceX "rents". Note the new Starship tower close by. It's still under construction, I think.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:25 AM (w6EFb)

122 114 "Cum on Feel the Noize"...I'm used the Quiet Riot version...
Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:15 AM (l3cgK)

I never went to a Slade or Quiet Riot concert, but I am certain the audiences never sang the line, "Girls, rock your boys" as written.

Slade also wrote the song "Merry Christmas, Everybody" which Robbie Williams nicely covered a few years back.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 07:19 AM (qRla/)

I always heard the lyric as "Girls rocking boys"...hmmm...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:25 AM (l3cgK)

123 T- 00:01:00

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:25 AM (odBC9)

124 Belated BOING!

Back from a light nature trail walk at the foothills of Mt. Hermon - and I don't mean New Jersey!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:27 AM (lR5Ug)

125 I know I was often like, "Did they say boys or voice?" listening on the radio when I was younger, because, well, deliberately blurred lyrics right?

Posted by: RandomDave (if you can spare a bit, please click) at August 30, 2026 07:28 AM (aJQbY)

126 T + 2min

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:28 AM (l3cgK)

127 "Cut cholesterol with genetic scissors": that could put a big dent in Pharma's market. There are 92 million people on daily cholesterol lowering statin drugs

Posted by: JM in Illinois at August 30, 2026 07:28 AM (llBIB)

128 Morning Horde. Thx Pixy, interesting updates.
61° out with 87% humidity. Cool but heavy air. Rain later

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 30, 2026 07:30 AM (EZWVc)

129 124 Belated BOING!
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:27 AM (lR5Ug)

You BOINGed at liftoff!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:31 AM (odBC9)

130 This launch is completely faked!

Posted by: Flat Earthers at August 30, 2026 07:31 AM (l3cgK)

131
Beautiful shot of the fairing separation.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:31 AM (w6EFb)

132 @124 Biden's Dog, how's the skiing on Mt Hermon?

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 30, 2026 07:32 AM (EZWVc)

133 Common sense gun control.

Alyssa Leader
@alittleleader
On a personal level, I am about as anti-gun as you can get. But I have clients who face years of mandatory minimum time in prison because they possessed (not even used!) a gun after having stolen $1001 dollars worth of stuff from Target, often years before—
. . . .
The ways in which we criminalize some gun possession and not others, the severity of consequences for some gun-related behavior and not others, a lot of it is absolute nonsense. And of course a lot of it disproportionately impacts poor people and people of color.

-
So the law abiding don't get guns but criminals do.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Putting the Genie Back In the Bible at August 30, 2026 07:34 AM (ndZc7)

134 Landed!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:34 AM (odBC9)

135 So the law abiding don't get guns but criminals do.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Putting the Genie Back In the Bible at August 30, 2026 07:34 AM (ndZc7)

It's a feature, not a bug.

Posted by: Flat Earthers at August 30, 2026 07:36 AM (l3cgK)

136 If that poor little darling had only stolen $999.99 dollars worth of stuff from Target...

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at August 30, 2026 07:36 AM (eOFY+)

137 Off stupid stubborn sock...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:36 AM (l3cgK)

138
THe core stage booster had to be expendable, it won't be recovered. Getting Nancy Grace heaved up on the proper trajectory required too much energy for a fully reusable mission.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:36 AM (w6EFb)

139 130 This launch is completely faked!
Posted by: Flat Earthers at August 30, 2026 07:31 AM
++++
Come join us at one of our meetings. First Wednesday of the month, 7pm at the Elks Lodge.

Posted by: The Flat Moon Society at August 30, 2026 07:37 AM (2Ez/1)

140 You gonna target LLVM?

Posted by: alex at August 30, 2026 07:37 AM (z25sE)

141 It'll take about 3 months for Roman to make it about a million miles away, to where it's headed.

(In case people are not watching the NASA feed.)

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:38 AM (odBC9)

142 You BOINGed at liftoff!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:31 AM (odBC9)
-

Thanks to your previous comment, I opened up SpaceX on X and watched about 2.5 minutes into the launch.

When we were kids, this would have been scifi.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:38 AM (lR5Ug)

143 136 If that poor little darling had only stolen $999.99 dollars worth of stuff from Target...

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at August 30, 2026 07:36 AM (eOFY+)

Yeah, that's the problem.../sarc

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 07:38 AM (l3cgK)

144 @124 Biden's Dog, how's the skiing on Mt Hermon?

Posted by: Smell the Glove at August 30, 2026 07:32 AM (EZWVc)
-

I doubt there's even a handful of ice left at the peaks.

Ask me again in 3-4 months. Last year was a relatively dry winter. Nevertheless, the waters of the Dan River were running fast and deep this morning.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:41 AM (lR5Ug)

145 Cholesterol has an unfair reputation. It is absolutely essential, and particularly for human development in children and the immune system. A “low fat” diet isn’t for everyone across the board. And the link between cholesterol and heart disease generally isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. “One size fits all” generally doesn’t.

“Oiling of America” is a great read about “Big Oil” and the rise of hydrogenated cooking oils. Eggs, butter, dairy, and meat all became persona non grata right about the time when monetary inflation made them unaffordable to many Americans. I have a “conspiracy theory” about this.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2026 07:41 AM (K55Yn)

146 Eggs, butter, dairy, and meat all became persona non grata right about the time when monetary inflation made them unaffordable to many Americans. I have a “conspiracy theory” about this.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2026 07:41 AM (K55Yn)
-

It's twue! It's twue!

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:42 AM (lR5Ug)

147 99 Bitch keeps touching me!
Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 07:09 AM (c/R9o)

This is still cracking me up.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:43 AM (odBC9)

148
Roman spacecraft trajectory to L2:
https://t.ly/yRw_9

She's in orbit, and there'll be another burn to give her the final push on the above trajectory.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:44 AM (w6EFb)

149
Boy, Megan sure has a mouth full of teeth, doesn't she?

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:46 AM (w6EFb)

150 Perhaps I was too old when GTA went from obscurity to becoming huge in the PS2 generation aka my late 30s. I just didn't feel like playing a scumbag simulator, even though I could enjoy a movie like 'Pulp Fiction'. Watching Vincent Vega and wanting to BE Vincent Vega are different things.

I have GTA V in my Xbox library because it was effectively free. Amazon had it for $15 with a Amazon credit kickback of $15. So my $15 was locked into being used at Amazon but I was alright with being thrown in that briar patch.

Posted by: Epobirs at August 30, 2026 07:46 AM (/0z9K)

151 She's in orbit

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:44 AM (w6EFb)
-

Don't we have to define "she"?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:46 AM (lR5Ug)

152 "She's in orbit, and there'll be another burn to give her the final push on the above trajectory."
---
The Paolo, he is familiar with this, how you say, trajectory.

Posted by: The Paolo at August 30, 2026 07:47 AM (2Ez/1)

153 145 Cholesterol has an unfair reputation. It is absolutely essential, and particularly for human development in children and the immune system. A “low fat” diet isn’t for everyone across the board. And the link between cholesterol and heart disease generally isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. “One size fits all” generally doesn’t.

Posted by: Common Tater

True. The article is about people who have treatment-resistant high cholesterol regardless of lifestyle. This genetic scissoring fixes a specific condition for them, not for everyone.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 07:47 AM (BLOW1)

154 151 She's in orbit

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:44 AM (w6EFb)
-

Don't we have to define "she"?
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:46 AM (lR5Ug)

We can't.

--WNBA

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:47 AM (odBC9)

155 Another successful launch.

I was always such an incredible rush.

God, I miss it.

Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 07:48 AM (c/R9o)

156 I thought a Roman Coronagraph Instrument was a fancy name for a sundial... Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia)

About time somebody brought it up.
All kinds of speculation about getting Nancy Grace into space,
but nobody thought about what the Romans would do with a telescope.

Posted by: Way, Way Downriver at August 30, 2026 07:49 AM (zdLoL)

157 For decades, I didn’t even know that PBR still existed. Then it suddenly became stylish again in southern Atlantic seaboard states (?).
I can’t tell the difference between ordinary American beers, but I rarely drink beer anymore.
But I will order PBR with a meal to avoid bud light associated stuff.

Posted by: Fenderbender at August 30, 2026 07:49 AM (1FEc1)

158 I would be asleep but for the chaos snd civilizational breakdown in my part of the city tonight.
Posted by: San Franpsycho

What???

Posted by: Dark Lix at August 30, 2026 07:50 AM (Fv808)

159
One of the things that Roman is going to answer is are our cosmological models wrong. There have been some hints they are wrong -- see the Hubble Tension and a lesser well-known, although likely worse conflict, known as the S8 Tension.

Those could be real or they could be some sort of systematic error. Not enough data to know for sure. Roman will provide the answer. I'm hoping we are wrong, that will be exciting.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:51 AM (w6EFb)

160 Just read what. You need imsta-tire traps. Or hills. Hills have a lot of advantages.

Posted by: Dark Lix at August 30, 2026 07:52 AM (Fv808)

161 140 You gonna target LLVM?
Posted by: alex

Good question. Answer is no, or at least not directly. I'm planning two approaches there. First, it's a bytecode compiler, and the bytecode is instrumented specifically to support an optimising JIT compiler.

Second, every feature in the language has a clearly defined equivalent in Rust, and Rust does target LLVM. So if you want static binary compilation the path is the build and test taking advantage of the far faster compiler, and then auto-translate into Rust.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 07:53 AM (BLOW1)

162 “Eggs are bad for you” was pretty much taken as an article of faith in the 1970s and for years after. It was sad, because they are versatile and tasty and inexpensive. USDA lists them as “meat” in the handbook #8 and I suppose they are. Lots of good nutrients and minerals. High quality protein. Great way for people to get adequate nutrition for not a lot of money.

Margarine is just wretched stuff.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2026 07:54 AM (K55Yn)

163 Mission Control looks cool.
"Orbital insertion" confirmed.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:54 AM (odBC9)

164 The human brain is 25% cholesterol.

The more cholesterol in a man's sperm is positively linked to higher sperm concentration, total sperm count, motility (movement), and normal morphology (shape).

Posted by: The Mayo Clinic at August 30, 2026 07:54 AM (yuEAg)

165 publius,

Based entirely on summary layman's descriptions of those Tensions and my love of sci-fi, I suspect we're mis-modeling because we're in a higher-order universe than we can perceive, with more dimensions. The 'flatland problem'.

Posted by: RandomDave (if you can spare a bit, please click) at August 30, 2026 07:54 AM (aJQbY)

166 155 Another successful launch.

I[t] was always such an incredible rush.

God, I miss it.
Posted by: pawn at August 30, 2026 07:48 AM (c/R9o)

Glad you're here!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:55 AM (odBC9)

167
Well, the 2nd stage has done its job perfectly. Nancy Grace has near escape velocity. That's about 40K km/hr, you'll see Nancy made it to about 38K. Oh, I love it, I'm talking K k, kilo kilo.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:55 AM (w6EFb)

168 Worring about physics in a game where the MC does a Yamcha pose after creating a crater? This is a game where you web-sling like Spiderman. There are monsters and mechs. Along with rabbit and dragon girls.

If you want realism, there is Bodycam. Though that game will give you PTSD while fighting in the trenches in Ukraine.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 30, 2026 07:56 AM (2GVsD)

169 154 151 She's in orbit

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:44 AM (w6EFb)
-

Don't we have to define "she"?
Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:46 AM (lR5Ug)

We can't.

--WNBA
Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 07:47 AM (odBC9)
-----------------
Don't look at me.

Posted by: Kentaji Brown Jackson at August 30, 2026 07:56 AM (eOFY+)

170 The human brain is 25% cholesterol.

The more cholesterol in a man's sperm is positively linked to higher sperm concentration, total sperm count, motility (movement), and normal morphology (shape).

If this is no kidding legit correlation, I bet the anti-cholesterol crusade has been a contributer to the 'low virility problem' of recent decades. Timing roughly matches...

Posted by: RandomDave (if you can spare a bit, please click) at August 30, 2026 07:56 AM (aJQbY)

171 Some of the old school working man beer brands were defunct. The hipsters resurrected them. PBR might actually be one of them. Grain Belt didn’t make the cut, maybe.

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2026 07:56 AM (K55Yn)

172 130 This launch is completely faked!
Posted by: Flat Earthers at August 30, 2026 07:31 AM
----
The Flat Earthers went NUTS during the Artemis II launch, claiming it was a giant balloon among other absurdities.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 07:58 AM (FZ29D)

173 Orbital insertion is another service available from The Paolo. However it requires an, how you say, additional fee.

Posted by: The Paolo at August 30, 2026 07:59 AM (2Ez/1)

174 The Flat Earth society has many members all around the globe!

Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2026 07:59 AM (K55Yn)

175
And Nancy Grace is free and on her way. Elon makes this all look like child's play.

Nancy was talking to the ground and she's now charging her batteries via solar arrays, they said.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:00 AM (w6EFb)

176 In addition to the Nashville airport, I think a major motorboat racing venue should be renamed after Dolly.

Posted by: Fenderbender at August 30, 2026 08:00 AM (1FEc1)

177 One of the things that Roman is going to answer is are our cosmological models wrong. There have been some hints they are wrong -- see the Hubble Tension and a lesser well-known, although likely worse conflict, known as the S8 Tension.

Those could be real or they could be some sort of systematic error. Not enough data to know for sure. Roman will provide the answer. I'm hoping we are wrong, that will be exciting.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 07:51 AM (w6EFb)
---
We may very well be on the cusp of the next great revolution in physics...where we discover that the Standard Model is woefully inadequate.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 08:00 AM (FZ29D)

178 174 The Flat Earth society has many members all around the globe!
Posted by: Common Tater at August 30, 2026 07:59 AM (K55Yn)

... um

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 08:00 AM (odBC9)

179 7 I woke up this morning with no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
Posted by: Savage Henry at August 30, 2026

***
How was that beer you had for dessert?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 30, 2026 08:02 AM (wzUl9)

180 Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at August 30, 2026 07:27 AM (lR5Ug

I hope that you had a lovely time. I would like to visit Mt. Hermon in Israel, but that rural area of Warren County is quite nice for a walk as well. I used to serve a church in Warren County.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 08:02 AM (rHgXV)

181 Roman will be sending home "a terabyte of data a day" for its lifetime.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 08:02 AM (odBC9)

182 I have high LDL (but not super high), high HDL, and very low trigs. I do eat a lot of cheese.

Posted by: Dark Lix at August 30, 2026 08:02 AM (Fv808)

183
My favorite Flat Earthers (Flerfs for short) have to be CC, Chris from Westchester County, and Terry R. Eicher.

CC has fabulous hair. He's getting in Mannix level there. Not Jack Lord, but he's getting to Mannix coif levels.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:02 AM (w6EFb)

184 Good morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear in the hearts of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 30, 2026 08:03 AM (u82oZ)

185 - Some hints they are wrong.
Hints? Like in July of 2022? When this happened?

https://tinyurl.com/yt7yn475

Or later with this?

https://tinyurl.com/2ssa7352

Not stated in the 2nd vid but I read later on "they" hand waved it off with 'galaxies are smaller the further away they are.'

Posted by: TeeJ at August 30, 2026 08:03 AM (eblO+)

186
Here's CC's channel:

https://t.ly/Bpfzj

Enjoy those lunatic rants.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:04 AM (w6EFb)

187 Looks like TS Dolly fizzled out. But there are two areas of possible tropical activity, one is south of Mississippi in the Gulf. The other is aiming for the Bahamas.

Posted by: Anna Puma at August 30, 2026 08:04 AM (2GVsD)

188 >>> 101 W00t! Only 5 more assessments to grade this morning!

(Though several students haven't completed all their homework for the week--I told them on the first day of class how important it was to DO THE WORK...)
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 07:10 AM (FZ29D)

Reminds me of an old joke.

Busty Breathless Blonde Co-ed: I'd do *anything* for an A!

Professor: Would you.... study???

Posted by: Helena Handbasket at August 30, 2026 08:06 AM (+fdRY)

189 I suspect we're mis-modeling because we're in a higher-order universe than we can perceive, with more dimensions. The 'flatland problem'.

A book written in 1884!

Posted by: Dark Lix at August 30, 2026 08:06 AM (Fv808)

190
And Terry R. Eicher explains how NASA lies about the sun:

https://t.ly/A1lSo

To the Flerfs, NASA is like the Illuminati, the Root Evil, the "They" of all the conspiracies.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:07 AM (w6EFb)

191 190
Flerfs
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:07 AM (w6EFb)

haha!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 08:08 AM (odBC9)

192 Here's CC's channel:

https://t.ly/Bpfzj

Enjoy those lunatic rants.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:04 AM (w6EFb)
----
SciManDan has a field day with these! CC's WAY out there.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at August 30, 2026 08:12 AM (FZ29D)

193 Looks like TS Dolly fizzled out. But there are two areas of possible tropical activity, one is south of Mississippi in the Gulf. The other is aiming for the Bahamas.
Posted by: Anna Puma at August 30, 2026

***
My local CBS outlet is saying we may be in for some storminess.

The same website quotes someone at the 21st anniversary memorial of Katrina, "New Orleans never forgets." (Yeah, and it never learns, either)

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 30, 2026 08:12 AM (wzUl9)

194 experimental gene altering infusion? great ....

Posted by: runner at August 30, 2026 08:12 AM (g47mK)

195 25 It's going to launch on a Falcon 9 Heavy. The two side boosters will be recovered, but the main center one is going to be expendable (has to for the payload). L2 is technically still in Erf's gravity well, but not by much.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 06:04 AM (w6EFb)

I only saw one of the side boosters land.

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 08:12 AM (odBC9)

196 Or, I guess what I saw land was the Falcon 9 Heavy!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 08:13 AM (odBC9)

197 >> I only saw one of the side boosters land.

FOr some reason, they only had footage of one, but they said the other one landed fine as well.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:13 AM (w6EFb)

198 197 >> I only saw one of the side boosters land.

FOr some reason, they only had footage of one, but they said the other one landed fine as well.
Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:13 AM (w6EFb)

Ok, thanks!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 08:14 AM (odBC9)

199
Flerfs also love the Nikon P900 and P1000 "Super zoom" cameras. NASA forced Nikon to stop making those, you know, because they zoom in so much, they show there's no curvature!

You're not a proper Flerf until you get one of those cameras.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:15 AM (w6EFb)

200 200

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 08:15 AM (odBC9)

201 The Flat Earth society has many members all around the globe!

The guy who owns my local cigar store is a Flat Earther and a moon landing denialist.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 08:16 AM (qRla/)

202
is it wrong to hope it rains so I don't have to spend the day under my son's derelict '03 Ranger replacing the brake line?

Posted by: AltonJackson at August 30, 2026 08:16 AM (AMvSw)

203 We may very well be on the cusp of the next great revolution in physics...where we discover that the Standard Model is woefully inadequate.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel
_______

"... and yet no one has ever been able to give any answer at all to the question, What proof have you that the uniformities which you call laws will not cease or alter tomorrow? In regard to this, our very highest probability, we are like a man rowing one way and looking another, and steering his boat by keeping her stern in a line with an object behind him."

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at August 30, 2026 08:17 AM (XvL8K)

204 So many early Slade songs had misspelled titles. Were they illiterate?

Posted by: Curious And Just Axin' at August 30, 2026 08:17 AM (JM9I6)

205 Went back to see the launch.

Whew. Amazing.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at August 30, 2026 08:17 AM (u82oZ)

206
There's a famous clip that CC himself posted of his wife getting enough of his crap.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb) at August 30, 2026 08:17 AM (w6EFb)

207 The same website quotes someone at the 21st anniversary memorial of Katrina, "New Orleans never forgets." (Yeah, and it never learns, either)
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at August 30, 2026 08:12 AM (wzUl9)

Have you seen the TV ads for (I believe) CNNs 9/11 propaganda show? It's supposed to be interviews with survivors of the Twin Towers. I expect it to be nothing more than a bunch of phony flag-waving and heart-tugging music in order to ball-wash the Arab world and make Americans continue to forget the whole "War On Terror" was a gigantic Deep State psy-op.

"Never Forget," my ass.

Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing (aka Eloquent Depression) at August 30, 2026 08:19 AM (qRla/)

208 is it wrong to hope it rains so I don't have to spend the day under my son's derelict '03 Ranger replacing the brake line?
Posted by: AltonJackson

Brake lines are kinda important. Best get to work.

Posted by: Free Wheelin'! at August 30, 2026 08:19 AM (JM9I6)

209 Not techy, but nice

Dogs add extra security and comfort at a train station in England. I guess that the Muslims haven't complained yet:

https://tinyurl.com/3jaahtex

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at August 30, 2026 08:20 AM (JrHfD)

210 This genetic scissoring fixes a specific condition for them, not for everyone.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2026 07:47 AM (BLOW1)

Sounds kinda gay when put that way...

Posted by: jim (in Kalifornia) at August 30, 2026 08:20 AM (l3cgK)

211 The guy who owns my local cigar store is a Flat Earther and a moon landing denialist.
Posted by: Mary Poppins' Practically Perfect Piercing

Turtles for the trifecta?

Posted by: Dark Lix at August 30, 2026 08:22 AM (Fv808)

212 Looking at

Wikipedia
Falcon Heavy

to learn about Falcon Heavy parts.

There's also:

Future launches

August 30. 2026
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
NASA (Launch Services Program)
US$255 million
Infrared space telescope to be stationed at Sun-Earth L2.

Soon to be updated!

Posted by: m at August 30, 2026 08:22 AM (odBC9)

213 Cup of coffee and awaiting for the Book thread

Posted by: Skip at August 30, 2026 08:22 AM (Ia/+0)

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