The Carol Burnett Show – Star Trip
An evening pause: Featuring, Harvy Korman, Sid Caesar, and Carol Burnett.
Hat tip Phill Oltmann.
Year: 2021
Today’s blacklisted American: A blogger about babies
They’re coming for you next: A neonatal nurse named Cara Dumaplin, who for years has run very successful website called Taking Care of Babies, is now considered a “racist” and “hater” because she and her husband committed the unforgivable act of donating to the campaign of Donald Trump.
MamaBirdLosAngeles drew attention to Dumaplin’s political donations on Instagram, setting off a flurry of denunciations.
MamaBird identified herself as “part of the #babypeople who are actively using our platforms to speak out about hate, and give you the information you need to not only raise your babies, but to raise them anti-racist. So with that, I recommend y’all consider unfollowing and stop giving your support and $$$ to @TakingCaraBabies, who along with her husband, has been actively donating to Trump and his campaign.”
“We need to out these people, especially because they are profiting off of photos of BIPOC [black, indigenous, people of color] families,” MamaBird added. “I encourage you to share this far and wide!”
This bigot, who automatically assumes, based on no evidence, that Trump is a racist and then slanders anyone with the same lie should they have supported him, is bad enough. She wants to boycott and blacklist anyone who dared back an opponent of the Democrats. You won’t get much freedom of expression under any society that she runs.
What is worse however are the knee-jerk responses from long time fans of Taking Care of Babies, moving quickly to ostracize and destroy this very non-political website. For some reason, crazy and ugly accusations like this must now be accepted with no skepticism or challenge.
Many Instagram accounts moved to blacklist Dumaplin for her political views, assuming that if she supported Trump she must be a hateful racist (even though millions of black and Hispanic Americans voted for Trump). “We as a brand do not stand by these donations and have unfollowed and sent a personal note” to Dumaplin, the Instagram account BigLittleFeelings, which has 1.2 million followers, announced. “If you see something in your feed that is misaligned with your values, create your feed with what you feel is best. For us that meant unfollowing.”
BigLittleFeelings went on to say that the brand dreams of “a world where our next generation, our kids and your kids no matter the color of their skin, their abilities or where they came from, are treated equally. … Empathy, inclusivity, always always.”
Heh. BigLittleFeelings doesn’t appear very empathetic to me, willing so quickly with no evidence to destroy someone. And they are also only one example of the new blacklist mob coming after the Dumaplins. The article at the link gives more.
Hopefully the Dumaplin’s will survive this hate campaign. I am not optimistic. Our modern leftist close-minded culture teaches that no one should be exposed to opinions which they find uncomfortable. Everyone must have a safe space! And if any ordinary American should dare challenge that bubble, they must be destroyed and silenced, now! Freedom of speech is now evil, and most always be squelched!
The strange moated mesas of the Kasei Valley on Mars
In showing my readers today’s cool image, I want to present it as it is seen by scientists, first from a far distance that with time increasingly zooms in to reveal mysteries on a very human scale.
The overview map to the right essentially gives us the view of Mars as seen by scientists following the Mariner 9 orbiter mission that began mapping the Martian surface in late 1971 after the conclusion of a global dust storm that had hidden its surface initially. As the first high resolution map of Mars, the orbiter revealed numerous puzzling and surprising features, including the largest volcanoes and canyons in the solar system. The orbiter also found that the red planet’s surface was comprised of two very different regions, the northern lowland plains and the southern cratered highlands.
The overview map, covering from about 13 degrees south latitude to about 34 degrees north latitude, shows us all but the southern cratered highlands. The white box in Kasei Valles is where today’s cool image is located. Both Kasai and Valles Marineris represent those giant canyons, all invoking to Earth eyes the possibility of catastrophic floods of liquid water sometime in the past.
Ascraeus Mons is the northernmost of the three giant volcanoes east of the biggest volcano of all, Olympus Mons. All sit on what scientists now call the Tharsis Bulge.
Chryse Planitia, where Viking-1 landed in 1976, is part of those northern lowlands that some scientists believe might have been once had an intermittent ocean sometime in the past. Today’s image is about 600 miles from the outlet into Chryse Planitia.
The geological mystery of all these features demands a closer look, something that scientists have been pursuing now for more than a half century.
» Read more
Japan’s new H3 rocket is almost ready for launch in ’21
The H3 rocket, jointly made by Mitsubishi and Japan’s space agency JAXA, is almost ready for launch and will be shipped to is launch site shortly for a launch later this year.
According to the link, it will cut the cost of launch by half when compared with Japan’s H2A rocket. They hope this cost reduction will garner them international customers, though I wonder as the rocket is not reusable. To get those international customers they have done something interesting. Rather than putting “Nippon” on the side of the rocket, which is what the Japanese call their country, they have put “Japan” on it instead.
Falcon 9 successfully places 143 satellites into orbit
Capitalism in space: SpaceX this morning successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a record 143 smallsats into orbit.
As I write this they are in the process of deploying the satellites, which will take time as the upper stage circles the Earth. This launch of 143 satellites beats the former record of the most satellites deployed on a single launch, 104, set by India in 2017.
The first stage landed successfully, completing its fifth flight. They also recovered both fairing halves.
The standings in the 2021 launch race:
3 SpaceX
1 Rocket Lab
1 Virgin Orbit
1 China
The U.S. now leads China 5 to 1 in the national rankings.
SpaceX enters business of drilling for natural gas
Capitalism in space: SpaceX has decided to enter the natural gas energy business to help fuel its rockets, and is presently in a legal dispute with another natural gas drilling company over rights to drill on a piece of property near its Boca Chica Starship facility.
SpaceX intends to drill wells close to the company’s Boca Chica launchpad, it was revealed during a Friday hearing before the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s energy regulator.
Production has yet to start because of a legal dispute between the SpaceX subsidiary Lone Star Mineral Development and another energy company. Tim George, an attorney representing Lone Star, said at the hearing that SpaceX plans to use the methane it extracts from the ground “in connection with their rocket facility operations.”
While it’s unclear what exactly the gas would be used for, SpaceX plans to utilize super-chilled liquid methane and liquid oxygen as fuel for its Raptor engines.
Since methane is the main component of natural gas, I suspect SpaceX hopes to utilize the gas it pumps out to fuel its Starship & Super Heavy rockets. By obtaining the gas from its own wells, SpaceX cuts out any middle men, and has the opportunity to reduce its costs as well.
Sergei Vasiliev – Russian Cyberpunk Farm
An evening pause: Russian-made, and filled with Russian fantasies and reality. Can you tell which is which?
Hat tip Mike Nelson.
New leak located in Zvezda on ISS
Russian astronauts have located the suspected new leak location in the Zvezda module on ISS, and also think there might be another, as yet unlocated.
The specialists have discovered one more crack at the International Space Station and suspect that yet another one exists, ISS Russian Segment head Vladimir Solovyov told Rossiya-24. “So far, we have found one place and suspect another, where as some kind of leak exists. We must bring a powerful microscope on a cargo spacecraft and use to examine this place. We are not totally certain so far,” Solovyov said.
These two leaks are in addition to the one inch crack that caused last year’s leak and has been sealed.
All are pointing strongly to stress fractures in this section of Zvezda, one of the station’s oldest modules at twenty-plus years. The leaks are apparently located in the aft section where ships dock to Zvezda, with over a 100 dockings there since launch.
If the cracks and leaks are caused by stress fractures, the life span of Zvezda is now quite limited. It might be possible to seal the cracks and protect the module from further breaks by ending dockings at its port, but I suspect that will not work. Moreover, if I remember correctly Zvezda has the engines that are used to periodically raise ISS’s orbits. If the stress of firing those engines is too risky than another way must be found to maintain the station’s orbit.
In a few years the private company Axiom will be launching its own modules to ISS, designed in the long run to separate from the station and function independently. If NASA and Axiom are smart, they will make sure this new module matches Zvezda’s capabilities, thus making the Russian module redundant and actually superfluous.
“The solar system is open for business”
Link here. The article gives an independent look at the surging capitalism that appears to be driving the resurgent rocket and space industry in the U.S. and elsewhere.
As the author notes in his conclusion:
There was a time when space enthusiasts waited on taxpayer-funded space programs to realize their dreams of routine spaceflight and humanity’s expansion into the cosmos. It’s been a very long wait. Now, privatized launch services are opening up access to space. A new wave of exploration missions is widening human knowledge of the solar system. It’s only a matter of time before entrepreneurs, particularly those with deep pockets, figure out how to make money out there.
I plug this article not because he quotes me extensively, but because he came to these conclusions independent of me, and only called me for comments because he thought I might add depth to his conclusions. That the ideas I have been pushing since the late 1990s are now percolating into the larger culture is a very very good sign.
While in those early days the reporters I spoke to were routinely horrified by the idea of a privately financed space mission and wondered if the government should even allow it (they really would say this), today the idea is now considered the right way to go.
This is progress, even in this time of blacklists and a government focused on crushing its citizens.
Today’s blacklisted American: Laura Loomer
They’re coming for you next: First, before I tell the sad situation that journalist and former candidate of Congress Laura Loomer faces, I want to note that this now daily feature has been renamed. For the past week I have called it “Today’s blacklisted conservative.” I have decided this is not accurate, as the people being repressed, squelched, destroyed, and silenced are routinely people whose opinions fall very much in the center of traditional American philosophy, in favor of freedom, the rule of law and the Constitution, and the equal treatment of all regardless of race, color, or creed.
I thought it more appropriate to note this fact, by pointing out that it is Americans who are being oppressed, not simply conservatives. And the people doing the oppression are so un-American it boggles the mind.
Today’s blacklisted American is Laura Loomer, who for many years was an aggressive investigative journalist willing to challenge corrupt politicians to their face. She ran for Congress in 2020, but unfortunately lost.
Earlier this week she announced on her website that she has discovered she has been placed on a “do-not-buy” list that now prevents her from buying a fire-arm anywhere. As she notes,
While I have NEVER been convicted of a felony, domestic violence, and I’ve never been adjudicated mentally unfit by a judge, my name was placed in the Federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and I have been prohibited from ever owning or even touching a firearm.
She also notes in this same post that she has been banned from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Paypal, Venmo, GoFundMe, Uber, and Lyft. Chase bank once attempted to shut down her bank accounts.
And during her campaign for Congress, she added that “Comcast blocked my congressional campaign from sending texts and emails to voters while they donated to my opponent.”
On top of this, she found herself hassled by the government thugs of the TSA when she returned to this country last week after spending the last month or so in El Salvador.
I was singled out with no explanation and subjected to a thorough search, I was not allowed to grab my own suitcases from baggage claim, and I was detained for several hours while different federal officials from Department of Homeland Security interrogated me about my Wikipedia page, which states that I am a right-wing extremist and was an official Republican nominee for Congress, endorsed by President Trump. DHS officers also asked me about the events that occurred on January 6th in Washington DC. Needless to say, I was not in the country at the time, and know nothing about the protest at the US capitol.
Welcome Laura Loomer to the new America, ruled by a Democratic Party and helped by quisling establishment Republicans, all of whom apparently hate and fear ordinary Americans — especially those ordinary Americans unafraid to express their dissent publicly — and are willing to abuse their power to oppress such Americans.
The pit caves of Mars: Can humans someday live in them?
It has been more than four months since my last report on the pits of Mars. Time to do another.
The collage to the right shows the four different pits photographed by the high resolution camera of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) since October. The links to each image are:
- Number 1: full image here.
- Number 2: full image here.
- Number 3: full image here.
- Number 4: full image here.
Like almost all the cave pits so far found on Mars, all are in the Tharsis Bulge of giant volcanoes to west of Valles Marineris. The overview map below shows these pits in the context of every other pit in this region that I have featured on Behind the Black.
» Read more
Chinese government gives wrist slap to powerful scientist on fraud and plagiarism charges
In a decision clearing a powerful scientist of charges of fraud and plagiarism in more than sixty papers, several of which have already been retracted, the Chinese government has also allowed that scientist to keep his post as head of one China’s universities.
The Chinese communists did punish him, but in a way that in the long run is mostly meaningless.
Cao [Xuetao, president of Nankai University and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering] will be barred from applying for national science and technology projects, lose his qualification as a scientific expert, and be forbidden from recruiting graduate students, all for 1 year. The notification also ordered him to investigate and correct the papers. It appears he will keep his job as president of Nankai University, one of China’s most prestigious universities. (On Nankai’s English-language website, Cao is also listed as one of the university’s two chancellors.) Cao did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
In other words, he keeps his powerful post. To get off so lightly you would almost think he worked for the American FBI and had tried to overthrow a legal election. But then, no, it isn’t the same. The FBI officials who managed the Trump coup have actually seen less punishment. China, as corrupt as its communist government might be, in this case actually managed to administer a tiny bit of justice.
This is the future, as the world’s culture no longer honors law and the truth, but power and authority. And those in power will never be brought to justice, because they are above all those little people who serve them.
This also tells you how little you should trust any results coming from a government scientist. Those results might be real, but before you accept them you better go over them with a fine-tooth comb.