Year: 2022

Why We Fight: The Nazis Strike

6:01 pm

An evening pause: For tonight, the anniversary of the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, I think this documentary created by Frank Capra for the U.S. government in 1943 is most appropriate.

Though created to rally Americans to the war effort, the film is not propaganda. It is a remarkably accurate telling of the history leading up to Pearl Harbor in detailing how Hitler was able to gain control of almost all of Europe, through lies, force, and the weak-kneed opposition of his opponents. Only with Soviet Russia and its secret pact with Germany to divide up Poland does the film fail to tell the facts thoroughly, but here it fails by omission, not lies. In the end, however, it is accurate, because the Soviet Union’s pact, intended to bring it security from German invasion, failed. Hitler had lied once again, and the U.S.S.R. became only another victim of his greed for power.

It is worthwhile for Americans to watch it now, because the same lies and greed for power is eating away at our own country from within. Any honest open-minded viewing of this mid-20th century history cannot help but see the parallels.

I should add that Capra knew how to make movies, and he made sure this history was told in a riveting and compelling manner. You will not be bored.

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December 7, 2022 Quick space links

3:16 pm

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A Martian ship’s prow

2:50 pm

A Martian ship's prow
Click for full image.

Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken on August 31, 2022 by the high resolution camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It shows what the scientists call “layering” surrounding this pointed mesa, which I roughly estimate to be somewhere between 200 to 400 feet high.

As you approach the mesa you first walk on the dust-covered flat plains. Then you start up a slope of what looks like alluvial fill, material that over time has fallen from the mesa to pile up as an apron at its base. You then reach a series of terraces, each likely marking a different layering major event from sometime in the distance past. Over time, for unknown reasons, the material surrounding this material has eroded away, while the mesa and its layers somehow survived.

The overview map below helps tell us what those past layering events were, as well as the source of the large amount of dust and sand at this location.
» Read more

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Pushback: Judge rules flight attendant must be rehired by Southwest, but reduces her award significantly

1:52 pm

Southwest Airlines: Enemy to free speech

Blacklists are back and the business community loves ’em: Though Charlene Carter, the Southwest flight attendant who was fired because she expressed opinions the company and her union did not like, had won her lawsuit against the company, federal district Judge Brantley Starr has reduced the jury award to her from $5.1 million to $810,000 in order “to comply with federal limits on punitive damages.”

The judge this week reduced that award to $300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages from Southwest and $300,000 from the union, $150,000 in back pay and about $60,000 in interest.

In ordering Southwest to reinstate Carter this week, the judge made a reference to a line in Southwest advertising campaigns. “Bags fly free with Southwest. But free speech didn’t fly at all with Southwest in this case,” Starr wrote.

This story is an update on two previous blacklist columns, the second of which described the ugly email correspondence between company and union officials prior to Carter’s firing. Brian Talburt, an official with the Transit Workers Union (TWU), had written to both his boss, union head Audrey Stone, as well as one Southwest manager as follows about Carter:
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Blue Origin-led team bids for NASA manned lunar lander contract

11:09 am

Capitalism in space: Though few details have been released, Blue Origin has teamed up with Boeing and Lockheed Martin to bid for a NASA contract to build a second manned lunar lander, after SpaceX’s Starship.

Blue Origin revealed its team’s submission to that second NASA program in a brief statement posted on its website on Tuesday, saying “in partnership with NASA, this team will achieve sustained presence on the Moon.”

The deadline for proposals was Tuesday. NASA is expected to make an award decision in June 2023.

Blue Origin’s team also includes spacecraft software firm Draper, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Astrobotic and Honeybee Robotics, a manufacturer of military and civil robotic systems that was acquired by Blue Origin in January.

It will be interesting to see if this proposed lander is significantly different than the previous proposal, which NASA considered overpriced and not as capable as Starship.

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Virgin Orbit schedules launch from the UK, despite no permit

11:01 am

Virgin Orbit has now scheduled its first launch from a Cornwall airport for December 14, 2022, even though the company has not been issued its launch permit from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) of the United Kingdom, even after almost six months of delays.

Spaceport Cornwall was awarded an operators licence by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) last month, meaning the site is licensed for launch operations.

However, Virgin Orbit as the operator needs both launch and range licences from the CAA before the historic launch can happen. Spaceport Cornwall told MailOnline that December 14 is when the window opens for the first launch attempt – although this is ‘by no means a guaranteed flight date’.

According to a BBC report, that license has still not been issued. I suspect Virgin Orbit has set this date to pressure the CAA to finally get its act together and issue the permit.

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China’s Kuaizhou-11 rocket launches test satellite

10:53 am

China today successfully launched what it labeled as a communications test satellite using its smallsat mobile Kuaizhou-11 rocket.

China’s state run press gave little details, other than saying, “The satellite will be mainly used for communications test and key technologies verification of the VDES and the automatic identification system (AIS),” whatever that means.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

55 China
54 SpaceX
21 Russia
9 Rocket Lab
8 ULA

The U.S. still leads China 78 to 55 in the national rankings, though it trails the entire world combined 86 to 78.

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Computer modelers predict millions will die if China relaxes its zero COVID lockdowns policy

10:45 am

Chicken Little rules again! Scientists, using the same kind of faulty computer models that falsely predicted millions would die in 2020 if we didn’t social distance, wear masks, and shut down all of society (while canceling the Bill of Rights), now predict millions will die in China if that country’s totalitarian communist government relaxes its zero COVID lockdowns policy.

A study based on vaccination rates in March, published in Nature Medicine in May, found that lifting zero-COVID restrictions at that point could “generate a tsunami of COVID-19 cases” over a 6-month period, with 112 million symptomatic cases, 2.7 million intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and 1.6 million deaths. Peak demand for ICU beds would hit 1 million, more than 15 times the current capacity.

The unvaccinated would account for 77% of the fatalities, according to the authors, primarily at Fudan University. Boosting vaccination rates could slash the toll, but China’s elderly population has remained wary of vaccination. Even today, only 66% of those ages 80 and older have received two doses—versus 90% of the population as a whole—and just 40% have taken boosters.

We of course should trust these scientists without question. How could they possibly be wrong? Bless their hearts. They would never produce junk models simply to promote government overreach and abuse of power.

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Ingenuity sets altitude record on 35th flight

10:33 am

Overview map
Click for interactive map.

On December 3, 2022 Ingenuity completed its 35th flight, traveling about 49 feet sideways but reaching a new altitude record for the Mars helicopter of 46 feet.

The map to the right shows the helicopter’s new position by the green dot, with Perseverance’s present position shown with the blue dot. The helicopter only moved slightly to the northwest of its previous position.

The plan had been to test the helicopter’s upgraded software at this new altitude while flying fly 50 feet sideways for 52 seconds at a speed of 6.7 feet per second. The flight met these goals almost exactly, going a distance only slightly shorter, well within its margin of error. The new altitude record however is significant, as going even slight distances higher in Mars’ very thin atmosphere (1/1000th of Earth’s) is challenging, to say the least. This higher flight means Ingenuity can fly up above higher terrain, such as the delta that is Perseverance’s next goal.

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InSight’s low power levels holding steady

10:11 am

InSight's power levels as of November 29, 2022

The science team for the Mars’ lander InSight today (December 6th) released a new update (dated November 29th) of the power levels being produced by its dust-covered solar panels.

As of Nov. 29, 2022, InSight is generating an average between 290 watt-hours of energy per Martian day, or sol. The tau, or level of dust cover in the atmosphere, was estimated at .95 (typical tau levels outside of dust season range from 0.6-0.7).

I have added this new data unto the graph to the right, though I am puzzled by the date given to the update. Why post this today, when this update covers data only two days after the previous update (November 27th), and is more than a week out of date? This is especially puzzling because the numbers did not change at all.

Nonetheless, the lander is still alive, but barely. One wonders however what happened in the past week, since today’s update does not bring us up to date.

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Reitze Smits – J.S. Bach’s Passacaglia in C minor

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Performed live November 29th 2013 at the Lutheran Church, The Hague. There is something hypnotic about this. Watch and try to distinguish the different melodic lines produced by his feet vs his fingers.

Hat tip Judd Clark.

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Today’s blacklisted American: Richmond restaurant to the Family Foundation: “No Christians served here!”

2:14 pm

Metzger's: in favor of discrimination

They’re coming for you next: The restaurant, Metzger’s Bar and Butchery in Richmond, Virginia, has now decided that it will no longer serve Christian-affiliated organizations.

Last week The Family Foundation, which is affiliated with the Christian ministry Focus on the Family, had scheduled a gathering at Metzger’s. However, ninety minutes before the event was to take place, Metzger’s told the foundation that it would not serve them, and the event was cancelled. In the restaurant’s own words:

“We refused service to a group that had booked an event with us after the owners of Metzger found out it was a group of donors to a political organization that seeks to deprive women and LGBTQ+ person of their basic human rights in Virginia,” they wrote. “We have always refused service to anyone for making our staff uncomfortable or unsafe and this was the driving force behind our decision.

“Many of our staff are women and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community,” the community wrote. ‘All of our staff are people with rights who deserve dignity and a safe work environment.” [emphasis mine]

So in other words, Metzger’s has now posted a sign on its door, stating bluntly “No religious individuals served here!”
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