Tag: bankruptcy

Telescope removed from Mauna Kea on Big Island as local Hawaiian council rejects new telescopes on Haleakala on Maui

8:09 am

Even as a local Hawaiian authority on the Big Island has completed the removal of the first of three telescopes on the top of Mauna Kea, a local council on the island of Maui have voted 9-0 to oppose an Air Force project to build new telescopes on top of Haleakala.

The proposed new facility is called AMOS STAR, which is an acronym for Air Force Maui Optical and Supercomputing Site Small Telescope Advanced Research. It would feature six telescopes enclosed in ground-mounted domes and one rooftop-mounted domed telescope.

The county’s resolution urged the military to heed community calls to cease their development efforts. It urged the National Park Service, Federal Aviation Administration and the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources to deny the project permits.

At this time it appears that Hawaiians desended from the original indigenous population are opposed to all western technology, even as they rely on it. These new telescopes are proposed by the Air Force because it needs better capilities to track the tens of thousands of new satellites being launched by numerous companies and governments. This information will help prevent collisions in space.

As for their claims that these peaks are “considered wao akua, or ‘realm of the gods,’ and [places] of deep spirituality for Native Hawaiians to engage in some of these traditional practices,” as stated in the council’s resolution, I have some doubts. For almost three-quarters of a century such religious concerns and objections were never mentioned by anyone. If they existed indigenous Hawaiians appeared to have no problem “engaging in traditional practices” right next to telescopes. Only when some activists appeared in the past decade, looking to insert themselves in the process (thus obtaining positions of power and money) did the peaks become so important religiously.

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Paper: Not one government policy during the COVID epidemic accomplished anything to stop the disease’s spread

1:56 pm

The modern scientific method
What governments believe, even when there
is no evidence to justify it.

In reviewing the many different government actions taken during the COVID epidemic aimed at slowing the spread of the virus, scientists have found that none of these policies accomplished anything.

No matter how we approached these questions, the primary finding was lack of definitive patterns that could support claims about governmental policy impacts. About half the time, government policies were followed by better Covid-19 outcomes, and half of the time they were not. The findings were sometimes contradictory, with some policies appearing helpful when tested one way, and the same policy appearing harmful when tested another way. No claims about the relationship between government responses and pandemic outcomes held generally. Looking at stay-at-home policies and school closures, about half the time it looked like Covid-19 outcomes improved after their imposition, and half the time they got worse. Every policy, Covid-19 outcome, time period, and modeling approach yielded a similar level of uncertainty: about half the time it looked like things got better, and half the time like things got worse.

…Yet scientists used these data to make definitive conclusions.

Claims that government responses made Covid-19 worse are not broadly true, and the same goes for claims that government responses were useless or ineffective. Claims that government responses help reduce the burden of Covid-19 are also not true. What is true is that there is no strong evidence to support claims about the impacts of the policies, one way or the other.

» Read more

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Hubble goes to one-gyro mode, limiting the telescope’s observational capabilities; NASA rejects private repair mission

9:59 am

Story Musgrave on the shuttle robot arm during the last spacewalk of the 1993 Hubble repair mission
Story Musgrave on the shuttle robot arm during
the last spacewalk of the 1993 Hubble repair mission

After the third safe mode event in six months, all caused by issues with the same gyroscope, engineers have decided to shift the Hubble Space Telescope to what they call one-gyro mode, whereby the telescope is pointed using only one gyroscope, and the remaining working gyro is kept in reserve.

The spacecraft had six new gyros installed during the fifth and final space shuttle servicing mission in 2009. To date, three of those gyros remain operational, including the gyro currently experiencing problems, which the team will continue to monitor. Hubble uses three gyros to maximize efficiency but can continue to make science observations with only one gyro. NASA first developed this plan more than 20 years ago, as the best operational mode to prolong Hubble’s life and allow it to successfully provide consistent science with fewer than three working gyros. Hubble previously operated in two-gyro mode, which is negligibly different from one-gyro mode, from 2005-2009. One-gyro operations were demonstrated in 2008 for a short time with no impact to science observation quality.

While continuing to make science observations in one-gyro mode, there are some expected minor limitations. The observatory will need more time to slew and lock onto a science target and won’t have as much flexibility as to where it can observe at any given time. It also will not be able to track moving objects closer than Mars, though these are rare targets for Hubble.

This NASA press release is carefully spun to hide the simple fact that in one-gyro mode, the telescope will simply not be able to take sharp pictures. » Read more

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Research continues to find the COVID jab caused more deaths than it prevented

11:18 am

The rise in excess deaths after the jab arrived
This graph, from CDC research, shows that
the number of excess deaths began skyrocketing
in mid-2022, after the jab was rolled out

Two stories this week both add weight to the growing pile of evidence in the past two years that the COVID jab not only did little to prevent the spread of that flu-like virus, it caused more deaths than it prevented.

First, research from Oxford University in Great Britain that studied more one million children aged 5 to 11 found that only those who got the jab would develop myocarditis and pericarditis.

The study did note that this study recorded no deaths from these heart conditions, but one must wonder what the parents of those young children think about that. You used to have a healthy kid who after getting the jab now has a serious heart condition that certainly has the potential of shortening that child’s life.

While the study found the jab seemed to reduce COVID in adolescents, it made no different for younger children. “Vaccinated children … were not substantially different from unvaccinated children in terms of COVID-19 infection and hospitalization.”

In other words, the jab overall did more harm then good among young children. And the harm was significant.

Next, research in the Netherlands of the continuing rise of excess deaths worldwhile strongly suggests once again that it is the jab itself that might be causing it.
» Read more

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SpaceX now targeting June 6, 2024 for Starship/Superheavy launch

8:58 am

Over the weekend SpaceX announced on X that it has now delayed by one day its targeted date for the fourth orbital test flight of its Starship/Superheavy rocket, from June 5th to June 6th.

No reason was given for the delay, though the company notes on its webpage for the mission that it is still awaiting regulatory approval.

Musk underlined the company’s readiness to launch however with his own tweet on June 2, stating simply that “Starship is ready to fly.”

From the FAA however we still have silence.

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Sunspot update: In May the Sun went boom!

12:43 pm

As I have done at the start of every month since I begun this webpage back in 2010, I am posting NOAA’smonthly update of its graph tracking the number of sunspots on the Sun’s Earth-facing hemisphere, adding to it several additional details to provide some larger context.

While April had showed only a small uptick in sunspot activity, in May the sunspot activity on the Sun went boom, setting a new high for sunspots during this solar maximum as well as the highest sunspot count since September 2002. The sunspot count of 171.7 smashed the previous high of 160 this cycle, set in June 2023. This new high underlined was by the large solar flare on May 9th that sent the most powerful geomagnetic storm to hit the Earth’s magnetic field in many decades, producing spectacular auroras in many low latitudes.
» Read more

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SpaceX completes second Starship/Superheavy dress rehearsal countdown; no launch licence yet from FAA

9:22 am

Though SpaceX has now successfully completed a second Starship/Superheavy dress rehearsal countdown in preparation for its targeted June 5, 2024 launch date, the FAA has still not issued the company a launch licence.

The report at the link is very optimistic about the FAA issuing the license, though there as yet no indication that it will do so.

There are two ways to return to flight. Previously, all Starship mishaps were closed using Path One, which means the FAA accepts a SpaceX-led mishap investigation report, where the operator identifies corrective actions for the vehicle and implements them on future flights.

For this flight, SpaceX chose Path Two, which involves an FAA public safety determination. In this process, the FAA makes a safety determination based on all available information to see if the previous flight involved safety-critical system failures. If successful, a return to flight can be conducted even without the closure of the mishap report.

In a statement to [NASASpaceFlight], the FAA reported: “After a comprehensive review, the FAA determined no public safety issues were involved in the anomaly that occurred during the SpaceX Starship OFT-3 launch on March 14. This public safety determination means the Starship vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation remains open, provided all other license requirements are met.

SpaceX has not yet received FAA license authorization for the next Starship launch.”

We shall see. I suspect the people at the FAA want to issue that license. I also suspect that the White House is demanding the full investigation be completed beforehand.

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Peru and Slovakia sign Artemis Accords

8:52 am

In separate press releases (here and here), NASA today announced that both Peru and Slovakia have signed the Artemis Accords, becoming the 41st and 42nd countries respectively to join the American space alliance.

The alliance now includes these nations: Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, the Ukraine, the United States and Uruguay.

As with all recent Artemis Accord signing announcements under the Biden administration, the focus of the accords is no longer promoting private property and capitalism in space (as they were conceived by the Trump administration). Instead, the focus appears to be a globalist’s dream, as noted as follows in both annoncements:

The United States and seven other nations were the first to sign the Artemis Accords in 2020, which identified an early set of principles promoting the beneficial use of space for all humanity. The accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention, the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices and norms of responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.

Rather than use this alliance as a wedge to overturn the Outer Space Treaty’s restrictions on private property in space, it now appears the alliance is working to strengthen those restrictions, led by the U.S. under the Biden administration.

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Supreme Court votes 9-0 in favor of NRA’s 1st amendment rights

11:38 am

In a major decision today, the Supreme Court voted unanimously that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has the right to sue New York state officials for their campaign of intimidation by threatening private financial organizations if they did business with it.

“Six decades ago, this Court held that a government entity’s ‘threat of invoking legal sanctions and other means of coercion’ against a third party ‘to achieve the suppression’ of disfavored speech violates the First Amendment,” Justice Sonja Sotomayor wrote in the unanimous opinion. “Today, the Court reaffirms what it said then: Government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors. Petitioner National Rifle Association (NRA) plausibly alleges that respondent Maria Vullo did just that. As superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, Vullo allegedly pressured regulated entities to help her stifle the NRA’s pro-gun advocacy by threatening enforcement actions against those entities that refused to disassociate from the NRA and other gun-promotion advocacy groups. Those allegations, if true, state a First Amendment claim.” [emphasis mine]

The ruling allows the NRA lawsuit against Vullo to move forward.

I highlighted Sotomayor’s name because her position here, representing the entire court in favor of the NRA, proves that even the leftist justices at the court are increasingly tired of the abusive and illegal lawfare being waged by the Democratic Party against Republicans and conservatives. The court, from both the right and the left, is telling the Democrats they are exposing themselves to personal liability if they do not stop this misbehavior. The Supreme Court is not going to go along with it, and that includes the leftists on the bench.

This decision also provides us a strong indication of what the Supreme Court will do if and when the various lawfare cases against Donald Trump reach it. In those cases the abuse of the law has been even more clear. Partisan prosecutors like Fani Willis, Alvin Bragg, and Jack Smith, all of whom are misusing the law simply to get a political opponent, are likely not going to be treated nicely by the court.

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Need a kidney transplant? You better be poor according to new DEI proposed rules

12:39 pm

The Biden administration: still dedicated to segregation!
The Biden administration: still dedicated to segregation!

“Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” According to new rules proposed by the Biden administration “to root our racial bias,” a pilot program will favor low-income patients in providing them kidney transplants.

The proposal, which Becerra’s agency announced on May 8, would place 90 of the nation’s 257 transplant hospitals into a pilot program that uses an annual point system to grade participants. Under the system, a successful kidney transplant counts as one point. A transplant furnished to a low-income patient, however, counts as 1.2 points thanks to a “health equity performance adjustment,” thus incentivizing the hospitals to prioritize such patients. At the end of each year, those points are applied to a transplant quota. Hospitals that meet their quota receive as much as $8,000 per transplant; those that don’t may have to pay up to $2,000 per transplant.

While the proposal uses income to categorize patients rather than race, Becerra made clear that the scoring system is meant to address racial concerns. In his statement announcing the proposal, he touted the Biden administration’s “concrete steps to remove racial bias … in the transplant process.”

» Read more

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Pressure from free-speech law firm forces Chase to eliminate language that allowed it debank conservatives

11:57 am

JP Morgan Chase: eager to blacklist you for your opinions
Maybe slightly less eager, but only slightly less

Bring a gun to a knife fight: For reasons that appear related to pressure from the conservative free-speech law firm the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), JPMorgan Chase has eliminated language in its payment services policy statement that allowed it to cancel conservative clients merely because it disliked those clients’ politics.

JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., rolled back its WePay service that required merchants to refrain from accepting payments or using the service for activities related to “social risk issues,” which the bank defined as anything “subject to allegation and impacts related to hate groups, systemic racism, sexual harassment and corporate culture.”

The language was removed from the company’s WePay terms of service, the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF) discovered this month.

For the past three years ADF has issued what it calls its Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index, designed to “measure corporate respect for free speech and religious freedom across 43 performance indicators.” Each year it consults with the 85 corporations on its list in an attempt to get them to eliminate policies that encourage the debanking of conservative individuals or organizations. In the case of Chase, a sustained effort over two years eventually caused the company to remove that language.
» Read more

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Today’s Blacklisted American: To celebrate Memorial Day, a federal official bans the American flag

11:09 am

Brooke Merrell:
Brooke Merrell: Proud to ban the American flag

In another example of the fundamental hostility that federal officials feel for their country, officials at Alaska’s Denali National Park recently told contractors working in the park they were forbidden from flying Old Glory on their trucks and equipment, as construction workers have done for more than a century.

According to the contractor, Denali National Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell contacted the man overseeing the federal highways project, claiming there had been complaints about the U.S. flags, and notifying him that bridge workers must stop flying the stars and stripes from their vehicles because it detracts from the “park experience.”
Denali National Park Superintendent Brooke Merrell

“The trucks are flying these American flags, about a foot atop the trucks, about three-foot by four-foot flags, and they said they don’t want this,” the contractor explained. “They’re saying it isn’t conducive and it doesn’t fit the park experience.”

Up until this week, however, the flags were displayed without incident. It was only when the park began running tour buses that the order was given to take down the flags, he added.

» Read more

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