THE NEW SPACE RACE: ESA continues talks with NASA on ExoMars cooperation.
Archive for 2022
April 8, 2022
SENSING ONLINE: The Ukraine War just got much, much bigger.
These massacres and casualty levels (on both sides) now mean that a negotiated peace is off the table. For Putin to make such an agreement would be seen by the senior military and civilian Russian leadership as an admission of Putin’s personal failure. And Putin would have to realize that making such a peace would be professionally and possibly personally lethal for him. Russians know good and well that the Czar/General Secretary/President is never the one who fails the country, ever. If Putin accepted a negotiated peace, everyone else within the senior reaches of government and the military would know that the scapegoating purges would come quickly. And Putin knows that they would know that. Who would act decisively first – Putin and his inner, purge-immune circle, or the intended victims?
As for Zelensky, to negotiate a peace with invaders who have mass murdered his people on repeated occasions would also be an admission of failure. Unlike Russia, he would likely remain in office until the end of his term, and even if he was forced out, his exit would have the façade not of disgrace, but of an exhausted hero of world significance, to whom the nation owes its everlasting gratitude.
Until a point, that is, And that point is if the war simply drags on. Putin cannot relent. Ukraine now must win. Before now, all Ukraine had to do was not lose, but that is no longer good enough. Now it must eject Russia from the country, and not slowly. But Putin cannot allow his army to be so defeated.
Plus: “The very difficult and very uncertain task before Europe and the United States now is to manage the war to keep it inside Ukraine.”
WATCH OUT, STANDARD MODEL: Shock result in particle experiment could spark physics revolution.
FASTER, PLEASE: Rejuvenation of woman’s skin could tackle diseases of ageing. “The head of the team, Prof Wolf Reik, of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, told BBC News that he hoped that the technique could eventually be used to keep people healthier for longer as they grow older.”
But don’t get too excited: “The technique cannot immediately be translated to the clinic because the IPS method increases the risk of cancers. But Prof Reik was confident that now it was known that it is possible to rejuvenate cells, his team could find an alternative, safer method.”
BECAUSE THE CENSORSHIP HAS MADE IT SO PLEASANT ALREADY. “With Musk on the board, the employees said his views on moderation could weaken years-long efforts to make Twitter a place of healthy discourse, and might allow trolling and mob attacks to flourish.” Might we see some evidence of the success of this project so far? Because all I hear are complaints that the supposed abuses are worse than ever.
“I THINK WHAT THE FBI DID IS UNCONSCIONABLE:” Jury declines to convict defendants in Michigan Gov. Whitmer kidnapping trial.
MODIFIED LIMITED HANGOUT? Declassified Pentagon documents discuss UFOs causing “unaccounted-for pregnancies:” The reports reveal details from an array of alleged UFO encounters, with varying degrees of plausibility.
The Pentagon documents state that people who observed unidentified flying objects frequently displayed a cluster of similar physical symptoms: Injuries consistent with exposure to electromagnetic radiation (such as burns), heart ailments, and sleep disturbances. A report speculates that these could be caused by “energy related propulsion systems” and warns that the underlying technology could pose a “threat to United States interests.” Additionally, in cases that would not seem out of place in an “X-Files” episode, there were accounts of “apparent abduction” and “unaccounted for pregnancy.”
Well, where do you think Bat-Child came from?
FIGHT THE POWER: Shanghai at the Breaking Point?
The quick and dirty version for latecomers: China’s biggest city undertook what was supposed to a brief, temporary lockdown last week to stem an outbreak of Omicron. Half the city would shut down for five days and undergo mass testing, then the other half would do the same. Those testing positive would be whisked away to centralized quarantine to prevent them from infecting others. That was supposed to uproot most of the viral vectors in Shanghai; if anyone tested positive after that, they could be contained via “targeted” lockdowns of their apartment complex or neighborhood.
It hasn’t worked out. Today the city is reporting more than 20,000 positive tests, a record high. The brief, temporary lockdown has become indefinite. Because the entire population is stuck at home, there’s no way to get food except via delivery. And because everyone is ordering delivery, the odds that you’ll be lucky enough to land in the queue are slim.
People are starving and claustrophobic and there’s no end in sight, of necessity. On the one hand, China can’t afford to lift restrictions. Its health-care system can’t cope with the likely number of infections and deaths if the virus were to spread freely, and Xi Jinping won’t want to admit that his “zero COVID” policy was in error at a moment when he’s up for a third term as president. On the other hand, China can’t afford not to lift restrictions. Unrest in the city is growing and the Chinese economy needs Shanghai, a financial powerhouse, to be back online.
It’s getting real and tempers are flaring, as this CNN clip demonstrates. Stick around to the end or you’ll miss a quarantine worker beating an infected man’s dog to death for . . . reasons. . . .
At some point, the fact that the Chinese Communist Party shut down its biggest city in furtherance of an unsustainable COVID policy and forgot to figure out a way to feed people before doing so will create certain … perceptions about the leadership’s wisdom and competence. Maybe we’re at that point already.
Like Putin, Xi is in a war he can’t really win, but can’t afford to end.
ACADEMY BANS WILL SMITH FROM OSCARS FOR 10 YEARS: “There have been calls from industry insiders and moviegoers for Smith’s Oscar to be taken back, which the Oscars have no legal authority to claim. To compare, convicted criminals Harvey Weinstein and director Roman Polanski still hold their Oscars following their expulsions.”
WELL, DAVID HOGG: Libertarians Lulz at David Hogg’s Expense.
THEY DID THIS TO LIMBAUGH, TOO: Democratic Influencers, Media Figures Spread Fake Tucker Carlson Quote. “Those who scream and shout the loudest about stopping misinformation have no issue spreading it themselves when it benefits their cause. For all of Twitter’s promises to fight misinformation, the fabricated quote remains online without a disclaimer, as of this writing.”
IN SOLIDARITY, I TOO WILL NOT BE ATTENDING THE OSCARS FOR THE NEXT DECADE: Will Smith Banned from Attending Oscars Ceremony and Academy Events for 10 Years.
FORMER REDDIT CEO ELLEN PAO: WE’RE DOOMED IF ELON MUSK DIALS BACK TWITTER CENSORSHIP. I was going to submit that this might be the dumbest thing ever written, but that’s not fair. There is no way she actually believes stuff like this:
Musk’s appointment to Twitter’s board shows that we need regulation of social-media platforms to prevent rich people from controlling our channels of communication… The people who benefit from unrestricted amplification of their views will also be the same people who have benefited from that privilege for centuries.
Yeah, because rich and powerful people (like Musk, who could just buy Twitter outright if he wanted) were the people who had trouble getting their message out before free speech was a thing. All of this argument for social media censorship of “dangerous” viewpoints is an establishment snow job. The target of the censorship is John and Jane Q. Public. Anyone who says it’s not is lying.
STILL POPULAR: Garage Light – LED Garage Light 2 Pack – 8000LM Glare-Free 360° Illuminator Garage Light.#CommissionEarned
EVERYBODY IS GOING TO GET COVID: ‘Frankenstein’ Omicron subvariant XE detected in UK, India and Thailand. “It’s unclear whether XE causes more severe illness or evades vaccines, though early data suggests that it may be more transmissible than earlier forms of the Omicron virus.”
THIS ISN’T NEW, TED TAYLOR HAD SHAPED NUCLEAR CHARGES THAT WOULD BLOW A HOLE THROUGH OVER A HALF-MILE OF ROCK: Chinese tests show nuclear bunkers are not what they used to be, with earth-penetrating weapons on the rise. And that was 50 years ago. Likewise, it’s been known for a long time that the Cheyenne Mountain facility should have been put under the mountain, not inside it.
At any rate, bunkers were more useful before precision guidance. Now you want dispersed and/or mobile command and control.
KEVIN DOWNEY JR: History 101: The Left Is Awakening a ‘Sleeping Giant.’ “Now is the time for conservatives to get LOUD. The battle against Marxism is ON, and it’s going very well for us. Now is the time to step on the gas, NOT the brakes. It’s time for all of us to go to a school board meeting, demand answers, and stop voting for RINOs like Mitt Romney.”
ACADEMIA, GENERALLY SPEAKING, DOESN’T MUCH LIKE ABLE-BODIED WHITE MEN: Jamie Sarkonak: Why Canadian universities are blocking able-bodied white men from some positions. “When inclusion turns into active exclusion, it isn’t fair anymore.”
At this point, I’m pretty sure active exclusion was the goal all along.
A FRIEND COMMENTS THAT WE DON’T EVEN HAVE A GOOD SOLUTION TO HAIR LOSS, BUT SURE, LET’S WORRY ABOUT LIVING FOREVER: Billionaires want to abolish death. But do we really want to live forever? I’ll settle for an extension of healthspan, and lifespan, of 10 or 20 years at present. Of course, even eliminating aging doesn’t mean living forever, it just means dying, probably later, of something else.
A more realistic timetable: Humans could live up to 150 years, new study claims.
FASTER, PLEASE — THE RUSSIANS AND UKRAINIANS AREN’T THE ONLY ONES RUNNING OUT OF GEAR: US Army initiates plan to replace Stingers with next-gen interceptor. “The request for information to industry for a new surface-to-air missile for the Army’s SHORAD system comes as the Pentagon has been sending Javelin and Stinger missiles to Ukraine to help it fight the ongoing Russian invasion. But even as the Army considers that version of the Stinger obsolete, senior defense officials are discussing with industry how production might be ramped up.”
I THINK DATA AND OPERATIONAL/TACTICAL INTELLIGENCE FROM WESTERN POWERS HAVE HELPED HUGELY: How technology, both old and new, has shaped the war in Ukraine so far.
EXTORTION: 9-Year-Old Ohio Boy Denied Kidney Transplant Because Father Is Unvaccinated. “They tried explaining to the clinic that Dane Donaldson had recovered from COVID-19 and therefore has natural immunity—even presenting results from a T Detect test, which measures the T cell immune response to SARS-CoV-2—but their rationale fell on deaf ears.”