Archive for 2023
August 7, 2023
IT’S NEVER BEEN ABOUT WHAT AMERICANS WANT: Americans support merit-based college admission practices.
THE NEW SPACE RACE: Elon Musk wants to avoid another ‘rock tornado’ next time Starship launches. SpaceX just tested a way to prevent it.
The new water deluge system is designed to dampen the powerful effects caused by igniting the rocket’s engines during launch. Starship’s massive Super Heavy booster, needed to propel the vehicle into space, has 33 Raptor engines at its base — all of which are meant to fire simultaneously at liftoff.
Read more: SpaceX Starship Has Much Better Chance After Overhaul, Musk Says
The force of igniting so many Raptor engines at once proved to be quite damaging to the launchpad, as SpaceX learned during the first test flight of Starship. Though only 30 Raptor engines were initially ignited, they still caused what SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called a “rock tornado” underneath the launchpad. The launch sent chunks of concrete and debris thousands of feet into the air, damaging the pad and littering the nearby landscape.
To prevent another explosive event, SpaceX’s engineers have been installing steel plates underneath Starship’s launchpad, meant to deflect the immense heat and forces caused by the Raptor engines. Sunday’s test marked the first time that SpaceX attempted to test the deluge system while igniting the engines.
SpaceX didn’t immediately clarify if the ignition test was considered a success, however the host of the livestream, John Insprucker, said after the firing that Starship’s “pad looks good. The launch vehicle looks good.”
Launch pad debris might have been responsible for some of the engine troubles on Starship’s first orbital test flight in April.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Insufferable Soccer Women Will Have to Be Embarrassing at Home. “While I may not be a fan, I did know about the women’s team, largely because of the above-mentioned Ms. Rapinoe’s big mouth. She’s been one of the more tedious woke athletes who mistakenly thinks she understands world affairs enough to weigh in on them. Think Colin Kaepernick with purple hair.”
PUNCH BACK TWICE AS HARD: Robert Kennedy Jr. announces lawsuit against Google for censorship.
ICYMI:
If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill.
No limit.
Please let us know.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2023
Related: Who Can Use Twitter’s Offer of Legal Fees “If You Were Unfairly Treated by Your Employer Due to [Tweets]”? “More people than one might imagine, chiefly because many states, counties, and cities have laws that ban private employers from discriminating against their employees based on certain kinds of speech.”
I’M ENJOYING THE DRAWN-OUT NATURE OF OBERLIN’S SUFFERING: Oberlin College Sues Insurers For Refusing To Cover $36 Million It Paid Gibson’s Bakery For Defamation And Other Torts. “Have you ever rooted for insurance companies ever? There’s a first for everything.”
Does that make me a bad person? No. It makes me a good person. Stupidity and evil should be painful, or why would people (and institutions) change?
BASICALLY, BY BEING AWFUL: How the Democrats lost Florida: Their negligence in the former swing state paved a path for Republican dominance.
Rather than simply making America great again Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, is bent on making America Florida. That rallying-call should send shivers down any Democrat’s spine. In a state that used to swing, today Republicans hold supermajorities in both legislative chambers, control both Senate seats and every statewide executive office. The policies passed in its statehouse this session were some of the most hardline in the country.
In February Mr DeSantis called the Florida Democratic Party (fdp) a “dead, rotten carcass on the side of the road”. His diagnosis was not all wrong. The party that delivered two consecutive wins for Barack Obama is now in disarray, its foot soldiers dejected. “You can put Jesus Christ on the ballot, but if he’s got a ‘d’ next to his name no one in Florida will vote for him,” says one party strategist.
When you ruin every place you rule, people eventually notice.
THE POWER TO TAX IS THE POWER TO DESTROY, AND THAT’S KINDA THE POINT FOR RIGHTS-HATING LEFTIES: Gun-Grabbing Dems Want 1000% Tax on AR-15s.
ICYMI: J.D. VANCE CONFOUNDS EXPECTATIONS:
When J.D. Vance walked into the surgical technology class at Great Oaks Career Campuses, the vo-tech students were steeling themselves for final exams. Yet it turned out to be perfect timing. Vance was only planning to observe the class, but when he noticed that one of the students was anxious about having her blood drawn by her classmate, the Republican senator of Ohio casually removed his suit jacket and offered to take her place. When no objection from the teacher or students materialized, he sat down, rolled up his sleeves, and smiled.
To the clearly nervous student about to stick a needle in his arm, Vance said quietly, “Don’t be nervous. If you have to do it again, it’s fine with me. I am here for you until you get it right.”
The student got it done on the first jab.
The instructor looked at Vance with a broad smile. “Well, that wasn’t something I expected I’d see from you today.”
Confounding expectations is turning into something of a habit for Vance.
I knew him before he was a national figure and I’m not surprised.
DEAL OF THE DAY: Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II. #CommissionEarned
I DARE YOU TO CROSS THIS LINE: Newsom Team Appears Agitated That DeSantis Accepted Debate Challenge.
ROBERT SPENCER: Here’s the Real Game Colin Kaepernick Is Playing. It’s Not Football. “Colin Kaepernick needs the people he no doubt thinks of as the old racists who run the NFL far more than they need him. And he doesn’t need to rejoin the NFL to benefit from them; all he has to do is go through this tired charade every year of appearing to be fit and ready to play.”
THE GREAT HOME-SCHOOLING REVOLUTION:
Is the principal’s reluctance to the visit related to the sharp decline in public school enrollment? Nationally, a growing private school enrollment accounts for nearly 14% of the decrease in public school enrollment, while the increase in home-schooling accounts for 26%.
With Biden’s installation as POTUS, the home-schooling movement has accelerated. COVID-19 played a part at first, but not much of late. In the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 school years home-schooling enrollment has risen by 30% and counting. The movement away from public schooling is burgeoning.
In my state of North Carolina, 23% of all kindergarten through 12th-grade students are enrolled in either a charter school or private school, or study at home, and the percentage increase in these three options is 84% over the last 11 years. Why? Parents want to determine the best educational options for their own children.
If home-schooled students, in the aggregate, were ranked as a school district in North Carolina, they would be the most populous. Moreover, although the population of school-age students in North Carolina increased from 2012 to 2022, the percentage of students who attend public schools declined 4.2%.
Home-schooling, when handled well, is both effective and efficient. Most of the 6-hour day that students spend in traditional school is consumed by activities other than essential learning. Role calls, lunch breaks, walking the halls, and other nonessential classroom activities add up.
Students in a classroom spend less than three hours a day on direct learning. In 4 hours or less, a properly taught home-schooler covers vastly more ground per day than traditional school students do.
All is proceeding as I have foreseen.
ON SUNDAYS I DO A PROMO POST FOR (MOSTLY) INDIE AUTHORS: Book Promo and Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
There is also a vignette writing contest, that I’m afraid has spawned a thousand novels.
THAT’S WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK: NASA Restores Contact With Voyager 2 Spacecraft After Mistake Led to Weeks of Silence.
WE NEED TO FREE OUR DOCTORS OF THE HEAVY HAND OF GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND AMA CERTIFICATION. IF WE WANT TO LIVE: Today’s blacklisted American: Pediatrician fired for raising questions about COVID jab at public meeting.
POOR SCHMUCK CHOSE ONE OF THE STATES IN WHICH THREATENING REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS ISN’T LEGAL: Oklahoma Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening to Kill DeSantis, Other Republican Politicians.
ANOTHER TRIUMPH OF BIDEN FOREIGN POLICY: China, UAE to Hold 1st Joint Air Force Drill Amid Deepening Ties.
SHE KNEW HOW TO GET A GOOD GRIP ON HIS HANDLE: Hunter Biden sold himself as powerbroker when he was actually an easily manipulated low-life: ex-stripper.
IT’S NOT RACISM WHEN IT TARGETS WHITES, RIGHT? Disturbing audio captures anti-racism instructor attacking principal’s ‘white supremacy’ before he killed himself.
WHY DESPOIL OUR PRISTINE NATURAL AREAS WHEN WE CAN STRIP THE THIRD WORLD’S RESOURCES? AND BE DEPENDENT ON CHINA? Biden to block uranium mining on 1M acres around Grand Canyon: report.