THE NEW SPACE RACE: Rocket Lab readies launch of seven satellites from New Zealand. If it weren’t for SpaceX, everyone would be oohing and aahing over Rocket Lab’s achievements, which are actually quite impressive.
Archive for 2023
July 13, 2023
BIDEN’S SBA CHIEF THUMBS NOSE AT HOUSE: Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Isabella Guzman just happened to have to be in New York today instead of appearing before a House Small Business Committee hearing to examine why her staff found only $36 billion in waste and fraud in her agency’s $1.2 trillion in Pandemic relief spending, while the SBA Inspector General found an estimated $200 billion (and it could be even higher, much, much higher, he told the committee).
HMM: Biden: Ordering the Selected Reserve and Certain Members of the Individual Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces to Active Duty. “For the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility.”
“Operation Atlantic Resolve” is the catchall name for the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
More here: Biden signs order to call up 3,000 troops for Operation Atlantic Resolve in Europe.
UPDATE: Meanwhile, back home it’s a clown show as usual.
Biden's Army Secretary Doesn't Want 2nd Gen Military Recruits for Fear of a "Warrior Caste". Her plans seek to draw in people who have no real connection to the military and to broaden the appeal of service. ~ @Sultanknish https://t.co/Qt37d7fgye
— Ginny (@ginthegin) July 13, 2023
AI KEEPS GETTING BETTER, PEOPLE STAY THE SAME: Google’s New Chatbot Passed The US Medical Exam (But Only Just).
Actually, there’s some evidence that people are getting dumber, so it’ll be that much easier to close the gap.
EPSTEIN-BARR DID NOT COMMIT SUICIDE. BUT I WISH IT HAD. How Can a Common Virus Cause Multiple Sclerosis? New Study Explains.
21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Real Photo Disqualified From Photography Contest For Being AI.
A genuine picture taken on an iPhone was thrown out of a photography competition after the judges suspected that it was generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
Suzi Dougherty had captured a striking photo of her son with two smartly-dressed mannequins in an intriguing pose while visiting a Gucci exhibition. Happy with her creation, she entered it into a photo competition.
Dougherty didn’t think much more of it until a friend showed her an Instagram post declaring her photo ineligible because the competition’s organizers suspected it to be an AI image.
“I wouldn’t even know how to do an AI photo,” Dougherty tells The Guardian. “I’m just getting my head around ChatGPT.”
There will be much more of this — and the reverse — going forward. (The photo looks like a chavs meets psychedelia remake of The Shining. Which AI will probably generate as well eventually.)
UNEXPECTEDLY: Veteran feds cry foul on White House cocaine probe: ‘This is a cover-up.’
The conclusion of an 11-day Secret Service probe that failed to find which White House staff member or visitor left cocaine in the West Wing looks like a whitewash, former federal investigators told The Post Thursday.
“This is a cover-up. How can they say they have no leads?” one ex-agent said. “It is a restricted area and they have a log book, you don’t have to be Columbo to figure out who was there.
“Suppose it was anthrax,” the same person raged. “Would they have the same answer?”
“We have a tale of two countries,” another former fed said. “They identified hundreds of people who were in the Capitol building on Jan. 6 after an extensive investigation, but they don’t know who left something in an 8 x 10 room in the White House?”
The Secret Service concluded its inquiry Thursday without identifying a suspect, citing “a lack of physical evidence” after FBI forensic testing yielded no fingerprints and insufficient DNA evidence.
In accordance with the prophecy: DC Police Say They May Never Discover Who Left Bag Of Cocaine Labeled ‘Property Of H. Biden’ At White House.
—The Babylon Bee, one week ago.
“PRESIDENTIAL SIGNATURE REQUIREMENTS AS A TOOL FOR ENFORCING DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY“: This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 require that regulations issued pursuant to those statutes be signed by the President. I believe those laws mean what they say. This was a very deliberate effort by Congress to insure accountability. Yet a number of regulations issued under those statutes have NOT been signed by the President. Now Alison Somin has written about the issue. Good for her.
MIND, BLOWN: So wait, more people are playing pickleball and more people are suffering pickleball injuries?. What could account for this crazy coincidence?
FEDERAL WORKER UNIONS LOSE ONLY 1 PERCENT OF EMPLOYEE COMPLAINTS: It’s a new study by Americans for Fair Treatment (AFFT) of 1,211 government employee complaints filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) against their unions. The FLRA upheld the unions 99 percent of the time between December 2015 and December 2022. No bias here!
Speaking of 99 percent, that’s just a tad more than the percentage of campaign contributions from federal employee unions like the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) that went to Democrats in 2022.
FLASHBACK: James Lileks: “The West is a set of ideas that need defending. Forgive us our passable wines; forgive our standardized veal. Forgive us our simple-mindedness, for we – from Alabama on outward to outer, distant Alabama and beyond – have a gut feeling that ‘quarrels’ usually boil down to two sides. Forgive us for believing that fascism’s side ought to lose.”
But now it runs our corporations, our universities, and much of our government.
READER FAVORITE: 15 Pieces Damascus Kitchen Knife Set. #CommissionEarned
ANTI-GREENHOUSE GASSES: Guest at RFK Jr. Press Dinner Silences Climate-Alarmist With a Single Fart.
MEANWHILE, YOU’RE EXPECTED TO OWN NOTHING, GO NOWHERE, AND EAT BUGS: Private jets are descending on a small-town airport as the ‘summer camp for billionaires’ kicks off.
KRUISER: Now I Know: Losing a Pet Doesn’t Get Easier With Age.
Matt Margolis: Saying Goodbye to My Sweet Pup, Zuzu.
PJ Media is staffed almost (?) entirely by pet lovers, and it’s been a tough week.
SPACE: A new, thin-lensed telescope design could far surpass James Webb – goodbye mirrors, hello diffractive lenses. “Almost all space telescopes, including Hubble and Webb, collect light using mirrors. Our proposed telescope, the Nautilus Space Observatory, would replace large, heavy mirrors with a novel, thin lens that is much lighter, cheaper and easier to produce than mirrored telescopes. Because of these differences, it would be possible to launch many individual units into orbit and create a powerful network of telescopes.”
Camera makers like Canon and Nikon have been using diffractive elements in certain lenses to make them smaller and lighter while maintaining excellent optical quality. There’s no reason the same approach couldn’t work for space telescopes — where every gram lifted to orbit counts.
SKYNET WRIGGLES: This magnetic robot could worm its way into human blood vessels.
ZUCK HASN’T EXACTLY BEEN HITTING HOME RUNS LATELY: Mark Zuckerberg’s Threads? The app is vapid, boring and destined to fail.
IT’S DIFFICULT WHEN YOU DON’T REALLY TRY: Dope Show: Secret Service ‘Can’t Find’ Owner of White House White Horse.
SKYNET SMILES, STARTS WORK ON SEXBOTS: Report: Robots with artificial intelligence might offer real human companionship.
Related: AI and the Screwfly Succession.
DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: Problem: Austin PD Is Down 500 Officers. Austin City Council Solution: Fire DPS.
HUNT THEM, DON’T KISS THEM: Study finds deer spread COVID-19 back to humans.
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT: Why Costco Unleashing the ‘Death Star’ on Bud Light Is Even Worse Than You Think.