READER FAVORITE: 10-Minute Strength Training Exercises for Seniors: Exercises and Routines to Build Muscle, Balance, and Stamina. #CommissionEarned
Archive for 2024
August 13, 2024
SPRINGTIME FOR HARRIS: Tim Walz called Hitler-promoting cleric a ‘master teacher’ at Islamic center event.
ERIC BERGER: I trust NASA’s safety culture this time around, and so should you.
If it does not precisely repeat itself, history certainly echoes. Two decades after Columbia, Starliner is presently docked to the International Space Station. As with foam strikes, issues with reaction-control system thrusters are not unique to this flight; they were also observed during the previous test flight in 2022. So once again, engineers at NASA are attempting to decide whether they can be comfortable with a “known” issue and all of its implications for a safe return to Earth.
NASA is the customer for this mission rather than the operator—the space agency is buying transportation services to the International Space Station for its astronauts from Boeing. However, as the customer, NASA still has the final say. Boeing engineers will have input, but the final decisions will be made by NASA engineers such as Steve Stich, Ken Bowersox, and Jim Free. Ultimately, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson could have the final say.
Decision-makers today have some decided advantages over their predecessors for Columbia. Whereas the shuttle had made dozens of successful flights by 2003, Starliner remains very much in its test and development phase. Therefore, it’s difficult to fall into the “we’ve seen this before” trap. Additionally, whereas the shuttle had a limited lifetime in orbit due to fuel cells and other consumables, mission managers have the luxury of studying Starliner’s issues not over a matter of days but over weeks and even months.
Finally, in a massive change from 2003, NASA managers have a readily available back-up option to get the crew home: the reliable Crew Dragon spacecraft.
I wonder if the existence of Crew Dragon influenced NASA’s decision to go ahead with Starliner’s extended-stay crew flight test, despite one failed unmanned test and a second flight test that, while successful, had issues with the maneuvering thrusters.
ARE FACULTY SALARIES REALLY TOO LOW? I don’t know, but I do know this: they are not going up at anywhere near the rate of tuition. So where’s the money going? (Reminds me of doctors–medical costs skyrocket, but doctors’ salaries sure don’t. Who’s taking the dang money?)
THE EMPTY PANT SUIT IN THE OVAL OFFICE? Remember when then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said of Obamacare that Congress would have to pass before taxpayers could actually find out what the law contained? Something about the Kamala Harris campaign today reminds the Issues & Insights guys of that Pelosi quote.
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BUT DAVID PLOUFFE IS BACK AND DOING ALL HE CAN TO REPEAT THE OBAMA MAGIC FROM 2008: No, Harris Is Not the Frontrunner… Yet.
THAT WOULD COME IN HANDY: New Mars study suggests an ocean’s worth of water may be hiding beneath the red dusty surface.
This water — believed to be seven miles to 12 miles down in the Martian crust — most likely would have seeped from the surface billions of years ago when Mars harbored rivers, lakes and possibly oceans, according to the lead scientist, Vashan Wright of the University of California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Just because water still may be sloshing around inside Mars does not mean it holds life, Wright said.
“Instead, our findings mean that there are environments that could possibly be habitable,” he said in an email.
His team combined computer models with InSight readings including the quakes’ velocity in determining underground water was the most likely explanation. The results appeared Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
If InSight’s location at Elysium Planitia near Mars’ equator is representative of the rest of the red planet, the underground water would be enough to fill a global ocean a mile or so deep, Wright said.
Are we looking at the future site of Elon City?
DON SURBER: The Great Walz of China.
KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: X Rated — Trump Triggers All the Right People In Interview With Musk. “Trump and his supporters were due a breath of fresh air after a couple of weeks of choking on the noxious fumes created by the horse manure produced by the media rebranding of Kamala Harris.”
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: You can tell it’s a working-class election by Harris and Walz’s choice of lies.
MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS: This new Hamas chief signals more war, not less for Gaza. “Unlike Haniyeh, who was based in Qatar, and acted as Hamas’s chief representative abroad, Sinwar has been based in Gaza since his release from an Israeli prison in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange. In Gaza, Sinwar, whom the U.S. designated a terrorist in 2015, served as Hamas’s politburo from 2013 until 2017, when he became the movement’s leader in Gaza. Sinwar is one of Hamas’s longtime military commanders. Israel regards him as the ultimate mastermind of Operation al-Aqsa Flood.”
ALL SORTS OF PEOPLE ARE ANGRY THAT TRUMP IS ALLOWED TO SPEAK, UNCENSORED: Here’s the Unhinged Email Sent by the Harris Campaign Attacking Elon Musk’s Trump Interview.
There was a time when that would have been thought unAmerican. Anyway, it was hardly Hitler stuff, though of course it never is.
President Trump has now been speaking with Elon Musk for an hour and a half.
They've talked about the economy, the border, foreign policy, artificial intelligence, nuclear war, education, you name it.
Kamala, meanwhile, still has not even released a platform or spoken off…
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 13, 2024
Plus, truth:
TRUMP: "Kamala wouldn't have this conversation. She can't! Because she's not smart…Biden…? He would've given up in the first half of a question…He would've said where am I? Where am I going?" pic.twitter.com/BMgXdCftUZ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 13, 2024
GASLIGHTING 101: Liberal Media Scream: PBS anchor falsely claims ‘no evidence’ of Walz’s stolen valor.
Just the paperwork, statements from his fellow soldiers, commander, and chaplain. . . .
I WOULD SAY DON’T TELL THEM, BUT IT’S NOT LIKE THEY LISTEN TO ANYTHING WE SAY: Trump on X Taps Into a Voting Bloc That Legacy Media Doesn’t Even Know Exists. “So far, over 30 million people (and counting) have already plugged into Trump’s X conversation with Musk.”
I am amazed how these young girls who pretend at journalism so easily dismiss the voting bloc that don't bother to watch CNN or The Spew. https://t.co/fjM5BYv2PQ
— Jennifer Oliver O'Connell (@asthegirlturns) August 12, 2024
MEANWHILE, OVER AT VODKAPUNDIT [VIP]: This Tim Walz ‘Stolen Valor’ Story Will Have You in Tears.
THEY’RE TWO-FACED, BUT ONLY ONE OF THOSE FACES IS REAL: ‘I Might Have to School Them a Little Bit’: Embattled Democratic Rep. Susan Wild Smears Conservative Constituents in Private While Publicly Embracing Moderate Views.
FORTUNATELY THIS IS NOT A REPUBLICAN ON DEMOCRAT CRIME, OR IT WOULD SURELY BE AN ASSAULT ON OUR DEMOCRACY, RIGHT? Burglary at Trump campaign Virginia headquarters caught on surveillance camera under investigation.
If they didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all.
IF IRAN ATTACKS TODAY: The Lid’s Jeff Dunetz explains the significance of Tisha B’ Av, a dark day indeed in the long history of the Jewish people.
SCIENCE: Three Studies of MDMA Treatment Retracted by Scientific Journal.
The journal Psychopharmacology has retracted three papers about MDMA-assisted therapy based on what the publication said was unethical conduct at one of the study sites where the research took place.
Several of the papers’ authors are affiliated with Lykos Therapeutics, the drug company whose application for MDMA-assisted therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder was rejected last week by the Food and Drug Administration.
The company said the research in the retracted papers was not part of its application to the F.D.A.
In declining to approve Lykos’s application, the agency cited concerns about missing data and problems with the way the company’s study was designed, according to a statement released by Lykos on Friday.
The F.D.A. has asked Lykos to conduct an additional clinical trial of its MDMA-assisted therapy, which would have been the first psychedelic medicine to win approval by federal regulators. Lykos has said it would appeal the decision.
It’s a shame this didn’t pan out because it’s been 24 years and two long wars since the last PTSD treatment was approved.
THIS REMAINS AN ENTIRELY THEORETICAL QUESTION: What Would Ruthless Republicans Do?