SPACE: Saturn’s moon Enceladus is shooting out organic molecules that could help create life. “The discovery of these organic molecules (‘organic’ meaning they contain carbon) strengthens the case for the icy moon Enceladus being of astrobiological interest. In 2005, Cassini discovered that plumes of water vapor were spraying into space from huge fissures in Enceladus’ surface. These fissures are believed to lead to a subsurface ocean within the 310-mile-wide (500-kilometer-wide) moon of Saturn, and it is this ocean that provides the water for the plumes. While some of the material from the plumes snows back onto the surface of Enceladus, most of it escapes into space where it forms a diffuse ring, called the E-ring, encircling Saturn at a greater distance from the planet than most of the rest of its system of rings.”
Archive for 2025
October 2, 2025
IT’S MY THURSDAY ESSAY FOR VIP SUBSCRIBERS: Why We Love Our Dogs — and How We Say Goodbye.
READER FAVORITE: True Classic Men’s T-Shirts. #CommissionEarned
THE FIRST THING LEFTIES DO IS CONCENTRATE POWER AND ELIMINATE RIVALS: Zohran Mamdani wants to strip power from NYPD commissioner — revoking final say on officer discipline. “Mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani wants to strip the NYPD commissioner’s power to discipline officers, giving the final say to the force’s civilian oversight board — that the lefty pol and his comrades would have a major hand in picking.”
HOLLYWOOD IN TOTO: Why The Shining Never Loses Its Shock Value.
There is a great deal of mystery to many scenes, but the film offers riches of subtext and interpretations to ponder. More importantly, it’s hugely entertaining, hypnotic and an intensely terrifying work of art. Kubrick’s film holds its secrets close to the vest, but few films this influential are still so potent.
There’s a noteworthy sequence at the midpoint, where Wendy hears Jack murmuring loudly from a nightmare. She runs to him down vast hallways and the camera tracks with her; as she sprints down a seemingly endless series of turns and corners, the viewer feels trapped.
Like a mouse in a maze or Wendy and her son in the hotel’s maze, the audience begins to share their sense of isolation. The Overlook Hotel is grand and spacious, but Kubrick strangely gives us the feel of claustrophobia.
Once Wendy reaches Jack, he awakens from a horrible dream, which is described in a tortured, regretful manner. This scene may be key to Nicholson’s brilliantly stylized performance. From the first moment we meet Jack, he seems meek, holding back the figurative demons that have plagued him from alcoholism and physically harming his son.
It appears The Overlook is possessing Jack since he first walked through the front door. Jack’s recollection of his nightmare to Wendy is a moment of clarity and empathy breaking through. Soon thereafter, his possession grows, and he again seems to be wearing a mask of sanity.
Nicholson’s work ranges from understated and darkly comic to theatrically broad. It always works.
Having been an absolute Kubrick obsessive in college, not surprisingly, I’ve seen The Shining loads of times on every video media, but I hadn’t seen it on the big screen until about 15 years ago, when it played around Halloween at the Cinemark in San Jose’s Santana Row, and I went with my wife. I eventually noticed that we were watching two entirely different movies. She was terrified by the plot and the film’s creepy tension; I was chuckling at a subversive deconstruction of a horror movie that contained some of Stanley and Jack’s greatest hits: News Flash: The Shining Is Actually A Comedy.
(Though my wife totally concurred with James Lileks, who once wrote about the film’s “biggest question of all: why did it require going to a mountain resort and spending time in evil isolation to make him take an axe to Shelley Duvall? I’d have been tempted on day two of the marriage.”)
THIS IS CNN: Jane Fonda Ties CNN To Anti-Trump Hollywood Group, And Dana Bash Is All In.
Jane Fonda: I’ve come up with a slogan for our Hollywood resistance group that uses the acronym 'CNN.'
Dana Bash: We’ll take it!
Jane Fonda: Good. I knew you would.
This is CNN. pic.twitter.com/2nUnZMMNYa
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) October 1, 2025
It’s not at all surprising that a CNN newsreader would immediately eschew even a scintilla of objectivity and declare, “we’ll take it,” given that CNN has never met a limousine leftist it didn’t admire.
Fonda’s “a modern-day force in Democratic politics,” according to the L.A. Times. But she was of course, she’s been a force in the Democratic party for decades prior:
DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: Study finds moon’s far side may be colder than near side.
HMM: F-117s Spotted While Refueling from KC-46.
The photos were shared on X by freelance news photojournalist Matt Hartman, who kindly allowed us to include them in this article. These are possibly the first photos of the KC-46 refueling the F-117 since the announcement of the certification effort.
In fact, as we reported in September 2024 here at The Aviationist, the U. S. Air Force was planning to certify the F-117A Nighthawk to be able to refuel from the KC-46A Pegasus. Although the F-117 was officially retired in 2008, the stealth jet continued to fly unofficially from Tonopah Test Range (TTR) airfield in Nevada, and the service’s current plan is to keep the aircraft flying at least until 2034.
This is far from the first time that the “retired” attack jets have been spotted in the air.
PHYSICAL GRAFFITI:
Welcome to Gavin Newsom’s CA. pic.twitter.com/JMByknUbOP
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) October 2, 2025
THIS IS ALREADY WELL UNDERWAY:
It’s an interesting thesis: that ‘progressive politics’ is increasingly indifferent to electoral outcomes because they have such a big trough to feed out of regardless of whether or not they’re in power.
In this way, perhaps libs’ most important product is the ideological slop… https://t.co/89VVlQCoXD
— Coddled Affluent Professional (@feelsdesperate) October 2, 2025
HOW’S THAT OBAMACARE WORKING OUT FOR YOU? Average marketplace health insurance cost on track to double, KFF says.
DISPATCHES FROM THE DOOM GOBLIN: Israeli military arrests Greta Thunberg, flotilla activists after intercepting dozens of boats.
Israeli naval forces intercepted 39 vessels from a Gaza-bound aid flotilla on Thursday, detaining dozens of activists — including international climate activist Greta Thunberg and several European lawmakers, The Associated Press reported.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which set out across the Mediterranean with more than 40 boats carrying about 500 activists, was the largest yet to attempt to break Israel’s blockade of the enclave, according to the AP.
The flotilla has since been reduced to a single vessel still headed toward Gaza. Organizers with the Global Sumud Flotilla said on X that the boat was last tracked only a few miles off Gaza’s coast before contact was lost. Activists told the AP that they believed the flotilla’s size would make it harder for Israeli forces to intercept every vessel.
Photos and surveillance footage captured the moment Israeli soldiers in helmets and night vision goggles boarded the flotilla. A photo from Israel’s foreign ministry showed Thunberg, the most prominent of the flotilla’s passengers, accompanied by soldiers following the interception. Israeli officials said those detained included Thunberg, former Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau and European Parliament member Rima Hassan, according to the AP.
Israel’s foreign ministry said on X that the activists were “safe and in good health” and would be transferred to Israel to be deported to Europe.
But not before they tossed their smartphones overboard while their ship was being boarded:
Greta and her friends just casually hurling electronic waste into the ocean is a perfect metaphor for the depth of their convictions https://t.co/NNLJF6MSxB
— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) October 2, 2025
But, how dare they!
Related: Israel to deport intercepted flotilla activists, including Greta Thunberg, to Europe.
THE BEEB IS AN ISLAMIST PROTECTION RACKET: BBC Hints ‘Far Right’, Not Islamism, Responsible for Synagogue Attack.
THIS MUST BE WHY LEFTISTS HATE THEM: McDonald’s Abundance Serves the World. “In 1948, entry-level workers were earning around 66 cents an hour. A 19 cent cheeseburger would cost them around 17.4 minutes. Today they’re $1.99 and entry-level food service workers are earning $18.67 an hour, putting the time price at 6.4 minutes. The time price has dropped by 63 percent: You get 2.7 cheeseburgers today for the time price of one in 1948.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK: Pressure builds for Sliwa to follow Eric Adams in exiting NYC mayoral race.
Cuomo’s camp wants Sliwa to follow Adams, which could give the former governor the best chance against Mamdani. However, Sliwa has opposed efforts to get him to drop out.
“I don’t surrender,” Sliwa said at a campaign stop earlier this week in response to pressure for him to exit the race. “I don’t retreat.”
Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, a nonprofit organization focused on unarmed crime prevention, said he has received large bribes to drop out, but he has declined them and threatened to name names if the offers continue. However, public pressure has continued to mount, especially from the Cuomo campaign and the former governor’s supporters.
Former independent candidate Jim Walden framed Sliwa’s possibly dropping out as “saving New York.”
Face with a terrible choice, a less terrible choice, and a Republican, a large plurality of New Yorkers seem determined to go with the terrible choice.
“DID I CALL IT, OR WHAT?” -GEORGE ORWELL, SUPPOSEDLY:
The part of Orwell's 1984 that everyone forgets is how human music has been replaced by soulless, machine-generated pop songs. The AI attempt to take over the film and music industries is an attack on the human spirit. Boycott AI actors. Boycott AI bands. Support human artists. https://t.co/NxTbyAXayD pic.twitter.com/AiyfD6vkMq
— Boze the Library Owl 😴🧙♀️ (@SketchesbyBoze) October 1, 2025
FINALLY: Senate Confirms Hung Cao to Serve as Under Secretary of the Navy.
UPDATE:
This was one of the best campaign ads in history. Hung Cao has been confirmed as Under Secretary of the Navy. Of course, Democrats voted against this extraordinary American. https://t.co/wjeHvEootO
— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) October 2, 2025
SPOILER: IT’S RUBIO. The Man Who Is Keeping Dictators — and the MSM — Up at Night.
HMM: 10-year Treasury yield falls after surprise decline in private payrolls, government shutdown.
Treasury yields fell Wednesday after new data showed a surprise decline in private payrolls, while traders monitored the consequences of the government shutdown after lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on the federal funding bill.
Separately, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can keep her job as a voting member of the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee pending January’s oral arguments to decide if the president has the legal authority to remove her from office.
Numbers out Wednesday continued to show a softening jobs market. Private payrolls declined by 32,000 in September, according to ADP. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected an increase of 45,000. August payrolls were also revised to show a loss of 3,000, reversing initial data that showed a 54,000 increase.
So we recently learned that a million jobs created in Biden’s last year were imaginary, and now this — and the best the Fed can do is a measly quarter point cut?
MORE NUKES IS GOOD NUKES:
The best thing to do with excess weapons plutonium is obviously to convert it to electricity in nuclear reactors. Plutonium is a better fuel than HALEU.
If it helps, think of the nuclear reactors as Mount Doom, and the plutonium as the one ring. The only way to destroy it is in… https://t.co/ebjmpFGxIv
— Nick Touran (@whatisnuclear) October 1, 2025
And a good “Lord of the Rings” reference is always welcome, too.