vxbush 1/9/2024 5:59:14 AM

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Wow--another great breakfast photograph, JCM!

vxbush 1/9/2024 6:14:19 AM

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vxbush 1/9/2024 6:19:33 AM

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vxbush 1/9/2024 6:22:23 AM

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Well, well, well.....

District Attorney Fani Willis improperly hired an alleged romantic partner to prosecute Donald Trump and financially benefited from their relationship, according to a court motion filed Monday which argued the criminal charges in the case were unconstitutional.

The bombshell public filing alleged that special prosecutor Nathan Wade, a private attorney, paid for lavish vacations he took with Willis using the Fulton County funds his law firm received. County records show that Wade, who has played a prominent role in the election interference case, has been paid nearly $654,000 in legal fees since January 2022. The DA authorizes his compensation.

Gosh. Opportunistic much?

Occasional Reader 1/9/2024 6:24:49 AM

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vxbush 1/9/2024 6:27:08 AM

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vxbush 1/9/2024 6:28:59 AM

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Damn: America’s first lunar lander in a half-century won’t reach the Moon

I keep hoping someone will be able to effect a fix in space, but that seems far-fetched at this time.

Occasional Reader 1/9/2024 6:43:30 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 7:

If you traveled back in time to. say, 1973, and informed people that 50 years in the future, we're "trying" to return to the Moon, they'd assume we had fought a nuclear war, or undergone some other massive disaster. 

JCM 1/9/2024 7:08:34 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

I'm tax exempting my travel for the pictures!

/s

JCM 1/9/2024 7:09:29 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 6:

Dear New Republic.

That's the point.

JCM 1/9/2024 7:13:05 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 7:

It is still rocket science. I feel sorry for the Peregrine team.

After Apollo NASA rested on its laurels instead moving on to the next thing.

The Shuttle was everything. And no replacement every planned.

SLS / Artemis is just a bunch of reused parts cobbled together under a congress jobs program to avoid a space brain drain.

JCM 1/9/2024 7:14:59 AM

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UW Huskies lost in the Championship.

The QB who normally is very accurate had a bad night missing throws.

vxbush 1/9/2024 7:16:59 AM

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In #9 JCM said: I'm tax exempting my travel for the pictures! /s

Hey, that's what the pros do. They get to travel and discount it as a work expense because their job is writing about travel. Nice gig when you can get it.

vxbush 1/9/2024 7:17:51 AM

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In #10 JCM said: Dear New Republic. That's the point.

Yes. The cluelessness--first displayed by Obama about how the Constitution restricts behavior, rather than providing positive benefits--continues to this day.

vxbush 1/9/2024 7:18:34 AM

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In #11 JCM said: It is still rocket science. I feel sorry for the Peregrine team. After Apollo NASA rested on its laurels instead moving on to the next thing. The Shuttle was everything. And no replacement every planned. SLS / Artemis is just a bunch of reused parts cobbled together under a congress jobs program to avoid a space brain drain.

Elon Musk isn't perfect, but he at least seems willing to cobble together a big cohesive plan and follow through with it. 

vxbush 1/9/2024 7:19:22 AM

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In #11 JCM said: SLS / Artemis is just a bunch of reused parts cobbled together under a congress jobs program to avoid a space brain drain.

Note how far behind they have gotten compared to SpaceX, which has a focus and a goal to achieve. 

JCM 1/9/2024 7:30:30 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 15:

Elon is such an interesting character.

Spacex is a success, nobody every applied fail fast and iterate to a rocket program. And it worked. He gave us launch capability again as a country.

Tesla, I don't see EVs as the solution, especially government mandated EVs. Musk leveraged the heck out of the government support.

Hyperloop, I don't see it as viable. Can't move enough goods or people.

Boring, tunnelling is very expensive I don't see the business model.

Twitter / X, I applaud his effort. From what I can tell it's mostly a tax write off.

vxbush 1/9/2024 7:39:45 AM

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In #17 JCM said: Elon is such an interesting character. Spacex is a success, nobody every applied fail fast and iterate to a rocket program. And it worked. He gave us launch capability again as a country. Tesla, I don't see EVs as the solution, especially government mandated EVs. Musk leveraged the heck out of the government support. Hyperloop, I don't see it as viable. Can't move enough goods or people. Boring, tunnelling is very expensive I don't see the business model. Twitter / X, I applaud his effort. From what I can tell it's mostly a tax write off.

Boring was an interesting idea, borrowing the idea of subways to smaller vehicles. But yes, the tunneling costs are outrageous. If you were to build a city today, you would make the tunnels before you made anything else to minimize costs. 

X (I'm so sick if calling it by both names--get over it, already, lefties) is not going to be remain viable if advertisers continue to run away from free speech. Which tells you something very important about what commercial companies think about that and their desire to stay out of trouble with the US government. 

But this idea that you can innovate without failure is, itself, doomed to fail. You have to learn to succeed, and if you aren't allowed to fail, you can't test and find out what works. 

Occasional Reader 1/9/2024 8:36:06 AM

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Reply to JCM in 17:

You forgot to mention the most important thing: The flamethrower!

vxbush 1/9/2024 8:59:24 AM

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In #19 Occasional Reader said: You forgot to mention the most important thing: The flamethrower!

I'm not getting the reference. Help me out here, please.

Occasional Reader 1/9/2024 9:04:02 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 20:

Musk sells flamethrowers.

https://www.boringcompany.com/not-a-flamethrower

JCM 1/9/2024 9:07:28 AM

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You can't make this shit up.

NYC Sues 17 Migrant Bus Operators For $708M, Arguing They've Acted With 'Evil Intent'

"These companies have violated state law by not paying the cost of caring for these migrants," Mayor Eric Adams said.

JCM 1/9/2024 9:55:15 AM

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RE: the 737 max that lost the door plugs.

Very detailed video in how the door works.

Short version, it appears that 4 retention bolts came loose or were not installed. 

vxbush 1/9/2024 10:28:43 AM

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In #23 JCM said: Very detailed video in how the door works. Short version, it appears that 4 retention bolts came loose or were not installed. 

My understanding was that on the 737 in question the bolts were still present and the door wasn't actually a door but had a module in place that created the siding of the inside. So it wasn't visible to anyone. Correct? 

JCM 1/9/2024 11:26:08 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 24:

There are two parts. The plug, not a door. The opening is for an emergency exit. The actually exit door is installed depending on passenger seating configuration. The incident aircraft had a seating arrangement that was less than what was required for the door. So it had a plug.

There are two parts to it. The pressure plug, which which is what failed. fits inline with the fuselage. The interior of the aircraft is fitted with normal wall panels so you'd never know there was an "opening" in that section.

The plug slides into place going up, the pushes out against stops. Pressurization holds it tight against the stops. Retention bolts keep it from sliding down where it can be pushed out. We the aircraft is not pressurized the only thing keep it from sliding down are the 4 bolts and 2 springs.

Given the lack of damage to the fuselage and door the speculation is the bolts came loose, or not installed and let the plug slide down, Where it could be pushed out. when pressurized.

vxbush 1/9/2024 1:57:10 PM

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In #25 JCM said: Given the lack of damage to the fuselage and door the speculation is the bolts came loose, or not installed and let the plug slide down, Where it could be pushed out. when pressurized.

Thanks. Much better explanation than I have seen elsewhere.

JCM 1/9/2024 3:01:10 PM

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NTSB looking for 4 missing bolts from Alaska Airlines flight

Kosh's Shadow 1/9/2024 4:54:31 PM

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In #17 JCM said: Spacex is a success, nobody every applied fail fast and iterate to a rocket program. And it worked. He gave us launch capability again as a country.

NASA could not apply fail fast and iterate. Too many people would say with every rapid unscheduled disassembly that they were wasting taxpayer money. Elon can blow up his and stockholders' money - the stockholders know what is going on. So they fail and learn from the failures.

NASA has to gold-and-platimum-plate everything and they still fail. They just don't really learn

But a lot is the government telling them what to do.