Feb 262021
 

First up: a writer for Gizmodo flips her lid over the terrifying prospect of the Defense Department generating ten whole watts of electrical power in space with a solar panel:

The Pentagon Sent a Pizza Box-Sized Solar Panel Into Space, But I’m Sure Everything Is Fine

This solar panel is officially called the Photovoltaic Radiofrequency Antenna Module (PRAM), and it’s designed to capture the powerful blue light in space that doesn’t pass through the atmosphere. Navy scientists launched it last May using a mysterious drone called the X-37B, and it’s currently circling the Earth every 90 minutes. So right now, as I’m typing, there is a little solar panel looping the planet because the Department of Defense wanted to put it there. Somehow, this is not an episode of the X-Files, it is real life. …

The scientists want to send dozens of these panels to orbit the Earth, and they say if they scale up the project, it could produce enough electricity to fuel a whole city. But as far as I can tell, no one has been clamoring for space power. Myself and the other 99.9% of humanity would be perfectly happy with solar, wind, and other clean energy generated right here on Earth.

If these Defense Department scientists successfully get more of these panels into orbit, there’s no telling what horrors the nation will use them for.

Nobody wants space-based solar power according to this genetic defective.

Huh.

Bonus round, from the color-value reversed version of “Stormfront,” The Root:

‘Be Less White’: Coca-Cola Faces Backlash for Giving Wypipo Wonderful Advice in Diversity Training Program

“Be less white.”

If it were up to me, this would be America’s motto. Instead of the Pledge of Allegiance, children in school should stand up before class, put their hands over their hearts and shout “BE LESS WHITE” at the flag for five minutes before beginning the day’s lessons. (I’m old AF and I have no idea if students even have to say the pledge before school anymore, but still.) “Be less white” should be printed on t-shirts, bumper stickers, white people’s birth certificates, white people’s tombstones and it should replace “In God We Trust” on the back of U.S. currency.

Uh-huh. Read the comments for an extra dose of “my god humans are stupid.”

 Posted by at 2:12 am
Feb 252021
 

Given how awful Hollywood has been at creating Star Wars and Star Trek and all the woke superhero shows, one expects that a Superman series these days would be garbage. But it actually looks like the CW, of all places, created a seemingly faithful Superman with some interesting additions.  At least it ain’t Batwoman.

Superman *should* be a “beacon of hope” sort of boy scout figure. Something I read a long time ago that always seemed right was that Clark Kent is the real character, while Superman is the mask… while Batman is the real character who pretends to be Bruce Wayne.

 Posted by at 8:01 am
Feb 242021
 

Unless you simply decide that objectivity and the finding of the correct answer are not needed. Then, math is easy! However, you can make objectivity-less math hard again by turning it from a quest for the objectively correct answer into a  quest for the politically correct answer. Witness, for example, this 80+ page long workbook to brainwash teachers into turning math class into a semester-long struggle session:

Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction

White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when…“I do, we do, you do” is the format of class. This structure of direct instruction doesn’t always allow for the full range of ways of thinking—reinforcing objectivity and the idea that there is only one right way—because it potentially dismisses students’ own ways of processing, and it also stifles creativity. It also reinforces paternalism because the way that teachers model becomes the standard for student learning. Solicit student ways of thinking and processing

White supremacy culture shows up in math classrooms when… The focus is on getting the “right” answer. The concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false, and teaching it is even much less so. Up-holding the idea that there are always right and wrong answers perpetuate objectivity as well as fear of open conflict.

Uh-huh. And what other ways are there to do trigonometry than, say, trigonometry?

Obviously I’ve bitched about this sort of thing before. But as time goes by I’m becoming more and more convinced that this isn’t simply some manifestation of mental illness, but in fact something more ominous. I would suggest that the people pushing this rubbish should be quietly investigated. Find out who’s funding them, who’s directing them, who’s whispering in their ears planting the seeds of the destruction of Americas ability to competently do not just complex leading-edge science but basic engineering. I would be *wholly* unsurprised if it turns out that this is just the latest in a long, long game set in motion by the KGB back in the day, or an earlier phase in an equally long game being run out of Beijing today.

There is no “white supremacy” in math. Math doesn’t care about your race, your religion, your sex. F=MA regardless of who you want to bang or who you voted for. E=MC^2 independently of who your ancestors were, whether they were sold off or sold out or ran away or were deported or stayed put. And 2+2=4 regardless of your ideology; all those who say otherwise are either stupid, massively deluded or are trying to sell you something… something that if you saw it in the cold hard light of day you’d recognize as being cheap flawed garbage.

Math Suffers From White Supremacy, According to a Bill Gates-Funded Course

Bill Gates’ fortune was built on science and engineering, married to salemanship. Without objectivity and seeking the right answer, he’d be living on the dole now. I imagine an interesting time could be had by a good journalist who could corner him and persuade him to answer some questions about this nonsense.

 Posted by at 9:14 pm
Feb 222021
 

A NASA press conference livestream with some interesting vids. At 11:58 to about 15:00  you can see multiple camera angles of the actual landing… on the skycrane looking down at the suspended rover, on the rover looking up at the skycrane, on the rover looking down at the surface. Various still images start at about 28:44. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to image the rover, the skycrane, the heat shield and the parachute scattered on the surface at 37:25… but more interestingly, a still image of the actual landing in process at 38:07, where you can see the parachutes fluttering away and the rocket exhaust scattering dust on the surface. The first audio recording from Mars is at 41:21, with a cleaned-up audio at 42:26 giving the sounds of winds on Mars. It’s not spectacular audio, but it’s better than anything produced by astrologers, gender studies majors or critical race theorists. Engineering rigor for the win. AGAIN.

Nuclear powered cars, baby!

 Posted by at 3:31 pm