Ummm…
a Progress supply ship attached to the International Space Station has lost pressure in its external cooling system
C’mon, Russia. You used to be cool. For a time. A brief window. Back when the worst thing about y’all were your wacky likkered-up drivers on the ice.
Hard to argue that this is anything but clear evidence that Mars was once a wet planet.
It’s the sort of terrain where, on Earth, I’d not be surprised to see a fossil shell or footprint. That’s doubtless too much to ask *here,* but the evidence of water just sitting there like that is pretty spectacular.
Feel free to try to imagine “other ways of knowing” providing this.
One might think that “entertainment industry weirdo performs satanic dance number, sponsored by Pfizer” would be the sort of thing I’d yammer on about. But… this schtick is old. What, am I supposed to act surprised that a weirdo is a weirdo?
I’m of two minds about people who mess about with Satanic imagery. On the one hand, since I don’t believe in Satan… meh. You just look like a goober. On the other hand, some of these people *do* believe in Satan. And if *you* believe in Satan and you’re playing at Satanic stuff… it makes me wonder about your sanity, in the same way I’d look askance at a Cthulhu cultist. But in this case, I suspect that the Freedom Toons people are correct: it’s a desperate bid for attention, an attempt to fill an inner emptiness that will never, can never, be filled with cheap and hollow pursuits.
And I suspect the Pfizer people didn’t see this coming. Like they didn’t see Project Veritas coming.
I haven’t seen it, so don’t blame me. But this reviewer *really* didn’t like it:
Whoa.
The previews look better than the first two execrable seasons, but that’s a low bar indeed.
I am reminded of a reaction video I recently saw. Even in my advancing decrepitude that’s not that big of a mental achievement, considering I saw this video yesterday:
The young lady in question watched “Galaxy Quest” without the benefit of being a fan of Star Trek. Without, in fact, the benefit of actually knowing much about Star Trek. And yet, with minimal exposure to TOS or TNG… she got “Galaxy Quest.” Maybe a few of the jokes skipped past her, but the main themes? Fully understood, accepted and appreciated. A point she raised that caught my attention: near the end when the nerd-kid is contacted and learns that his favorite show is actually real, the young lady stated that she thought that this must have been the dream of many Star Trek fans. Little does she know: whole generations of Trekkies and Trekkers lived in the desperate hope of living in the world of Star Trek. For some this meant daydreaming about serving aboard the Enterprise. For some it meant doing what needed to to become authors or actors or film/TV show makers in the hopes of bringing their own dreams of trek to life (looking at you, Seth MacFarlane). For some of us it meant going into science and engineering in the hopes of starting mankind on the road to trekking the stars. And her realization got me thinking.
Over the last twenty-some years some “Galaxy Quest,” it has been almost universally hailed as one of the best Star Trek Movies. It is certainly one of the movies that shows most clearly a love and understanding of the original Star Trek. Within the movie, an alien race has picked up TV transmissions of the sci-fi series “Galaxy Quest,” and they decided to rebuild their entire society to conform to the vision of “Galaxy Quest,” and in doing so the saved themselves from oblivion and gave themselves hope and a new reason to go on. So… my thinking is this: the “Galaxy Quest Test.”
The test is simple: take a series or a movie that claims to be Star Trek, and imagine that it gets beamed out into space. It is picked up by an earnest alien race capable of understanding it. They have much the same ethics, hopes and fears as humanity, even if they don’t look anything like us and are really rather innocent, despite the fact they are being ground out of existence. What are the chances that these aliens will watch the show or movie and decide that the vision they’ve watched and understood is such a wonderful thing that they will choose to emulate it?
I can see this with TOS. I can see it with TNG. I can see it with Lower Decks and certainly Prodigy. I can see it with Voyager. I can kinda see it with Deep Space Nine. But the Kelvin movies? *Any* season of Discovery or Picard? Not a chance in hell.
So, when watching Star Trek Picard season three, keep this question int he back of your mind: “What would Mathesar think of this?”
I’m shocked.
Also, he went into the hospital Wednesday sue to light-headedness. There was some early speculation that it was another stroke, but apparently it wasn’t. It’s being downplayed… but as I understand it he’s *still* hospitalized. For light-headedness. Everything is fine. Nothing to worry about.
I can’t imagine why America’s opponents are seeing us as weak and ineffectual these days. Regarding which:
Another balloon. It’s reportedly smaller than the Chinese spy balloon (with a “car-sized” payload), was flying at about 40,000 feet, and it took an F-22 and an AIM-9X to bring it down. Wreckage crashed onto ice and has been recovered.
Turns out the Chinese are zapping surface targets with lasers. This *seems* to be a benign scientific technique, checking atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and pollution and whatnot… but this is the Chinese Communist Party we’re talking about, so…
This sort of thing would be weird as hell to see out in the wild. I’m not sure if this is naked-eye visible, however, or if it took sensitive cameras to pick this up.
Huh.
I suspect that if the political affiliations were different this would be bigger news.
… photos taken by high-altitude U-2 planes confirmed the presence of the equipment, including “multiple antennas … likely capable of collecting and geo-locating communications” and “solar panels large enough to produce the requisite power to operate multiple active intelligence collection sensors.”
So, it was listening to us. Interesting to ponder just what it was listening *for.* Being a balloon, it would have had only minimal ability to target a specific site; it would have been able to scan a swathe of the country. Was it listening to cell phones? Was it listening for military-type transmissions and where they came from (looking for hidden bases/missiles/whatever)? Is the US going to start taking air defense seriously?
Sometimes you just can’t win.
And don’t forget *this* classic:
I seem to detect a few flaws in the story of how the US shot down the Chinese spy balloon…
Also to be seen here:
Chinese “version” of what happened with its balloon over US territory https://t.co/pS2GIbVCOy pic.twitter.com/PBckqy95YE
— Samuel Bendett (@SamBendett) February 7, 2023