Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Authorities announced that the Texas death was an unvaccinated six y/o. The second death was this week in New Mexico and was an unvaccinated adult who did not seek medical assistance before he passed. He only tested positive for measles after his death, cause of death is being investigated.

Almost 200 cases are reported thus far, 3/4ths of them are age 0-17.

New Mexico has ten cases in Lea County, across the border from Gaines County, Texas, which is the epicenter of the plague. Authorities are having to discourage people from having measles parties to purposely infect their kids to "build immunity". They're also having a rush on cod livercastor oil, which is high in vitamin A which is believed to be protective against measles. Hint: it isn't. Only the vaccine is protective against it.

Unfortunately I don't have a cite for this, but the religious group that's dominant in the area that's resisting vaccination based on their faith? THEY ARE GOING AGAINST THEIR LEADERS. Their leaders published a doctrinal whateverwhosit stating that it is proper and good to take the Covid-19 vaccinations, and all vaccinations to be good citizens in the community and to keep themselves safe. So they're going against their religious leaders in refusing to get vaccinated!

https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/measles-outbreak-hits-208-cases-as-federal-outbreak-response-goes-off-the-rails/


Oh, and Robert Fucking Kennedy Junior Mint? He's off rock climbing in California. And recommending that vitamins and supplements are very effective. And cancelling vaccine advisory meetings and scrubbing information off the CDC web site.

EDIT: It was cod liver oil, thanks to moonhare. I mis-remembered.

I could spew an absolute ton of invective right now.

That shitshow of a capsule called the Starliner should not have launched. They knew there were problems with those thrusters, and they had problems docking.

And the problems have gotten worse.

The two astronauts were supposed to be up there for two weeks, then return home. They've been up there for TWO MONTHS. And now there's some very hard problems, and they could potentially result in fatalities.

Here's the basic problem. A spaceship contains batteries. The batteries have a fixed lifespan. The batteries in the Starliner are rated through the end of August. That's not much time.

NASA is not 100% confident that the thruster problem is resolved. But Boeing is. Everybody raise your hands and jump up and down if you trust Boeing's answer.

Now, the previous successful mission of the Starliner worked great. Unmanned, it was launched, flew up to the ISS, docked itself, then later uncoupled, de-orbited, and landed in the ocean and was recovered. So the obvious answer is, why can't they do that, and the two astronauts be returned on a later flight?

BECAUSE BOEING REMOVED THE FUCKING SOFTWARE THAT PERFORMED THAT FUNCTION.

They updated software that worked. The big question is whether or not NASA and the two astronauts were notified of this change. Now someone, or some two, will have to be in that capsule, with potentially twitchy thrusters, to decouple it from the ISS and attempt to fly it back home.

The thrusters are needed twice. To move the capsule away from the ISS - SAFELY - and to reorient the capsule for its de-orbit burn. If the de-orbit burn is not performed correctly, it can mean quite literal death for the capsule occupants. And the thrusters are not 100% reliable.

I am absolutely flaming furious at Boeing!

Yes, space is hard. That's why engineers are careful and try to make sure everything is done right BEFORE any vehicle is classed as flight capable. This damn Starliner should never have been launched, it was scrubbed once because the thrusters were leaking, they should have scrubbed it again until they thoroughly understood what the problem was and it was absolutely fixed.

People's lives depend on it, you don't fuck around.

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/08/nasa-likely-to-significantly-delay-the-launch-of-crew-9-due-to-starliner-issues/

Wow. So much stupid in this!

This influencer decides to make a totally awesome Fourth of July video of a helicopter shooting fireworks at a speeding Lamborghini on a dry lake bed, and the Lambo shooting fireworks back at it.

What could possibly go wrong!

Let me count the ways....

-Fireworks are a weapon. A helicopter is an aircraft. You can't take weapons onto an aircraft without special licensing and permitting.
-The lakebed section was Federal property, and again, no permit.
-The helicopter pilot was not licensed for pyrotechnic use.
-No fire crew or accident crew on standby.
-The pilot turned off the helicopter's transponder during this insanity.

The pilot's flight certificate has been suspended, doesn't say for how long. And this influencer is looking at a good amount of time in the pokey.

The only good things to say about this is no one was seriously injured, and the long arm of the law caught up with these idiots.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/youtuber-charged-over-video-of-helicopter-shooting-fireworks-at-lamborghini/ar-BB1nPR88

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/youtuber-alex-choi-lamborghini-fireworks-helicopter-stunt/3430552/

In 2017, the actor, Andrew Scott - known as the Hot Priest from the Brit show Fleabag - was performing Hamlet on-stage when someone in the audience pulled out a laptop to send off some emails.

Yeah. Just a little bit not cool.

So Scott stopped performing. The stage director was motioning him to get on with it, Scott was 'fuck it', not gonna do it. Laptop Guy's girlfriend realized what was going on and was finally able to convince the guy to shut it down and the play finally resumed.

Who would take a laptop to a performance of HAMLET?!

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/jan/02/andrew-scott-halted-hamlet-performance-after-theatregoer-opened-laptop

Let me explain. :-)

I do overnight oats. I make it up before I go to bed: a packet of Nature's Path Maple Nut Instant Oatmeal, made with whole milk, add a teaspoon or two of maple syrup, stir thoroughly, and put in the fridge. The oats fully hydrate overnight, and I have a very yummy breakfast after nuking it. The oats are much fluffier than just throwing it all together and placing it in the microwave, completely different texture. And never use water to make oatmeal! So much better with milk.

It didn't look quite right when I pulled it out this morning. I quickly noticed there was an exceedingly thin film of ice on it. Just stirring it was enough to mostly break it up, and the texture was otherwise fine. I went and told Russet, she'd previously told me that it was 46f when she took the dogs out for a walk in the wee small hours and the house was about 65.

She said, "That's weird. Last night I made some food, and it was really hot so I put it in the fridge... on... the... top... shelf... by... the... temperature... control..."

We both laughed. She'd accidentally spoofed the temperature control into cranking itself down low to compensate for the hot food placed underneath it.

I walked back in a couple of minutes later and said "You know, my dad would have so loved that story!" She nodded and said "Yes, he would have."

Well, it did a heck of a job of rutting up this steep down-hill sort road in front of our house, that's for sure! Fortunately the Village sent out a grader to smooth it out and repair a big pothole at the bottom corner.

Our fire danger, according to the sign at the bottom of the mountain, was Extreme, #5 on the scale, as of Wednesday when I headed home. Thursday afternoon, Russet forwarded me an email, from her boss, from the Nat'l Forest Service, that the forest was reopening! And when I went home yesterday evening, it was down to #2!

Major woots!

Today driving in to work, all of the barricades blocking forest access had been removed, I guess forest workers were busy yesterday afternoon, last night and this morning!

This is a major relief because we've had a lot of major fires here in New Mexico, I'm guessing the rains have helped a lot.

Now we just have to contend with getting the telescope's mirror re-aluminized. Kitt Peak in Tucson, Arizona just got singed: three buildings destroyed - a dormitory, cafeteria, and residence. Road damaged, power lines damaged. So they're going to be seriously degraded for a significant amount of time. They were the normal site to get Apache Point's 3.5 meter mirror re-aluminized, but they've been putting Apache Point off for some time, to the point that yet again the 3.5 is not going to get serviced this year! This will now be 3-4 years PAST the point that it should have been done! The mirror is now looking quite disgusting. I think the current coating will be 7-9 years old before it gets redone! The next closest mirror lab is FLAGSTAFF, Arizona, and there are some serious logistics to getting there. And you'll love this - the next closest lab may be HAWAII.

That's just unimaginable if they had to ship the mirror to Hawaii. That would be probably three months the telescope would be out of action! And then if something happened to the ship and it were lost at sea?! Catastrophe! The telescope would be out of action for a few YEARS! The entire crew would be lost to other opportunities! All that institutional knowledge lost! Total chaos, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... MASS HYSTERIA!

Never pass up the opportunity to use a good Ghostbusters line, even if it is nigh unto 40 years old. :-)


Oh, another amusing thing happened at the observatory this week. They received an instrument from [CENSORED]. It was mounted on the telescope, and the controller issued some unexpected low-level commands to the telescope controllers and they effing BROKE THE TELESCOPE! They caused mirror actuators on the secondary and tertiary mirrors to throw fits and seize up and they couldn't recover them, and one point they thought they might have to disassemble the tertiary mirror! Eventually they were able to get both mirrors to behave, but it was a close-run thing.

Fortunately the weather was so wretched that they haven't been able to open for over a week and [CENSORED] lost all their time on the sky! Serves the bat rastards right for screwing up the telescope!

OH! Another story about these yoinks! This one is great!

So the telescope enclosure is built on three levels. The ground story is sort of an equipment shop. Air compressors, electrical panels and conduits, network cabling (fiber optics) enter at this point. Stairs go up to the intermediate level. Concrete pylon rises through the middle which is the telescope's resting post.

Intermediate level is where the top level is suspended from. All sorts of electronics here for the telescope's instruments, cryogenic cooling systems, atomic clock, GPS systems, motor for moving the dome and the round railroad tie that the dome sits on, the telescope collar that it actually rotates on, etc.

Now here's the important thing. A telescope rotates on its axis, right? The azimuth. It points up and down in altitude, rotates on its azimuth. Called alt/az. But you have a tonne of cables feeding up through the azimuth up to the top. You can't unlimited spin the telescope around, or you'd rip up all the electronic equipment! You're limited to approx 500 degrees of movement before the telescope has to un-spin and release the tension on all the cables.

Makes sense, right?

On the intermediate level, there's two parts to the room. And this is VERY important. You see, the roof is part of the upper level: IT MOVES. THE FLOOR DOES NOT MOVE.

This bears repeating.

THE CEILING MOVES. THE FLOOR DOES NOT MOVE.

Because of this, electronics related to the telescope level are suspended by the ceiling because their wiring are fed up through the roof. Also, there is a guard rail around the room keeping people casually away from the boxes around the side of the room. It's easy enough to get around them if you need to work on them, and there are telescope motor lockout buttons if you work there to prevent the telescope/dome motors from moving when you're working on equipment.

So. To review. Electric/electronic cabling goes up through the telescope pedestal, equipment is suspended from the floor of the telescope, making it the ceiling of the intermediate level, and the telescope can rotate on its azimuth no more than about a full turn and a half or so before it has to counter-rotate to de-spool.

Remember the group from [CENSORED]?

My wife worked with them on-site Monday, Tuesday, and most of Wednesday. With her was a part-time grad student from NMSU. He comes into the control room and tells Russet that you need to come upstairs and see something.

That's never a good sign!

The yahoos from [CENSORED], on the intermediate level, UNBEKNOWNST to Russet, had installed some electronic equipment on the intermediate level. And run conduit up to the ceiling pass-through, apparently stringing cable to their instrument on the telescope level.

Their equipment was sitting on the floor.

And the telescope had been merrily turning back and forth all night long!

Cabling was stretched and draped all over the place.

Fortunately nothing was damaged, though it was close to pulling on some switches which could have had some Consequences. It hadn't even pulled out of [CENSORED]'s boxes! Apparently they'd had A LOT of slack sitting there! They got really lucky!

*sigh*

All they had to do was put it in a cabinet that was already suspended. There's several cabinets that have open space, ready to be used. All they had to do was talk to the day staff engineers. But no, they had to be sneaky bastards and do things without talking to the people on-site. And make a mess, and potentially damage very expensive things.

That's a long row to hoe, but there's always someone trying to work it.

In this first article from Gizmodo, anyone applying for a government job that requires fingerpring would also have to submit a genetic sample - and here's the kicker - PAY $250 FOR PROCESSING! Now, aside from background checks, law enforcement has to have fingerprints on file so that they can be easily eliminated from crime scenes in case they accidentally contaminate it. Same thing if you're a crime lab tech. But I worked in computer services. I had to be fingerprinted for my background check. I never came anywhere near a crime scene - and you want a genetic sample and want me to pay $250 for it?

No way.

I don't expect this bill to progress, but you never know.

This second one is a doozy. While it happened in Prescott Valley, Arizona (an hour or so north of Phoenix), the insanity began in Missouri and in Scientology. This guy's sister-in-law goes to prison. This guy, hereafter referred to as The Defendant, is bigly into Scientology. The Defendant and his wife take in her kid for a period of time unspecified in the article. Sister-in-law gets out of prison in Arizona, she and her husband get the kid back, and the kid is being treated with psychotherapy and anti-depressants. Article doesn't specify why.

Those of you who know much about Scientology may know that psychotherapy is one of the really big no-nos in their rule book. Scientology fixes all! Psychotherapy and psycho-active drugs are EEEEEVIL! The Defendant (or his attorneys) claims in court to believe that the treatment is destroying the kids soul.

The Defendant buys a burner phone, leaves his normal cell at home, drives from Missouri to Arizona, 1400 miles, IN 24 HOURS, buys a hatchet and change of clothes at Walmart, goes to S-I-L's house, gets into a heated argument with S-I-L and her husband, murders the two of them with the hatchet, douses the bodies with acidic drain cleaning agent, then torches the house.

The defense argues that (A) it wasn't premeditated, and (B) it's OK because Scientology says so.

It took the jury two hours to convict him of first degree murder because (A) the evidence was overwhelming, it obviously was premeditated or he wouldn't have bought a burner phone, left his original phone at home, driven 1400 miles in 24 hours, and bought a hatchet and change of clothes at Walmart before the confrontation, much less doused the bodies in acid and torched the house, and (B) BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

A spokesclone for the Scientologists sent a statement to the newspaper saying 'please don't say bad things about us because we don't advocate anything like this.'

The article doesn't say what happened to the kid, whether he was at the home or what when the murder happened. I'm guessing he was at school or elsewhere.

Prosecutors are going to seek the death penalty.

So, Kim, a New Zealander, ran a HUGE file sharing site called Megaupload, and was raided by the NZ cops on information from the FBI supplied by the MPAA that he was supplying huge amounts of pirated entertainment. His American ISP was raided and all the servers seized. Kim has steadfastly maintained his innocence that he did not supply pirated media and that when he was notified that there was such on his servers, that he took them down.

Since then, it has been one huge WTF. The hosting company is pissed at the US because the servers they took contained a lot more than Megaupload. The US government doesn't want to pay for the servers to be maintained, which introduces the question of tainted evidence. New Zealand's version of the NSA is in trouble for conducting illegal surveillance of an NZ resident, and now this....

NZ's GCHQ claims that it's deleted all of the evidence about the Megaupload case.

A pending criminal case. And they deleted it.

In any jurisdiction, as far as I know, law enforcement and government is required to preserve evidence before trial, during trial, and pending the appeals process. And GCHQ says it's all gone.

The best part is the director of GCHQ previously appeared before Parliament and said "We're an intelligence agency: we never delete anything, we archive it."


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140204/07522126085/new-zealand-spy-agency-deleted-evidence-about-its-illegal-spying-kim-dotcom.shtml

"I believe Gun Appreciation Day honors the legacy of Dr. King. I think Martin Luther King, Jr. would agree with me if he were alive today that if African Americans had been given the right to keep and bear arms from day one of the country's founding, perhaps slavery might not have been a chapter in our history."
—Gun Appreciation Day founder Larry Ward

Five people were injured by accidental discharges at Gun Appreciation Day events on Saturday by peopleidiot gun owners (there are smart gun owners) who didn't know how to unload a gun before transporting it to a gun show.

I do totally agree with him on one thing: if slaves had been armed we wouldn't have had slavery as a chapter in our history. Jefferson and Washington would be dead and this country wouldn't be called the United States of America. I don't know what it would be called, but it wouldn't be the USA.