The James Webb is in position
Every day one of my tasks is to decide what to write about. There’s an embarrassments of “riches,” but what to choose?
For example, you may notice I haven’t written much if at all about Ukraine, even though it’s been a big story. The main reason I haven’t is that I don’t have anything new or different or even especially interesting to add to all the others talking about it, and anything I say at this point would be very speculative as well.
Among so many other things, there’s also Dan Bongino’s banning from YouTube, and Neil Young’s bizarre “Me or Joe Rogan!” ultimatum to Spotify, which Spotify decided against Young. What I have to say about both can be summed up as, “Today’s ‘misinformation’ can sometimes turn into tomorrow’s accepted truth.” I’ll add that, in Young’s case, it’s just another example of a big music star of yesteryear revealing his or her inner tyrant, clothed in the cloak of righteous “for your own health” certainty.
That said, there really is a lot of supposed “misinformation” out there about COVID as well as actual misinformation. I try to bring you the best information I have at any given moment, and to counter what I consider the errors of others by dealing with them mostly in the comments. It’s a work in progress.
Hmmm, I guess I did write about Bongino and Young, after all.
But what I really want to write about is what I consider a wonderful thing and a great achievement of science. Bravo!:
On Ukraine, Michael Savage has some very interesting and sensible comments posted at Breitbart from his program (the U.S. having “zero national interest” at stake, Biden and his minions distracting from all his failures through “wag the dog”, etc). Even Nancy Mace (normally not very reliable) is wondering why, suddenly, the border between Ukraine and Russia is of such concern, when few seem bothered by our porous southern border and the millions (literally!) entering the country completely unvetted (surely an impeachable offense) and dispersed, in the dead of night, to towns and cities in many different states. As for Neil Young, he is a talented musician but, like most other rockers (except for Clapton and Van Morrison and a few others), he is incapable of thinking rationally.
Great video. One detail that amused me was the explanation of how the JW space telescope will be orbiting around the L-2 point which in turn orbits the sun. It reminded me of how before Kepler astronomers, seeking to make the old Ptolemaic system of astronomy with the actual observations of planetary positions, devised the system of epicycles. These were increasingly complex systems of circles moving in circles that in turn circled other circles. The new telescope would fit right in with that system.
At least NASA seems to have avoided the Hubble fiasco.
Bongino (who I don’t watch) is already on Rumble with the same audience.
I did subscribe to Fox Nation to watch Tucker Carlson’s interviews, which are excellent. He has one with former IL Governor Blagojavich that is interesting,.
I probably refreshed the web page 20 times a day for a month as it made its way. I’ve been waiting for this for so long. I was a nervous wreck.
Congrats for JWST making it to L2 with all the parts ready for operational alignment phase. Most of the big risks are out of the way. The fine alignment will tell is if it is another Hubble (initial mirror was out of alignment), but that’s actually quite unlikely. For the money spent, I glad we will get something from this satellite.
On Ukraine; it is something of strategic importance to the United States, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s mostly important to Western Europe, and they’ve had enough of Brandon, even though it was supposedly Trump destroying NATO. Ukraine is more an embarrassment to the left and our military and intelligence agency, because of how they treated Trump. Except no one that understands the embarrassment will act the least bit humble.
Putin was contained by Trump, despite the stupid “Russian Dossier” that never made sense to anyone that new conservative history and Russia (hell, just rewatch the 2012 debates with Obama and Romney). Trump warned Merkle about dependence on Russia, so now Germany sends 50,000 helmets to Ukraine. That’s like giving a young girl a box of condoms before pushing her into prostitution; she’ll have some protection but she’s going to get screwed over.
I also recall reading a book by “MadDog” Matis speechwriter about how Trump didn’t understand the value of allies. I threw away the book after reading that and, oh boy, was I right. Just see how our “allies” feel with Joe Biden. Trump just wanted the allies to pay for their own defense, and that’s where we are now. Brandon has left Europe no other option than to pay for the defense of Ukraine.
Then we have the whole impeachment of Trump over Ukraine. Hmm, Trump supposedly withheld aid, which actually was received by the Ukraine by the Congressional due date. Yeah. That. If Ukraine falls under Brandon; imagine explaining Trump’s impeachment in history class. I’m sure the progressive authors will write it to seem like Trump never delivered the aid and that’s why Brandon could do nothing to protect Ukraine from Putin. That will be the allowed narrative.
Oh yeah, allowed narrative… pretty much explains Neil Young and the Surgeon General.
Speaking of LaGrange points; “Interplanetary Superhighway Makes Space Travel Simpler”
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/genesis/media/jpl-release-071702.html
“A “freeway” through the solar system resembling a vast array of virtual winding tunnels and conduits around the Sun and planets, as envisioned by an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., can slash the amount of fuel needed for future space missions.”
I agree it’s a really good video, and I hope a lot of folks, especially elementary and High School aged children watch it.
However, I wish there was a constant disclaimer in one of the corners, something like: “This video is not made from real images of the telescope in space, but was animated by artists on Earth using computers to tell the story of the telescope’s journey.”
It is incredible what humans can depict now with animation, and it can be really helpful for people’s understanding. Great they do it! However, I have been with folks watching things like this who think they are real, live images. I think, especially with subjects involving science, it’s important to be specific.
I recently watched a documentary on the Cassini mission to Saturn. The images Cassini captured are incredible! And, the documentary was well done, but it constantly interspersed actual images of Saturn with animation while making no distinction between the two. Including showing Cassini “crashing” into Saturn at the end of the mission. Since, like the James Webb Telescope, one of the key points of the mission is to return images of celestial bodies creators telling stories about them should distinguish between reality and man-made art.
The Neil Young – Joe Rogen story could be potentially significant. Very significant.
There’s a phrase that originated about 5 years ago, “Conservatism is the new punk rock.”
Punk rock was a reaction to the earnestness and overproduction of hippie rockers; think of the Beatles “White Album.” Some groups only existed in recording studios. They were the invention of a committee of record executives, producers and marketers. Punk rockers stripped all the pretense and phoniness away. Say what you will about the music, but it was authentic. Rock started out as anti-establishment. Then it became the establishment. And then punk rockers gave a big, middle finger to all the corporations and gate keepers and turned the whole thing on its head.
Yesterday young people didn’t know who Neil Young is. Today Neil Young is a laughingstock. Laughter is an immensely effective weapon against tyranny. Other entertainers will notice what happened here.
What does a teen do in 2022 to be anti-establishment? What freaks the establishment out today? Being in public without a mask. Getting a carry permit and openly carrying a legal firearm. Wearing American Flag logo’ed clothing, or cammo.
Hey Mike K, thanks. I subscribed to Fox Nation. I like it. And I downloaded Rumble too.
Rufus mentions the Cassini mission. If you’re interested in this stuff do yourself a favor and look up those images. Gets my vote as the most stunning photographs ever taken by mankind. And to his point these aren’t artists renderings – which is hard to believe. These are photos from cameras built by humans and sent back to earth. They will give you goosebumps. I’ll link to one to whet your appetite.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220123.html
Mike Plaiss,
I agree that the Cassini photos of Saturn and its moons are stunning. Incredible and very, very beautiful. I enjoy looking at them and I doubt that joy will ever lessen no matter how many times I see them.
For some reason the photos New Horizons took of Pluto and Charon move me even more: https://youtu.be/6l4kr36TzQ4
There is something about the isolation and distance of the two. When I look at the images I feel like I’m looking at something no sentient being was ever supposed to see. Even though Saturn close up is more beautiful than I could have imagined, I did imagine it would be beautiful. Saturn at a distance is beautiful. But Pluto. From Earth we’ve never seen it as anything but a blurry, grey speck. Seeing it in detail is very striking to me.
Leland on January 27, 2022 at 5:54 pm “Trump just wanted the allies to pay for their own defense, …. Brandon has left Europe no other option than to pay for the defense of Ukraine.”
Does this fall into the category of “even a blind squirrel can find …”?
GB, great info on the space super highways. Maybe the STEM nerds will eventually get the girls after all?
Rufus, concur with your remarks on separating reality from computer graphics [but still, more power to the STEM nerds?] 🙂
I read somewhere today that Neil Young may not be too worried about being laughed at, as he sold the rights to half (or all?) of his music a little while ago for $100M (or $150M?). Comparable to the $100M that Spotify used to entice Rogan to join them.
Thanks to all for the many great links to bridges, gardens, space videos, etc. A lot of marvelous material to pass along to my email friends. Tonight our cup truly runneth over.
@ R2L – I wonder if the music purchaser is having any regrets.
https://babylonbee.com/news/report-strong-spike-in-google-searches-for-who-is-neil-young
Much of the misinformation actually comes from the government and if we had an actual free press,, it would be exposed.
What amazed me was the complexity of the unfolding process of the Webb telescope and it’s several hundred “failure points”–sending and receiving communications equipment, various computers, protective covers, hinges, lines/ropes, motors, sheets, bracing and aiming structures, mirrors and associated adjustment motors, etc–failure of any one of which to be correctly aligned, work, deploy could have screwed up everything, but all of which were activated and worked without any apparent problems.
Assuming that the remaining elements of the unfolding, adjusting, and startup/warmup process go as planned, and the telescope is in the correct and a stable orbit, this will truly be a triumph.
I worked for the prime contractor (TRW, later Northrop Grumman) as a media specialist, and was able to travel to many of our subs to document the construction of various subsystems. Watching how carefully and professionally all of these subsystems were built, it’s no surprise to me that the mission has so far been extremely successful.
I visited Space.com and NASA’s Webb websites often to track the telescope’s progress toward L2 with anxiety mixed with awe, as the mission unfolded so well. While I had very little to do with the actual machinery, it’s a great feeling to have been a part (however small) of what might be a very significant mission.
Much of that animation that has been commented upon was done by a very small group of folks in the bunch I worked with.
Discussion by a NASA insider on how difficult the mission is. He thinks that the hard stuff has been done and that the telescope really has a chance of working.
it’s good to see the victories like this for as the Apollo astronauts said all mankind.
“The work is not done. The telescope has 18 primary mirror segments, which are moved by 132 actuators. These actuators have already been tested and shown to work. Now, over the next three months, telescope operators will fine-tune the alignment of these mirrors. During this process, scientists will use a Sun-like star named HD84406 to focus the mirrors. This star is located about 240 light years from Earth and can be found in Ursa Major near the bowl
At times, it remains difficult to believe that this is really happening. But all of the unprecedented stuff for this large space science project is complete, and now the commissioning of the instruments should be fairly routine. Webb won’t be ready for science operations until June, but the odds are very high that it will get there.”
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/whats-left-for-the-webb-telescope-now-waggling-mirrors-turning-on-instruments/