RE: The recent flight of five women to the edge of space in a Blue Origen capsule.
This was just space tourism, and probably cost each one of them a bundle.
Don’t get me wrong, it took a lot of guts to climb into a capsule and be driven up to the edge of our atmosphere, the Karmin line, by a rocket which could possibly explode and kill you.
Traveling a little higher than the Karmin line technically entitles each one of those passengers to now call themselves “Astronauts.”
But, to talk about the “training” they underwent, and describing these passengers as “crew”— when they apparently had no duties, nor any control over a totally automated flight—to equate them with those real, very highly qualified Astronauts, who undergo years of arduous training, and who are really actual “crew,” with very demanding and highly technological duties, is a travesty.
This was essentially a stunt, a dangerous one but, nonetheless, a stunt.
And don’t get me started about how newly minted “Astronaut” Katy Perry somehow derived “Divine Feminine Energy” from crossing the Karmin Line.”
About the dogs and their understanding:
Aviad is a reservist currently serving in Gaza.
His unit was on patrol in a Hamas stronghold in ruins.
Aviad yelled something in Hebrew to another soldier, and this dog came running out of the ruins.
Into Aviad’s hands.
The soldier posted about it with a picture of the dog.
Rachel Danzig from Kibbutz Nir Oz, whose husband Alex was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas terrorists, was in shock.
It’s their dog!!!!!
His name is Billy.
Hamas terrorists who were in her home on October 7 took it into Gaza with them!
The dog heard the Hebrew.
That led to its running toward the soldier.
And it has now been reunited with its owner, Rachel.
Those women weren’t crew, they were cargo. At this point anyone who is not actually crew and doesn’t orbit is not an astronaut.
@Snow on Pine: cargo rather than crew.
“How the Earth really moves in space” isn’t. They’re following the Sun’s motion and making the planets go around the Sun. The planets don’t “really” “orbit the Sun”. Everything in the Solar System, including the Sun, orbits the Solar System barycenter. The barycenter is sometimes inside the Sun and sometimes not.
The barycenter itself is orbiting the Milky Way’s barycenter, which is itself moving with respect to something or other and will indeed collide with Andromeda galaxy in 4.5 billion years (mark your calendar). And all these motions can have an arbitrary constant velocity added to them anyway.
The Solar System’s motion around the barycenter of the Milky Way is about 8 times faster than the Earth’s motion about the barycenter of the Solar System. We don’t notice it because of there’s nothing close to compare to that has a very different motion from ours.
“Spam in a can,” is where it all started. 🙂
Karmelo Anthony’s GiveSendGo account now has $500,000 in contributions in it. He’ll be spending his house arrest in style in rented digs in a gated community. A member of his family said at a press conference that it was ‘disrespectful’ for the father of Austin Metcalf to attend Anthony’s bond hearing. Anthony spent 12 days in pre-trial detention. (Kyle Rittenhouse’s bond was 8x that of Karmelo Anthony and he spent 86 days in pre-trial detention. White privilege.).
Good news from Texas. BTW the two Republicans voting against were Dade Phelan, ex speaker of the house who refused to pass school choice in a previous session and the second is a government school teacher
Texas On The Verge Of School Choice Plan With Support From Trump
"…this is a gigantic Victory for students and parents in the Great State of Texas!"
School choice is almost a reality in Texas after the state House of Representatives voted Thursday morning to approve the $1 billion voucher program.
In a process that dragged on overnight and into the early morning hours, the state House voted 85-63 to move the school choice bill along, with only two Republicans voting no, all but securing its passage. While the legislation still has to clear some legislative hurdles before it is sent to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, Republicans, including President Donald Trump, are already celebrating the school choice victory.
The barycenter itself is orbiting the Milky Way’s barycenter, which is itself moving with respect to something or other
Pray tell, what might that something or other be? Why is there any movement at all? What is the direction of that movement? What (who) is the prime mover?
Answers, Niketas. I want answers. Now.
@Irish Otter:Pray tell, what might that something or other be? Why is there any movement at all? What is the direction of the movement? What (who) is the prime mover?
Answers, Niketas. I want answers. Now.
Since you apparently fell through a wormhole in the 14th century, can’t get back, and need to do some catching up in a hurry, I suggest you start here. The good part starts on page 78.
IANAL but this seems like a clever strategy. There are two issues that Roberts does not want to rule on: birthright citizenship, and whether district judges can issue nationwide injunctions. It looks to me like Scotus will have to choose to rule on one.
Justices will hear arguments on Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on May 15 on the federal government’s request to be allowed to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship – the guarantee of citizenship to almost everyone born in the United States, which dates back to the post-Civil War era.
The court left in place orders by three federal judges that prohibit the government from enforcing the executive order anywhere in the country until it can hear oral arguments and rule on the Trump administration’s request.
The Trump administration came to the Supreme Court on March 13 with what then-Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris characterized as a “modest request”: The court should put the three district judges’ orders on hold, allowing the Trump administration to enforce the order except with regard to the individual plaintiffs named in the lawsuits, the specific members of the organizations that are challenging Trump’s order who are identified in the complaint, and the individuals who live in the states challenging Trump’s order. Or at the very least, she continued, the government should be allowed to “develop[] and issu[e] public guidance regarding the implementation of” Trump’s order.
Harris complained that the kind of nationwide (sometimes also described as “universal”) injunctions issued in the three cases “transgress constitutional limits on courts’ powers” and “compromise the Executive Branch’s ability to carry out its functions.” She exhorted the justices to “declare that enough is enough before district courts’ burgeoning reliance on universal injunctions becomes further entrenched.”
I thought sure Niketas Choniates‘ link was going to be to Aquinas. That’s what I always think about when I hear “prime mover”
The Quinque viæ (Latin for “Five Ways”) (sometimes called “five proofs”) are five logical arguments for the existence of God summarized by the 13th-century Catholic philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas in his book Summa Theologica. They are:
the argument from “first mover”;
the argument from universal causation;
the argument from contingency;
the argument from degree;
the argument from final cause or ends (“teleological argument”).
@ Mike Paiss: just for fun, … from a Leftist point of view:
the argument from “first mover”; [you better be the first and loudest protester at the protest on xyz!! ]
the argument from universal causation; [eventually everything can be traced back to Marx…or is it Hegel? Plato? not sure … ]
the argument from contingency; [come on, what else do you have going on that will be as much fun as protesting for a “good” cause?! ]
the argument from degree; [the rowdier the better]
the argument from final cause or ends (“teleological argument”). [POWER!! if you want to take power away from the nerds, nebbishes, oppressors, and populist elites, you have to work at it]
These may have been posted already – time runs together somehow – but if not, they are interesting stories about uses of AI.
That was quite good! And it was real AI:
__________________________
Josie Kins @Josikinz
I asked chatgpt’s new image model to script and generate a series of comics starring itself as the main character. The results genuinely gave me chills.
ChatGPT spends ‘tens of millions of dollars’ on people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, but Sam Altman says it’s worth it
In February, Future PLC, the company that owns TechRadar, compiled a survey of more than 1,000 people on their AI etiquette. The survey found that around 70% of people are polite to AI when interacting with it, with 12% being polite in case of a robot uprising.
Obviously, there’s an energy cost when using ChatGPT, which has massive AI-powered servers that run the whole operation…
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, responded, “Tens of millions of dollars well spent – you never know.” Thanks for lowering the world’s anxiety around an AI uprising, Sam.
Geez. Rereading that TechRadar excerpt now, it sounds like a Babylon Bee sendup.
But no, one of the most powerful AI guys in the world just said, “You never know,” implying that politeness may count as AIs become more powerful.
Whatever. Politeness does count.
RE: Blue Origin Femflight–correction, there were 6 female “crew” not five.
Correction–Secretary of Transportation says these women were not entitled to the title of “Astronaut,” because they did not actually go into orbit around the Earth.*
Blue Orbit crewman Gayle King upset that the members of the all female “crew” aren’t being given the credit, that a man would, for what they’ve accomplished. *
I just have a few questions for “Astronaut” and “crewman” Gayle and the others–how many hours did you spend in the centrifuge, or underwater in a spacesuit, in simulated zero gravity, trying to master how to “spacewalk,” manipulate and use tools, and do repairs, outside the capsule, in outer space?
Just a thought, but for all of, for instance, Gayle’s complaints about not getting the same credit that a man would for their ten minute and three second “accomplishment,” and Katy’s talk of “Devine Female Energy,” I can’t help but notice that the rocket which boosted them up to the Karman line had about as “phallic” a profile as any rocket that I’ve ever seen.
@Mike Plaiss:I thought sure Niketas Choniates‘ link was going to be to Aquinas.
Not in the context of physics. There’s been some developments since the Angelic Doctor’s day.
In my experience the 14th century concept of “impetus” is surprisingly current among college students taking their first year of physics. If you ask them to draw a free-body diagram of a thrown ball, many of them will add a “force of the throw” in the direction of the ball’s motion. I assume some ageless, immortal, medieval monk is out there somewhere, periodically changing his name and supporting himself by teaching high school science classes.
Blue Origin Bints in a Bin posing before Johnson.
I once wrote a cutup poem based on Aquinas, Nietzsche, and Nancy Drew:
______________________________________
The Mystery Goodness of the Tolling Night Fountain
A small bundle touches their souls. Nancy picks the package up and inside finds a crude sketch of three bells and a cluster of hearts.
“This gulf must be bridged at last,” she cried, “for it is something unquenched, primarily distinguished from love, the light that I am.”
Nancy tiptoed to the hall and peered out, not to take the thing out of its complete actuality, for its tire tracks were plainly visible to the joy of the receiver.
Ned agreed. “Let’s go, Nancy,” he said.
Playing the flashlight beam according to her complete actuality, she examined the patterns, her roving light expressed in the aspect of the curb, when she heard a hunger over the abundance on the window.
It was Ned saying, “Goodness is a form from my solitude, the smallest leaping fountain. I was not the perfect one, waiting in the car; I was not the ultimate one ready to suck at the breasts of light. Yet I touch you there. Such vengeance is my own light, absolutely absolutely.”
But Nancy could see no likeness in the waterfall which hesitated even after the Mon Coeur trademark fluttered to the table. No, it was too dark to express something final.
Hence, she said breathlessly, “But I live in that spot, Ned, and I’ll slip out the back way, since all beings are the same really, and my joy is in giving relatively. I’ll let in its plunge, thus do I fountain.”
“O poverty that my hand had never unwrapped the bundle.
O ravenous hunger after the locking, sparkling and waiting.
Everything is perfect so far as startled goodness expresses perfection.”
They took the flashlight night of desire. The idea intrigued Nancy. She hastily wrote a note to her friends. Ned was waiting in the car.
____________________________________
25% Thomas Aquinas “Summa Theologica”
25% Friederich Nietzsche “Thus Spake Zarathustra”
50% Nancy Drew “The Mystery of the Tolling Bell”
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RE: The recent flight of five women to the edge of space in a Blue Origen capsule.
This was just space tourism, and probably cost each one of them a bundle.
Don’t get me wrong, it took a lot of guts to climb into a capsule and be driven up to the edge of our atmosphere, the Karmin line, by a rocket which could possibly explode and kill you.
Traveling a little higher than the Karmin line technically entitles each one of those passengers to now call themselves “Astronauts.”
But, to talk about the “training” they underwent, and describing these passengers as “crew”— when they apparently had no duties, nor any control over a totally automated flight—to equate them with those real, very highly qualified Astronauts, who undergo years of arduous training, and who are really actual “crew,” with very demanding and highly technological duties, is a travesty.
This was essentially a stunt, a dangerous one but, nonetheless, a stunt.
And don’t get me started about how newly minted “Astronaut” Katy Perry somehow derived “Divine Feminine Energy” from crossing the Karmin Line.”
About the dogs and their understanding:
https://x.com/DovLipman/status/1912462533195088122
Wow!
Somewhere, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda is smiling…
It suddenly got dusty here.
Thank you for the post sdferr.
Those women weren’t crew, they were cargo. At this point anyone who is not actually crew and doesn’t orbit is not an astronaut.
@Snow on Pine: cargo rather than crew.
“How the Earth really moves in space” isn’t. They’re following the Sun’s motion and making the planets go around the Sun. The planets don’t “really” “orbit the Sun”. Everything in the Solar System, including the Sun, orbits the Solar System barycenter. The barycenter is sometimes inside the Sun and sometimes not.
The barycenter itself is orbiting the Milky Way’s barycenter, which is itself moving with respect to something or other and will indeed collide with Andromeda galaxy in 4.5 billion years (mark your calendar). And all these motions can have an arbitrary constant velocity added to them anyway.
The Solar System’s motion around the barycenter of the Milky Way is about 8 times faster than the Earth’s motion about the barycenter of the Solar System. We don’t notice it because of there’s nothing close to compare to that has a very different motion from ours.
“Spam in a can,” is where it all started. 🙂
Karmelo Anthony’s GiveSendGo account now has $500,000 in contributions in it. He’ll be spending his house arrest in style in rented digs in a gated community. A member of his family said at a press conference that it was ‘disrespectful’ for the father of Austin Metcalf to attend Anthony’s bond hearing. Anthony spent 12 days in pre-trial detention. (Kyle Rittenhouse’s bond was 8x that of Karmelo Anthony and he spent 86 days in pre-trial detention. White privilege.).
Good news from Texas. BTW the two Republicans voting against were Dade Phelan, ex speaker of the house who refused to pass school choice in a previous session and the second is a government school teacher
Texas On The Verge Of School Choice Plan With Support From Trump
"…this is a gigantic Victory for students and parents in the Great State of Texas!"
The barycenter itself is orbiting the Milky Way’s barycenter, which is itself moving with respect to something or other
Pray tell, what might that something or other be? Why is there any movement at all? What is the direction of that movement? What (who) is the prime mover?
Answers, Niketas. I want answers. Now.
@Irish Otter:Pray tell, what might that something or other be? Why is there any movement at all? What is the direction of the movement? What (who) is the prime mover?
Answers, Niketas. I want answers. Now.
Since you apparently fell through a wormhole in the 14th century, can’t get back, and need to do some catching up in a hurry, I suggest you start here. The good part starts on page 78.
IANAL but this seems like a clever strategy. There are two issues that Roberts does not want to rule on: birthright citizenship, and whether district judges can issue nationwide injunctions. It looks to me like Scotus will have to choose to rule on one.
https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/justices-will-hear-arguments-on-trumps-effort-to-end-birthright-citizenship/
Justices will hear arguments on Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship
I thought sure Niketas Choniates‘ link was going to be to Aquinas. That’s what I always think about when I hear “prime mover”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Ways_(Aquinas)
A meme that seems appropriate for all of today’s posts.
https://i.imgflip.com/y1j9s.jpg
@ Mike Paiss: just for fun, … from a Leftist point of view:
the argument from “first mover”; [you better be the first and loudest protester at the protest on xyz!! ]
the argument from universal causation; [eventually everything can be traced back to Marx…or is it Hegel? Plato? not sure … ]
the argument from contingency; [come on, what else do you have going on that will be as much fun as protesting for a “good” cause?! ]
the argument from degree; [the rowdier the better]
the argument from final cause or ends (“teleological argument”). [POWER!! if you want to take power away from the nerds, nebbishes, oppressors, and populist elites, you have to work at it]
These may have been posted already – time runs together somehow – but if not, they are interesting stories about uses of AI.
https://wilderwealthywise.com/what-if-a-i-drew-cartoons-about-itself/#comments
https://www.theverge.com/news/645815/google-used-ai-to-enhance-the-wizard-of-oz-for-the-las-vegas-spheres-giant-screen
Re: What If A.I. Drew Cartoons About Itself?
AesopFan:
That was quite good! And it was real AI:
__________________________
Josie Kins @Josikinz
I asked chatgpt’s new image model to script and generate a series of comics starring itself as the main character. The results genuinely gave me chills.
https://x.com/Josikinz
__________________________
Very much what it’s like to interact creatively with AI. It is spooky stuff.
More than anything else, from what I can tell, ChatGPT “wants” to “create” with you.
Re: Thank you, ChatGPT
__________________________________
ChatGPT spends ‘tens of millions of dollars’ on people saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, but Sam Altman says it’s worth it
In February, Future PLC, the company that owns TechRadar, compiled a survey of more than 1,000 people on their AI etiquette. The survey found that around 70% of people are polite to AI when interacting with it, with 12% being polite in case of a robot uprising.
Obviously, there’s an energy cost when using ChatGPT, which has massive AI-powered servers that run the whole operation…
OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, responded, “Tens of millions of dollars well spent – you never know.” Thanks for lowering the world’s anxiety around an AI uprising, Sam.
https://www.techradar.com/computing/artificial-intelligence/chatgpt-spends-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-on-people-playing-please-and-thank-you-but-sam-altman-says-its-worth-it
__________________________________
I’m polite to AI.
You never know.
Geez. Rereading that TechRadar excerpt now, it sounds like a Babylon Bee sendup.
But no, one of the most powerful AI guys in the world just said, “You never know,” implying that politeness may count as AIs become more powerful.
Whatever. Politeness does count.
RE: Blue Origin Femflight–correction, there were 6 female “crew” not five.
Correction–Secretary of Transportation says these women were not entitled to the title of “Astronaut,” because they did not actually go into orbit around the Earth.*
So sad.
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/transportation-sec-sean-duffy-brutally-sets-record-straight/
“You never know.”
(Or do you?)
Compare and contrast:
“Dershowitz…
Boasberg Should Be Held in Contempt”—
https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/alan-dershowitz-james-boasberg-illegal-alien/2025/04/16/id/1207195/
“Convicted FBI lawyer spared from prison by Boasberg far more involved in Russia probe than known”—
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/convicted-fbi-lawyer-who-boasberg-let-skate-more-deeply-involved-crossfire
Blue Orbit crewman Gayle King upset that the members of the all female “crew” aren’t being given the credit, that a man would, for what they’ve accomplished. *
I just have a few questions for “Astronaut” and “crewman” Gayle and the others–how many hours did you spend in the centrifuge, or underwater in a spacesuit, in simulated zero gravity, trying to master how to “spacewalk,” manipulate and use tools, and do repairs, outside the capsule, in outer space?
Yeah, thought so.
* See https://nypost.com/2025/04/16/media/gayle-king-responds-to-backlash-over-all-female-blue-origin-flight/
RE: The Blue origin “glam” “crew”–
Just a thought, but for all of, for instance, Gayle’s complaints about not getting the same credit that a man would for their ten minute and three second “accomplishment,” and Katy’s talk of “Devine Female Energy,” I can’t help but notice that the rocket which boosted them up to the Karman line had about as “phallic” a profile as any rocket that I’ve ever seen.
@Mike Plaiss:I thought sure Niketas Choniates‘ link was going to be to Aquinas.
Not in the context of physics. There’s been some developments since the Angelic Doctor’s day.
In my experience the 14th century concept of “impetus” is surprisingly current among college students taking their first year of physics. If you ask them to draw a free-body diagram of a thrown ball, many of them will add a “force of the throw” in the direction of the ball’s motion. I assume some ageless, immortal, medieval monk is out there somewhere, periodically changing his name and supporting himself by teaching high school science classes.
Blue Origin Bints in a Bin posing before Johnson.
I once wrote a cutup poem based on Aquinas, Nietzsche, and Nancy Drew:
______________________________________
The Mystery Goodness of the Tolling Night Fountain
A small bundle touches their souls. Nancy picks the package up and inside finds a crude sketch of three bells and a cluster of hearts.
“This gulf must be bridged at last,” she cried, “for it is something unquenched, primarily distinguished from love, the light that I am.”
Nancy tiptoed to the hall and peered out, not to take the thing out of its complete actuality, for its tire tracks were plainly visible to the joy of the receiver.
Ned agreed. “Let’s go, Nancy,” he said.
Playing the flashlight beam according to her complete actuality, she examined the patterns, her roving light expressed in the aspect of the curb, when she heard a hunger over the abundance on the window.
It was Ned saying, “Goodness is a form from my solitude, the smallest leaping fountain. I was not the perfect one, waiting in the car; I was not the ultimate one ready to suck at the breasts of light. Yet I touch you there. Such vengeance is my own light, absolutely absolutely.”
But Nancy could see no likeness in the waterfall which hesitated even after the Mon Coeur trademark fluttered to the table. No, it was too dark to express something final.
Hence, she said breathlessly, “But I live in that spot, Ned, and I’ll slip out the back way, since all beings are the same really, and my joy is in giving relatively. I’ll let in its plunge, thus do I fountain.”
“O poverty that my hand had never unwrapped the bundle.
O ravenous hunger after the locking, sparkling and waiting.
Everything is perfect so far as startled goodness expresses perfection.”
They took the flashlight night of desire. The idea intrigued Nancy. She hastily wrote a note to her friends. Ned was waiting in the car.
____________________________________
25% Thomas Aquinas “Summa Theologica”
25% Friederich Nietzsche “Thus Spake Zarathustra”
50% Nancy Drew “The Mystery of the Tolling Bell”