I found a new toy!

 https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/

Hypocrisy

 I had thought to start off with "You gotta love Republicans," in the sense that they are pathetic and probably need a hug at the end of each long day of hating.  Then I realized that no matter the bitter laughs they provide me with, they are generally ignorant people who, when engaged in culture warfare, don't think any of it through.

The governor of Tennessee dressed in drag for a high school thing back in the 70s. His defense, as you can see, is that was different from those evil, sexual, obscene drag queens coming for our children. For the life of me, the only difference I can see is that it was him and not a gay man.  For the record, I've dressed in drag more than once.  Never for my own gratification, but every time as a form of entertainment for others.

The unintended consequences of their abortion laws is worse.  We don't get to laugh at these kinds of things (behind the Washington Post paywall, which they let you step over for free for a while). It's simply horrific.  And you know damned good and well that they wouldn't let this happen to their wives and daughters.  No matter the cost, they would see that the women close to them got appropriate health care.  But your daughter or mine?  Fuck them.

And there is no need to talk about the debacle that was Kansas under a "eliminate taxes" governor with a compliant legislature a few years ago.  And the hell of it is, that here in Arkansas, we're about to go through the same hell, bankrupting the state by eliminating income taxes and promising vouchers to take kids to private schools.

No, you don't have to love them.  You have to be sickened.  And you have to be afraid.

By the lights of the Supreme Court,...

 ...it was a bad week to be an oil company guy working by the hour plus a bonus on an oil rig (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/598/21-908/?utm_source=summary-newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2023-02-23-us-supreme-court-efa8b99341&utm_content=text-case-title-1).

...it was a good day to be a capital murderer arguing that federal law applied to his federal. case https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/598/21-846/?utm_source=summary-newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2023-02-23-us-supreme-court-efa8b99341&utm_content=text-case-title-2.

and, finally...If I understand the cases correctly, it was a bad day to be involved in raising and spending the poison fruit of a poisoned tree. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/598/21-984/?utm_source=summary-newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2023-02-23-us-supreme-court-efa8b99341&utm_content=text-case-title-3

We live in a science fiction universe #731

 https://www.space.com/very-large-telescope-photographs-lightest-ever-exoplanet

A Perfect Storm

 This blog used to have, up there in the masthead, the sentence, "I'm so mad I can't think straight." I thought it was funny, but nobody ever laughed besides me, so...

However, this story, in all its glory, has made me to mad that I'm talking like Yosemite Sam.

A couple of days ago, the Washington Post broke a story about a company that sterilizes meat packing equipment employing children in overnight, mostly unsupervised, dangerous jobs.  See here (it's behind a registration wall, but they don't seem to have bombarded me too much for registering, so  I recommend it).  Short version: Department of Labor fined Packers Sanitation Services $1.5 million for child labor law violations.

Turns out (and not even close to a surprise) that Tyson, the giant food processing corporation originating in my home state of Arkansas, was one of the business Aes that used illegal labor from Packers Sanitation Services (at Tyson's plant in Green Forest).  Short article here.

The second half of the article from the Arkansas Times gets to the part that is so infuriating.  As reported in the Guardian (here), it seems that the GOP is making a coordinated effort, at the state level, to undermine the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.  And, of course, they don't just want them to work, they want the companies that hire them to be shielded from the inevitable accidents (some that will be fatal) that are part and parcel of hiring young, inexperienced labor.

But why? Is the labor shortage that business keeps squealing about that acute?  Could we finally be at the point where business will be forced to realize that infinite, eternal growth is not possible?  Will every sentence in this paragraph be a question?

Homelessness and poverty.

 The easiest way to end homelessness is to give unhoused people houses: https://www.5newsonline.com/amp/article/news/local/little-rock-tiny-homes-homeless/91-e069c403-25b1-45c1-9cea-c97c3c52cb84

You can eliminate poverty the same way.  Give the poor money.

Did you know that many Christians are opposed to eliminating poverty? Yep.  You start talking to them about ways to get rid of poverty and they'll sling half of Matthew 26:11 at you and say it can't be done.  As usual, these kinds of Christians are cherry picking.  I guess Deuteronomy 4:2 -- Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you -- just doesn't resonate with them.

So, good on Ken Howard and the city of Little Rock.  I don't like the drawing, it looks like a ghetto and they are building it in a pretty trashy part of town -- no offense intended for anybody who lives near there and keeps their property looking nice and junk picked up and stuff --, but I guess it's better than nothing. 

It's never aliens until it is

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-no-indication-aliens-with-takedowns-unidentified-objects-2023-02-13/

I think most people hope for the day we find life off earth.  And some of us hope that intelligent life is found in our lifetime.  Others might be a bit frightened by the idea.  After all, chances are good that they will be more technologically advanced than us and in human history, it sucks to be on the wrong end of the pointed stick.

And another thing, Sagan and his "extraordinary evidence."  That's not really logic.  If the evidence is as mundane a spaceship scooting through our solar system on its way somewhere else, looking to us like a rock, and slowing down to hit the sweet spot for a gravitational slingshot, that's evidence.

I'm with Dr. Loeb.

We live in a science fiction universe, No. 738

https://www.space.com/polaris-program-facts-missions-history

I know that it is the mode to make fun of the billionaire astronauts space programs.  Some even feel that the billionaire astronauts are doing something wrong by spending their money this way.

Many of you know that I'm somewhere to the left of Marx and Engels and that my hatred and despite for the rich knows few bounds.  But here lies one of the bounds.

The pursuit of manned space flight thrills the shit out of me.  Since I was old enough to know what I seeing and hearing on the teevee in the earliest days of Apollo, I've been in love with the idea of space travel. I devour the news of it, which is so much more voluminous with the interwebs and stuff.  I read books about it, both real and ficitional. Until I was 15, I planned to become an astronaut, but I had it explained to me my eyesight would wash me out.

The billionaires, while spending their money to realize their childhood dreams and actually going to space, they are also spending their money on behalf of mankind.  There is no Planet B.  The time will come when we will have to leave, and we need to be ready.  Even if it is only a small number of us.  The rich will have to take scientists and engineers and fabricators and grunts with them if they are the ones who determine who gets to go.

And, with pioneering work sponsored by governments and by billionaires, our gains in technology related to space travel will grow and maybe we will all get to go.

So, a tip of my hat to Jared Isaacman and Musk and Bezos (whose name I couldn't remember just now) and to Branson.  I wish them luck and good flights.

Et sic ad astra.

Once again unto the breach, dear friends, once more.

 It's been quite some time since I blogged.  For those who followed my blog in the before times, you will recall that it was a mix of politics, humor, space exploration, and evolutionary biology.  I stayed away from the subjects in which I am trained, history and mathematics, thinking that if I was going to  write about them, it needed to be in a disciplined way for publication, not the slapdash, hipshot banter that was/is the language of my thinking out loud.

I've used Facebook for some of the sort of thing that I used to do, but for some reason, I find myself being very terse on Facebook.  I suspect that people don't read Facebook posts that require them to scroll very far.  If someone comes here to read these, I have the reasonable expectation that they don't mind reading my rambles.

So.  I think I'll give it a try again for a while.

A couple of remarks.  Important stuff gets hidden behind paywalls. There are ways around them. I would never encourage anyone to do something so underhanded.  Important stuff, the New York Times and  the Democrat-Gazette, gets hidden behind paywalls.  Paywalls are relatively easy to overcome.

I encourage comments.  But, keep in mind that this is my space.  If you say something that I don't want other people to have to look at, I'll just delete it.  I'm highly unlikely to delete something just because I don't agree with it, because it offends me, or because it's wrong.  I will delete and soon as I see anything that I think will hurt my friends.

People, places, and things that make me sick, Part 1.

Wal-Mart makes me sick.