Author: condor

[U] Already, One Night Later — I Must Correct Paul Mirengoff’s… Egregious… J6 Comm. Lies.

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I know. I know.

I said I wouldn’t look — but a friend just showed me that Paul made this BS claim (yet again, as in 2021!):

…But what it could have done is permit members selected by the House Minority Leader to participate….

In point of fact, the GOP members all refused to participate. Paul knows it, too.

Updated: And for the idiots at Powerline, what this means — and the significance of it — is that to a person, the GOP-Congress-Critters realized that if they were on the Committee, at least some of the effort would have to involve gently admonishing “dear leader” Tangerine, just based on the video already made public.

So, instead of potentially provoking dear leader’s well-known ire — against their re-election prospects… they all chose NOT to do their sworn duty. They… sat it out.

Abdicated the role the voters had handed to them. And now… they (and he) complain, about not being included?! J the F-ing C.

What an utterly churlish… Ass-hat, is Paul. Okay. I’ll likely fall… silent now, on Mirengoff, again.

Out.

Roscosmos Hopes To Launch Its “Lifeboat” Mission, To The ISS, This Friday. Stay Tuned.

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It is expected that by Friday, Russia will have sent a rescue Soyuz capsule space-ward, toward the ISS, in orbit. . . to bring our guy, and two of theirs, safely home.

The other damaged Soyuz module we previously discussed here will be allowed to de-orbit via remote radio commands — and in a controlled fashion, then burn-up harmlessly, somewhere over the open Pacific Ocean. It has been deemed unsafe for human transport.

Here’s NPR’s take on the latest developments — do read it all:

…Russia’s space agency is preparing to launch a mission on Friday to provide a ride for two cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut who are on the International Space Station without a designated ship to get home.

The spacecraft that brought the three crew members to the ISS in the fall later experienced a leak in its radiator cooling loop, and officials from both countries had to develop a new plan to get the trio back to Earth….

[Separately, an] unpiloted Russian cargo ship called Progress 82 that was docked at the space station suffered an unexplained depressurization of its coolant loop on Feb. 11.

The leak on Progress 82 was not connected to the planned rescue mission, but it prompted engineers at the Russian Mission Control Center near Moscow to investigate why the cargo vessel lost coolant and postpone the launch of the MS-23….

The new Roscosmos plan remains 5X5, all-green, for a launch this Friday — but should it encounter issues, SpaceX has said it has a vehicle at the ready, which could accommodate up to four astronauts / Cosmonauts in a pinch.

To be sure, there is plenty of food, water and supplies onboard the ISS for several months yet… even if both of those vehicles were to become unavailable. So. . . no worries, other than why several older Soyuz era designs are experiencing coolant leaks once in orbit.

Onward, and now you know (yep, Paul Mirengoff is smarter than the other three, combined).

नमस्ते

[U] It Must Be Said: Paul Mirengoff Out-Thinks ALL The Powerline Boys.

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Updated — 02.21.2023: To be clear, I likely won’t ever comment on what he and his writing partner have written there — nor, perhaps even ever look in on it again. I. Just. Don’t. Care. [This all started as a rebuke to John Hinderaker’s lunacy. So, I’ll fall silent again on Paul Mirengoff — but it is funny that his remarks on Cal Coolidge were far more cogent and thought provoking than old Steve Hayward’s were. And they spoke at the same confab, on it — at the same time, in DC. Hilarious.] So… don’t assume I’d agree with even one syllable he writes there… as I likely would not. End, updated portion.

I just truly randomly happened across the fact that he’s been writing a Substack for nine months.

I think (based solely on a quick scan) I’m unlikely to find more than one per cent of it… even remotely persuasive, but it is clear that he thinks more broadly — and tackles far more issues (most of more weight, to be sure) than Powerline does, since his departure.

It may well be, therefore — that he was the brains (such as they were) there.

And that now, in hindsight — given a view to his work, since… explains a lot.

I still think he’s badly mistaken about much of what he writes, but at least it is not 90% pure drivel, of no moment.

W I L D.

[U: Scott Weighs In!] James O’Keefe Reports On Video: He’s “Been Stripped Of His Role & Board Seat”. Flawless!

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Updated @ 10 AM — 02.22.2023: Scott Johnson believes Mr. Biden(!) had old James O’Keefe cashiered, despite O’Keefe’s own on video remarks to the opposite effect.

Folks… Scott Johnson is what bitter senility looks like, on the hoof. Don’t be like Scott. End update.

Well, it all unfolded in slow motion — as first public mention of the board action came 11 days ago.

But now he himself confirms… he’s been kicked out:

…James O’Keefe, the leader and founder of the conservative group Project Veritas, has been removed from the organization, he said in a speech to staff posted online Monday.

“I have been stripped of my authority as CEO and removed from the board of directors,” O’Keefe said in a nearly 45-minute video, reposted by The New York Times….

Couldn’t happen to a nicer… weasel… or whatever he is.

The entity is soon to be bankrupt anyway, since it is losing the various defamation and libel and slander suits, on appeal (all of which were animated by O’Keefe’s own editorial “choices”).

Hilarious.

Smoke that, John and Scott.

Out.

We’ve Been Following The Letermovir Story Since At Least Mid-2012… Now FDA Priority Review In Kidney Transplant Settings…

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This is very good news, for the franchise whose chemical name is Letermovir, has long since been branded (at Merck) as Prevymis®. The then candidate (then called AIC-246) was acquired from AICuris in 2012 (just two of my backgrounders may be found under those links here — and search in the box above for “letermovir” — for much more).

And this continues the likely ramp for the anti-viral, with new indications. . . arriving year after year. Here’s the latest, on a “closed markets” Monday — for Presidents’ Day:

…Merck announced that the FDA has accepted and granted priority review to a supplemental new drug application (sNDA) seeking expanded use of its antiviral medicine, Prevymis. The sNDA seeks approval for Prevymis for prophylaxis of cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in adult kidney transplant recipients at high risk. The FDA is expected to give its decision on the sNDA on Jun 5, 2023.

Prevymis is presently approved for the prevention of clinically-significant CMV infection in adult CMV-seropositive recipients of an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT)….

The FDA also accepted another sNDA to allow the extended use of Prevymis from 100 days to 200 days in adults receiving an HSCT who are at risk of late CMV infection. The decision on this sNDA is expected on Sep 7, 2023….

Now you know — out, grinning. Has it been 11 years, already… since that October trip in 2012 — and my first post on it? Wow.

नमस्ते

Scott Johnson: “…Whitewash THEM soul away”!?

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I think his closing line is purely a typo — and while I agree that Dahl’s books should, absent clear direction from his OWN heirs… be left alone… I think “whitewash” is not the term Scott wants.

Now, more prosaically, I think “them” should likely be read as intending “their…” by Scott — but whatever.

The whole darn fake outrage… means almost nothing, as there are literally millions of copies of his books, in complete sets, in the original versions — available all over the globe. This is a nothing burger.

OTOH… Idea: maybe the morons at Powerline, ever looking for imagined wedge issues… should start an online latter day “Gutenberg-Esque Type Project” to make available for free, in electronic form, one copy of each original work, as copyleft material. They are lawyers after all — they can duke out the copyright battles in court — if they actually believe in the cause.

But we know they… don’t.

It is just another silly way to try to divide people — and add to their far right reactionary readership.

So… sit down, once again, boys.

She Now Has A Mountain On The Lunar Surface Named For Her: No Longer A “Hidden Figure” — Melba Roy Mouton, Mathematician.

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Though not specifically featured in the movie version of “Hidden Figures“, she in fact (by 1961) was the original head of the team of mathematicians depicted there. She had graduated with high honors from Howard with an undergrad degree in physics, and a Master’s in mathematics, and then worked for the US Army Map Service for nine years before joining NASA’s Goddard program in 1959 — shortly after the same was founded.

Sadly, she passed away in 1990, at age 61 of a brain tumor, but her name will henceforth forever be immortalized — as it will appear on all the future charts of the Moon’s surface — as “Mount Mouton”. Here’s the bit, from NASA — appearing as a part of the mid-Black History Month feature articles set:

…Melba Mouton was first employed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 1959, just a year after the space agency was established. She became the head mathematician who led a group of “human computers,” who tracked the Echo 1 and 2 satellites, launched into Earth’s orbit in 1960 and 1964, respectively.

A few years later, in 1961, Mouton was the head programmer responsible for the Mission and Trajectory Analysis Division’s Program Systems Branch — the team who coded computer programs used to calculate spacecraft locations and trajectories, giving NASA the ability to track spacecraft while in orbit.

Before retiring in 1973, after a career at NASA that spanned 14 years, Mouton had become the assistant chief of research programs for the Trajectory and Geodynamics Division at Goddard. In appreciation of her dedicated service and outstanding accomplishments, which culminated in the successful Apollo 11 Moon landing on July 20, 1969, she was recognized with an Apollo Achievement Award….

Now you know — smiling into the chilling sunshine here… do go, and be excellent — to one another. [But to be clear, this is actually Katherine Johnson depicted at right (along with Mary Jackson) and as dramatized below, subtly-played by Ms. Taraji P. Henson:]

नमस्ते

A Lost “Generation”?! Hardly, Hinderaker. Or… Should I Say… Hinder-Faker?!

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To be sure, John Hinderaker isn’t much for facts. Hardly a lost generation. Consider:

There are just under 81 million kids 0-17 in America (not even including people without papers), as of 2021. And about 62 million of those should be in K-12 programs.

The WSJ reporting John links puts the “missing” figure at no more than 400,000, nationwide. If we accept all the inferences offered. So… that’s less than one half of one per cent of school age kids.

Disconcerting — to be sure. But the frictional / migratory labor force likely explains almost all of it — workers and their families that move, season to season — to pick citrus or apple orchards, harvest crops, or work fishing boats. They are… ever on the move. [And many of them are people John openly demonizes, elsewhere, since many do not have… papers.]

So — does he really care? Or is it just a stupid talking point? I bet the latter.

In any event, Hinderaker has no evidence to support either that the full 400,000 dropped out, or that they aren’t being “home schooled”.

Just as he cites no evidence for his nutty idea that public schools are… a bad thing.

In sum — welcome to delusional Hinderaker world. [But he imagines it… a wedge issue. Damn.]

Out.

And… The Second “Mars-iversary” Is In The Books, For Perseverance And Ingenuity, 40 Million Miles “Out There”…

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So. . . we will our close Saturday afternoon efforts by re-running a time lapse letterbox render of a series of dust devils, shot on Mars, by Perseverance. It happens that it was on this day, exactly two years ago — that she first touched down, on Barsoom.

Along with the deployed Ingenuity ‘copter, she’s been working hard ever since — per NASA | JPL. She’s in Jezero Crater, near the Octavia E. Butler landing field:

…Since arriving at Jezero Crater in 2021, the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover has been examining geologic features and collecting samples of the Red Planet that are central to the first step of the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign. Scientists want to study Martian samples with powerful lab equipment on Earth to search for signs of ancient microbial life and to better understand the processes that have shaped the surface of Mars….

“Anniversaries are a time of reflection and celebration, and the Perseverance team is doing a lot of both,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena. “Perseverance has inspected and performed data collection on hundreds of intriguing geologic features, collected 15 rock cores, and created the first sample depot on another world. With the start of the next science campaign, known as ‘Upper Fan,’ on Feb. 15, we expect to be adding to that tally very soon.”

In addition to the rock cores, Perseverance has collected two regolith samples and one atmospheric sample, and it has sealed three “witness” tubes….

[T]he rover has driven 9.3 miles (14.97 kilometers), but also that as of Feb. 14, its left front wheel has performed 9,423 revolutions. They can tell you not only that the MOXIE (short for Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment) technology demonstration has produced 3.25 ounces (92.11 grams) of oxygen, but also that the Gas Dust Removal Tool (gDRT) – the little gas-puffing device on the robotic arm – has puffed 62 times to clear residual dust and particles from rock-abrading activities….

The more you know, right? Right! Onward, smiling into the chilly Saturday night, as a hot red coal rises to the southeast now, with… a moan… that’s… Mars. And two baby girls here in an hour or so, for a sleep-ova’… sweet!

नमस्ते