Category: Uncategorized

Brushing Aside The Ungrounded Trump-Appointed Texas Judge’s “Opinion”…

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So — we haven’t mentioned this particular prior Tangerine monster-facet, before (having been previously alerted in confidence that the Biden Administration was moving swiftly to solve it — we kept our keyboard on pause)… but overnight the CDC has fixed the Title 42 problem that GOP / Texas Judge Pittman “invented” — out of whole cloth, for it.

Here’s the whole thing — and a bit. What it means, in plain English, is that Mr. Biden will grant minors, unaccompanied or not, as well as their families… credible fear hearings, prior to refoulment.

That is the correct — and humanitarian — answer:

…In effect, this means that unaccompanied noncitizen children will not be expelled from the United States under CDC’s order.

CDC initially temporarily excepted unaccompanied noncitizen children from expulsion in January 2021, and later formally excepted such children from subsequent orders. On March 4, 2022, the District Court for the Northern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction “enjoining and restraining” CDC from enforcing its orders to the extent that they except unaccompanied noncitizen children from the Title 42 procedures based solely on their status as unaccompanied children. The court found that CDC had not adequately explained its decision to treat unaccompanied noncitizen children differently than other noncitizens subject to the CDC orders. The court stayed its preliminary injunction for seven days….

In the current termination, CDC addresses the court’s concerns and has determined, after considering current public health conditions and recent developments, that expulsion of unaccompanied noncitizen children is not warranted to protect the public health. Because it is not warranted, and in recognition of the unique vulnerabilities of unaccompanied noncitizen children, CDC is immediately terminating the CDC Orders to the extent they apply to them. In making this determination, CDC considered multiple factors in its public health assessment….

Now you know. Onward.

Pi Day 2022, Proper! With NASA Math Puzzlers, A-Go-Go! Grin…

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Since much of the nation is stuck inside today — with snow and rain as well, we will launch this year, a full two days early. Some math head-scratchers, for at home, extra credit — grinning.

Enjoy. And I know I will — again this year. So I’ll just touch up a fine older Pi/pie day graphic — from now three years past. I will source my cherry pie from the local “Hoosier Mama” pie shoppe. It is always first rate, and made with locally grown dark, ripe Michigan cherries, preserved from last Summer.

Here is the full set of problems, as a multi-color PDF from the kind folks at NASA.

…LUNAR LOGIC

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight mission will observe and map the location of frost within permanently shadowed craters in the Moon’s south polar region. Knowing how much frost is in these craters and where to find it can help us prepare for extended missions on the Moon, when water will be a valuable resource.

The spacecraft, a backpack-size cubesat, will collect data during 10 orbits over a two-month period, making repeated measurements over multiple points to map ice in these dark craters. To take measurements, Lunar Flashlight will send infrared laser pulses to the surface of the Moon and measure the signal that is reflected. The amount of light that is reflected back will help scientists determine where the lunar surface is dry and where it contains water-ice.

At 20 km altitude, the spacecraft’s infrared lasers have a radius of 17.5 meters when they reach the surface of the Moon. How much area do they cover in a single pulse?….

There are several more puzzlers, of increasing difficulty at the poster-sized PDF handout — read them on your screen and try your hand. Grinning a pie eating grin all day, now on / toward Monday!

नमस्ते

Tangerine Is All Butt-Sore Because His Lies And Defamation Were Just Removed From REAL Social Media…

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Apparently… Tangerine gave an interview to some morons called the NELK Boys, a day or two ago… [I don’t know and I don’t care who they are].

The re-posting of that sh!tstorm has been properly… removed from all of the responsible platforms, as it defames election officials, incites sedition and generally by false means, undermines our position in the ongoing Ukraine defense efforts and generally is bad for business, on the private club sites where posted.

It is without a doubt lawful for the leaders of FB, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram to so act.

I note it primarily to point out that the one truth he did tell on the Gab[dot]com version of his whining… was that we would likely not see Putin killing children in Ukraine this afternoon, if he were still at 1600 Penn. But not for the reasons he falsely imagines.

No — with the help of Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, he would have long ago cut a corrupt, self-benefiting deal to carve up all the oil in Ukraine, with Putin’s goons — and blunted NATO’s responses to the point where no invasion would have crossed Vlad’s mind.

He sand the oligarchs would have done it all without firing a shot, and Trump would have explained how it was “‘Murica First”… at work.

Whatever. Sit down, clown.

“Pre-Pi[e]” Day 2022: The Many Ways NASA Needs… Pi[e]!

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We will post a more complete “Pi Quiz” on Monday morning, but for the moment — as we prep for some great cherry pie, coming up over the weekend — consider just a few of the ways Pi makes… space science… possible.

Here’s the whole rundown — and a bit:

…Talking to Spacecraft

Sending messages to distant spacecraft and receiving them requires a network of massive antennas stationed around the globe so that, as the world turns, we never lose contact. Together, these antennas make up NASA’s Deep Space Network, or DSN. The engineers who communicate with spacecraft through the DSN use pi in the math equations needed to send messages and process those that are sent back.

It’s a pretty important task considering the messages are used to do things like land rovers on Mars and get images from a spacecraft flying closely by Pluto for the first time….

If you want to hand it out (as kids’ extra-credit homework!) here is that PDF. [Updated, with a solution set for the above right, right here — from last year.] Onward, smiling….

नमस्ते

A Simulcast Concert For The People Of Ukraine… Just Ended: Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved Ninth

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We understand that over 100 FM classical radio stations simultcast recordings of this “immortal, beloved” work.

We listened in, as we finished some drafting. [And it all stands in stark contrast to the guy besmirching our masthead.] Below is the version WFMT | Chicago, our home station, played — from a Riccardo Muti CSO recording of a few years past. [We were in the audience that very night, as it happens.]

A number of conductors have made alterations in the instrumentation of the symphony. Notably, Richard Wagner doubled many woodwind passages, a modification greatly extended by Gustav Mahler, who revised the orchestration of the Ninth to make it sound like what he believed Beethoven would have wanted if given a modern orchestra. Wagner’s Dresden performance of 1864 was the first to place the chorus and the solo singers behind the orchestra as has since become standard; previous conductors placed them between the orchestra and the audience… but with the magic of stereo radio or more recently streaming, that is no longer needed.

Do give a listen — and meditate as you do, both on the proud, defiant tones of his soaring anthem, and the clear plaintive call for… peace, in Ukraine — the right to self determine:

Onward, now with an immortals’ spring in my afternoon step. Grin….

नमस्ते

Hinderaker’s Lies (No Surprise) About Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Measure: Taken Apart.

~ condor ~ 3 Comments

For a second time in 24 elapsed hours, John Hinderaker flat out lies about why the Florida “Don’t Say Gay” bill is both unconstitutional, and deeply anti-American. Like the “Red-Scare” measures of two generations ago.

He simply pretends this language DOES NOT exist in the measure (to get to his conclusion):

“…or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards….”

The phrase is opened by the disjunctive “or”. That means it is not just intended to prohibit such talk to K though Grade 3 kids.

And it uses a pair of unconstitutionally-vague terms nowhere defined — “age appropriate” and “developmentally appropriate”. So the measure would subject teachers and administrators to discipline or firing in public jobs (a no no) for reasons that are entirely arbitrary and capricious — depending primarily on how hard right fundamental X-istian a given school board might lean.

That is, in the rural panhandle of Florida it is very easy to imagine a teacher being fired for discussing (with her class) the “wrongfulness” of bullying a gay 17 or 18 year old student… as being the wrong way for supposed x-tian fellow students to behave.

The point is this: who decides what is… “developmentally appropriate“? Certainly there are intolerant X-tain school board members who feel it is developmentally inappropriate to discuss even the idea of gayness, in a high school setting — so bullying would presumably be no problem, since (in their errant view) “the Bible’s agin’ it“.

Finally, we know that John is all about politics, as opposed to morality — and he makes that plain here — by lying about what the measure means, in action… and then suggesting that Democrats support opposing it solely on “PC politics”.

Not so. Some (including GOP-ers) oppose it because it AUTHORIZES immoral and unlawful… conduct: bullying, and perhaps… much worse.

Sit down, John.

Candace Owens’ Whole Life (To This Point): An Exercise In Reductio Ad Absurdum.

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Here is her latest tweet, verbatim — I won’t link her (or give her any click-through for it though):

“…Not sure why. Everybody knows that the U.S government has never once in the history of the world ever done anything wrong. If we do something that might at first appear wrong, we have fact-checkers to help explain that we are really just working to spread democracy — or something….”

At right is my answer to her. She’s speaking in defense of Russia’s “right” to bomb hospitals and shoot fleeing civilian refugees — including small children — in Ukraine, in context here. Uh-huh.

That is all I’ve got this morning.

Some times, the best heat — is the heat of one’s absurdity… made manifest.

Shutting Down More Of Hinderaker’s COVID Lies.

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Tonight Hinderaker claims that the higher death rates seen in “very red” counties, due to Covid, are NOT a function of lower vaccination rates there – but is due to red counties being rural, and therefor more heavily skew… elderly. [He also blames it on race; but his racism… is actually boring, it is so predictable — so I’ll ignore it.]

He says it as a hunch, but then proceeds to claim it as a fact (ignoring NYT reporting to the opposite effect).

But just a few months ago, we shot that theory of his to bits, with the data at right.

It hasn’t changed: the difference is driven not by young / urban vs. old / rural.

This at right clearly shows red counties are “under-vaccinated” — and that maps almost perfectly… to higher death rates.

Damn, John. Just shut up, already. How many times must you be corrected?

Once more, at least… I guess.

Damn.

Hinderaker Tonight Thinks Democrats Have “Low Standards”… But He Supported Tangerine, For Four Years. Sheesh.

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True enough, Mr. Biden’s numbers don’t approach Mr. Obama’s or Mr. Kennedy’s.

True. [See at right — we won’t shy away from reality — entirely unlike Hinderaker.]

But Mr. Biden is absolutely well ahead of Trump, on every metric — and Trump was never above water, for four years.

John seems not to understand that if he thinks this pot is black — he was a kettle, for four long years.

Personally, I don’t put much stock (at all!) in polls — when we are still over two years away from an election, and we know that Mr. Biden is daily gaining ground, now — due to his deft handling of the lawless actions of Putin, in Ukraine.

But if John’s going to claim (falsely, that) Democrats are an indiscriminate crowd… he ought to answer for the truth of his long support of a tax cheat, grifter, serial sexual predator, serial liar and fakey man of god.

But he… won’t.

No surprise, there. Out.