Category: Uncategorized

Octavia E. Butler Landing — Now, The New Rover’s Home Base, On Mars…

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She was a multiple Hugo and Nebula award winner — and like Ray Bradbury before her, she now marks the second sci-fi author to have terrain on Mars named after her. Clearly she deserves the honor — being, at one time, a “Hidden Figure” of sci-fi writing, in the early 1970s. That was until, as she put it, she “wrote herself into the genre“.

So we are thrilled to celebrate her, along with the first wheel-tracks now underway and rolling — at the site, on Barsoom overnight. Excellent! The latest, from NASA/JPL — and Mars mission HQ:

…NASA has named the landing site of the agency’s Perseverance rover “Octavia E. Butler Landing,” after the science fiction author Octavia E. Butler. The landing location is marked with a star in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)….

We are grinning ear to ear. Simply… beaming. Be excellent to one another, and encourage all your little ones to… explore, to experiment… and most of all, to dare mighty things!

नमस्ते

Tangerine’s Prior, Impotent Attacks — On Federal Funding Of/For Sanctuary Cities… Have All Died.

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Finally, we the good people of most of the larger cities of this nation — ones with “Welcoming Ordinances” — may breathe easy once more. As we often wrote, there was no scenario Tangerine’s attempts were lawful, but good to have put it to rest, permanently.

Here’s the summary of the outcome of the Thursday motion per SCOTUSBlog.com, now so ordered by the Clerk of the Supremes:

. . .The DOJ and the challengers on Thursday asked Scott Harris, the clerk of the court, to dismiss the case. The request came under Supreme Court Rule 46.1, which instructs the clerk to dismiss a case – without needing the justices’ permission – when all sides agree. Harris quickly granted the requests. . . .

Onward — grinning at these very fine. . . new days. . . ahead.

नमस्ते

Ebola Update: As Travel Monitoring Order Takes Effect, Over 1,600 Swiftly Vaccinated In Guinea…

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This is the first time since even prior to 1977, that people in Guinea have been robustly vaccinated for an ebola exposure. The prior outbreak (2014-16) was largely over in Guinea before the vaccine became widely available. But this time, Guinea is moving aggressively with ring vaccinations, supplied by Merck, primarily.

Also in a more aggressive fashion, the US CDC has ordered air carriers with passengers coming to the US, whose point of origin was inside DRC or Guinea, or who had long layovers in those geographies, to monitor with devices, for temperatures, and look for symptoms. This is smart. Arresting it early makes for less loss of life, later. Here’s the bit on vaccinations, from NewScientist reporting yesterday:

…Guinea’s ministry of health and public hygiene has acted swiftly to set up three nearby vaccination sites, each with the capacity to inoculate 100 people daily – the first time an Ebola vaccine has been deployed in the country. As of 5 March, 1,602 people had been vaccinated in Guinea, including 66 high-risk people who had been in contact with suspect cases….

Onward — ever onward, but this does truly represent a sea change, from “the fire last time….” Science has clearly progressed — but more to the point, the logistics/delivery infrastructure has been built out, since last time. For that — we should all be thankful. Smiling, as a brightening weekend approaches….

नमस्ते

Just As We Saw With Betelgeuse, On The Shoulder Of Orion Last Year… Dimming, In A Super Massive Star

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This is… excellent.

Beauty on a staggeringly-vast scale. And as lethal as anything we will ever see, in the known Universe.

Take a look — via Hubble’s news release tonight:

“…The red hypergiant VY Canis Majoris — which is far larger, more massive, and more violent than Betelgeuse — experiences much longer, dimmer periods that last for years. New findings from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope suggest the same processes that occurred on Betelgeuse are happening in this hypergiant, but on a much grander scale.

“VY Canis Majoris is behaving a lot like Betelgeuse on steroids,” explained the study’s leader, astrophysicist Roberta Humphreys of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis….

The enormous red hypergiant is 300,000 times brighter than our Sun. If it replaced the Sun in our own solar system, the bloated monster would extend out for hundreds of millions of miles, between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.

“This star is absolutely amazing. It’s one of the largest stars that we know of — a very evolved, red supergiant. It has had multiple, giant eruptions,” explained Humphreys.

Giant arcs of plasma surround the star at distances from it that are thousands of times farther away than the Earth is from the Sun. These arcs look like the solar prominence from our own Sun, only on a much grander scale. Also, they’re not physically connected to the star, but rather, appear to have been thrown out and are moving away….”

The first panel of four images, at right above is Betelgeuse. Loving this. . . simply loving it — for even as stars die, we know inexorably new ones. . . are ever being born. And, ultimately, all from the same primordial matter. Smile.

नमस्ते

First Indigenous American Woman, At A Cabinet-Level Seat — Fittingly, As Sec. of Interior — Now Likely To Be Confirmed.

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This, despite a smear campaign, using discredited oil and gas industry backed mis-information about fracking, to criticize her nomination. She has now apparently won the support of Sen. Susan Collins (R) — and that, along with Sen. Manchin’s (D), likely means she will sail on through, without additional drama. But the sophistry — of the GOP Senators controlled by the oil and gas lobby… it will never end.

Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski have not yet said publicly how they plan to vote, but with Collins’ nod, the nomination looks to be safe, at 51-49, in any event. From The Guardian (U.K.) reporting, thus:

…All Republicans on the committee have received significant campaign contributions from oil and gas political action committees and employees, and some are personally invested in the industry, as the Guardian and the Center for Media and Democracy recently reported.

Haaland, who would be the first Native American cabinet secretary, supports the Green New Deal and opposes fracking on federal land. As secretary of the interior, she would implement Biden’s climate agenda, which, though relatively ambitious, may not go as far as she would prefer.

As they criticized Haaland and Biden’s stance on federal leases, two of the senators cited projected job losses from a ban on federal oil and gas extraction that came from a study commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute (API). [Ed. Note: this “study” has been widely discredited.] API is the country’s biggest oil and gas trade association and spent millions of dollars to help elect Republicans to Congress in the 2020 cycle….

Onward, to brighter days — clearer skies, and fresher waterways. Grinning… ever grinning. Thanks, Joe and Kamala!

नमस्ते

In Just A Few Days, Candace Owens-Farmer’s Suit Against Zuck Will Be DEAD.

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The motion to dismiss papers and arguments were completed in the last week of February. No word yet — but it is coming, and coming shortly. [My backgrounder, here.]

Her attempts to fund raise off this tempest in a teapot, of solely her creation, are thus paused — but she now says she won’t refund any excess money, once she loses.

And she will lose — and right soon.

Again, only now does she tell the donors from November to late January that only a portion goes to legal fees. The rest obviously is pure freely grifted income to her, personally.

Disgusting:

“…All donations made will be directed to an account established and controlled by Candace Owens LLC, the lead plaintiff in Case No. S20C-10-016 CAK in the Court of Delaware. A portion of the total funds raised will be used to cover legal costs incurred by Candace Owens LLC in relation to the aforementioned case. All excess funds will be used for other purposes by the LLC. No goods or services will be received in exchange for donations. Donations received are not tax-deductible. This website and all associated designs and fees paid for by Candace Owens LLC. By providing your information, you agree to receive communications, including automated calls and texts, from Candace Owens LLC and related groups. Unfortunately, we are not able to offer refunds on contributions….”

The bolded bit immediately above is new in 2021. What a loser, and a con-artist.

Parler Overnight Dismissed Its Ill-Starred Federal Suit, Against Amazon…

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We predicted, at the head of last month, that this day would arrive shortly. It has. [My backgrounder here.]

Parler is now on a separate set of servers, and seems to be desktop only — unavailable by cell-phone. But to be clear, since I’d rather eat my own spleen, without anesthetic, than join it — I don’t know, and won’t follow up. I do know the lawsuit in Seattle federal district court has been dropped. Here’s the bit:

…Plaintiff Parler LLC files its Notice of Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(A)(i)….

This voluntary dismissal is without prejudice to refiling. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(1)(B).

DATED this 2nd day of March 2021….

Good riddance, I say — to this mis-shapen little troll service. Let us allow law enforcement to do its work. In that regard, I will note that Gab.com, another far right service. . . admittted this week that essentially all its data — including private messages to and from the account of Tangerine himself, and other high ranking GOP officials — is in the hands of social hacktivists. Expect some leaks-based reporting of the truth, related to what those people think, maybe as soon as this weekend.

नमस्ते

So — Even Though Texas Is Well-Behind On Vaccinations… Gov. Abbott Is Ending Masks, And Fully RE-Opening.

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For the sake of the people of Texas, I hope this reckless gamble by GOP leadership… doesn’t cause another tsunami of cases.

But hope is all I can offer. Texas is nowhere near herd immunity. Texas was among the worst, in the later stages of the first wave. It remains well behind the curve on vaccinations, of people most at risk. Here is the disconcerting news:

…Texas lags behind most of the nation in vaccination percentages. As of Wednesday, roughly 13 percent of the state’s population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, ranking 48th in the United States. . . .

For his part, the Mayor of San Antonio, Ron Nirenberg, a Democrat, said Abbott’s move was unwise: “Opening everything to 100% while simultaneously nixing our state’s mask mandate is a huge mistake.

COVID-19 is still widespread in our community and infecting far too many vulnerable residents.

Please join me in continuing to wear a mask.

We’re not out of the woods yet….

The science of pandemic biology… strongly suggests the Mayor of San Antonio is right; and the past four weeks of watching Texas from afar… would suggest Gov. Abbott more than occasionally is deeply irresponsible, or at best indifferent, as to the fate of his most vulnerable Texans. First trying to invalidate their votes, then freezing them without power, and now essentially saying older, immune compromised people… don’t matter.

I will keep the people of Texas in my positive meditations… but I (quite reasonably) fear this will not end well.

नमस्ते

[U] In A Show Of Unusual Statesmanship, Merck Will Allocate Vaccine Production Capacity To The Approved J&J Covid-19 Jabs…

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Updated @ 4:30 PM EST — In view of this monumental agreement, for his part now, Mr. Biden is predicting that the US will have enough vaccine stock to inoculate all US adults by late May 2021. Excellent — end update.

This is, in truth, nearly the best of what US life science companies can offer, as corporate citizenship.

We face a global pandemic — one that may well be soon arrested, if only we can produce enough vaccine stock to immunize the bulk of the population. But no one company can produce enough — not even close. So, in resonance with President Biden’s calling for more humane, soulful treatment of all of us… these two titans will… cooperate and in the process, geometrically speed the delivery of vaccines, around the globe. [And each will make profit on the deal.] Here’s a bit, via the WaPo:

…President Biden will announce Tuesday that pharmaceutical giant Merck will help make Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine — an unusual pact between fierce competitors that could sharply boost the supply of the newly authorized vaccine, according to senior administration officials.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a matter that has not been announced, said they began scouring the country for additional manufacturing capacity after they realized in the first days of the administration that Johnson & Johnson had fallen behind in vaccine production. They soon sought to broker a deal with Merck, one of the world’s largest vaccine makers….

Onward, smiling at all the good there is — reawakening the “doing well, by doing… good” mantra — in this now newly cooperative world.

नमस्ते

We Must Address Rising Ocean Levels — Due To Climate Change…

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…And, we must accept that the magnetic poles are shifting (as we previously explained here in May of 2020), as well as growing weaker — weaker than they’ve been in over 1,200 years.

There is credible geological record evidence that the last magnetic pole reversal coincided with the extinction of the Neanderthals.

As every person with a TV tonight now knows, a vast sheet of the Antarctic shelf, larger than Manhattan, split free this morning.

If we do not start immediately to take far more aggressive actions… we are likely to hand our children, and certainly their children, a world nearly uninhabitable — or at least unintelligible — compared to the one we were handed by our parents. We must act — and act now.

नमस्ते