Random Posts

[LFC]

Amazon signed several deals to launch a bunch of its own satellites, but none with Spacex. Of course Bezoz's own Blue Origin made the cut.

Amazon just booked 83 launches onboard rockets from Arianespace, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance to transport a majority of its Project Kuiper satellite constellation to low-Earth orbit within the next five years.

The recent collaboration includes nearly every major player from the private space sector except for SpaceX, which has already launched more than 2,000 of its own satellites as part of its Starlink program. Project Kuiper is Amazon’s initiative to launch 3,236 satellites, forming a large broadband internet constellation that services all parts of the globe.

“Securing launch capacity from multiple providers has been a key part of our strategy from day one,” Rajeev Badyal, vice president of technology for Project Kuiper at Amazon, said in a statement.

Prior to this recent deal, the company had already purchased nine Atlas 5 launches from ULA about a year ago. Although Amazon did not announce the total cost of the contracts, it is spending billions from its $10 billion overall budget for Project Kuiper, a company spokesman told the Verge.

Amazon’s contract with ULA includes 38 launches on its heavy-lift launch vehicle, the Vulcan Centaur. Meanwhile, the company will launch satellites onboard 18 Ariane 6 rockets over a period of three years from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana. Blue Origin, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s aerospace company, will provide 12 launches using New Glenn with an option of adding up to 15 additional launches. However, Amazon did not specify when the launches would begin, nor how many of the satellites each rocket would carry.

Things may also take a little while longer considering that all three vehicles are yet to log a first flight. Ariane 6 and Vulcan are scheduled for their first launches later this year, while the debut of New Glenn is still up in the air.

Soooo they avoided the main competitor to Bezoz's other company, the one company that has truly proven itself with multiple successful launches, in favor of a group of yet to be launched rockets. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a personal conflict of interest at all.

[LFC]

This is rather sad and pathetic.

Tennis player and six-time Grand Slam winner Boris Becker was convicted on Friday of four counts of violating the U.K.’s Insolvency Act, according to The Guardian. Becker was accused of not disclosing multiple assets—including prize money from two Wimbledon wins—when he filed for bankruptcy in 2017 over an unpaid £3 million loan. Becker, 54, had pushed back on the charges, which include removal of property, two counts of failing to disclose estate, and concealing debt, by saying he just acted on expert advice. Although he was found guilty on four counts, he was acquitted of 20 counts regarding the 2017 bankruptcy. The former tennis star will have some time to practice before a potential prison term; his sentencing is scheduled for April 29.

[andydp]

This just showed up on my FB feed:

“There are approximately 1,010,300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough words together to properly express how much I want to hit you with a chair."

(Alexander Hamilton, to Thomas Jefferson)”

[indy]

Apr 9, 2022 20:42:55 GMT andydp said:

This just showed up on my FB feed:

“There are approximately 1,010,300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough words together to properly express how much I want to hit you with a chair."

(Alexander Hamilton, to Thomas Jefferson)”

I really wish that were a Hamilton quote but it's not. (Or rather, there is no known evidence of it.)

[andydp]

Apr 9, 2022 22:20:43 GMT indy said:

Apr 9, 2022 20:42:55 GMT andydp said:

This just showed up on my FB feed:

“There are approximately 1,010,300 words in the English language, but I could never string enough words together to properly express how much I want to hit you with a chair."

(Alexander Hamilton, to Thomas Jefferson)”

I really wish that were a Hamilton quote but it's not. (Or rather, there is no known evidence of it.)

Why let facts get in the way of a good story ?

[Bact PhD]

Apr 9, 2022 22:52:30 GMT andydp said:

Apr 9, 2022 22:20:43 GMT indy said:

I really wish that were a Hamilton quote but it's not. (Or rather, there is no known evidence of it.)

Why let facts get in the way of a good story ?

I get the sentiment of the original quote, despite the likely mis-attribution. Unfortunately, I can identify with that sentiment a LOT these days.

[LFC]

Now THIS takes some real chutzpah.

Thieves in India Commit Ultimate Heist: Stealing a 60-Foot Bridge

A den of thieves in the state of Bihar in India decided to go for the ultimate jackpot, though it was not money or gold. The group allegedly pretended to be government irrigation officials and proceed to steal a 60-foot abandoned steel bridge, according to NDTV. They allegedly used gas cutters and transport machines to demolish the bridge and steal its scrap metal, all in broad daylight. “Since such construction and repair tasks happen at a slow pace, the department would have generated a notice to inform us prior,” one actual irrigation engineer quoted another one as saying. Local officials have launched a police inquiry into the heist, which shocked Bihar’s Rohtas district. The 12-foot-tall bridge (seen in tweets here) lasted for a lengthy period, however; it was built in 1972 over the Ara canal.

[andydp]

Apr 11, 2022 17:15:28 GMT LFC said:

Now THIS takes some real chutzpah.

Thieves in India Commit Ultimate Heist: Stealing a 60-Foot Bridge

A den of thieves in the state of Bihar in India decided to go for the ultimate jackpot, though it was not money or gold. The group allegedly pretended to be government irrigation officials and proceed to steal a 60-foot abandoned steel bridge, according to NDTV. They allegedly used gas cutters and transport machines to demolish the bridge and steal its scrap metal, all in broad daylight. “Since such construction and repair tasks happen at a slow pace, the department would have generated a notice to inform us prior,” one actual irrigation engineer quoted another one as saying. Local officials have launched a police inquiry into the heist, which shocked Bihar’s Rohtas district. The 12-foot-tall bridge (seen in tweets here) lasted for a lengthy period, however; it was built in 1972 over the Ara canal.

You know the old saw if you owe the bank $1,000 its your problem but if you owe them $1Mil its their problem ? 

Well, they got away with it because of the scale of the operation.  No one would think a major operation involving cranes and trucks over a few days would be a heist.

[pnwguy]

Apr 11, 2022 17:15:28 GMT LFC said:

Now THIS takes some real chutzpah.

Thieves in India Commit Ultimate Heist: Stealing a 60-Foot Bridge

A den of thieves in the state of Bihar in India decided to go for the ultimate jackpot, though it was not money or gold. The group allegedly pretended to be government irrigation officials and proceed to steal a 60-foot abandoned steel bridge, according to NDTV. They allegedly used gas cutters and transport machines to demolish the bridge and steal its scrap metal, all in broad daylight. “Since such construction and repair tasks happen at a slow pace, the department would have generated a notice to inform us prior,” one actual irrigation engineer quoted another one as saying. Local officials have launched a police inquiry into the heist, which shocked Bihar’s Rohtas district. The 12-foot-tall bridge (seen in tweets here) lasted for a lengthy period, however; it was built in 1972 over the Ara canal.

Dumpster will soon congratulate the team on their grand theft.  He has to admire any organized crime performed out in the open.  Expect invitations to Mar-a-Lago.

[LFC]

In websites a disorganized startup can end up creating something that crashes or can be hacked. In rockets the stakes are a bit higher when cutting corners.

There's a small rocket company based in eastern California named Pythom Space. And like a lot of space startups, it has big dreams. In this case, co-founders Tina and Tom Sjögren have the goal of flying to Mars in 2024—and if not then, by 2026.

"We see this as a new world," Tina Sjögren said recently. "When Columbus sailed to America, there were both better boats and sailors. But no one else did it. He did. All it took was three weeks. It was not difficult; it was fear that held everyone back. It was believed that one would fall over the edge of the earth. Or be eaten by sea monsters. He showed... that was wrong."

This seems naïve, of course. Even SpaceX, which from the beginning was well-funded and able to hire excellent early employees, is still years away from sending humans to Mars after its founding in 2002. But the Sjögrens are undaunted. "You have to work hard, but you do not have to be very smart," Tina Sjögren added.

So Pythom Space is pressing ahead with its ambitious goal of building a rocket, a spacecraft, and a Mars lander. The company's first step is to build a small rocket, Eiger, with the capability to lift 150 kg to low Earth orbit. According to the company's website, 90 percent of a rocket's cost in the traditional space industry is related to personnel. Accordingly, the website says, "Pythom runs small teams and tight facilities, building in the spirit of early explorers such as Lewis & Clark and Roald Amundsen."

One area in which Pythom appears to be saving personnel costs is its safety and mission assurance department. On March 19, the company conducted a hold-down test of the first stage of its Eiger rocket with a single engine. (The complete first stage will have nine small engines.) The company uploaded a video containing this footage about three weeks ago and posted it on Vimeo.

Lasting about 2 minutes and 40 seconds, the video shows a number of instances in which Pythom employees appear to be handling the Eiger rocket and its hypergolic propellants (furfuryl alcohol and nitric acid) with less than industry-standard care. At one point in the company's promotional video, a handful of employees can be seen running from an expanding cloud of dust and exhaust.

The video went largely unnoticed until a source passed it along to Ars. After I tweeted about the video on Sunday night, it was replaced shortly after by an edited version on Vimeo, with the comments turned off. However, the original version had already been downloaded and uploaded to YouTube before this happened. It is embedded below.

If you watch the video you can see 3 employees bolting at around 1:50. When pressed on their safety issues they were quick to lash out rather than address anything. Petulance rather than concern is how you get employees killed.

However, Pythom apparently did reply to an earlier message from someone in the industry about safety concerns. The company said the aerospace official was being "condescending and misinformed." Moreover, a Pythom Space official wrote, "You completely lack knowledge in our safety procedures but yet run to quick conclusions and judgment."

[pnwguy]

Apr 12, 2022 15:03:16 GMT LFC said:

In websites a disorganized startup can end up creating something that crashes or can be hacked. In rockets the stakes are a bit higher when cutting corners.

You would rather have "job-killing government regulations"?  We can live with acceptable losses -- that's FREEDUMB!  As long as no investors are killed...

[LFC]

Apr 12, 2022 15:06:28 GMT pnwguy said:

Apr 12, 2022 15:03:16 GMT LFC said:

In websites a disorganized startup can end up creating something that crashes or can be hacked. In rockets the stakes are a bit higher when cutting corners.

You would rather have "job-killing government regulations"?  We can live with acceptable losses -- that's FREEDUMB!  As long as no investors are killed...

The comments are brutal and funny. For those in software development...

A cost saving measure to remove incompetent and slow-moving employees. Move fast and agile has a new meaning with them.

There are lots of comments on the actual history of Columbus and then there are those that are just simple, short, and elegant.

At least they had the pointy end up and the flamey end down.

[LFC]

It's the "I can't take responsibility because of my dementia" defense.

Attorneys for the billionaire Robert Brockman claimed in a court filing on Wednesday that his dementia has materially deteriorated in recent months, and they again argued that the software tycoon is incompetent to stand trial in a record-breaking $2 billion tax evasion case.

Brockman, 80, has Parkinson’s disease, which his lawyers cited as a probable source of his dementia. His mental state grew worse, the filing said, after he contracted the coronavirus in December and was subsequently hospitalized in part with toxic metabolic encephalopathy, a “condition of acute global cognitive dysfunction” associated with COVID-19 “among older patients with preexisting dementia.”

The judge presiding over the case, George C. Hanks, previously heard arguments in November about Brockman’s competency but has yet to rule on the matter.

The billionaire was indicted in 2020 on 39 counts, including wire fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering, over allegations that he participated in “a scheme to conceal approximately $2 billion in income from the IRS as well as a scheme to defraud investors” in his software company, the Department of Justice said at the time.

The indictment claimed that Brockman utilized a labyrinth of offshore entities in Bermuda and Nevis and sent “untaxed capital gains income to secret bank accounts in Bermuda and Switzerland.”

Brockman is entangled in a separate legal battle with the IRS. Last month, his attorneys complained in court filings about the agency’s tactics, including emptying one of his wife’s bank accounts, automatically sequestering his retirement pay, and placing liens on his properties.

In Wednesday’s filing in the criminal case, Brockman’s lawyers said his primary care physician had determined in February that his “condition had progressed to severe dementia.”

They said he was also examined by another doctor who found that his mental state had “deteriorated significantly.” Brockman did not recognize the doctor even though he had previously evaluated him, the filing said.

The attorneys argued that a neutral party should examine Brockman if the court does not determine him to be incompetent. His fate now lies with the judge.

[andydp]

For about a week my ears have felt funny. Anyway, I was worried one was getting infected. Went to the local “Doc in a Box”.
Result: lavage of both ears. I can hear much better now. I’m also on ear drops for the left ear.
Wife gets to administer meds. Glad it wasn’t in any other orifices


My Friday is now sorted.

[andydp]

As you can surmise, sending aid to Ukraine also involves wanting to make sure your donation gets to where its supposed to. The Sisters have been sending supplies to their convents in Ukraine for further distribution. The article talks of at least two tractor trailer loads.  The sisters will also take monetary donations.  I'm sending something this week. The Convent address is at the end.

In Jenkintown, an order of nuns works to get medicine and supplies to Ukraine. The prayers ship free.

The Sisters of St. Basil never put out so much as a leaflet seeking donations for Ukraine.  It wasn’t necessary. Stuff simply started showing up.

Sleeping bags. Medicines. Clothing. Children’s games. Socks for soldiers. Baby bottles, wipes, diapers and strollers, walkers and wheelchairs, soap, toothpaste and toothbrushes, water bottles, Ramen noodles, granola bars, fruit rolls, and at least 40 bags of Pirate Booty snacks.

And money. More than $100,000.

People knew the Ukrainian American sisters would figure out how to get the supplies and currency from the motherhouse in Jenkintown into cities in Ukraine, and from there into the hands of people who need it.

 <SNIP>

The goods are going to Basilian sisters in places such as Poland, Romania, and Hungary — the Order of St. Basil is international — and then into Ukraine. The plan is for about a third to go to sisters in Lviv, and another third to those in Ivano-Frankivsk, and all distributed from there to people in western Ukraine.

The final third, mostly medical supplies and clothing, will go to the Ukraine military.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/in-jenkintown-an-order-of-nuns-works-to-get-medicine-and-supplies-to-ukraine-the-prayers-ship-free/ar-AAWiGtA?ocid=uxbndlbing&fbclid=IwAR2clm13oQELABsaKewczrfbcL31jXFLzTkqCVtydv2GeBUuHbjxDNGvMtM

If you're interested in donating the convent's address is:

Sisters of St Basil the Great
710 Fox Chase Road
Jenkintown, PA  19046

[AnBr]

[andydp]

ICYMI:  Taken directly from the Daily Diatribe:

A man builds a fine house; and now he has a master, and a task for life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are home !! After seven weeks away, we're finally back in our bed and métier.

Surprises awaited us: At some point the French Drain in the basement decided to go "Maginot Line" on us and backed up. It clogged up from some sort of "growth" and that blocked the sump drains and caused the rest. Came home to find the basement was bit more damp than usual. Cleared the drain and sump pump out. It's been functioning correctly as of last night. I have two fans blowing air on the damp floor, dehumidifier is going great guns. I'll tackle the clean up tomorrow.

Surprise finding: came home to find a tax bill from the IRS AND a $2.00 check from California from a lottery scratch off we won.  It all evens out.

[andydp]

Don't try this at home.  This type of driving may not be noticed in Boston.


www.facebook.com/watch?v=156244576379806

[Bact PhD]

Apr 25, 2022 11:41:06 GMT andydp said:

Don't try this at home.  This type of driving may not be noticed in Boston.


www.facebook.com/watch?v=156244576379806

Maybe not in parts of Flori-DUH (especially the southeastern parts), either.

[andydp]

This could have possibly been the humor category but here is just as well...

Based on our daughter's recommendation, we're slowly changing our e mails from our old Road Runner ones to Gmail.  She has advised us RR will be stopping support of the system within the next few years.  She thought it would be a good idea to do it before we have to do it !!

On my priority are sites that pay me money, then companies we work with.  

Just to make my life easier, do any of you have a way to send old e mails to the new email address as a block so I can file them ?

[LFC]

Apr 26, 2022 19:05:35 GMT andydp said:

Just to make my life easier, do any of you have a way to send old e mails to the new email address as a block so I can file them ?

I'm not sure but if you use it online then Road Runner might allow you to forward emails. If not you'd probably have to set up email client software (like Outlook but I wouldn't recommend that one) and that should allow forwarding.

[AnBr]

This is why I gave up on ISP provided accounts in favor of the likes of gmail long, long ago. If you move or otherwise have to change ISPs, email is no longer a concern. One thing you could try is to link your RR account to your gmail in gmail and mark all of your old emails as unread. Then gmail might then retrieve all of the unread.

[andydp]

Wonderful memories.  Everyone should try it.  

[LFC]

Well, this thread is "random" soooo... And yes, there are videos.

Every time we think Christianity can’t get any more detached from reality, someone crucifies a Tubthumpin’ Iron Man on Easter Sunday.

While Christian churches across the board seem to love denouncing every facet of the entertainment industry as pawns of Satan meant to bring the world to its knees, that’s rarely stopped some of them from trying to snatch up what they can from popular culture and repurpose it in the deeply bizarre name of Christ.

For one church in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that appears to involve putting on yearly Easter productions that reimagine the crucifixion using characters from blockbuster movies, like Avengers: Endgame.

This atrocity started circulating on social media last week, although it actually stems from a 2019 Easter production from Church of the Rock, who has reportedly similarly twisted secular films such as Back to the Future and The Lion King.

While these may look straight up like Saturday Night Live parodies of Christianity’s attempt to find relevancy in a modern world, they are, in fact, real. And really disturbing.

[andydp]

Nurse's Day May 6.  I'm married to a Nurse who was also a Captain in the Army Nurse Corps.