Commentary, Punditry, and More
Going to see how things go, and if all goes well back to regular blogging soon.
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If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
UPDATE: Visit with the cardiologist went very well. Not only are they happy with where things are (so am I), they also said thanks for getting me the new shoes. Now she wants me to use them even more and start planning what I’m going to do to keep it up if I’m not moved to the SW before winter. Following up on a few things, schedule is going to be wonky for the rest of the day.
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Not sure how much, if any, I will get up today. New provider went from ‘hey, we will make this work’ to ‘we demand your SEO, IT, and a couple of other teams do this now’ and apparently implying if not saying the traffic from Insty is most/all malicious bots. Oh, and two links from Insty have exhausted my assigned resources for the month. Back to looking around.
More importantly, I have some routine doctor visits today (joy) that hopefully are pro-forma. Going to run a few errands while out, fuel being what it is I try to drive as little as possible so combining all I can in the trip.
More soon.
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If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
I am behind on thank you’s and will be working on them as quickly as I can. While there are still some issues “under the hood” I am — unlike Dreamhost — getting rapid assistance, good help, and more. I hope you are seeing some of the speed and reliability improvements I’m seeing.
Tomorrow may be a very lite day. I have the fun joys of multiple fasting blood draws in the morning, which has a tendency to mess up my day. At least the locations are not too far from each other…
I also have to admit that waking up to news of Sunny’s death was a heck of a kick Saturday morning. I was afraid it was coming, but you still hope…
More soon, and thank you all again so much.
UPDATE: Looks like the “under the hood” issues are fixed and I’m getting all the data I’m supposed to. Feels almost like one of those moments on Star Trek where the mains and everything else come back on line at the crucial moment. 🙂 Again, thank you all so much for making this happen!! That said, if you see a problem, let me know so we can get it fixed.
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If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
UPDATE: The Duma will be meeting in special session tomorrow, and will make a special statement in regards Ukraine. Not a good sign, but will wait and see what they say.
Today is/was a bit of an experiment. I’ve noted before that I can write or I can respond to comments, and while that is improving it is still a factor for me. Also, I have been limiting distractions and potential distractions while writing. My days of being able to write in a crowded, noisy, press area are behind me now; but, I also need to be able to do more in somewhat stressful/distracting situations.
So, I decided to try writing up on the front porch rather than down in my semi-secret subterranean wolf’s lair. Besides, the sun is shining, the weather is nice, and I’d like to enjoy it while I can. It was also as test to see how well I can handle an environment with more distractions and such.
To be fair, while the traffic and a visit from a member of the Rodent Liberation Front were indeed distractions, I might could have handled that. It was having seven IMPD vehicles go by at high speed that started the real distraction. Then five more. Then more. Then another group of five or so including one of the SWAT armored vehicles. Then more. I lost track of the exact number, but it was pretty good.
I have a police scanner app on the phone, so brought it up after the first two groups went racing by. I still don’t have the whole story, but a few blocks west of me this morning, a dead body was found (apparently shot). Apparently there was a suspect identified and things got interesting. From what I could hear, there appeared to be a house with various people possibly armed and barricaded; a group of armed people outside the home who were hostile towards the police; and, some other interested parties.
Eventually, “the suspect” came out of the house and said they were the last person inside. Large effort made to get suspect into custody and into a vehicle with out “the family” seeing them. Makes me think some of the armed parties wandering around were considering some street justice. Things seemed to de-escalate from there and units were released to other duties. Which was good as about a major block from me, two wives got into it because one of them touched a shoe belonging to the other, which led to a gun being discharged into a sofa over the offense. Three units were dispatched to that situation (and I was left with the impression that neither of the wives wanted to touch the gun after the discharge), and others to deal with normal things like a man in grey underwear and orange socks stopping traffic on a major street, another interesting individual claiming to own all the copper in a Harbor Freight, etc.
Really looking forward to reading/hearing the news accounts on the first incident. Sad to say, the others probably don’t qualify as news given the current status of Indianapolis.
Morning is still my best time for writing and such, and this morning is gone. I’m keeping an eye on a number of things, however, including trying to figure out how well the Dugina passion play is playing out in Russia; this interesting post from the good CDR Salamander (seriously, you need to read him and not just for the excellent naval coverage); some other odd bits that may (or may not) tie into the larger picture. Thanks to a very perceptive comment, I may change up the planned Nuclear 201 order to go into reliability issues first. Yes, a guest post or two are in work.
Meantime, please consider hitting the tip jar. The end of the month is here, there are some unexpecteds, and I’m trying hard to get out of this blue-check hell-hole that the city of Indianapolis has sadly become. If the local prosecutor isn’t Soros-backed I’d be amazed. For all I’ve come to love this city, I’m done. As fast as I can come up with the lump-sums needed, I’m out of here. The rural SW calls. Am exploring several options right now, including pods, using shipping containers to build at least a temporary home if some things work out, and other creative options to get me moved. The key costs are: the move; a location to rent while I find a good place (or, find a place then figure out the rest); and getting StarLink and other utilities covered so I can keep writing.
More soon.
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If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your gifts and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
I had planned to post on survival today, but telecons and other delights are making that unlikely. More free ice cream soon.
The problem isn’t what the Press Secretary doesn’t know, it’s what she thinks she knows that ain’t so.
If I posted one of these every time someone said something stupid, I’d have to quit my day job. But this one was so egregious that I can’t help myself.
“There has been an urgency from this president from day one, when the Supreme Court made this extreme decision to take away a constitutional right, it was an unconstitutional action by them,” Jean-Pierre stated. She noted Roe created “a right that was around for almost 50 years, a right that women had to make a decision on their bodies and how they want to start their families.”
Yes, that’s our White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, speaking to the press about President Biden’s efforts to work around the fact that the Supreme Court has ruled that there’s no Constitutional right to abortion.
Let me be clearer, too, since so many people have obfuscated or become confused about this point: The Supreme Court didn’t “take away” a Constitutional right “that was around for almost 50 years.” When SCOTUS overruled Roe, they were pointing out that Roe was wrongly decided, and that such a right had never existed. If you’re Catholic, it’s the difference between divorce and an annulment: They’re actually, really, truly different things.
Final point: I don’t think we’ve ever had a more incoherent Press Secretary.
Sorry to be offline a few days, again allow me to recommend not getting hit by lightning. Even with things going well, it doesn’t mean smooth sailing.
The other day, I shared some thoughts and memories about space. Part of that was a far too brief coverage of space stations. To be honest, I think we need to consider re-naming such as the “space stations” of the future are not that likely to look anything like what we are used to from Mir, Skylab, ISS, et al. In fact, I think we are going to see a range of highly diversified facilities rather than the all-in-one packages that we’ve had so far and that have been a staple of speculative fiction.
There are many reasons for this, and we are going to start today by exploring the problems with humans. Yes, we are problematic as a species on many levels and in space human physiology and the efforts to maintain it are extremely problematic for most non-human research.
Why, you ask? Let’s explore.
Right now, gravity is pulling a lot of the fluids in your body down. That why you can have swollen ankles and other edema, sometimes it shows in your abdomen, and it’s responsible for an extra pound or two on your weight. On Earth, the amount of fluid in our bodies is perfectly normal.
When you go to orbit and are in microgravity, gravity is no longer pulling that fluid down, so it shifts. If you go back and look at photos of various Shuttle crews, you will notice that for the first few days, their faces can look puffy to bloated. Then, over time, they return to something close to normal. What happens is that baroreceptors in the aortic arch and carotid sinus detect the “excess” fluid and kicks the kidneys and other systems up to get rid of it. Which is great as long as you are in microgravity.
The problem is, once you start to return to Earth, gravity becomes a thing again and begins to pull fluid down away from your brain. It’s even possible to pass out because not enough blood is getting to your brain. Something contra-indicated for pilots, mission commanders, and such.
Now, add to that the fact that being in microgravity also causes your muscles to atrophy. Most of our musculature developed both to deal with gravity, and to deal with doing labor in full gravity. In microgravity, you don’t have to fight gravity simply to take a step, so the body begins to get rid of “unnecessary” muscle mass. The longer you are in orbit, the worse it can get.
Combating these issues has been interesting. To be polite.
Both the Soviets and NASA experimented with negative pressure on the lower torso (see LBNP/Lower Body Negative Pressure experiments on Spacelab, and Soviet pneumatic trousers) along with fluid intake to try to get fluids back to “normal” before returning to Earth. If you are a geek like me, also look at the specialized systems tested and developed to deliver IVs on orbit, since gravity isn’t going to do the job. Other ideas have been considered, but it is still an issue.
Exercise is needed to combat muscle atrophy, and may also help a bit with the fluid situation (the data I remember was sort of iffy, and don’t recall LBNP to worked well for anyone). Exercycles and/or treadmills have both been used in orbit, and they do help with the muscle atrophy. If you want to have healthy people in orbit, no matter how long they are up there, they need to exercise.
Humans (and other animals) also need to go to the bathroom. Skylab reportedly had a good system. The Shuttle had a system that required its own dedicated training facilities as if you don’t get it right every time there was a mess to clean up. Heard of someone bragging about the high-tech toilet to one of the German researchers who helped design Skylab. The older engineer let the guy brag, then simply said “Ours worked.” Also was told flat out that the fecal matter floating about during an early Spacelab did not come from the primate facility as claimed.
Also, let’s face it, if it hasn’t already happened, humans will have sex in space. Because microgravity can prohibit a certain amount of, er, normal operations (every action creates equal and opposite reaction, tight confines, be it a sleeping pouch or space, are needed. For what happens if a participant is fertile, look to the Frog Embryology Experiment that flew on Spacelab J.
Point is, all of these things, along with just normal activities, create vibrations that mimic gravity. Some of the spikes are considerable. If the data is available online, look at the huge spikes recorded by the accelerometers in Spacelab when crew members were using the bike in the orbiter. I still remember sitting in Spacelab Mission Operations Control and, along with everyone else from the science teams on up, going WTF? at the data. It did impact the research, though I think NASA hates to admit that to this day.
So, while there are a variety of biological and physiological research that would not be impacted by such, a great majority of materials and other research would. So, future facilities in space are likely to be centered around a human-rated facility from which astronauts can go to unmanned facilities dedicated to different types/fields of research if and as needed. I personally think a lot of things can be handled by both onboard automation and robotic “ferries” rather than by humans, but smart money says always plan for a human to be able to get in to make repairs if needed.
Next, let’s look at some of the specialized facilities that are going to be needed to take orbital operations to the next level.
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If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
I’m not even going to try for any humor at the start today. Rather, I’m going to start with expressing yet again my amazement at the complete and total clusterfuck that is Russia and the Russian military. I’ve said it before, but if you had told me in January that a majority of equipment was not fully usable, that almost every unit was at least 25 percent understrength, that they were using such interesting (cough, choke, wheeze) com gear and were heavily dependent on using the Ukrainian cell phone network, and all the other things we’ve seen, I would have laughed at you.
In many respects, Russia is fucked. From demographics, from corruption, from a system that can’t manufacture shit, from continuing to build and operate the ‘one big plant’ because of paranoia, and I could go on. The invasion of the Ukraine was an effort to keep things rolling rather than collapse in the next few years. It was supposed to be the start of Russkiy Mir, and the new, bigger, better, Russian empire. It was to cement Vladimir’s hold on power, and ensure that the oligarchs would have money to siphon off for years to come.
Which brings me back to Wednesday’s post. The Russian’s have indeed seen the attacks inside Russia not as a legitimate response to their unprovoked invasion, but as an escalation. Not unexpected, particularly given the bully mentality of Vladimir and the leadership. They do see NATO and others arming the Ukraine, training troops, etc. as attacking them and stopping them from their liberation of the Ukraine (and inevitably Moldova, Georgia, the Baltics…). They see it not just as a proxy war, but as a direct attack on Russia by each and every one of those countries.
Now, when you read/hear/etc. things like this and this, keep in mind three important points:
First, they are not bluffs as we understand bluffs. They are warnings, and if we let the Wookie win, that is all they will be. If we don’t let the Wookie win, then they are a legal and full justification for the use of special weapons. These things are aimed not so much at the West, but at the Russian people to demonstrate that they did all they could to prevent use of special weapons. They were the upright, caring leaders who tried to prevent things, and the West were the corrupt thugs.
Second, they also function as a part of Vladimir’s “Escalate to De-escalate” campaign. Remember, he believes that he can use tactical and/or small strategic weapons in a way that will prevent a response because to respond will start a full nuclear exchange. They believe Western leaders are too weak and cowardly to risk it. On that score, I’m not sure he’s wrong, but I also think anyone who believes in this strategy is mental. That said, the abortion that was MAD always had us at the mercy of the least stable leader with a nuke. Vladimir is making the stakes clear, that he will go for a full exchange if pushed. The thing is, I think he’s serious and that if we retaliate to his use of special weapons, in kind or otherwise, he will do it. If reports are true, Vladimir and several of his inner circle are ready for a Gotterdammerung moment because if they fail at the invasion, they are out of power, and out of power means they die.
Third, for all they emphasize strategic, they also indicate that at least initially it would be a limited strike. Note the emphasis on taking out this or that city, of eliminating military bases. If nukes are used in the Ukraine, I suspect that Kyiv or wherever Zelenskyy may be at the time, or large military headquarters, will be the targets. In the field, the troops are dispersed and agile. However, I am increasingly of the opinion that Vladimir will attack targets in NATO and elsewhere with conventional and special weapons. The take will be that he has used tactical weapons on bases that are attacking Russia and killing Russians, and that if we retaliate in any way, he will go strategic.
Again, May 9 is the key date. Originally, Vladimir was set to be the conquering hero who was restoring Russia to greatness and a lot of theatrics were planned. Then, the Ukrainians dared fight back, and most of the rest of the world rallied to support them. Outrageous! How dare they! An affront like this to Vladimir is an affront to Russia!
Things have gone seriously awry. Sweden and Finland are considering joining NATO. The poor performance of the Russian military has countries that were terrified of them rolling their eyes at Russian threats. Even the smallest countries on the Russkiy Mir list are now willing to fight because they realize that they could win. Oh, and let’s not forget that Russia has depleted a number of crucial stockpiles, and is now facing the loss of chemicals and lubricants from the chemical plant fire.
Yes, Vladimir could do a full call-up and have a large number of troops to use — maybe. The ability to get them where needed is limited. Almost every depot has seen critical items looted, which means all the pre-positioned stockpiles will require extensive maintenance to make combat ready. That’s assuming they have the equipment anywhere to replace what was stolen and sold. Add to that troops can’t be pulled from multiple areas because the unrest there would turn to open rebellion as soon as those troops leave. As I and others have noted before, they could use sheer numbers to take the Ukraine (and possibly Moldova at the same time). They don’t have the numbers to hold it.
The only thing that Vladimir can count on right now are the special weapons. Even there, however, questions arise. Given that the SATAN-II is more than two years behind schedule in deployment, one wonders what problems it has been having. There are other issues with both strategic and tactical systems, from weapons to control. My hope and prayer is that we don’t find out what problems do or don’t exist because a small desperate creature did something stupid.
Some Previous Posts:
Answers, Ramblings, And A Bit More On Vladimir And The Ukraine
Your Must Read For The Day On Russia
The Puzzles In Play, And The Missing Pieces
Quick Thoughts On Ukraine/Putin
Missing Pieces And Surprise Pieces
Accuracy, Reliability, And More
Putin, Trump, And The Coming Storm
War, Ag, Demographics, And The Worst Is Yet To Come
Past, Present, And A Hungry Future
If It’s Wednesday, This Must Be Moldova
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If you would like to help me in my recovery efforts, feel free to hit the tip jar in the upper right or the fundraiser at A New Life on GiveSendGo. Getting hit by lightning is not fun, and it is thanks to your help and prayers that I am still going. Thank you.
Quote of the Day, from a newsletter I get from/about Georgia (country): “Others warn not to look for too much logic and consistency in Russian military planning. ” Funny, yes, but also quite telling.
