Chaos Manor View, Wednesday, January 20, 2016
“This is the most transparent administration in history.”
Barrack Obama
Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for Western Civilization as it commits suicide.
Still climbing. Recovery is certain but slow. I felt really good when I first woke up, but that faded fast. At least that’s a sign. The good news is that Roberta is well. A bit weak from it all, but getting better by the hour. The pastor told Roberta that there is lot of this in the parish.
My brain is not working, so I’ll avoid comments for a couple of days.
Have a good week.
Tuesday, 1/19/16 – Registration is open for Space Access ’16, April 7-9
2016 in Phoenix Arizona, Space Access Society’s next annual conference on the business, technology, and politics of radically cheaper access to space, this year with a strong sub-focus on Beyond Low Orbit: The Next Step Out. Registration, Hotel, and preliminary conference info are at:
I always try to go to the Space Access conference, and I’ll try to make it this year. It’s an exciting year.
Putin just undercut Obama’s position, again:
<.>
President Barack Obama’s hope for a negotiated settlement in the Syrian civil war is fading as Russia’s relentless military strikes shift the conflict in favor of President Bashar al-Assad.
The Washington Post reports that Russia’s pounding of forces attempting to crush Assad’s regime have been so effective it’s unlikely it will be overthrown.
“Russia’s strategy is to weaken the Syrian opposition to the point of elimination, so that in the future Russia may well be able to argue that there is no one to negotiate with,” Lina Khatib of France’s Arab Reform Initiative told the newspaper.
Russia’s success has put peace talks, set to launch in Geneva next week, in doubt.
</>
https://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Russia-Airstrikes-Syria-Obama/2016/01/20/id/710168/
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Most Respectfully,
Joshua Jordan, KSC
Percussa Resurgo
It would depend, I suppose, on your objectives. I don’t know what those are, or if they are attainable.
Acid rain, ozone, CO2…
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ozone-hole-was-super-scary-what-happened-it-180957775/?no-ist
Stephanie Osborn“The Interstellar Woman of Mystery”
“I was ready to change lives as a teacher.”
<http://nypost.com/2016/01/17/my-year-of-terror-and-abuse-teaching-at-a-nyc-high-school/>
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Roland Dobbins
Sad, infuriating, and quite predictable harvest from what we sow.
That crazy Lithuanian roller coaster designer
Maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t he look exactly like Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lechter in “Silence of the Lambs”?
Who says you can’t spot crazy a mile off?
This is further advances my hypothesis that the full effects of the Seventy Years War will take at least three to four centuries to work their way out from the broken-backed husk known as ” European Kultur”. A eiwith the previous disasters of the Punic Wars and the Thirty Years War took centuries to scab over (though southern Italy and Sicily still suffer from the after effects Second Punic War).
Of course, if birth-rates continue as current, Europe will die of that malady before this ongoing Carnival Of The Corpses one cant urn its course.
.
res ip·sa loquitur
Petronius
Hitler’s main stated objective was to undo the Westphalia agreement.
There’s More Magma Under Yellowstone Than We Thought
Beneath the shallow magma chamber at Yellowstone lies a vast magma reservoir that’s four times larger.
Stephanie Osborn
“The Interstellar Woman of Mystery”
In case you need something else to worry about
Researchers Are Teaching ATLAS To Do Household Chores Like Rosey from The Jetsons,
Jerry
We are getting closer to Door Into Summer:
http://gizmodo.com/researchers-are-teaching-atlas-to-do-household-chores-l-1753179792
Ed
Thymusine
You mentioned thymusine in A Step Farther Out.
Someone is listening.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3400205/Have-scientists-discovered-elixir-youth-Hormone-extends-lifespan-40-protecting-immune-against-ravages-age.htmlA team at Yale School of Medicine have identified a hormone, produced by the thymus glad, extends lifespan by 40 per cent.
Their findings reveal increased levels of the hormone, known as FGF21, protects the immune system against the ravages of age.
Their results showed that increasing the level of FGF21 in old mice protected the thymus from age-related fatty degeneration and increased the ability of the thymus to produce new T cells.
Meanwhile, FGF21 deficiency accelerated the degeneration of the thymus in old mice.
Professor Dixit said: ‘We found that FGF21 levels in thymic epithelial cells is several fold higher than in the liver, therefore FGF21 acts within the thymus to promote T cell production.
‘Elevating the levels of FGF21 in the elderly or in cancer patients who undergo bone marrow transplantation may be an additional strategy to increase T cell production, and thus bolster immune function.’
DAB
gender imbalance
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-11/european-migrant-crisis-triggers-gender-imbalance/7076924
123 boys to 100 girls in Sweden due to recent immigration – worse than China. Unbelievable.
mkr
Liberalism is a …
KIC 8462852 news: it’s dimmed a lot over 100 years
See this article from Centauri Dreams.
New research suggests that “Tabby’s Star” has been growing substantially dimmer for 100+ years. The change seems inconsistent with plausible versions of the “cometary hypothesis” for the star’s unusual light curves.
Still too soon to jump to conclusions, but this story keeps getting more interesting.
Dyson Sphere observability in the Infrared
Dear Dr. Pournelle,
A couple/three posts have pointed out that a Dyson Sphere ought to be easy to spot, since the sphere would radiate brightly in t he infrared, making any such sphere among the brightest IR objects in our galaxy.
I see a hidden assumption: That the Dyson Sphere builders are Energy Wastrels.
Why would they build a Dyson Sphere? TTO use ALL the energy from their star.
If a species builds a Dyson Sphere, it seems likely that the incipient reason is that they are NOT a starfaring race. Why build such a Mega-Object if for the same level of effort you might travel to the myriad worlds we now KNOW are all over the outer regions of our galaxy and settle them>
Given that such a Dyson Sphere building race is doing it because al they have only this one system to exploit, would it not follow that they would NOT be energy wastrels, but rather might seek to utilize every erg from their star, perhaps with MULTIPLE shells about their star? Perhaps an inner one for heavy industries, with “windows” in it to allowing energy to pass through to other shells, those with windows, until you finally reach a final outer shell capturing the last bits of energy, and that last outer shell perhaps radiating in the IR at a level low enough that it would be hidden among natural IR sources.
Such a “Russian Doll” layered Dyson Sphere building race it seems to me would by nature be a race prone to looking inward, the Dyson SPjere being the natural place for such a species to reside. Given that, would they not also see the advantages in HHIDING their very existence and advanced technology? Does the Ground Hog place sign at the entrance of his burrow, the better the fox to er find and eat him? Maybe the Dyson Sphere builders are evolved from a race of Beavers, and they like hiding while pulling their holes in after them?
Just an idea.
Best wishes,
Kim Owen Smith/Petronius
We narrowly missed a new ice age, and now we won’t see one for a long time Jerry
Do you believe this?
If they are correct, we will miss a glaciation. I hope they are right. Heat is a lot easier to deal with than cold.
Ed
The past foretells the future. if you know enough…
Carbon emissions ‘postpone ice age’ – BBC News
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35307800
Interesting hypothesis.
If it had not been for the beginning of the Industrial Age when it happened, there might not have been enough CO2 in the atmosphere to prevent the onset of an ice age as earth’s rotation and position created conditions favorable to sudden glaciation.
Charles Brumbelow
We said that in Fallen Angels, but that was science fiction…
Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.