efaardvark
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Status Updates posted by efaardvark
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Astronaut wings are "classy" (which I don't mean in a good way) but if we're going that route and giving anyone who crosses the Kármán line such a medal then we need a "with cluster" or something extra to distinguish the real ones who actually made orbit from the wannabes who just took an expensive rollercoaster ride. Add another dangly bit for reaching other (lunar, Mars) orbits, and extra enhancements for actually landing on various extraterrestrial bodies.
Silly I know, but if you're going to do it, do it right. Right?
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Hospital called. Mom’s been in for a couple weeks of treatment for pneumonia with IV antibiotics but she’s finally ready to be discharged. However, she also has aphasia (dementia) and after neurological evaluation she’s not well enough in the head to be cleared for anything but transfer to a skilled nursing / long term care facility.
Kind of a good news, bad news thing.
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Dementia certainly complicates things. My mother developed it as well & it got much worse after my dad passed. And likewise resulted in going into a long term care facility. I’m terrible at encouragement but just be there when you can & do what you can, but also realize there are limits to what a person can do on their own, so ask forhelp when you need it.
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For now this is just rich boys and their toys. Significant only in that it is a private endeavor that can successfully reach space. SS2 is just a rollercoaster ride, and an extremely expensive, suborbital one at that. Same with Bezos’ rocket.
What I am rooting for is SpaceX’s “Starship”. 100 tons to LEO on a totally reusable, completely private-sector vehicle that is even cheaper to fly than the revolutionary Falcon 9 is -really- going usher in a whole new era.
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@Wedgy I read a science fiction story way, way back in the late 70s or early 80s. It was actually a series of “hard” sf short stories, many brutal in fact, about the difficulties of building and maintaining a Lunar colony. In among the stories about all the different ways to die, the difficult logistics, the politics, and the economics, there was a story about a huge underground cavern that was described as an old magma chamber 1000s of feet in rough diameter. Patched to be airtight and filled with atmosphere it was the setting for a largish settlement. The story was full of insight and wonder, but the bit that stuck with me was the way the dwellings were arranged. There were a number of “traditional” buildings laid out on the ground in the center of the area, but most of the people actually lived in “pigeonholes” drilled into the sides of the chamber. There was a road and a system of cranes and elevators that serviced the dwellings, but mostly these were only used for freight. The people themselves mainly traveled via personal wingsuits.. light-duty suits were self-powered by the muscles of the person wearing them to enable human-powered flight in the low lunar gravity. There were also heavy-duty suits with small electric ducted fans that acted like small jet engines for speed or to carry light payloads. And of course there were sport versions. I’d pay some serious cash for a vacation in a place like that.
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When I was a kid we had no internet, no cellphones, no computers. Forget Minecraft, we didn’t even have Legos! No seatbelts in cars. Dodgeball, clackers .. and have you ever seen lawn darts? Not those blunt-end, lightweight things sold under that name these days. No, I’m talking about the lethal ones - heavy, pointy, metal things that killed thousands* before they were taken off the market.
*slight exaggeration for dramatic effect
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I just noticed the “NASA worm” logo on the underside of the awning over the balcony just outside the front door to the building at work. It’s only been there for nearly a year since the building renovations. Ok, so I’m a bit slow sometimes.
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Would so like to anime and chill for a few months. I feel like I haven't slept since approximately last May too, so maybe I could work in a nap as well?
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Back when the place was still “Thrifty” they had some pretty good store-brand ice cream and an in-store ice cream counter where you could buy a cone with up to 5 scoops. (Which would inevitably give you brain-freeze if you tried to eat it all before it melted.) Used to stop there pretty much every day on the way home from school in my middle school through high school years. They’re called RiteAid now but the brand is still around..
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Taking my mom & I down to get our second C19 vaccine shot today. Hopefully no side effects but I took tomorrow off as a precaution, just in case. Monday is a holiday too so there's that as well.
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As a Californian I would like to welcome the rest of the country to the wonderful world of high gas prices.
So glad I have a plugable ride.
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PSA:
Drive safely
Drive courteously
Drive economicallyIn that order.
And yes, this means even on Los Angeles freeways. (aka "Mad Max" training zone.)
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This is how old my house is..
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This video of the first helicopter flight on Mars was taken from a Mars rover.Meta-awesome.
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So L.A. county is dropping a step to orange-tier restrictions on Monday. It will be interesting to see if the idiots out there can be responsible and not cause another spike in COVID cases. I have my doubts. I’ve already heard at least one person say she’s “glad the pandemic is finally over”.
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I think I found the original...
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@LonelyPoet I don’t think so either.
Still something of an ancient document tho.. the last time I was there was on a class field trip in 5th or 6th grade.
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Closest I’m going to get to Mars for a while..
( it is actually bigger than you might expect. )
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I'm intrigued by the holes in the rocks...
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Not just some words encoded on a supersonic parachute.. this is literally underfoot in my "office". (It is in a shadowbox built into the floor of the SFOF.)
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For anyone wanting to follow the Mars 2020 (aka Perseverance) landing tonight here’s all the links.
In related news, Krispy Kreme has a limited-time offer.
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Is it wrong that I've had the 18th of Feb.
marked on my calendar for 6 months now but didn't realize that tomorrow is 
day until about 20 minutes ago?
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UAE, US, and China all have spacecraft coming up on Mars in the next couple weeks. I gotta go to work a 2am local tonight for Al-Amal because the DSN is handling their downlink, then again for M20's "7 minutes of terror" next week. China's doing their own thing on the 10th. Lots of activity at Duna, er, Mars this week! When all the dust settles there will (hopefully) be two more orbiters around and another lander and two more rovers on Mars. And a helicopter.
