efaardvark
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Status Updates posted by efaardvark
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"But as the theme progressed, it came into the heart of Melkor to interweave matters of his own imagining that were not in accord with the theme of Ilúvatar; for he sought therein to increase the power and glory of the part assigned to himself." The Silmarillion, JRR TOLKIEN
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Got some (probably) bad news today at work. According to Laurie Leshin, JPL's director, next year's budget for NASA - and therefor the lab's - will be around 10% less than expected. One of NASA's flagship missions, the Mars Sample Return has had its budget for next year slashed to around $300M from $800M to $900M. Ouch. Other missions are in a similar predicament. "It is also becoming more likely that there will be JPL workforce impacts in the form of layoffs, and the way such JPL workforce actions are implemented means that the impact would not be limited to MSR", according to an email Leshin sent to the Lab's employees this afternoon.
I say "probably" because all this is due to the Fiscal Responsibility Act passed a few months ago by the US Congress and the management is still recalculating and rearranging the budgets for FY 2024 and 2025 based on the mandates contained therein. We don't know the details yet, but the broad outline is pretty clear. Some layoffs have already happened. Others are likely as the details are worked out.
Happy New Year!
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I found out today that the day after that email came out the lab did actually let about 100 contractors go. Very abruptly from the sound of things.
Meanwhile the "leaders" in Congress are complaining that NASA should have waited for... something. Waiting for Congress to deliver a final budget is a non-starter because they'll no doubt argue until the last minute. (Or later! And if they can't agree then across-the-board cuts automatically kick in that would be even deeper than what's been proposed.) When you're told next year's budget will be between 30 and 90% of what you had planned for then you need to get started NOW. The FRA passed in July. Since then all Congress has done is go on break for the holidays. What's NASA management supposed to do?
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Had to go out to Studio City a while back & on the way back I saw the Warner Bros. tower. Which of course made me think of the Animaniacs.
I had to look it up but that was early 90s! 30 years ago! Now I feel old. 
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Flat Earthers are going to have a field day with this one.
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190208
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"Your Ubuntu 17.10 is up to date, but there's a newer version 18.04. Would you like to upgrade?"
It seemed so innocuous, so easy. 6.5 hours and a clean install later I'm basically back to where I started, though with working HDMI sound (and a LVM layer underneath it all so I can make a snapshot before clicking that "ok" button.) GPU stuff seems a little snappier too, though I haven't actually done any benchmarks.
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Over 60 webex hours in 4 days. Isn't that a violation of OSHA rules or something?
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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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I almost have to LOL whenever someone uses the term "based" these days. It's one of those overused words or phrases that swaps its slang meaning between generations. To my generation (graduated HS in the early 80s) the term "based" came from the term used for someone who was addicted to freebasing cocaine. These were typically wild, irrational people who would do anything for another hit and were typically about a half step from killing themselves with their addiction.
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I often have trouble understanding what teenagers are saying because they use words to mean different things to the meaning they had when I was their age. When I was a teenager saying someone was "sick" or "wicked" was a derogative insult or a negative comment about their attitude, now I'm led to believe it's a compliment.
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The word for the day is “rehypothecation”. Do you know where your deposit is?
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Looks like Southern California is on fire again. Not quite in my area this time, fortunately. The closest blaze to me personally is the "Hill" fire in Thousand Oaks, which is about 35-40 miles away from me as the crow flies. However, I have a cousin and aunt in the Camarillo/Oxnard area maybe 5 miles from the flames that have already been evacuated. (Safely, fortunately.) Always pretty dicey when our high winds start pushing the fire around. Weather people said to expects gusts up to 40-50MPH in the valleys today, and up to 70 in the hills. There's even been sightings of fire tornados reported.. kind of flaming dust-devils created when winds in and around the fire pick up flaming debris and carry it along, lighting new fires as they go.
Very not-fun. And yes, the "Hill" fire is only a couple miles away from the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks where the shooting took place yesterday. Tell me again why people keep moving to California?
https://www.wired.com/story/the-terrifying-science-behind-californias-massive-camp-fire/-
Been watching the satellite feed (via https://firemap.sdsc.edu/ ) Looks pretty scary south and west of me. Hopefully the winds will stay down overnight. A bit of moisture would be nice too, but probably not going to happen. At least we're not in the middle of a summer heat wave.
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Still employed. Know of a couple people who aren't. Still working through it all but one thing I'm sure of at this point is the US Congress is made up of self-centered, irresponsible idiots.
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None shall pass!
(Another example of appropriate use of technology - in this case 3D printing and rare-earth magnets.)
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Like your profile's cover pic. Looks like Reki from Haibane Renmei.
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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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Sliced my thumb on one hand AND stabbed a finger on the other in two separate incidents while cutting up a cardboard box. Normally not this clumsy but today... just put the knife down and walk away.
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GOES-R the Gozarian (sorry) aka GOES-18 launches tomorrow! Actually reasonable hours for a change.. 10am to 8pm. Somebody isn't following the SOP! Not that I'm complaining you understand. And of course it can always slip due to weather, vehicle problems, etc.
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Just read that there may be enough uranium in coal that it might actually be marketable. Of course uranium isn't flammable so when you burn the coal the uranium just winds up in the ash pile with the rest of the unburnables, like cadmium, arsenic, and lead. But that's ok because the regs say it is.
BTW, I never understood why radioactive material is EVIL while stuff like arsenic is ok. I mean, just the fact that it is radioactive means that at least it'll all go away. Eventually. That's what "half life" means. Something that has a half life of 10 years will be half gone in 10 years. As opposed to the arsenic which will be around literally forever causing trouble.Not that I'd want to eat either one of course.
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Are there any animes that ARE NOT isekai anymore? Okok, I know there must be. But jeez! WTF?
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Only 2 of the 15 series I’m currently watching are isekai, though I dropped several from this season
And both my keepers are more comical, one being an outright parody. That number is almost certain to increase with the upcoming season as Shield Hero & Bookworm are pretty much locks for me, not taking into account any new series.
Part of the problem is that isekai has pretty much become synonymous with the fantasy/D&D genre. Many times the isekai aspect being tacked on for little discernible reason.
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Keeping an eye on the "bobcat" fire that's wreaking havoc over in the foothill communities east of me. Friday it was almost 13 miles away. Today it is just under 10. It is creeping closer, but also seems to be dying down in intensity with the cooler weather. (Well, relatively cooler. Still supposed to get up to 93F today.) Not a problem for me yet except for air quality and ash, but I'm concerned that there's nothing between the fire and me except for the national forest area. That area is wooded, mountainous terrain that has plenty of fuel for the fire but makes it hard for the firefighters to fight the fire in. In the past fires in that area have been a problem because they can't really be attacked in the forest itself, but as it burns through that area it can suddenly flare up and cause problems, especially if the wind picks up. Worst case we get one of our hot, dry "santa ana" winds coming from the high deserts in the north and east that fans the flames and quickly drives them into the populated areas. Keeping my fingers crossed for this one. 2020 has been kind of an asshole to me so far.
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This looks pretty cool. Great, now I'm going to get hooked into something else when I know darn well I should be writing or sleeping. *sighs* Thanks @efaardvark
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Anyone want to put your name on a rocket that's going to Mars?
not a single day goes by when I’m not reminded of a Simpsons reference 
