2022: Things that make us go "Hmmm..."

Great article on the James Webb Space Telescope:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n02/chris-lintott/short-cuts?utm_campaign=20...

No, Dorothy, the universe isn't 6000 years old. Silly twit.

>1 CliffBurns: When talking about the issue with Hubble's mirror, everyone forgets that between discovering the defect and physically fixing it, engineers went some way towards correcting the problem through enhancements to the imaging software.

Finished The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. The AIDS epidemic meets Midnight in Paris. It's an underwhelming novel. I've read worse but definitely not what I expected from an alleged top-ten-of-the year book. Kind of thin actually.There are moments when Makkai seems to have a bad conscience about romanticizing the AIDS crisis. But really that is what she is doing.

Sad anniversary:

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-pays-tribute-to-fallen-heroes-with-day-o...

I am cross posting the below from the SF ( movie ) section to here because of the obvious magnitude of importance ;-)
YouTuber creates world's first retractable lightsaber that can cut through steel
Cautionary quote from the article:
"It works for only 30 seconds on full power, the hydrogen torch is not as stable as it could be and you can easily see it when it moves. Sometimes the lightsaber just blows up in your hand because of hydrogen flashback," he told Guinness.

>4 CliffBurns: Just makes you wonder why someone could not have anticipated the problem with a mostly oxygen atmosphere - I am sure it was discussed but with all the wiring seems they were a little over confidant with no chance for sparks. But hindsight is always clearer and easier.

It's just horrible that three men had to die so hideously in order to show how dangerous the oxygen mix was. Imagine something similar happening on the way to the moon...

P.S. I won't be buying that light saber. I'd need more than 30 seconds to dispatch all my enemies.

Literary LPs, Classic albums reimagined as classic books.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/18/books/review/literary-lps.html

Selected Negative Teaching Evaluations of Jesus Christ

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/selected-negative-teaching-evaluations-of-je...

>9 mejix:

Oh, that's bloody good. Gonna pass that on to some folks I know.

I've dreamed of something happening like this.

I once found a signed Ray Bradbury hardcover at a thrift store but nothing of this caliber:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-60594885

>10 CliffBurns:
The person who wrote it seems must have some teaching experience.

You know, I have always had this knack for Fantasy/SF and have a trunk in the attic full of cleverly encoded notes {disguised as poorly graded term papers, long of no use pamphlets etc.}. I bet with just a little push & support I could really put a polish on all that.

Fantasy author’s record-breaking Kickstarter campaign closes at $41.7 million
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/31/authors-record-breaking-kickstarter-campaign-clo...

Brandon Sanderson is a dreadful hack, churning out books like widgets. I would rather have my thumbnails pulled out and fed to me than read one of his offerings.

More evidence of just how stupid fan-dumb can be.

>14 CliffBurns: Thanks, I had never heard of him. I suspicioned he was more of a promoter than author but $41 million dollars??!! With that to work with I would call in from Fiji to ask if my crew had finished the novels yet. Ron Hubbard reincarnated ?

When I was at my pre-op appointment for my hip, a young intern mentioned Sanderson's campaign and I immediately piped up: "His work is literary excrement, not worthy of the cheapest, scratchiest single ply toilet paper."

He gazed at me, astonished, and my wife explained: "He tends to get passionate about writing."

Tariq Ali takes on the "cult of Churchill":

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/the-cult-of-winston-churchill

>17 CliffBurns: Most working class people in the first half of last century hated Churchill.

>17 CliffBurns:, >18 iansales: Plenty on what remains of the British Left still do, which causes much huffing in the blue-top newspapers. An earlier generation of the Establishment also never forgave him for Gallipoli and were horrified when he crossed the floor of the House to join the Tories, but they kept their mouths shut as his cult of personality was written into the British Narrative. It does Volodomir Zelensky few favours with the British Left for him to quote Churchill so readily (let alone A.B.de P. Johnson).

>18 iansales: >19 RobertDay: I’ve been reading The Day of Battle which lays the blame for many of the blunders during the invasion of Italy at Churchill’s door.

Think COVID is bad? The "forever plagues" are just around the corner:

https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/07/04/Get-Ready-Forever-Plague/?utm_source=twit...

"In response officials have largely abandoned any coherent response, including masking, testing, tracing and even basic data collection."

This is easily observable and sets up this frightening scenario. Scary to think as time goes on we are all more susceptible to anything coming down the pike.

I'm sure you've heard much of this before, but when Bernie Sanders lays it out so clearly and simply, the hideous inequality in the West becomes all the more stark and disgusting:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/02/the-us-has-a-ruling-class-...