April 7, 2026
OK, so I have been pulling my hair out (what’s left of it) the past few days over trying to understand an email thread with “Draft2Digital.” (Note to self: this occurred in early 2024; evidently, forgot to post it! The first thing that goes is memory, and the second is…umm…)
Let me sum up. (If you’re not interested in a rant-n-rave about the state of the independent publishing industry, you can skip to the part where I list the URL for my new book Bringer of Light… 🙂
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March 4, 2026
Software that was supposed to point the spacecraft solar panels toward the sun instead pointed them 180 degrees away from the sun.
https://www.npr.org/2026/02/26/nx-s1-5727622/nasa-lunar-trailblazer-moon-new-report-what-went-wrong
It took a year to figure this out.
A year.
To find out that the outsourced company in charge couldn’t even be bothered to test the product. They just happily pocketed $72 million of taxpayer dollars and laughed all the way to the bank.
Another symptom of a nation in decline…
February 17, 2026
August 5, 2025
Hi, everyone. I haven’t written a blog post in a very long time.
For various reasons.
I’ll see if I can start posting a few entries on recent science events in a few days (for starters, four astronauts finally arrived at the ISS, the first replacements following the Boeing Starliner fiasco).
But for right now, I want to follow up this short post with some analysis I got from our friend ChatGPT…
…about Adam’s Stepsons and Bringer of Light. Stay tuned!
February 21, 2025
Hi, everyone. I know I haven’t posted in a while now (about three months).
Things happened. I’ll see if I can deal with that in a post this weekend before returning to regularly blogging about astronomy and etc.
Winter is still here! (In the northern hemisphere.) Going on walks and hiking in 3C windy weather only makes hot chocolate taste that much better…
☕️
September 26, 2024
According to Thorne, who served as a consultant on the science of Interstellar, quantum mechanics could hypothetically explain a way to time travel via wormhole. So far, it’s a thought experiment that leads to the conclusion that you’d lose information along the way—not very practical.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a62175728/interstellar-travel-wormholes
First off, I’m incredibly annoyed at the way WordPress has screwed up the “quotation” function. It seems they are more focused on encouraging bloggers to use AI to write.
Uh. I don’t need AI. I blog. The end. WTH is the point of using AI to write my thoughts? It’s already being trained to USE my blog in the first place! Idiots.
OK. Second, the Popular Mechanics article I’m linking to is entitled “Interstellar travel is possible if we break into a higher dimension, scientists say.”
Only, that is NOT what scientists say. It’s still a thought experiment!
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June 17, 2024
Starliner, the Boeing spacecraft whose launch was delayed by a helium leak, has now developed four additional helium leaks after docking successfully with the ISS.
They had to delay the docking due to a little problem with thrusters…
Five of the 28 thrusters were not operating but, after troubleshooting, Boeing recovered four of Starliner’s malfunctioning jets and NASA allowed the spacecraft to dock.
So their return to Earth has been delayed so that they can run some more tests.
I sure hope they have built some redundancies to this system. Remember, this is Boeing. QC is not exactly high on their priorities list…
June 16, 2024
This is how I’ve been feeling the past couple of weeks…
Just too hot. And too busy. And tired.
And my favorite baseball teams keep losing.
At least for Father’s Day my wife got me nice food and drink. Maybe that’ll help get my mojo back…
(The image is of my youngest daughter’s art bag from last year. She has also complained of not being able to write much lately…)
May 15, 2024
A contractor for Nasa urged the space agency to conduct more safety checks before the highly-anticipated first launch of its Starliner rocket – which is set to take off as soon as next week – “before something catastrophic happens”.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nasa-contractor-boeing-starliner-launch-b2542947.html
It was supposed to launch last week, but someone spotted a valve problem — *minutes* before the countdown procedure was about to start.
They’d better check for door plugs while they’re at it.
Boeing does not give a rat’s ass about whoever uses their products. They‘re only interest in paying dividends to stockholders. And of course paying the CEO’s ridiculously high salary.
NASA is trusting the future of space travel to people like Musk and companies like Boeing. Using taxpayer money to reward greed and incompetence.
We can do better than this.
May 10, 2024
Technology is becoming marvellously intuitive. After booking a holiday with friends, we were surprised to discover Google had already added the dates…
When Google Gets it Wrong
Google Maps initially listed our house with the correct address but also my family name —- because it thought it was a company.
It took them half a year after I complained about privacy violations to take the name off…
And they also took off the address!
And there is an abandoned house repurposed as an arts and crafts society event place that has the same address as us!
Annoying.
Not the arts and crafts society folk. They’re pretty cool. 🖼️ 📷 🎨
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