Category Archives: Freakin’ Idiots!

June 11, 2015 · 23:32

That Moment, June 11th Version

That moment when after going like a bat out of hell all day while only getting four hours sleep last night (up late to see the ISS Expedition 42/43 crew say goodbye to the 43/44 crew and close the hatches, then woke up at 05:00 with a nightmare and the dog needing to go outside) and ALL of the adrenaline wears off at once and suddenly you’re literally not sure you can walk to the bedroom at the other end of the house.

Followed by that moment when some enzyme in your system runs low or some sleep deprivation toxins redline high and not only do you start to feel lightheaded (hypoglycemia for the win!) but your legs start to twitch and jerk. Not a lot, it’s not like I can’t walk. I’m not turning into a John Cleese or Steve Martin sketch. But it’s more than enough to be really annoying.

BY THE WAY (as long as I’m twitching and rambling incoherently)

It was wonderful seeing the Expedition 42/43 crew land successfully.

Another clueless male who’s drowning in privilege that he can’t comprehend or observe (despite the fact that he won a Nobel Prize) has stuck his foot into his mouth big time, then doubled down on his screw up, then gone on some BBC talk show or news show to mansplain it and now he’s REALLY stuck in it. (Some people just don’t have a clue when they should shut up and stop making things worse.) Just do a search for “Tim Hunt” for the particulars. Much better than his actions are the reactions from the half of the population that he insulted and belittled. Remember the #GirlsWithToys meme about three weeks ago? This time it’s #DistractinglySexy that’s a gathering spot for women to try to point out to this clown that he might have his head stuck up his ass. The responses are highly entertaining – check them out.

The Youngest Daughter has (correctly) pointed out that I had my head up my ass the other day when I was telling everyone to go see the trailer for that fantastic movie coming out, “The Astronaut.” Um, that’s not the name of the movie. It’s about an astronaut, but the movie (and the book) are called “The Martian.” In my defense, it was really late, I was rushing, and I was really tired. That being said, since those same conditions exist in spades tonight, I make no guarantees that my correction is correct and isn’t making the mess even worse. (I didn’t want Tim Hunt as my role model, despite the obvious similarities.) I am, as she has also correctly pointed out on FaceBook, a dork.

I think I’m going to crawl on my face toward bed now.

But first, maybe there’s one more little thing I can take care of. A loose end. Or two. Maybe three or four. No more than ten, I promise!

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Filed under Family, Freakin' Idiots!, Movies, Space

June 9, 2015 · 23:01

Juicy Chunks O’ Wisdom For Tuesday, June 9th

‘Cause I read the comments, that’s why.

  • The dog survived her day and night alone with me.
  • Saw a huge accident on the other side of the freeway when I was heading home from the hangar. Many fire trucks, cops, and ambulances, three and a half of the four lanes blocked, traffic backed up for ten miles. Big surprise, given that we’ve gotten rain (so, so, SO weird for SoCal) from the remains of Hurricane Blanca after it pummeled Cabo San Lucas. On the other hand, our side of the freeway was cruising right along at 65+ up until some freakin’ moron decided to slow down to 5 mph in the #2 lane so that he could watch the carnage. That’s a special kind of freakin’ stupid!
  • Of course you’ve seen the first full trailer for “The Astronaut.” Of course. It’s okay, go watch it again. (Watch it in Hi-Def. On a big screen. With the sound turned waaaay up.)
  • The third best thing about how Jessie deals with the absence of The Long-Suffering Wife is the way her ears perk up and she snaps her head around to look at the front door with every creak of the house or sound from the street. When she’s here along with The Long-Suffering Wife and I come home, I’m sometimes here for five or ten minutes before she wakes up enough to notice that I’ve arrived.
  • While you’re waiting for “The Astronaut” to come out, go pick up a copy of the new, remastered, extended, director’s cut, Blu-ray version of “1776.” It’s a masterpiece, I say! You will cheer every word, every letter!
  • The second best thing about how Jessie deals with the absence of The Long-Suffering Wife is the the way she uses gas as a weapon when she wants to go to bed and I’m not ready yet. She lays next to the desk and farts and farts and farts. The Syrian army could learn a lesson from her. “Just a dog being a dog,” you say? Right, sure. So how do you explain the big smile on her face and the way she keeps glancing up at me after each “event”?
  • Did everyone see that the cubesat launched two weeks ago by The Planetary Society has successfully opened the world’s first solar sail? Did everyone see the fantastic picture of it?
  • The best thing about how Jessie deals with the absence of The Long-Suffering Wife is the way she takes off across the yard, even in her ancient, arthritic, and decrepit condition, when she sees The Long-Suffering Wife’s car coming into the driveway. Who fed her, took care of her, cleaned up after her, took her outside over and over, gave her treats… It’s sort of like the way a dad will worth with his son for innumerable hours in Little League baseball or Pop Warner football, and then when the kid gets on national television during his debut he grins at the camera and says, “HI MOM!”
  • 867-5309. Ask for “Jenny.”
  • Has everyone joined The Planetary Society so they can build a full-sized solar sail to test? Plus, you’ll help support their efforts to keep our Congresscritters informed and educated about space and science. Just for taking on that thankless task they should have the support of all of us!

Remember, “Don’t EVER read the comments!”

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Filed under Distracted Driving, Dogs, Family, Freakin' Idiots!, Juicy Chunks, Movies, Music, Science Fiction

June 2, 2015 · 23:13

Leftovers From Last Night

It is one of those nights when my adult brain knows that the world is a good and decent place as a whole and there is much to be grateful for and happy about – while my primal brain stem has been exposed to one too many stupid, obnoxious, and evil things. It just wants to play “Doom” and kill all the monsters. (The stupid! The stupid! It burns! It burns!)

Then one of my desktop computers decides to lock up, crash, burn, and die. So much for “Doom!” I had better things to do for two hours tonight than work on that.

But rather than spread the toxicity (I know, I should probably watch the news less and I really shouldn’t ever read the comments!), here are a couple of leftover astrophotos from last night’s adventure. Tonight’s ISS passes over LA were low, quick, and just a half hour or so after sunset, so no pictures there.

IMG_7917_small

A five second exposure with a plane crossing the top, Jupiter in the middle center, and at the lower center a line of three bright objects in a row. They would be Venus, Pollux, and Castor. The latter two are “the twins,” the two brightest stars in the constellation Gemini. The bright star in the upper left on a line with Venus and Jupiter is Regulus, the brightest star in the constellation Leo.

IMG_7989_small

A close up, five second exposure of Venus, Pollux, and Castor, with a few other field stars. The most notable would be the one below Pollux and Castor that almost makes an equilateral triangle with them. That would be Propus, or Eta Geminorum. It’s actually a triple-star system, with one of the stars being variable. It’s an interesting (and difficult) target for an amateur astronomer to study. (The green fuzzy blob just below Castor is not a comet or nebula, but a lens flare from Venus.)

There now, aren’t those much more fun to look at than listening to me vent my spleen about all of the freakin’ idiots?

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Filed under Astronomy, Computers, Freakin' Idiots!, Photography, Space

May 29, 2015 · 13:33

Lower Than What?

In which we revisit and update two of my favorite rant topics, idiot drivers and telemarketers. May there be a special level of hell reserved for the both of them.

Here’s the scene: 101 Freeway, southbound (by which I mean headed due east, but that’s a different rant) through Westlake Village. 55 mph zone and there are a fair number of vehicles filling the four lanes, but we’re moving along at 55 to 60. The #1 and #2 lanes are both pretty well packed, with a couple of late-returning holiday campers blocking my view of the #1 lane. #4 lane is full heading off into the distance. I’m in the #3 lane with cars behind me, but no one ahead of me for quite a ways.

Coming up behind and on my right in the “exit only” offramp (#5) lane is a dude in a fast, hot car. He has apparently cut off into that lane with no intent of exiting, floored it up to about 85 in order to pass a dozen or so cars, then cut back into the #4 lane at the last second before the exit. There’s no place to go in the #4 lane, so he cuts off the guy in back of me to pull in behind me. There’s no place else to go but he can see lots of open road ahead of me, so he honks once and then starts flashing his lights at me.

He’s obviously someone Very Important and he’s driving a Very Hot Car. Who am I to stand in his way? I bow to his Importantness and his car’s Hotness, signal, and move over into the #4 lane. As expected, His Very Important Lead-Footedness floors it and is doing about 90 by the time he gets clear of the campers in the #2 lane.

Oops! I’m sorry. Did he not see the CHP patrol car in the #1 lane on the other side of those campers, “leading” the “parade” of cars doing 55 to 60 in the 55 mph zone? I guess I just assumed that His Very Important Lead-Footedness knew about it and wanted to drive like an idiot anyway.

My bad!

The Los Angeles Times had an article yesterday about how the FCC is proposing to change the rules to make it much easier for telecommunication companies to identify and block robocalls and telemarketers. (For convenience and brevity, “robocallers and telemarketers” will heretofore to be referred to as “LTWS,” as in “Lower Than Whale Shit”.) Not surprisingly, this is the number one complaint that they get from consumers.

The technology exists. If you get your phone using VOIP, there are programs which will detect the program at the originating end as an LTWS tool and simply ignore it. Apparently the FCC rules as they stand now are ambiguous at best and most telecoms believe that they are not allowed to do the same for POTS & conventional landline phones.

The FCC is changing this, so that soon (please, please let it be SOON) PacBell or AT&T or Verizon or whoever will be able to offer a service (I’m sure we’ll pay for it, but it will be worth it in my book) so that LTWS calls simply never ring through to your phone. It might not be quite that simple – you might have to block callers one by one as they come in, or possibly “whitelist” numbers that you will accept calls from. But the bottom line is that the local phone companies will be able to jump into the battle to block LTWS calls.

I’ve speculated before on the best way to deal with LTWS calls. Ignore them? Simply pick it up and then hang up? Take out your frustrations and practice creative cursing on them? See how long you can keep them on the phone to waste their time? Try to derive some entertainment from simply screwing with their heads?

This last offers some great opportunities for creativity. I always think, “WWRWD?” (What would Robin Williams do?) Pretend to not speak English? Make odd, bodily function-ish noises at them? Parrot back everything they say? Ask them to repeat something more slowly because you’re taking notes for your FBI report and you didn’t catch that part? Lead them along while occasionally tooting your vuvuzela at them? (“Tooting your vuvuzela” is not a euphemism, by the way.) Pick any Robin Williams, Jonathan Winters, or Lily Tomlin character and answer their questions in that voice and character? Switch between characters at random? Start asking them pointed questions about their favorite sex toys and alternative uses for them?

The list goes on and on, but yesterday I got a LTWS call right after reading the LA Times article. My brain went into a completely different direction.

“Hello, I’d like to speak to Paul. Is this Paul?”

I respond with a guttural, Neanderthal-like grunt or two.

“Sir, I’d like to talk to you today…”

“The FCC’s coming for you,” I said using my low-pitched, deep “radio voice.” Think Billy Bob Thorton in “Sling Blade.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“The FCC’s coming for you. You’re all going to jail!” Punctuate deep radio voice with high-pitched, maniacal laugh, then back to radio voice with weird, indeterminate accent. “FCC’s gonna gitcha, boy!” Grunt again a couple of times, then work your way into your best evil villain, mad scientist, “Mwwaaaaahahahaha!!” laugh.

Click.

When I’m paying PacBell $1.50 a month to block the LTWS calls, there might be days when I actually need a call or two like this to respond to, just to cheer me up. Maybe there will be a service that allows you to let LTWS calls through for the next twelve hours, for use in just such a situation.

For an additional $1.50 a month, no doubt.

 

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Filed under Distracted Driving, Farce, Freakin' Idiots!, Paul

March 31, 2015 · 23:18

Darwin Award Nominee, March 31st

At the local gas station, filling my tank.

Guy pulls up to the pump right behind me with a nice, very new Lexus. Goes inside to do whatever he needs to do to pay, then comes out and pulls two large, plastic “Jerry” cans out of the back seat of the Lexus. You know, the ones that hold about five gallons or so, you use it to fill your lawn mower or chainsaw.

He proceeds to fill both of these plastic cans. They each have a spigot sticking up, sort of like you would find on a watering can for plants, plus a large filler hole on top. He’s filling through the big hole, of course.

After he’s done with filling both, he reaches back into the car and pulls out several dirty rags. He uses the rags to stuff into the filler holes and spigot holes on both cans.

Gasoline. Cloth rags used instead of caps or lids. Cloth rags that almost certainly are either in the gasoline acting as wicks, or will get splashed by gasoline when the car moves.

Gasoline.

Cloth.

He then puts both full cans back into the back seat of the Lexus and drives off.

Is it me, or is he wandering around town with two humongous, industrial size Molotov cocktails in the back seat of his car, just begging for a spark?

This guy gets into a fender bender and there’s going to be an explosion you can see from space. That’s fine by me if he’s the only one who pays the price for his stupidity, but what happens if he clips a school bus? Or me?

No mushroom clouds in the neighborhood today, so I guess he made it home.

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Filed under Distracted Driving, Freakin' Idiots!

March 16, 2015 · 22:21

Darwin Award Nominee

Today’s Darwin Award nominee comes to us from the 101 Freeway “northbound” (which is really due west, but that’s a different rant) at Kanan.

Traffic was light and moving at “maximum freeway speed,” which is a CHP euphemism for “everyone’s speeding & even the slow traffic is doing 70+ in a 65 zone.” There are four lanes at that point, plus a merging on/off lane that starts on at the previous onramp and is an exit-only lane when you get to Kanan.

The Kanan offramp was closed. There was one of those portable warning signs prior to the previous exit (Chesbro) so folks had plenty of advance notice and a chance to get off the freeway one exit early. Once past Chesbro, that merging on/off lane was gradually coned off to be blocked completely well before Kanan. The cones were accompanied by all of the usual fluorescent orange signs, again warning that the lane was closed, the ramp was closed, and pointing toward the detour route.

At Kanan, the offramp itself was clear, leading uphill toward the overpass and surrounding streets. The ramp closure was caused by four or five large trucks parked just a few feet short of the offramp, working on replacing some street lighting poles or poles for signs.

If you missed the multiple warning signs prior to Chesbro, the following exit (Reyes Adobe) is only a mile down the road. Whether you got off at Chesbro or Reyes Adobe, there are multiple major streets running parallel to the freeway on both sides, leaving a LOT of options to get to your destination without exiting at Kanan.

In addition, even if you’re unfamiliar with the area, doesn’t just about everyone have a map and GPS app on their phone? The worst case scenario here should be having to endure that smug and sanctimonious tone from the synthesized GPS voice while she drones “Recalculating” over and over.

Not for our candidate.

She was driving a large Urban Assault Vehicle, an Escalade or something like that. Black, of course. As soon as the merging on/off lane started, she pulled into it, obviously clueless and expecting to exit. As the cones started blocking the lane, she started slowing and inching back into traffic, nearly picking off someone in the process, because she’s of course now confused and thinking about the cones and the closed lane in front of her, not the traffic shooting by her at 65+ mph that she’s merging back into at 40 mph.

Back in traffic, faced with all of these orange warning signs, confused, she started slowing. And slowing. And slowing.

Meanwhile, traffic continues to zip past and around her at “maximum freeway speed,” and most dangerously, come up behind her that fast. Still, she keeps slowing to a crawl as she pulls up next to the work crews.

Then, presumably because she’s a freakin’ idiot and maybe thinks she’s got good ground clearance as well as a god-given right to drive wherever she damn well pleases, she does a sharp right turn to head across the landscaping (ice plant, I think) and up the embankment that makes up the side of the offramp. If she can just get up over the side and onto the offramp pavement behind the work crew, she’s home free!

I was over in the #2 lane coming up from well behind at first, so I got to see the whole show up to that point. I didn’t slow down or stop to see how it ended, but when I came back the other way an hour later the area wasn’t filled with tow trucks and ambulances, so her stupidity might have gone unpunished.

I’ll grant, if you’re stupid enough to pull this stunt, you’re probably too stupid to be able to use the GPS or a map. The converse is also true.

There are a lot of questions I wonder about after seeing this.

Why are morons like this are allowed on the roads in the first place? (I’m assuming that she has a driver’s license – that might be a bad assumption.)

Was her judgment impaired by something? Alcohol? Drugs, prescription or otherwise? Not that it would be any kind of an excuse at all, but possibly an explanation of sorts.

Was she surprised by the closure, missing all the signs and warnings, because she was texting or on the phone? I don’t know, I couldn’t see her at that point. Both texting and being on the phone without a hands-free device are  illegal in California – but so is exceeding 65 mph along that stretch of freeway. If there’s any enforcement of the texting/phone laws it’s the best kept secret in the state. (That also is a rant for another day.)

More importantly, given the vehicle and what they’re often used for, I have to wonder how many kids were in the car.

How would you react if it’s her day to drive car pool and she’s got her kids, plus yours, plus a couple others in there?

Maybe I wonder about that because I remember times as a kid when my mother (“Bless her little heart!” and in this case I mean it in the sweetly sarcastic way that women in the Deep South use it) did things almost as stupid and life-threatening with me and my siblings in the car.

Things like that stick with you, I guess.

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Filed under Distracted Driving, Freakin' Idiots!, Los Angeles

January 20, 2015 · 21:25

Hooray For Cat Hallucinations!

I’ve noted before (I used it as a starting plot point for the 2013 NaNoWriMo) that it’s freaky as all get out when a cat that’s resting comfortably and calmly on your lap suddenly bolts upright, ears twitching, eyes wide open, staring at something behind you that only it can see. It doesn’t help any when they spend the next five minutes with their eyes locked on whatever unseen horror it might be, their head swiveling as they follow their hallucination around the room, as if there’s some poltergeist or invisible zombie creeping up behind you.

When they start making that little chirping noise and twitching their butt like they’re getting ready to leap, and the idiot freakin’ raccoons on the roof choose that particular moment to run the 100-yard dash across the roof right above your head, it’s an invitation to a coronary.

On the other hand…

When you’ve spent the day dealing with people and situations that you swear are there just to see where your frustration breaking point is, then your nominal evening entertainment is all pre-empted by the State Of The Union address, and your substitute entertainment (social media) is saturated with bullshit from both sides on the aforementioned SOTU, and you’re just about to punch something just because, it can be a relief to have the sleeping cat freak out.

“Ignorance is bliss.” I’ve often thought it was nonsense to think that way. I always wanted to know and know more and to understand.

But in the case of both the political/social polarity/intolerance in our society and the invisible phantom haunting the room, I’m starting to place a higher value on ignorance.

In both cases, I don’t think there’s much I can do to change the situation, and being aware of it is just raising my blood pressure and making me feel bad. So while I’ve always hated being ignorant or uninformed, I think the argument could be made that I might be better off being blissfully ignorant.

Even if it does mean that I’m slightly less prepared to catch Ken Jenning’s record when I finally get on “Jeopardy!”

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Filed under Cats, Critters, Death Of Common Sense, Freakin' Idiots!, Politics, Religion

January 13, 2015 · 21:45

The Wrong Button

It is well documented (here, here, and here) that two of my personal hot button items are robocalling and telemarketers. I’m here to tell you tonight that there has been a major victory in my war against them, and to share with you the tactic.

It all came about by accident. We have one of the usual home phone systems these days – a base unit plus a handful of wireless satellite units that can be scattered about the house. Pick up a handset and it will tell you how many messages you have, how many missed calls, and so on. It will also keep a directory of phone numbers, as well as let you scan back through an electronic log of the last 100 or so calls.

This weekend I was scanning through the missed calls and voice mails, deleting about 99% of them. They were simply recorded spiels from robocall-bots and the click of a live semi-human spammer hanging up when I didn’t pick up the phone. On some of the calls that weren’t obvious annoyances, I was checking the numbers to see if they were local or long distance, or if they had a caller ID that I might recognize. (Most of the “real” calls we get are long distance.)

Then I hit the wrong button.

Rather than the response I expected, the display on the screen said, “Save or Block?”

Wait. “Block?” THAT’S AN OPTION??!!

Why, yes. Yes it is. If only I had known about this years ago. (Fine, I’m an idiot. You must know that by now!)

I started scrolling back through those 100 calls in that log. That local charity that is badgering us? Blocked. The mortgage company that calls twice a day wanting me to refinance? Blocked. That “consumer service” call which is always some sort of general contractor wanting us to remodel? Blocked.

Then, even better, as I scrolled back, a previous call by the charity. There is joy and jubilation as I see it’s already flagged as “blocked.” These guys are using the same Caller ID phone number on every call and our phone is smart enough to recognize that!

Ditto for the spambots and scammers. It looks like some of them are using up to a dozen or so similar or related numbers, but they’re not using random numbers, just a small and limited subset. Blocked, blocked, blocked, blocked, blocked…

Having gone through the entire list, it was time to sit back and wait for Monday morning. My primary question was how the phone would handle an incoming call from a blocked number. It didn’t take long to find out.

Turns out that this particular system (it’s a few years old, there may be newer, better ones) rings once – then goes silent and the phone displays a brief “Blocked caller” message. It doesn’t show it as a missed call, it doesn’t take a message, but it does display the call in that log.

Which is wonderful because it lets me see how many calls are being blocked a day. (Five yesterday, five today.) How many spam calls have gotten through?

Zero.

Two calls per day have gotten through, i.e., they got a second (and third, and fourth…) ring and were not blocked. All of those calls were calls that I wanted to take. (Hi, Mom!)

So far the only annoyance is the one ring “feature” when a call comes in. (Insert “Lord Of The Rings” reference here.) But I figured out a way to handle that, as well.

I turned off the ringers on all of the outlying “satellite” phones, but left the ringer active on the base unit, which is in a central location in the house. So when a call comes in, pretty much anywhere in the house I can hear the ring from there — and then ignore it when there’s no second ring.

Two days of bliss!

I know, if they switch Caller ID numbers, they’ll slip through and look like a real call. But just once! Then — blocked!

Now that I’ve gotten this far, dare I even dream of bigger and better things?

Right now it’s a stalemate between my robot and their robot. Their robot thrusts, my robot parries, and they can do this endlessly. From the viewpoint of their robot, either my robot never picks up the call, or more likely, my robot picks up and immediately hangs up. Their robot moves on and calls the next phone number on the endless list.

What I would really like would be for a robot/system that would allow my system to not only tie up their robot/system and waste its “valuable” time, but to taunt them as well.

My robot would pick up the call, wait until their human was on the line, thinking they had a nibble, then start giving them either a pre-recorded message from me, or better yet, some really good lowbrow taunting. (Think of it as the love child of the French knights in the castle in “Monty Python & The Holy Grail” and HAL9000 from “2001.”)

“Neeener, neeener, neeener! My robot’s smarter than yours is! Ppppbbbbbbbbttttttt!”

The Long-Suffering Wife suggested that last wish, for the taunting AI on our end, might be “childish.” Or maybe she said “immature.” Either way, she’s no doubt absolutely correct. (As always.)

There’s little doubt that it’s not completely healthy to be getting this much pleasure out of something this simple.

I can live with that.

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Filed under Computers, Freakin' Idiots!

January 10, 2015 · 22:38

Shame On You NBC News!

It was a really great thing that SpaceX got its CRS-5 mission on course toward ISS this morning.

It was tremendously exciting to see them trying for the first time in human history to fly the first stage booster back to the ground and land it on a barge so that it could be reused, potentially cutting the cost of space launches by as much as 70%. The attempt, which occurred after the first stage had successfully sent the Dragon and the second stage toward a perfect orbit, was only partially successful, with the first stage landing on the barge (an ASTONISHING feat in and of itself!!) but landing too hard.

Then I saw this:

image

If you saw this headline and didn’t already know that the launch had been 100% successful in performing its primary mission (launching Dragon to dock with ISS tomorrow night), what would you think?

So I did this:

A few thoughts that go beyond 140 characters:

My beef is not with Alan Boyle, the reporter who wrote the article. I’m pissed with the mouth-breathing moron who wrote the headline and the editor(s) who let them get away with this shit. The article itself (read it in full here) is excellent, leading with the fact that the Falcon 9 launched successfully and executed its primary mission flawlessly. It gives an excellent layman’s overview of what was being attempted in the attempt to recover the first stage, how hard it would be, what the benefits are, and what we currently know about what happened and what went wrong.

Alan Boyle’s one of the good guys and he really doesn’t deserve to have his accurate and well-written article corrupted by one of the worst bullshit headlines ever written.

Look around the web at the other news services. All of the other American networks (yeah, even Fox) were able to do so much better, not to mention the websites of the major newspapers as well as the foreign news agencies such as BBC and Reuters. It really wasn’t that hard to write an accurate yet still interesting headline. Therefore, it appears that screwing up this badly and looking this ignorant was a choice made by NBC News.

Huntley, Brinkley, and Garret Utley must be spinning in their graves. (Google them.)

What’s really amazing to me is that the headline is still up after fifteen hours (and counting) without any change, correction, adjustment, modification — OR APOLOGY for dropping the ball so badly!

I thought we weren’t supposed to read the comments that follow online articles because of the mindless drivel that’s usually there. Now we have to watch out at the other end as well…

Hey, NBC News, you need someone new to be writing your headlines. Perhaps someone who actually reads the articles — someone capable of comprehending them might be a bonus. Let me know where to send my resume, I couldn’t be any worse than the person who did this.

So… Would you like me to stop beating around the bush and tell you how I really feel about this?

 

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Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, Space

December 14, 2014 · 22:27

Forty-Two Years Ago Today

On December 14, 1972, at 05:40:56 GMT, the final lunar EVA ended. It was the last of three moonwalks (EVAs) done by Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt over the course of their seventy-five hours on the lunar surface at Taurus-Littrow.

Shortly before the official ending time of that final EVA, as Captain Cernan prepared to leave the final footprints on the moon and climb the ladder into the Lunar Module, he had these words to say:

As I take man’s last step from the surface, back home for some time to come (but we believe not too long into the future), I’d like to just say what I believe history will record: That America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind.

The final liftoff from the moon occurred at 22:54:37 GMT and was shown on live television, the only liftoff from the moon ever seen. A color television camera on the Apollo 17 lunar rover was remote controlled by NASA in Houston and the rover had been left parked so that the camera faced the Lunar Module. At the 30:47 mark of this video, you can see the liftoff for yourself.

WARNING: For the sake of your blood pressure and sanity, **DO NOT** read the comments on YouTube for this and other Apollo moon landing videos. The trolls, brain-dead cretins, and conspiracy theorists have taken over. It will just piss you off to realize that there are people out there who are really, honestly, and sincerely that freakin’ stupid.

I don’t know which fact I consider more depressing, that forty-two years down the road we haven’t gone back to the moon and have no plans to go back, or that so many people among us are so ignorant, blind, deranged, and incapable of understanding or even looking at the mountain of evidence that proves that they’re wrong.

The universe is a wonderful place, and we have on occasion done some amazing things. It is often depressing to encounter those who can not or will not see the wonder and beauty of those things, but instead choose voluntarily to live in a shell of fear and ignorance of their own making.

I don’t often quote The Bible, but Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Yes, they will. The meek, fearful, and ignorant will someday have the Earth all to themselves. The rest of us will go to the stars.

 

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Filed under Astronomy, Freakin' Idiots!, Panorama, Space