Shiftless2
Well-known member
Just saying - the mirror satellite is a very different matter than the Starlink ones.
Below The Fold ...
- Thread starter sear
- Start date
Indeed. BUT !
My astronomer guru is Author / Astronomer / Professor Bob Berman. He whines bitterly about Musk's Starlink clutter, obstructing astronomical observations of natural phenomena beyond LEO.
They are different, but they have that in common. Don't they?
What is creepy is that over 500 Starlink satellites have crashed.
They say the low orbit does not put other satellites at risk, but don't they use a nuclear power source?
They are also bright.
{...
That brightness was a surprise to almost everyone, including both SpaceX and the astronomical community. Researchers began to panic and shared photos of satellite streaks in their data, such as this trail image from the Lowell Observatory in Arizona.
They expressed particular concerns about future images from highly sensitive telescopes such as the Vera Rubin Observatory (formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope), which will study the entire universe in exquisite detail and is expected to come online in 2022. Radio astronomers are also planning for interference from Starlink's radio-based antennas.
...}
https://www.space.com/spacex-starlink-satellites.html
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BUT !
Wouldn't that be "nucular"?
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Oh.
note: R5 #463: I did not know that. Thanks R5
Musk is a Republican.
Wouldn't that be "nucular"?
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Currently, there are 1 to 2 Starlink satellites falling back to Earth each day.
Oh.
note: R5 #463: I did not know that. Thanks R5
USA TODAY
Florida has reported the first death of the year caused by an infection from so-called "flesh-eating" bacterium, according to state health officials.
Vibrio vulnificus, most commonly spread through raw seafood or contact with brackish coastal water, earned its "flesh-eating" moniker from its ability to cause an infection called vibriosis that damages or "eats away" at skin and tissue. Florida records infections each year, usually resulting in a handful of deaths. Severe weather events that cause flooding, such as hurricanes Helene and Ian, have been associated with higher rates of illness and death from the bacterium.
The state has recorded 12 cases so far this season as of July 30, according to Florida Health data, and one death in Palm Beach County. It reported a total of 33 cases and five deaths in 2025.
While vibrio vulnificus infections are rare, they can quickly develop into a more serious illness, especially in people who have weakened immune systems. Serious illness and death can occur in a matter of days, and 1 in 5 people who contract the infection will die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
...
Vibrio vulnificus is often referred to as "flesh-eating" because it can also cause necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that destroys muscle and skin tissue, causing flesh around wounds to die
www.yahoo.com
First flesh-eating bacteria death of 2026 recorded in this state
Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY / Thu, July 30, 2026 at 3:56 PM GMT-5Florida has reported the first death of the year caused by an infection from so-called "flesh-eating" bacterium, according to state health officials.
Vibrio vulnificus, most commonly spread through raw seafood or contact with brackish coastal water, earned its "flesh-eating" moniker from its ability to cause an infection called vibriosis that damages or "eats away" at skin and tissue. Florida records infections each year, usually resulting in a handful of deaths. Severe weather events that cause flooding, such as hurricanes Helene and Ian, have been associated with higher rates of illness and death from the bacterium.
The state has recorded 12 cases so far this season as of July 30, according to Florida Health data, and one death in Palm Beach County. It reported a total of 33 cases and five deaths in 2025.
While vibrio vulnificus infections are rare, they can quickly develop into a more serious illness, especially in people who have weakened immune systems. Serious illness and death can occur in a matter of days, and 1 in 5 people who contract the infection will die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
...
Vibrio vulnificus is often referred to as "flesh-eating" because it can also cause necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that destroys muscle and skin tissue, causing flesh around wounds to die
First flesh-eating bacteria death of 2026 recorded in this state
Infections caused by vibrio vulnificus are contracted through eating raw seafood or swimming in contaminated water.
USA TODAY
First flesh-eating bacteria death of 2026 recorded in this state
Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY / Thu, July 30, 2026 at 3:56 PM GMT-5
Florida has reported the first death of the year caused by an infection from so-called "flesh-eating" bacterium, according to state health officials.
Vibrio vulnificus, most commonly spread through raw seafood or contact with brackish coastal water, earned its "flesh-eating" moniker from its ability to cause an infection called vibriosis that damages or "eats away" at skin and tissue. Florida records infections each year, usually resulting in a handful of deaths. Severe weather events that cause flooding, such as hurricanes Helene and Ian, have been associated with higher rates of illness and death from the bacterium.
The state has recorded 12 cases so far this season as of July 30, according to Florida Health data, and one death in Palm Beach County. It reported a total of 33 cases and five deaths in 2025.
While vibrio vulnificus infections are rare, they can quickly develop into a more serious illness, especially in people who have weakened immune systems. Serious illness and death can occur in a matter of days, and 1 in 5 people who contract the infection will die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
...
Vibrio vulnificus is often referred to as "flesh-eating" because it can also cause necrotizing fasciitis, a bacterial infection that destroys muscle and skin tissue, causing flesh around wounds to die
First flesh-eating bacteria death of 2026 recorded in this state
Infections caused by vibrio vulnificus are contracted through eating raw seafood or swimming in contaminated water.
Is it my imagination, but are things all seeming to suddenly be getting worse?
With things like covid, diarrhea lettuce, ADHD, school shootings, nano-plastics, etc., you have to wonder why all this is happening now?
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Actually covid is about the least lethal virus there has ever been.
{...
COVID-19’s lethality was dramatically uneven across age groups. Among children and teenagers, the infection fatality rate (the percentage of all infected people who died, including those never tested) was approximately 0.0003%. For adults in their 40s, it was about 0.035%. By age 60 to 69, it climbed to 0.5%, roughly a 3 to 4-fold increase per decade of life.
...}
https://scienceinsights.org/why-was-covid-so-deadly-causes-behind-the-death-toll/
Actually covid did not kill anyone.
What happened is that the immune system of older people over reacted and caused pneumonia.
Which should have been easily treatable.
But what hospitals did was intubate those who got pneumonia, which caused their lungs to fill with fluid, and kill them.
Every covid death was actually hospital incompetence.
And just like Spanish flu, a 2 month covid epidemic was stretch out to over 3 years by preventing herd immunity, with masks and social distancing.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Not sure where to put this - he's a drag artist, not gay or trans so it doesn't belong in the LGBT thread
Northern Ireland's best known drag artist was walked out of a library by police while protesters filmed him. A year later he has a public apology, substantial damages from a national broadcaster, and a wellness hub opening at the end of the month, paid for with their money.
Marcus Hunter-Neill, who performs as Lady Portia Di'Monte, was reading to children at a library in east Belfast last August as part of the EastSide Arts Festival. As officers led him out and the crowd shouted at him to leave their children alone, he stopped and held up the book he had been reading.
Dear Zoo, a lift-the-flap picture book about a boy looking for a pet. He believes that moment is the only reason things didn't get far worse for him.
The footage spread, his name landed on vigilante sites, and days later British right-leaning channel TalkTV repeated an allegation about him on air. He sued.
The channel retracted it, accepted it had no basis, published an apology and paid substantial damages. His original training was in childcare and education, and he works with the NSPCC and Childline.
It cost him a brutal year. His father was diagnosed with stage four cancer days before the protest and died just after Christmas, and their last lucid conversation was about the legal case.
Now the payout is funding the Embrace Wellness Hub, opening at the end of August, and the people who protested against him are welcome through the door. "If it wasn't for the bigots we wouldn't be doing this."
SOURCE
According to one of the comments it seems that the police came to protect him from the demonstrators.
BTW, he's not trans so the use of "he" is correct.
Northern Ireland's best known drag artist was walked out of a library by police while protesters filmed him. A year later he has a public apology, substantial damages from a national broadcaster, and a wellness hub opening at the end of the month, paid for with their money.
Marcus Hunter-Neill, who performs as Lady Portia Di'Monte, was reading to children at a library in east Belfast last August as part of the EastSide Arts Festival. As officers led him out and the crowd shouted at him to leave their children alone, he stopped and held up the book he had been reading.
Dear Zoo, a lift-the-flap picture book about a boy looking for a pet. He believes that moment is the only reason things didn't get far worse for him.
The footage spread, his name landed on vigilante sites, and days later British right-leaning channel TalkTV repeated an allegation about him on air. He sued.
The channel retracted it, accepted it had no basis, published an apology and paid substantial damages. His original training was in childcare and education, and he works with the NSPCC and Childline.
It cost him a brutal year. His father was diagnosed with stage four cancer days before the protest and died just after Christmas, and their last lucid conversation was about the legal case.
Now the payout is funding the Embrace Wellness Hub, opening at the end of August, and the people who protested against him are welcome through the door. "If it wasn't for the bigots we wouldn't be doing this."
SOURCE
According to one of the comments it seems that the police came to protect him from the demonstrators.
BTW, he's not trans so the use of "he" is correct.
I don't see why anyone would be upset about drag, since it is just an artistic act.
I think it could confuse some children, but I don't see it as being harmful.
"Confuse"?
Perhaps we can simplify the issue by considering what age range is suitable for exceeding children's (binary) gender perception.
Let's not misoverestimate the childhood mind. Many adults recognize circus clowns as comedic. BUT !
Circus clowns terrify some children.
To corroborate this I entered the following syntax into a search-engine: "psychology children terrified clown"
I didn't realize this adverse response extends into adulthood.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
I'm sure the kids just thing the drag queens are someone dressed up in a funny costume. It's only the adults that read anything else into it.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
As for those who like to quote the Bible
Some may quote the holy book on the basis of it invoking the divine.
Fine. "Faith" means belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.
I welcome wisdom for merit of validity. No need to speculate about divinity.
It is interesting because the actual cause that makes it so humans should treat all other humans well, is from the social instincts in our DNA.
So it is from something greater than our own choices, and it really does not matter if one calls that divine or not.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
And the rules of behavior that are laid down in the various holy books are just the rules of the society in which the authors of those books (or at least the individuals who originally told the stories) lived.
It's complicated.
The human ability to recognize and distinguish faces is complex, deeply ingrained. Some scientists assert this explains why we perceive an image of J.C. on a slice of toast. Rorschach.
We need to be able to identify members of our own clan and recognize those that aren't as outsiders.
We use this ability on the hunt for food,
but for different purpose (to avoid inbreeding) when seeking a mate.
Westermarck effect: individuals who spend large amounts of time with each other under the age of six, raised together, regardless of relationship, tend to become desensitized to each other, and they will not generally develop sexual attraction to each other later in life. This idea is sometimes referred to as “reverse imprinting,” and it is named for Edvard Westermarck, a Finnish sociologist.
Through all that we should remember Wilson.
Some laymen believe humans use DNA to code for their traits the way hippies used cassette tapes to record the Doobies. BUT !
Wilson observes that's almost precisely backward.
Instead of humans using DNA as a storage system,
DNA composes individuals who then compete. And the successful competitors multiply rewarding the DNA by expanding it through the population.
And the problem is that when there is an extremely intense environmental stress, such as desertification of the Mideast, then you will get a very dysfunctional society and consequently very dysfunctional religious beliefs.
But what I have read from anthropologists, is that humans naturally or normally do not compete.
What I have read says that humanoid primates originally were arboreal, but for some reason came down from the trees.
And when they did, they discovered that by not having speed, armor, claws, or fangs, our only means of survival left was to act as a group defense.
Meaning that when one is attacked, all have to pitch in with the defense, even though that could mean the sacrifice of your own life, in order to help someone else.
So aggression is a normal and selected trait, but only to be used against attackers threatening others.
And the problem comes from when race/religion/nationality/etc. is used by propagandists in order to cause unnatural aggression towards other human beings.
This was obvious when I examined ancient pueblos in New Mexico.
Instead of the nuclear family arrangement we expect from our European ancestry, the natives of the Western Hemisphere lived communally.
They shared a common kiva living structure, that only had 2 or 3 cooking facilities for over 500 people.
Meaning that we are forcing a far more narcissistic society on humanity than what was naturally selected for over the millions of years of primate existence.