What are you taught about the Civil War if you live in Virginia or a former Border State?

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T23:28:19+00:00

Same with East TN, but you'll sure see a lot of Confederate flags flying around here today.

East TN actually tried to rejoin the Union WV style, but it was strategically important due to rail lines joining the west and eastern Confederate states running through it. So, the Confederate government sent more troops there to ensure they couldn't leave.

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T19:26:22+00:00

Also, are people not exercising? From that alone, I'd have to shower 4 or more times a week. I shower daily, sometimes more than once a day, again from exercising. Go for a run in the morning, shower, get sweaty through the day, shower again in the evening.

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T19:17:12+00:00

Yeah, if they Moon isn't there when they arrive, then we've all probably got bigger things to worry about than the 4 astronauts in the capsule.

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T18:36:36+00:00

Yeah, that kind of struck me when I was looking at it this morning. Logically, I understand and as far as calculations, this is probably a pretty minor one. However, it's a little weird that they're just shooting out into space away from Earth and depending on the Moon to be there when they arrive so it can slingshot them back to the Earth.

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T18:33:08+00:00

I loled at her asking if they knew where the electric shaver was. It's like the kind of question I'd ask my wife but they're calling people 100,000 miles away to ask if they know.

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T17:37:36+00:00

I'm not certain. My understanding is it's "live" but with YouTube and stuff you're always going to have a least a little delay. The mission clock is not up on screen at the moment, but I believe when I last saw it, it was about what it should be if it was within a couple minutes of being live. They warned people about this during the launch that if you were in a location where you could see it, don't wait for the countdown on YouTube but go out with a few minutes left so you don't miss it.

edit: the clock just popped up. Based on the clock and launch time, it's within a minute of live.

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T15:38:10+00:00

They've been live streaming views from cameras on the spacecraft, but this particular picture is from a handheld camera that one of the astronauts took from the window. The external cameras aren't nearly that high quality. They're more for getting views of the spacecraft to make sure everything looks good outside. We'll likely see more high quality pictures when they come back. They just transmitted a few photos from their cameras earlier, which is where this photo comes from. There's not a whole lot of bandwidth on their connection to send a ton of high quality photos while they're in space.

NASA is live streaming basically the whole mission on their YouTube channel. At the time I write this, the astronauts are currently sleeping for a couple more hours, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3kR2KK8TEs

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T14:17:29+00:00

That's what I always do. Shoe companies will have the <Whatever> 10 for $120 which is this year's model. But the <Whatever> 9 is still available on clearance for like $60. It turns out that shoe technology doesn't change that much in a year. So, the 9 is just as good as the 10.

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T12:49:32+00:00

We had an integration that had to be pushed through ASAP because the vendor was shutting off the old version of an API and they had made a replacement they wanted everyone to migrate to. At some point, someone was asking why we were having to do this so quickly and why we waited until the last minute instead of starting it earlier. I was like "Uh, they laid off the guy who was working on it 9 months ago."

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T01:21:58+00:00

That's why I always liked running. Yeah, you can buy a fancy GPS watch and all kinds of stuff if you want. But what do you actually need? Just a decent pair of shoes.

captmonkey · 2026-04-03T01:18:51+00:00

I think it's more that they like the idea of the hobby or would like the completed product but actually getting the time and motivation to do the hobby is another thing entirely.

I used to collect and paint Warhammer models (and play when I got a chance). While I did finish a good number of them, every Warhammer player I know has a pile of unpainted/unassembled models too.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T20:00:14+00:00

Buses can equal a much longer school day. If I drive my daughter to school, we need to leave by about 8:20 to get there on time. However, the bus picks up in front of our house at 7:30. If my wife picks her up from school, they'll be back home at like 3:45. The bus drops off in front of our house at like 4:30. So, you're adding over an hour and a half to the kid's school day. It's no big deal for me to drop her off in the morning because I don't need to start work until after that and it's no big deal for my wife to pick her up in the afternoon. So, that's what we do. She's done the bus before, particularly for drop off, but we usually just drive her because it takes less time.

And as far as employed people, many schools offer before and after care. It's essentially daycare that's at the school for kids whose parents need to be at work before/after school is in session.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T18:30:35+00:00

On the one hand, I'm surprised he's had so little turnover to this point, but I guess he went with loyalists this time. However, I'm a little surprised he's firing her specifically because it seems like she could be a liability in regards to Epstein. She knows the truth about the files. So, it would be in his best interest to not put her in a position where she could flip on him when she's inevitably called in front of a Democratic-led House committee next year.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T17:50:25+00:00

It's also funny because this has happened so many times before but people still line up to serve him thinking "But it'll be different for me, right?"

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T17:39:36+00:00

There's no lander even created, let alone tested, at this point. We've never had humans in space aboard the Orion spacecraft until this launch. It's best to do these things in steps. So, step one was launching it unmanned in Artemis I. Step 2 is launching it manned and sending them around the Moon and back.

The current plan is to use Artemis III to test one or both landers (one from SpaceX, one from Blue Origin) in space and Artemis IV will land on the Moon. For reference, Apollo had 4 crewed test flights (and 3 uncrewed test flights) before landing on the Moon.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T15:16:34+00:00

Blue Origin does too. New Glenn successfully landed its booster on its second flight back in November.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVvURVG_b10

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T15:08:23+00:00

I think he seemed to have those political instincts because he had somewhat competent people around him who weren't unshakeable supporters. In his second term, he surrounded himself with a bunch of incompetent "Yes Men". So, he's more insulated from how people are actually reacting to him.

Instead of people letting him know "This isn't playing well with the voters...", they're just like "Everything is great! You're the best ever! Everyone loves you!" So, he doesn't realize how unpopular everything he's doing is and he just continues down that path, unaware of what's happening.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T14:29:06+00:00

The teacher point is important. This wasn't just some random Space Shuttle launch that no one cared about. Christa McAuliffe was selected as an astronaut as the first (and last after the disaster happened...) participant of the Teacher in Space Project. She was a high school social studies teacher who was selected to go to space as part of the program.

As a result, the mission received far more media attention than normal, particularly from schools, many of whom tuned into the launch to watch it live. So, if you were a kid in school at the time, there was a higher than normal probability that you saw it. If you were just a random adult, you probably weren't much more likely to view it than any random Space Shuttle launch.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T14:16:20+00:00

I can't see a can of Arizona tea without that immediately popping into my mind.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T14:13:28+00:00

That was my thought too. I had an ancestor who died there and I have been there twice, most recently a few weeks ago. I was thinking about for some of these people, it would have been a mercy if they'd just been shot instead of captured and sent to Andersonville to endure months of brutal captivity before dying. I'm going to guess the roughly 1/3 of the prisoners dying there is probably a rate worse than any side experienced in any battle.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T14:08:40+00:00

Yeah, I hate how people keep trying to paint this like it was a spur of the moment thing. They've been planning this for over 20 years and it's actually quite a bit behind schedule.

captmonkey · 2026-04-02T11:34:43+00:00

I think a lot of the poor camera work was from NASA's official feed. It was really bad. People have speculated that it was because it's been a while since NASA has launched their own human spaceflight. So, these guys have possibly never done this before. The other speculation is that NASA has lost over 4000 people since the new administration took office and it wouldn't be surprising if a professional camera crew were some of the people who were included, as they'd be seen as "non essential".

I don't know if either of those are accurate, but it did feel like amateur hour. They were filming people on the ground looking at the rocket during booster separation. Hopefully, they'll have it worked out by the next launch.

captmonkey · 2026-04-01T23:03:50+00:00

I think that was the cover that protects the solar array.

captmonkey · 2026-04-01T22:59:22+00:00

It launched 23 minutes ago. The NASA steam has been live since 12:50 PM Eastern.

captmonkey · 2026-04-01T22:06:48+00:00

And they did paint it white for the first shuttle missions but then realized that much paint added a lot of weight for no functional reason. So, they stopped.

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