markxs - Network

Well it's not the giant meteor or asteroid some may be hoping for, but if this comes down near you, it'll do. Sometime within about...

Well it's not the giant meteor or asteroid some may be hoping for, but if this comes down near you, it'll do. Sometime within about the next 9 hours. Between| 52°S and 52°N (because Baikinour launch site was/is 52°N), so hey, that's only most of the world's population.

Ground track of the upcoming orbits is in the linked article.

Reentry prediction Soviet-era Venera Venus lander (Cosmos-482 descent craft) – Rocket Science

https://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2025/05/07/reentry-prediction-soviet-era-venera-venus-lander-cosmos-482-descent-craft/

I really have lost most of my hope for my country, the USA. Trump's incompetent Defense Secretary Hegseth just fired many top-level...

I really have lost most of my hope for my country, the USA. Trump's incompetent Defense Secretary Hegseth just fired many top-level officers in the military.

Correction: Pete Hegseth IS competent. Competent at getting rid of dedicated senior officers who know their duty and sworn oath is to the Constitution, not to Trump.

Middle career and young officers swear the same oath but many of them are Trump supporters.

Most of the enlisted troops are Trump supporters, with many of those full-on MAGA crazies. And US enlisted troops swear a different oath, which includes swearing to follow the orders of the President and their chain of command, and also to the Constitution.

But essentially, enlisted Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, Guardians, and Coast Guardsmen are not supposed to go deciding for themselves what is or is not an illegal order under the laws of war; what is or is not an unconstitutional order. They are to defer to the chain of command: the officers above them.

With the upper level of the officer corps decimated and Trump loyalists put in charge, those officers will say that any from order Trump is by definition legal. 3/4 of the enlisted troops will be happy to follow out. Even if it's to fire on US citizens, invade Canada, or anything else that pops into Trump's warped and evil little brain.

So it is a coup in progress.

I just discovered this "Is this a coup?" site and yes, it sure looks like it's a coup.

https://isthisacoup.com/

Wait til those fools discover that all data are encoded in EBCDIC instead of ASCII. Those young "engineers" won't have a...

Wait til those fools discover that all data are encoded in EBCDIC instead of ASCII. Those young "engineers" won't have a clue.

Never mind JCL, CICS, and ancient non-relational databases. Then they'd have to pour through the barely documented (I'm being optimistic here) code to try to dig out the hardcoded business logic.

Granted, you can run a bunch of Linux instances on mainframe hardware. You also can get to a Unix shell from ISPF. But not easily shared with conventional mainframe data and programs. Not without a lot of serious architectural planning.

Most importantly, you cannot "translate" COBOL into Java, C, C+, or whatever. The languages do not work the same way - COBOL does not have the concept of inheritance. Nor objects. Unless you warp your brain around:

WORKING-STORAGE SECTION.

and pretend all of that are "objects". Which they aren't.

There's a reason that the SSA's plan to rewrite & replatform it's code into modern languages and OS was going to take years. And why some big financial services companies tried to do so and mostly gave up or failed spectacularly.

Won't identify the culprits but I worked for one of those that tried and gave up.

Please take this advice: Boycott the United States. Listen to Robert Reich in this commentary - Don't buy our products, don't use...

Please take this advice: Boycott the United States. Listen to Robert Reich in this commentary - Don't buy our products, don't use US-owned services, don't visit us, definitely don't come here to study nor to work.

#USpolitics #USpol #BoycottUSA

The case for boycotting the United States | Robert Reich
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/18/us-trump-boycott?CMP=share_btn_url

This protest is refreshing to see. Also I'm surprised that the Jewish protesters weren't abused even worse then they werer, caged,...

This protest is refreshing to see. Also I'm surprised that the Jewish protesters weren't abused even worse then they werer, caged, or even shot by the large Secret Service and NYPD detail at the entrance to Trump Tower.

Instead the NYPD "only" handcuffed them with zip ties and pushed them into police vans.

#USPol #USPolitics

"NEW YORK (AP) — Demonstrators from a Jewish group filled the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of a Columbia University activist who helped lead student protests on the Manhattan campus against Israel’s war in Gaza.

The Jewish Voice for Peace protesters, who carried banners and wore red shirts reading “Jews say stop arming Israel,” chanted “Bring Mahmoud home now!”

After warning the protesters to leave the Fifth Avenue building or face arrest, police began putting them in zip ties and loading them into police vans outside about an hour after the demonstration began. "

https://apnews.com/article/columbia-university-protests-khalil-trump-tower-8e2f455134a2f1b82458e32aecbb59f7

Horrifying, but apparently business as usual for the #IDF. Clearly the Israeli government is only going through the motions of...

Horrifying, but apparently business as usual for the #IDF. Clearly the Israeli government is only going through the motions of "ceasefire" and "hostage exchange" while busy making new Hamas sympathizers from civilian Palestinians.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/world/middleeast/israel-army-palestinian-prisoners.html?unlocked_article_code=1.sU4.ym6a.CqclElEZD6-B&smid=url-share

Free article. A key excerpt below.

After bursting into the family’s compound around 5:30 p.m., the soldiers moved through the yard, where the gathering was held, without stopping to assess the situation or the people inside, the reporters said.

One soldier immediately used the muzzle of his loaded rifle to strike Aaron Boxerman, a Times reporter who happened to be standing close to the yard entrance. Before Mr. Boxerman had a chance to identify himself, the soldier hit him in the rib cage, leaving a large bruise.

A second Times reporter, Natan Odenheimer, then identified himself as a journalist, video recorded by The Times shows. The same soldier told Mr. Odenheimer that he didn’t care, using an expletive to underscore his point. The soldier then pointed his loaded rifle at Mr. Odenheimer again, the video shows.

You think that if Vance (or Trump Jr or whoever) loses in 2028 that they'll go "Oh, Kamala made Jan 6 normal again" and be all...

You think that if Vance (or Trump Jr or whoever) loses in 2028 that they'll go "Oh, Kamala made Jan 6 normal again" and be all calm and peaceful? How naive.

#BRIICS now?

#BRIICS now?

Anybody else disappointed that the Democrats in Congress didn't even raise one objection to the electoral count certification of Trump...

Anybody else disappointed that the Democrats in Congress didn't even raise one objection to the electoral count certification of Trump officially winning the presidency? I'm not at all surprised but I am disappointed.

Every Democrat in the House and Senate should have been raising objections on various grounds for why Trump electors from swing states were invalid. Even if it only would have been performative, it's better than the ongoing "When they go low, we go high" bullshit of the Democrats and the few independents who caucus with them. Like Bernie Sanders.

They could have at least made the Trump/Vance certification into a delayed, vigorously contested show to Trump that Democrats in power are going to start fighting dirty as long as the Republicans keep ratfucking the country.

There's a time and place for collegiality. This wasn't it. Watching Harris, as the President of the Senate, making smiling small talk with House Speaker Mike Johnson was disgusting.

#USPolitics #USPol #Jan6

It is a damn shame that people, organizations, agencies, and even state governments have to be preparing for an apocalypse. But it's...

It is a damn shame that people, organizations, agencies, and even state governments have to be preparing for an apocalypse. But it's where we are, with #ConvictedFelonTrump quite likely to get back to the White House in this year's #PresidentialElection.

#USPol #USpolitics #Trump #Trumpocalypse #FelonTrump

The Resistance to a New Trump Administration Has Already Started - The New York Times

Free gifted link for those who don't subscribe:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/16/us/politics/trump-2025-democratic-resistance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.0U0.scdl.UaabsGyAxTny&smid=url-share

> An emerging coalition that views Donald J. Trump’s agenda as a threat to democracy is laying the groundwork to push back if he wins in November, taking extraordinary pre-emptive actions.

Unbelievable! #Boeing won't supply the US #NTSB with records of who did the faulty work on the #737Max door plugs that weren't...

Unbelievable! #Boeing won't supply the US #NTSB with records of who did the faulty work on the #737Max door plugs that weren't properly attached.

Or is it that they can't provide that because their management and shop floor oversight practices are so bad that they don't know what happened? Which would speak to their inability to ensure this doesn't happen again. Or something else that puts passengers and crew at risk.

Article from The Guardian:

Boeing not providing records linked to panel blowout, says top US safety official

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/06/boeing-737-ntsb-investigation?CMP=share_btn_url

> Official testified that the company will not identify who worked on the blown-out panel, and video footage of work has been erased

Mayla inspecting the groceries. Appears that she has opinions.#caturday

Mayla inspecting the groceries. Appears that she has opinions.

#caturday

Fascinating article on the history, challenges, and present state of The Criterion Collection. #cinephile #movies #films #cinema From this...

Fascinating article on the history, challenges, and present state of The Criterion Collection.

#cinephile #movies #films #cinema

From this coming Sunday's Sunday Times Magazine. Free gifted no-paywall link.

> Sure, It Won an Oscar. But Is It Criterion? - The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/magazine/criterion-collection.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZE0.OkCn.ES6487HpH5wr&smid=url-share

> How the Criterion Collection became the film world’s arbiter of taste.

This column is a good explainer on why much of the US still doesn't have good, or even any, internet access. In the form of an opinion...

This column is a good explainer on why much of the US still doesn't have good, or even any, internet access. In the form of an opinion piece by an an admittedly priveleged Washington Post Opinion Page journalist, Dana Milbank, who did some good reporting on why many of his rural neighbors can't rely on broadband nor even some call 911 (the US emergency number).

Covers many of the challenges in our political and our physical environments in getting universal broadband. And how finally the problems are at least partially being addressed by the #Biden #Infrastructure Act. (also give credit to the relatively few Republicans who supported that bipartisan law.)

"Sorry, boss. A chipmunk ate my internet."

(Gifted no-paywall article)

"But things are changing. Thanks to $90 billion in Biden-era spending, rural America is slowly getting access to broadband internet."

https://wapo.st/3SRt1OH

I'd never heard of the Q1 microcomputer. Even though I'm a techie old enough to remember when we called such things...

I'd never heard of the Q1 microcomputer. Even though I'm a techie old enough to remember when we called such things 'microcomputer' rather than 'personal computer'. Very cool that these were found. 8008 microprocessor (yes 8008, not a typo for 8080 or 8088).

#computerhistory #microcomputer

Priceless barn find: World's first microcomputers discovered by cleaners

https://newatlas.com/computers/first-microcomputer-found/

> Two of the first-ever desktop computers have been found in storage boxes at Kingston University in London. A milestone in human achievement, the Q1 microprocessor computer was released more than half a century ago, and only one other is known to exist.

Nice to see that the country that was my and my wife's home for most of the previous decade, #Uruguay , is joining in the #Artemis...

Nice to see that the country that was my and my wife's home for most of the previous decade, #Uruguay , is joining in the #Artemis Accords for multinational cooperation in space.

https://spacenews.com/uruguay-signs-artemis-accords/

Uruguay doesn't have much in the way of #space
research, yet, but it is the most peaceful and democratic nation in South America (arguably in all of the Americas), and is quite high-tech. The article mentions a space tech company located there, which is planning to re-incorporate in the US so it can bid on government contracts.

If it weren't for the distance, travel cost, and need to be closer to our family back here in the States, we would likely still be living there. We'd already gotten legal permanent residency (equivalent to a "green card") and could have become citizens by now. But life happens. I still consider it my "other home country".

Whole lot of hopeful thinking here.'He Is a Broken Person Psychologically’: Civil Fraud Verdict Hurts Trump'Decent if not deep...

Whole lot of hopeful thinking here.

'He Is a Broken Person Psychologically’: Civil Fraud Verdict Hurts Trump'

Decent if not deep analysis of why the verdict will dig hard at Donald Trump. The usual - He's never had to get permission to do anything, nobody ever told him no, etc.

But all that and more assumes that Trump's mind still (ever?) works and his personality is at least slightly like a normal human. When all the evidence says that No, it's not.

He has no shame. No sense of ever doing anything wrong. Paranoid (not a diagnosis, I'm not a doctor) delusions of persecution. No apparent understanding that other people exist for more than his utilization. Limited vocabulary. Obvious signs of dementia (for real, unlike Biden's mild compensations for age).

This won't stop Trump. Nothing, it seems, will stop Trump. At least while Biden is still being such a terrible candidate even while being a pretty good president.

(Substack but a free article)

https://washingtoncurrent.substack.com/p/he-is-a-broken-person-psychologically/

This illustrated article / sourdough-as-connection reflection has me thinking again about trying it. Back in early pandemic times I bought...

This illustrated article / sourdough-as-connection reflection has me thinking again about trying it. Back in early pandemic times I bought flour etc but never used it. To be fair, 3 weeks ago I did use some to bake a vanilla cake from scratch. But have plenty left to make a starter and then bake some bread.

(gifted no paywall link)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/16/opinion/sourdough-bread-starters-pandemic.html?unlocked_article_code=1.V00.jk6x.M-TZ6M1g_K0V&smid=url-share

This is sad no matter which way the decision goes: Keep or eradicate all the deer on California's Catalina island. It's a beautiful...

This is sad no matter which way the decision goes: Keep or eradicate all the deer on California's Catalina island. It's a beautiful place and a restful getaway from LA.

There's also, IMHO, a question of which snapshot in time of an ecosystem is the "correct state" to preserve or attempt to restore. If we're truly in the Anthropocene, the era of Earth as influenced by humans, is not a current-state (Catalina with deer as part of nature and human culture) equally or even more valid?

No-paywall gifted link to NY Times analysis longread.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/02/us/santa-catalina-island-california.html?unlocked_article_code=1.C00.-8oY.xUyNSA4nTMmK&smid=url-share

OK, I am really glad I don't live out by Packard's Corner on the B-line anymore. #FloridaSlightBenefit via...

OK, I am really glad I don't live out by Packard's Corner on the B-line anymore.

#FloridaSlightBenefit

via @BostonGlobe

https://press.coop/@BostonGlobe/111489352455254264