At precisely 8:42:47 p.m. EST tonight (Sunday, 7 February), a new record will be set in the annals of U.S. human spaceflight, when Dragon Resilience—the vehicle which delivered Crew-1 astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi to the International Space Station (ISS), last November—passes 84 days, one hour, 15 minutes and 30 seconds in flight.

Video Credit: NASA
In doing so, the hardy little SpaceX ship will eclipse Skylab 4’s almost-five-decade-old achievement for the longest single mission by an American crewed orbital spacecraft. Current plans call for Dragon Resilience and her four-member crew to return to Earth in late April or early May, targeting a record-setting duration for a U.S. piloted vehicle of around 165 days in space.

When the Skylab 4 mission launched atop a Saturn IB rocket from historic Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida at 10:01:23 a.m. EST on 16 November 1973, its three-man crew knew they were aiming for one of the longest orbital voyages ever attempted at that time. Two previous flights to America’s Skylab space station had recorded 28 and 59 days aloft, respectively, whilst the Soviet Union had achieved 23 days with its ill-fated Soyuz 11 crew.

late on Friday the Supreme Court handed down an order granting the application for a preliminary injunction by a California church blocking enforcement of the order by California Governor Gavin Newsom that prohibited any indoor gathering for purposes of religious services.

The order was somewhat fractured, as there were multiple parts of the California order under review, and the Court granted the application but denied them as to others. The Justices in the majority – the six conservatives – were not unanimous in their views on each part of the order, enjoining some but allowing others to remain in place. The three liberal justices would have allowed the entire order to stand. //

This is not a final decision on the merits of this case. The case has been accepted by the Supreme Court for argument and decision this spring. The decision last night only concerns the extent to which the lower court decision is allowed to remain in force pending a determination of the case by the Supreme Court on the merits.

“Use longer, stronger passwords.”

While passengers lament the loss of the Queen of the Skies from many airline fleets, as a type, the 747 has never been so prolific. Although passenger variants have been grounded, retired and scrapped, their cargo compatriots, the 747F, have become more important than ever.

The Queen is still on her throne //

The Boeing 747F, with its unique lifting nose and incredible range, has proven itself a crucial tool in the movement of goods, and its set to stay that way for some time yet. //

Pre-COVID, around 28,000 flights per month would operate with the 747F, but since March, that number has been steadily increasing. By December, Spire recorded more than 40,000 flights per month operated by the 747F.

https://simpleflying.com/boeing-747-cargo-nose/

Companies, particularly those in the financial and retail sector, are the sinews of capitalism. Corporations lining up to form an ideological test for usership is a counterintuitive way to run a free market. //

We’re talking about digital-era monopolies that, in their market power and influence, rival the Gilded Age trusts and cartels that once exercised exclusive control over vast swaths of American industry. Instead of dithering over whether to tweak Section 230, we need to ask ourselves whether Amazon should be allowed to own AWS?

Should Facebook be allowed to own Instagram and WhatsApp and scores of other digital companies? Should Google be allowed to own YouTube and Android and DoubleClick? At what point do we say that these companies simply have too much power and that they represent combinations and trusts that must, like their 19th-century forebears, be broken up? //

As Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, a member of the Senate’s Antitrust Subcommittee and a brilliant attorney, tweeted recently, “the consumer welfare standard is . . . not a narrow concern with prices. As Judge Bork wrote, it encompasses ‘innovation, choice among differing products’ and quality.” Markets, he noted, must “work for consumers, not just monopolists.” //

It’s time to de-prioritize and end the billions in state, local, and federal subsidies fed to Big Tech companies. Both Google and Amazon enjoy substantial federal contracts with the government – AWS provides cloud computing for the CIA, for example. Those should be leveraged for better behavior.

Section 230, Big Tech’s congressionally granted legal immunity, should be reformed so tech companies are incentivized to address the exploitative and harassing content that proliferates on their platforms, and more accommodating of diverse political speech. Or, absent that, repeal it altogether. //

Our speech and communications in the public square have been fundamentally altered by the digital era, so perhaps a common carrier statutory framework should apply.

In short, stop privileging the companies who threaten pluralism and a free society, and restore the proper hierarchy of America, where the people rule — not the mob, not the corporate barons, not the bureaucrats, and not the tech titans.

Regardless of the antics of its CEO, SpaceX and others innovating with speed and urgency need to operate with different rules.

There are several advantages to this design. The first is that the cargo loaded can be exceptionally long. A Boeing 747 can open its nose and load freight with a length of 185 feet (56.4 meters) without having to bend the cargo. On an Airbus A300 or Boeing 777, cargo cannot be too long; otherwise, it won’t be able to ‘bend’ around the door frame (as the shipment enters from a door located on the side of the plane). //

The nose opening also allows wider pallets of cargo to be loaded. Specifically, the Boeing 747 can load freight as wide as 12.5 feet (3.8 meters) compared to an Airbus A300, which can only load pallets as wide as 11.75 feet (3.6 meters). //

The nose cargo door is only available on specially designed Boeing 747 freighter variants and is not an included addition in any Boeing 747 freighter conversions. It is simply too expensive to add the option for freight airlines, and so far, none have selected the conversion option.

Tim Pool
@Timcast
·
Feb 5, 2021
This tweet may be snarky but its factually true Time said this

Twitter has published a false statement of fact

Tim Pool
@Timcast
I don't think this even matters at this point. Time magazine just came out said that a cabal of elites rigged the election

I'm sorry they said they didn't rig the election they "fortified" it, by changing the rules and laws as well as manipulating the flow of information https://twitter.com/CassandraRules/status/1357708988482269189
This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can’t be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence
Tim Pool
@Timcast
The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election
time.com

This is the inside story of the conspiracy to save the 2020 election, based on access to the group’s inner workings, never-before-seen documents and interviews with dozens of those involved from across the political spectrum. It is the story of an unprecedented, creative and determined campaign whose success also reveals how close the nation came to disaster. “Every attempt to interfere with the proper outcome of the election was defeated,” says Ian Bassin, co-founder of Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan rule-of-law advocacy group. “But it’s massively important for the country to understand that it didn’t happen accidentally. The system didn’t work magically. Democracy is not self-executing.”

That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.

UN international inspectors reportedly have found new evidence of nuclear activity in Iran that they failed to report, violating their international agreements. The activity could show that they have been working on making nuclear weapons. The evidence was found in areas that Iran had prevented the inspectors from checking for months last year.