The Orion spacecraft Capsule Parachute Assembly System team pose for a photo before the mockup spacecraft is loaded onto a C-17 Globemaster III, Dec. 11, 2017 in Yuma, Arizona. (U.S. Air Force photo by Christopher A. Okula)

A good friend of mine works at NASA, and has spent the last TEN years of his life working on the Orion CPAS (Capsule Parachute Assembly System), testing it in the deserts of Arizona.

Ten years of design & testing. For this moment.

Science is so good, y'all.

“Trump can’t climb the escalation ladder. On every rung, Iran can beat him.”

2/2

Frickin Flyers 🙄

This is good news www.statnews.com/2026/04/08/t...

Discussion with chatgpt where it generates what it sees based on a non existing picture. It offers to annotate the picture and then generates some picture that has nothing to do with anything.

gets even funnier.

i have very rapidly become incapable of thinking about anything that isn’t this video

“.. The Iran war increasingly looks not only like another shocking humiliation but perhaps the greatest strategic blunder in American military history.”

@newrepublic.com
newrepublic.com/article/2087...

Hero rat who sniffed out over 100 land mines is honored with giant statue “Magawa was one of the best rats we’ve ever had,” said Michael Raine, who works for Apopo, a nonprofit that trains animals to detect land mines.

I love this story (gift link) wapo.st/4viNmik

GWAS does, in fact, sometimes work, contrary to my deepest held beliefs

Traders place large $950 million bet on oil price falling hours ahead of ceasefire Investors placed an ‌approximately $950 million bet on oil prices falling just hours before the U.S. and Iran announced a ceasefire, the latest large wager on the direction of the world's most traded ...

Everyone is just a player in the big Corruption Game.

a joyful golden retriever mid-sprint through green grass under a canopy of pink cherry blossoms

i feel like you all need this

a cartoon character from the simpsons is holding his hands together and says excellent . ALT: a cartoon character from the simpsons is holding his hands together and says excellent .

I am hearing from several sources that NIH will be doing the bulk of multi-year grant funding later in the year

Apparently the goal (presumably from OMB) is that NIH should hit the max legally allowed amount (the same as last year) which was intended as a cap not as a goal

Vought with this plan...

Trump’s going to be looking for a quick win after this humiliation. Watch out Cuba…

www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

Robert Harris: “Imagine Trump’s messages read out by the prosecution at Nuremberg. (“A whole civilisation will die tonight.”) They would have hanged any one of the defendants.”

I suspect you are right…..except. The political selection thing. A way to reward nutters. To practice geographic affirmative action. Etc.

I personally think there is zero chance that "ND but competitive" means anything other than triage. I would love for someone to prove me wrong.

Something more nefarious afoot from within.

Did study section 1 get a new SRO in 2020?

Study section replacement and odd funding trends I appear to have never written a blog post noting that CSR of the NIH is closing some study sections this year. I posted somethings on bluski about it but never followed through here. Eventually I …

Study section replacement and odd funding trends drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/04/06/s...

Donald J. Trump K @realDonaldTrump A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!

Evil.

No other word for it.

They need to rescue before the meeting and nobody is doing it- I suspect it is considered “more work” and I interpret it as reviewers not seeing the worth. I haven’t seen a rescue in at least two years

With Trump’s clear mental illness, a Messianic phase is the obvious and most dangerous next/final step.

The American public don’t realise how little truthful information they are getting, about casualties, about military failure, none of it.

With Mideast in conflict, Pope Leo criticizes those who invoke God for war Some Trump aides and supporters cloak the war on Iran in religious terms, but the Chicago-born pope said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”

God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.” (gift link)
wapo.st/4dVFX2k

The cross is part of the mission. The imperialist occupation of the world is disrupted from within; the violence that until now has been the law is unmasked. The poor, imprisoned, and rejected Messiah descends into the darkness of death, yet in so doing He brings a new creation to light. #HolyThursday

holy smokes

Played @maxhuibai.bsky.social’s Publish or Perish game in lab meeting today - that was genuinely hilarious 😂😂😂 may have scared the undergrads off academia for life 💀

Earth.

Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman took this picture of Earth from the Orion spacecraft after completing the translunar injection burn. There are two auroras (top right & bottom left) and zodiacal light (bottom right) is visible as the Earth eclipses the Sun. 🧪🔭 #Artemis

www.nasa.gov/image-articl...

The discussions on r/Military (mostly veterans) are interesting

NIH staff nearly killed themselves last year trying to catch up.

This year, we have:
- a greater deficit in number of awards out
- even fewer staff as people continue to escape the demoralizing work of censoring science.