Craig Sawyers

Stars orbiting around our supermassive black hole, Sagittarius-A. http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~ghezgroup/gc/animations.html

Have a spectacular one Todd - Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday!

Heh - I only have 5. Three dynamic (fed by a dinahi) the two E/S (fed by BH, triode or T2 clone - all out of KG's fertile head).

Happy birthday!!

Congratulations! Sounds like you are truly smitten

Well astonishingly we won three golds today. First Adam Peaty in the 100m breaststroke. Then Tom Pidcock won in the cross country cycling; 1h 25m on an insanely difficult course in baking heat and humidity. That is the first medal of any colour we've won in that event. Then Tom Daley and Matt Lee won in the synchronised diving. So our little Island is currently fourth in the medal table. Woohoo!

TD in morse?

Yeah - I know what you mean. The 3D drone show was bloody impressive though, as was the lighting of the flame. By comparison to the London 2012 ceremony is was very muted though. In normal times Japan would have put on a show to rival London though. Going on to cycling - the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz really excelled on a truly brutal multi-lap 145 mile course and won by over a minute. I was strangely pleased that Tadej Pogačar came in third, outsprinted by Wout van Aert. Pogačar, in the last two Tour de France won yellow, white and polka dot jerseys. Which I think is odd when he is only 22 now. Shows how brutal the course was, because the average speed was "only" 24mph.

I wonder how Alan Shepard, a guy whose military, test pilot and astronaut is of the highest achievement, would feel about his name being associated with Bezos's vanity project? I guess Bezos, Musk and Branson wouldn't have a place at the table if NASA got its act together.

Well you certainly cannot make jokes about the holocaust, that is for sure. However at the time, the guy was 24, probably extemporizing and came out with what looks like one sentence. In all likelihood he had totally forgotten about it. Someone has clearly trawled through his past performances looking for mischief, and found something from when he was half the age he is now. I know several stand up comedians. My daughter went out with two of them. The best known is this guy https://www.ericlampaert.com/ , and let me tell you his humor can be pretty challenging. I'll bet if you poked around his past performances you could find something inappropriate. Like most comedians they prototype material at smaller venues, make a note of what works and what bombs. Then craft a show based on material they know to work. I suspect the one liner about the holocaust bombed, and was never repeated. He probably said it and then thought "oh fuck - what did I just say?" I'm not defending the guy's comment, just that I can understand how it happened.

This was anticipated in 1875: My grandfather's clock was too tall for the shelf So it stood ninety years on the floor It was taller by half than the old man himself But it weighed not a pennyweight more It was bought on the morn on the day that he was born It was always his treasure and pride But it stopped, short, never to go again When the old man died Ninety years without slumbering Tic toc tic toc His life's seconds numbering Tic toc tic toc etc

Ella Fitzgerald with her assistant in a Houston PD holding cell after she and fellow jazz great Dizzy Gillespie were arrested for "throwing dice" in Fitzgerald’s dressing room at the Houston Music Hall, 1955

Well, no-one is safe until everyone is safe.