Flight 15 in orbit, booster catch cancelled

11/14/26, 3:25 PM CST: The ship has been caught by the mechazilla. Superb.

This concludes an almost perfect mission. The booster wasn't caught, but the Ship made it through. We'll get 'em both next time.

11/14/26:

@Erdayastronaut Booster was slightly low on fuel

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2026

Friday the 13th, 2026, 6:29 PM:

SpaceX's Starship/Heavy booster launched about a hour and a half ago. It looked mostly flawless, but the booster did lose one engine during the boost back burn.

A decision not to attempt a catch at the "mechazilla" tower came from SpaceX at some point in the return to launch site. It is not clear at this time what the issue was.

Also, the booster appeared to do a hover just before splashdown, then an explosion was observed. Flames could be seen for quite some time before finally dying out. There doesn't appear to have been anything dangerous nor damaging at this time. It was somewhat unusual, but nothing has been communicated so far from the available sources.

As for the Starship itself, it got the okay to go for orbit. Then the payload was deployed without incident.

The first check for any anomalies that would cause an early splashdown, resulted in a "go" for continuation of the mission. The Starship then began a shutdown sequence in order to preserve battery power, as this will be a 14 orbit mission. The next check will be in about 7 hours. If any anomalies occur during this time to that time, an early return to an ocean splashdown will occur. It should be emphasized that no early end to the mission is indicated as of this time.

In summary, the mission is ongoing, with no booster catch. The payload was deployed successfully with all starlink satellites in communication with SpaceX.

Update:

There doesn't appear to have been anything seriously wrong with the booster from this shot. The shots I was getting didn't show this as clearly, so it looked like a flawed return. This looks good, except that it wasn't a tower catch.

Watch Starship Flight 15 https://t.co/xvmIH2diNA

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 13, 2026

Well, that didn't go well. It was supposed to be the booster landing, not this feed. I did watch it on Instapundit, and tried to embed it, but something went awry.

8:01 PM:

Here's a Brave AI chat link, which is good until a week from posting.

Begun the communist woke war has.

Mindplicit's YouTube Channel has been WIPED OUT, according to their Patreon website. I wouldn't have known a thing unless they had that much presense there. Now I know what happened.

It wouldn't be a surprise to me if the COMMUNISTS go for Patreon next. The MindPlicit boys should've done what Dan Bongino did when ScrewTube tried to screw him. Bongino went to Rumble. Keep in mind that the Puto Pendejos can go after anyone and everyone all the time.

I deleted my presense on YouTube long ago. I have my own webpage, which can show videos, as long as it exists. Make no mistake, the Communists want to take it ALL. They have to. Nobody in their right mind should ever trust them on any subject of importance.

The Puto Pendejo wing has flipped its lid. Now these monsters are snarling like the wolves they are. Affordability my ass. It is NEVER about what they say it is about. Always and forever, they lie without limits.

Gird up your loins. The TROUBLES are coming.

I'm disengaging from YouTube. My response is a total boycott of this kind of wokist dominated CRAP. This includes ScrewTube.

Update: This may hurt a little, as some of my favorite stuff was on ScrewTube. But the MindPlicit thing requires that somebody is going to have to pay for this hanging.

 

The scene of the crime...

AGW headache # 122

11/13/26:

Now that the communists are in control, they will hit the economy hard with this Green New Deal nonsense. There's the usual fearmongering concurrent with the takeover, preparing the people with an explanation for the ridiculous new policies that will spew forth.

Perhaps this kind of fearmongering may have contributed to the blowout victory of the left? The leftist claims are always a bunch of nonsense and harmful to the interests of the people. Not to mention the fact that it is a factor in the higher pump prices and in general inflation---as is claimed.

Try to tell people that and you get a blank stare. Keep in mind that if the communists get the Green New Deal passed into law, prices at the pump will definitely go up. In other words, it was NEVER about affordability.

The headaches will continue until morale improves. But relief may be found here---take two and call me in the morning. /joke

6/20/26: The original post follows:

There's so many of these AGW discussions that I've lost track of the count. AGW is bunk. Debunking the bunk is the headache. But we'll power through the nonsense once again.

The idea for this post came from perusing the weather forecasts. Imagine that! Well, I have this land out in West Texas, and I wanted to check the weather out there. That's when I noticed something.

It was the spread between the forecasted high and low temperatures. Out in the desert, the spread is typically pretty high. Maybe 30 degrees Farenheit.

Since I domiciled in H-town for so many years, this seemed like a lot. Even more to the point, the spread on Galveston Island was typically much smaller.

Is this the typical thing? Yes, I do believe so. I checked many weather forecasts around the nation. It does indeed appear to be the case.

What causes this?

It is most likely the influence of the ocean. Water absorbs energy. The land reflects it back into the atmosphere. Hence, temperatures rise fast during the day, and fall fast into the night where the ocean's influence is the least.

Of course this is true. I noted this when I was a kid. I loved to go swimming when I was a kid. The water felt cold in the morning, but was warm well after sundown in the evening. It was like swimming in soup in the early evening. It takes most of the night for the water to lose its heat.

The significance of this observation:

Water has much more influence over the temperature cycles than carbon dioxide. Where there is much water, there is much more stable temperatures. Where there's absence of water there are wide fluctuations.

In other words, it is the water, not the carbon dioxide. AGW theory posits the contrary. Obviously, AGW theory is bunk.

Hectic day

11/13/26:

Once I got more data, more blogging could be done. More blogging resulted in more traffic. The funny thing about the increased traffic was that the numbers seemed inflated. Therefore, I haven't taken them seriously.

Either this blog is doing a lot better than I think, or just slightly better than it was. It all depends upon what set of numbers that I look at.

Over the course of the past 3 years since the increase in data availability, the blog has grown in pageviews. I won't brag about it because it isn't clear what this growth actually is.

The one thing for certain is that there has been growth. So there.

 

6/14/23: The original post follows:

Getting toward the end of the day, and so I can take some time out now, and write a little more about what's been going on around here.

Since I got out here in the boondocks, internet service has been through the cell phone. There were other ways of getting service, but I chose to get it that way. The reason was that it was more economical. It so happens that prices must have gotten better, because I got a deal to get broadband another way.

I cannot specify what this service is, but it does need a dish. So there's a dish now. What I mean is that I don't think that it is satellite, but I'm not sure. Maybe it is or maybe it isn't. I don't care if it is satellite or not, frankly. So, I didn't ask.

But from the way the dude was talking, I think it isn't satellite, for what that's worth.

It looks like this will be a more capable system as well. That's good because the cell phone was a bit limited. Especially on the hot spot service. If you wanted to use the hot spot, you could easily run out of data, as it was a limited amount. It was limited even though it was supposed to be unlimited. The hot spot service aspect was rather crappy, so this should be a big improvement.

It so happens that my service was out. A message says I'm out of data, but I don't think so. I watch it pretty carefully. Rather than go through that anymore, I decided to get this service. The cell phone service is still there for the time being, but may go away soon. I'll still need a phone, just not much broadband on it.

So there it is. For several days, there was no service. Now there is. I didn't have access to the blog because of there needs to be a hotspot. The reason for that is another story. Let it suffice that I couldn't access the blog, so I couldn't do any blogging. It all happened without notice, so there wasn't any way to communicate it here. Or should I say, no easy way.

Now it should be back. I hope so. So far, so good.

Animal House--- Thank you sir, may I have another.

Freshman Senator gets "initiated" into the DC politics.

Hmm. There's limits to hard-assery. Come to think of it, there's limits all around. One way or another, a man has to know his limitations.

Update:

The Freshman Senator may need to study the US Constitution. He needs a 2/3rds majority from both houses of Congress before it can be submitted to the states for ratification. The Democrats may have substantial majorities, but they cannot pass an amendment without GOP support.

Dark Psychology

11/12/26:

This post is referring to a former YouTube channel called MindPlicit. It has gone away, thanks to YouTube. Cancel culture thing? Just might be that, yep.

4/5/26: The original post follows:

The dude ain't kidding...

Archetypes not of the Jungian category

There have been writers who have created models of personality types from time-to-time. Author Robert Ringer wrote about the three types in the business world. Actually, there was a fourth type, which is himself. He called himself the Tortoise, for reasons known to himself and explained in his book, but not here. In short, he was the Tortoise in the Tortoise and Hare story.

Then there were the tricky Number Twos. There were always after your chips, but in a sneaky diabolical way. Then there were the Number Ones-- the Black Hats, the Dishonest John types. To Ringer, these were the "safest" ones, because they were predictable. The Tortoise knew where he stood with them. They would steal your chips at any opportunity.

Then there were the incompetent Type Number Threes. The Number Threes were after your chips, but didn't really come across as the bad guys. But the result was the same as if they were anyway. They'd reach for your chips just like the rest.

Now there is another group of archetypes I want to discuss briefly before I get to the point. That's the four types of people in the Laws of Stupidity Theory. In short, there are the Helpless Ones, The White Knights non-stupid people, The Bandits, and the Stupid People. Refer to the post in the History of this here blog to get the low down on this model. I've managed to summarize them in this paragraph, so that it is mainly self-explanatory.

The point is that I want to expand upon the Idiocracy types. Actually, in that movie, everybody is an idiot in a dystopian future full of idiots. There was a character in it called Frito Pendejo. Frito Pendejo maps a lot onto the Helpless types from the Laws of Stupidity family of archetypes. He might fit the Type Number Three in the Ringer archetypes. But not exactly. The Frito Pendejos of this world are actually the Hapless Ones in my model. They are comically foolish. They actually cheer on their own demise. It brings to mind the old Mortimer Snerd routine when he asks the question "How can you be so stupid?"-- and the reply was "I got this fella helping me". You can't really call Frito diabolical, because he's just a hapless slob. There are four types in my family of archetypes. Frito was the first that I observed.

But what about the others? I won't use the Idiocracy archetypes here, but will adapt others to fit my own. The one that really infuriates me are the ones I dub the Puto Pendejo types. These would be the Communists. The Communists and the Nazis are one and the same in this family of archetypes. They are just plain diabolical in their destructive power. In the end, the Puto Pendejos most closely fit the Stupid People archetype, who don't benefit anybody, including themselves. This type not only burns everything down, but they seem to get a kick out of destroying anything good. They don't really profit from their destructive ways. The point is that they are the losers in the end, because everything they touch turns to shit--like a reverse Midas touch.

Now the third type fits the Bandit type from the Laws of Stupidity, and will be dubbed the Frito Bandito. This is short of the type that Ringer calls the Number One. I see the Frito Bandito as the Happy Bandit. He's the Dishonest John in the Dudley Do-Right family. He will smile in your face while he robs you blind. He sings the Frito corn chips song in the old commerical from the '60's--"Ay, yay, yay, yay! I am the Frito Bandito. I love Frito corn cheeps, I love them I do, I love Frito Corn Cheeps, I take them from YOU!" Robert Ringer himself may be the Frito Bandito. Or he may be the Sneaky Number Two. But he sells himself as the plodding Tortoise who always gets your chips. But the archetype really doesn't fit Ringer. Ringer lacks the sense of humor. He certainly isn't the White Knight in the Laws of Stupidity family. He may even be laughing his ass off going to the bank-- all in private.

But Ringer may have a point with respect to everybody being after your chips. So I introduce the last type who isn't a White Knight, but is a survivor. He is no glamour puss. He is usually rather sloppy and in a general state of disheveledness. I shall dub him Captain Caveman. Captain Caveman may seem like something of a Hero, but he is just a survivor in a primitive and dangerous world.

To recap briefly, there's Frito Pendejo, then Puto Pendejo, the Frito Bandito, and finally there's the survivor Captain Caveman.

Of the four archetypes, the ideal could be Captain Caveman. Just laugh at the Frito Pendejos. Relatively easy to dodge the Happy Bandit, the Frito Bandito. Better to survive than to get eaten by the Big Bad Wolf Communist/Nazi. Ooops! I mean the Puto Pendejo communists. Gotta watch those mistakes. The Puto Pendejos of this world will take advantage of your mistakes. One missed step can be fatal.

Know what I mean, Vern?