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Dipole Drive
The Dipole Drive: A New Concept for Space Propulsion
Why bring your propellant?
NYT: #MeToo Leader/Victim Settled With Her Own Accuser
Asia Argento, a #MeToo Leader, Made a Deal With Her Own Accuser (archive)
The Italian actress and director Asia Argento was among the first women in the movie business to publicly accuse the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She became a leading figure in the #MeToo movement. Her boyfriend, the culinary television star Anthony Bourdain, eagerly joined the fight.
But in the months that followed her revelations about Mr. Weinstein last October, Ms. Argento quietly arranged to pay $380,000 to her own accuser: Jimmy Bennett, a young actor and rock musician who said she had sexually assaulted him in a California hotel room years earlier, when he was only two months past his 17th birthday. She was 37. The age of consent in California is 18.
That claim and the subsequent arrangement for payments are laid out in documents between lawyers for Ms. Argento and Mr. Bennett, a former child actor who once played her son in a movie.
The documents, which were sent to The New York Times through encrypted email by an unidentified party, include a selfie dated May 9, 2013, of the two lying in bed. As part of the agreement, Mr. Bennett, who is now 22, gave the photograph and its copyright to Ms. Argento, now 42. Three people familiar with the case said the documents were authentic.
And here are the gruesome details:
[...] The fallout from “a sexual battery” was so traumatic that it hindered Mr. Bennett’s work and income and threatened his mental health, according to a notice of intent to sue that his lawyer sent in November to Richard Hofstetter, Mr. Bourdain’s longtime lawyer, who was also representing Ms. Argento at the time.
[...] Mr. Bennett, who has an eye condition that prevents him from driving, arrived at Ms. Argento’s hotel room that morning with a family member, according to his notice of intent. The document lays out Mr. Bennett’s account: Ms. Argento asked the family member to leave so she could be alone with the actor. She gave him alcohol to drink and showed him a series of notes she had written to him on hotel stationery. Then she kissed him, pushed him back on the bed, removed his pants and performed oral sex. She climbed on top of him and the two had intercourse, the document says. She then asked him to take a number of photos.
[...] The two had lunch, and Mr. Bennett headed home to Orange County, where he lived with his parents. As he was driven home, according to his claim, he began to feel “extremely confused, mortified, and disgusted.” But a month later, on June 8, he sent Ms. Argento a Twitter message, “Miss you momma!!!!” that included a photograph of an engraved bracelet she had given him to commemorate the movie. (His Twitter account has recently been shut down.)
[...] Mr. Bennett claimed his parents had barred him from the family’s house and kept his possessions, and over the years had cheated him out of at least $1.5 million in earnings. He said he was broke and two months behind on his rent. The case was settled in December 2014, but the terms were not disclosed.
Sounds like a 17-year-old had a good time, but went through some money issues when he turned 18 due to his manipulative stage parents (who clearly didn't care about leaving him in a hotel room with a total MILF, since they drove him to and from there). Argento had been getting a lot more attention due to recounting her involvement with Weinstein, and he had the evidence needed to blackmail her and make the rent. Sound about right? Now switch the genders. Oh no!
Bennett had starred with Argento in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) when he was about 8 and she was about 28. She also directed and co-wrote the movie:
[...] Sarah's current lover, Kenny (Matt Schulze), a truck driver, eventually abandons them at a truck stop while Sarah is soliciting. Sarah realizes that if she is going to keep her men she cannot say Jeremiah is her son. She persuades Jeremiah to cross dress so he can act as her "little sister", and Jeremiah's cross-dressing evolves to include his mother's seduction techniques. After dressing up as a "baby doll" version of Sarah which consisted of her makeup, her white nightgown and her red high heel pumps, Jeremiah (although the audience sees Asia Argento as Jeremiah because this scene could not be done with child actors as it was too inappropriate) seduces Jackson (Marilyn Manson), his mother's latest man, who initially tries to rebuff the boy's advances, but then gives in. Sarah is furious with Jackson for giving in to the boy's advances and with Jeremiah for ruining her panties with drops of blood on them, and she takes Jeremiah and leaves.
That sounds like an interesting picture show!
Her boyfriend, the culinary television star Anthony Bourdain, eagerly joined the fight.
I wonder if Bourdain knew about the Argento-Bennett thing (which did happen before they met AFAIK):
Asia Argento Says Anthony Bourdain’s Suicide 'Obsession' Is 'Heart Wrenching:' 'I Never Knew'
Asia Argento has spoken out about an article compiling a list of times her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain publicly brought up committing suicide before his death, calling it a “heart wrenching read.” “I never knew about this obsession of his. He never told me,” she wrote on social media, sharing a link to the document, which was released earlier this month.
Even if the Bennett incident had nothing to do with him, he did go to bat for her publicly over Weinstein, including describing how he fantasized about Weinstein dying of a stroke in a bathtub while nobody would take his call. And here's a related quote from one of his final interviews:
Acknowledging that Clinton is "f**king magnetic," having met him in person, Bourdain revealed that he does not believe Clinton should have been thrown out of office because of the Lewinsky scandal - calling it "ridiculous." According to Bourdain, the real issue was the way that the Clintons dealt with the scandal - "It was the shaming, discrediting, undermining the women," that followed.
If only the women always discredited and undermined themselves. It would make marginalizing them so much easier!
Well, too little, too late for Weinstein. He was just too greedy.
The documents, which were sent to The New York Times through encrypted email by an unidentified party
Looks like NYT is getting some mileage from its leak submission page.
Also at The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and Vanity Fair.
Left and right is wrong, but why is that important?
There are decent arguments in both directions. Left and right, imperfect and imprecise as they are, are not complete nonsense. Realizing that is relatively new for me, and you could say that's the reason for the entry itself. For decades, I thought "this is complete nonsense" and I was mystified that it got traction. Just goes to prove how powerful control of the media/education/military/industrial/government complex is... well no. Not entirely.
There's something deeper here. As inaccurate as left and right are, they are accurate at a level, a particular level that is, shall we say, very close to the gut?
But it's not really an ideological or political divide this corresponds to, it's a *psychological* divide. The left is more psychologically open, to both good and bad influences, the right more suspicious of both sorts of outside influence.
So there is some truth to it, and some rational reason for people to cling to it.
But it's still, essentially, nuts. You need a minimum of two dimensions to make the slightest sense of politics *qua politics*. Right and left, as commonly presented here in the USA, conflates separate poles that have nothing to do with each other. Left is "liberal" but liberal has been a dirty word since they crucified Carter (pbuphn.) And the actual left has virtually no one left that's actually noticeably liberal in any way. Right is 'conservative' but conservative is not the opposite of liberal; and the right-wing party hasn't been noticeably more conservative than the left-wing party in decades anyway.
So let's set 2 dimensions, that means 4 poles. Liberal is the opposite of authoritarian, conservative is the opposite of radical. I know, not a new thought, Nolan will sue me, but at least my labels are correct. What we actually have is two extremely authoritarian parties, one slightly radical and the other extremely radical. There are no liberals, nor conservatives, allowed space on the field at all.
Trump is currently the closest thing that is permitted to exist, per the mainstream media. And they're outraged that he exists. He's not very liberal at all, but there's only maybe 3 or 4 congresscritters to his 'left' in the classical sense in all of Washington!
He's not very conservative either, though I'd think about twice that many congresscritters could flank him there.
As there are ~550 congresscritters, this is a very depressing statistic for a conservative, or a liberal, let alone someone like myself who is tending towards both positions.
And why is this all important? Because as long as they can focus on this artificial division, between ostensibly 'liberal' progressives (whose actual positions range from radical liberal to radical authoritarian, with a heavy bias towards the latter) and ostensibly 'conservative' fascists (whose actual position, in my terms, would range from conservative liberal to conservative authoritarian, with a heavy bias towards the latter *in leadership* but not necessarily in the rank and file) the authentic liberal positions are systematically marginalized and made invisible.
The game is to keep the liberals split, with conservative liberals in one party and radical liberals in the other party - while both parties remain safely under control of authoritarians.
And this is why it's important. Because if there is any alternative to dystopia, it must be for the conservative liberals and the radical liberals to unite and overthrow our common oppressors - the authoritarians, the authoritarian mind, and all that resembles it.
We can't do that while we're busy dividing up into right-tribe and left-tribe. We can't do that while we're smacking each other in the head with bike-locks to impress our particular oppressors and curry favor with our tribe.
We can't be human beings while we are slaves to these distorted images of tribes that never really existed to begin with.
Tikkum Olam ("Mend the world"), all of you.
Especially you, Ethanol ;)
-Arik Yehuda (the Lion of Judah.)
What to Do With LOP-G or Another Future Space Station?
Expanding on this comment.
What should be done with the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) or another brand-new low-Earth orbit space station? Alternatively, can the ISS be rebuilt piece-by-piece to allay concerns about aging components? Or should it be burnt in the atmosphere or split up to form new stations?
LOP-G is a boondoggle by design, but it could be built much more cheaply using Falcon Heavy launches, and it could be given some worthwhile missions and experiments. Here are a few ideas:
Space telescopes
Space telescopes could be assembled and repaired at a space station. JWST's cost overruns and delays are going to cast a shadow over future flagship space telescopes. One way to reduce costs massively while continuing to provide larger apertures would be to assemble a telescope in orbit. In the future, robots or automated docking systems ought to be able to accomplish this, but if you already have humans staying at a space station, why not have them service telescopes while they're there?
JWST has to ride a single rocket into space and follow a number of steps for successful deployment. A telescope built at a space station could accept many components flown on multiple Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, BFR, New Glenn, or Vulcan rockets. If one rocket explodes, the loss is relatively minor. The size of a space telescope flown on a single rocket is limited by the width and volume of the payload fairing. JWST can unfold its mirror segments to fit a greater aperture into the payload fairing, but this mechanical mechanism could fail, and if it does, it would render the telescope completely inoperable. The planned JWST successor LUVOIR has different configurations depending on whether or not SLS (8.4-10 meters) or BFR (9 meters) will be available to fly the telescope. While you could fly as many smaller mirror segments as you wanted to if you kept adding new launches to your manifest, the largest mirror segments ever cast are coincidentally 8.4 meters in diameter:
There is a technological limit for primary mirrors made of a single rigid piece of glass. Such non-segmented, or monolithic mirrors can not be constructed larger than about eight meters in diameter. The largest monolithic mirror in use are currently the two primary mirrors of the Large Binocular Telescope, each with a diameter of 8.4 meters. The use of segmented mirrors is therefore a key component for large-aperture telescopes. Using a monolithic mirror much larger than 5 meters is prohibitively expensive due to the cost of both the mirror, and the massive structure needed to support it. A mirror beyond that size would also sag slightly under its own weight as the telescope was rotated to different positions, changing the precision shape of the surface. Segments are also easier to fabricate, transport, install, and maintain over very large monolithic mirrors.
Segmented mirrors do have the drawback that each segment may require some precise asymmetrical shape, and rely on a complicated computer-controlled mounting system. All of the segments also cause diffraction effects in the final image.
Finally, JWST requires lots of testing and retesting in order to ensure that the hundreds of potential failures that could kill the mission do not occur. With a space-assembled telescope, you could launch without doing nearly as much testing, since you would have humans capable of fixing most of the problems that could happen, multiple launches instead of a single launch, and you could more readily tolerate the vibrations shaking up each component of the telescope, since it is not assembled and ready to deploy yet. You could also pack the payload fairing with padding that could be removed by the astronauts.
While there could be space telescopes operating directly at the site of the space station (such as in lunar orbit alongside the LOP-G) or close nearby (loosely tethered to the station or in a different but easy-to-reach orbit), we could also use orbital (re)fueling to send completed space telescopes to their final destinations. Since most of the energy expenditure comes from entering or leaving Earth orbit, this could end up being very efficient.
By exploiting all of these advantages, we could assemble space telescopes that dwarf the JWST and LUVOIR in size and capabilities.
Artificial gravity modules
We already know that prolonged exposure to microgravity is bad news for astronauts, but at least one of our ACs is very skeptical of the health effects of lunar or Martian gravity on the human body. What better way to test this than in a rotating artificial gravity module? While it is not directly comparable to the gravity of a planetoid, and you can experience a difference in acceleration between your head and toes, it could be used for exercise, sleep, animal and plant experiments, etc.
The lower the gravity you want to simulate, the smaller and slower the module can be. So simulating 0.165g or 0.376g will be cheaper than 1g anyway.
The Nautilus-X was a proposed spacecraft that would have used a centrifuge to provide artificial gravity. A demonstration module for the ISS would have cost only an estimated $83 million to $143 million, not counting launch costs.
Inflatable modules
Speaking of modules, Nautilus-X planned to make extensive use of Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable modules. Inflatable modules are a partially-proven concept, in that we actually managed to get one version, the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, to the ISS. Plans to remove it have been delayed as it provides useful storage space and appears to resist radiation and micrometeorites as well as other parts of the ISS.
The B330 and BA 2100 modules would provide a much greater volume for a space station, with the BA 2100 providing more than double the current volume of the ISS inside of a single module. As for protection:
- Some designs offer higher resistance to space debris. For example, the B330 provides ballistic protection superior to traditional aluminum shell designs.
- Some designs provide higher levels of shielding against radiation. For example, the B330 provides radiation protection equivalent to or better than the International Space Station, "and substantially reduces the dangerous impact of secondary radiation."
I imagine that if you had further concerns about module durability, you could inflate it and then install plates or other coverings on the outside to provide additional layers of protection from radiation and micrometeorites.
Propellant depot
I haven't done the math™ on this one at all, but perhaps this could make sense, particularly in the LOP-G scenario. If you want LOP-G to be more than a useless ISS clone, it would make sense to have the station facilitate trips to the surface, by storing propellant, refueling craft that reach the station, or delivering it to the surface for use by people who are already there. How would it get there? A BFR tanker would be a good choice. Where would it come from? Presumably from Earth or sources of water on the Moon itself, if the economics work out.
Perhaps the U.S. could sell China some propellant to help them build their Moon base.
Depending on the orbit, LOP-G could also facilitate communications for anybody or anything on the far side of the Moon.
Long-Lost Marilyn Monroe Nude Scene Remains Lost
A Long-Lost Marilyn Monroe Nude Scene Was Just Discovered
It’s taken decades, but researchers have finally found Marilyn Monroe‘s long-lost nude scene from the 1961 film The Misfits. [...] In the lost scene, Monroe and Clark Gable kiss, and he leaves. Then, things get particularly racy when Monroe drops the bedsheet covering her naked body. According to Deadline, this scene is historic: if left in the film, it would have been the first nude scene by an American actress in a major motion picture. Director John Huston later cut the nude scene because he believed that it wasn’t necessary to the story, but Frank Taylor saved the footage because of its importance (or maybe for, uh, personal reasons).
[...] Taylor has not yet decided what to do with the lost footage, so don’t expect Monroe’s nude scene to end up on YouTube any time soon.
Submit it to the Library of Sexual Congress for "preservation" or GTFO.
TIME TO MAKE ZE DONUTS^W BAGELS!
This has been...a busy week. I've been transferred to the Madison branch of that bakery I started working for, and have spent the last couple of days preparing; I'm now staying in the absolute cheapest hotel I could find whose reviews contained zero instances of the word "bedbug."
A good friend I've mentioned before, Matt, lives in Madison and has been helping me find a place on short notice here. I haven't seen much of the city but I really, really like it compared to Milwaukee. The public transit is even better if you can believe that, people seem much more laid back, and there's lots of early 20th-century buildings near the Capitol that just exude history. It feels almost nostalgic, like a much smaller, nicer NYC in some ways. It's kind of appropriate we'd end up in the same city again considering we went to college together and, i found out then, grew up within a mile of one another.
Not for the first time I find myself thinking "if I were straight, or even the least little bit bisexual, we'd be married." Alas.
Anyway...what got me here? Bagels.
Now, as a born New Yorker, it makes sense I'd have a sort of innate affinity for bagel dough. The stuff just seems to like me, insofar as something that (I truly hope...) isn't sentient or alive in any way save for a bit of yeast can. First attempt at the dough came out feeling just perfect, and my particular method of putting holes in them--take dowel, punch hole in center of 5 oz. dough round, and more or less goatse it apart to around 2 inches, sorry for the mental image--works better than the "roll out a dough snake and pinch the ends" method.
In particular, the Capitol Square holds a farmer's market every Saturday, and people come from miles around and wait hours for specific products. I am told that my bagels have the potential to be one of them, along with a few of the other products the bakery makes. Despite there being at least 3 or 4 hipster-infested coffee shops within 2 blocks of the Capitol building, one of which has the word "bagels" in the name, apparently no one's thought of selling them at the Farmer's Market, which deserves both those capital letters.
Madison seems waaaaay more health-conscious than Milwaukee, so I'm going to try to get permission to make a whole-wheat version (with a pinch of vital gluten) and maybe some vegan bran muffins. Ground flaxseed and water in 1:3 ratio can replace eggs, 4 Tbsp. mix per egg, if you put a tiny bit more baking powder in. Autumn is coming too, which if this place is as hipsterish as I suspect it is, means we can do pumpkin-spice everything and make a killing.
As much fun as all this is, I'd really rather be doing pharmacology, and will see if I can get floated a loan to go through the UW Madison training program (I, along with 4 of every 5 other contenders, did not get in last time through the employment application process). But for a little while this may be fun, in a hardworking, busy, up at 5:30 AM every day kind of way.
N-Tape
New tape shows Trump campaign aides discussing possibility of N-word tape
The use of "dog" to describe Manigault Newman, who was the highest ranking African-American in Trump's White House during her tenure, did little to dampen the renewed allegations of racism against the President.
Some of his top aides rushed to defend him, claiming they'd never witnessed him use racist language in their interactions.
"I've been around @realDonaldTrump publicly & privately for 25yrs. I've NEVER ONCE - EVER - have heard him say the disgusting & terrible word that the Opportunistic Wacky Omarosa claims," wrote Dan Scavino, Trump's longtime social media director.
Breakthrough: Trump close to calling his critics "bitch-ni**as".
Disney's Big Gay Backlash
Jack Whitehall faces backlash as Disney's 'first gay man'
Jack Whitehall has received backlash online after news broke that he'd been cast as Disney's first major gay character in Jungle Cruise.
The comedian wrote that he was "honoured" to be a part of the 2019 film, and it was later reported that he would be playing an openly gay man.
The news has led some people to ask why a gay actor wasn't cast for the role.
"Could they seriously not pick someone actually gay?" one person tweeted.
Others have argued that hiring gay actors to exclusively play gay roles is "typecasting".
15 years ago, or maybe last year, this headline would have had a very different meaning. But it's 2018.
C-Ville Anniversary
Charlottesville remembered: 'A battle for the soul of America'
It could only happen in the birthplace of Christian Weston Chandler.
World's Top Empathy Researcher is a Big Bully
She’s the world’s top empathy researcher. But colleagues say she bullied and intimidated them
Tania Singer, a celebrated neuroscientist and director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, is known as one of the world’s foremost experts on empathy. In her research, she has sought to demonstrate that meditation can make people more kind and caring. The title of a profile of Singer written by this reporter in 2013 summed up her public image: Concentrating on Kindness.
But inside her lab, it was a very different story, eight former and current colleagues say in interviews with Science. The researchers, all but one of whom insisted on remaining anonymous because they feared for their careers, describe a group gripped by fear of their boss. “Whenever anyone had a meeting with her there was at least an even chance they would come out in tears,” one colleague says.
Singer, one of the most high-profile female researchers in the Max Planck Society (MPG), sometimes made harsh comments to women who became pregnant, multiple lab members told Science. “People were terrified. They were really, really afraid of telling her about their pregnancies,” one former colleague says. “For her, having a baby was basically you being irresponsible and letting down the team,” says another, who became a mother while working in Singer’s department.
[...] In a plan presented to the researchers on 25 July, MPG said it would separate Singer from her current colleagues and allow her to set up a new, smaller research group in Berlin for 2 to 3 years while the postdocs and Ph.D. students in Leipzig finish their projects and move on. (The Leipzig group, which once numbered more than 20 scientists, has dwindled to just five.) She would then return to her lab.
“It appears the Max Planck Society decided it would rather sacrifice another generation of students than risk a scandal,” says one former colleague. Asked how MPG would ensure that future students are treated better, a spokesperson says details of the plan are still being discussed.
[...] [Colleagues] say working with Singer was always difficult. She wanted to be in control of even the most minute research details but was often not available to discuss them. In-person meetings could quickly turn into a nightmare, one colleague says: “She gets extremely emotional and when that turns dark it is terrifying.” Another co-worker describes what happened after he told Singer some people in her group were unhappy: “She was very hurt by this and started crying and screaming,” he says. “It escalated to the extent that she left the room and went door to door in the institute in our department, crying, yelling to the people in the room ‘Are you happy here?’ When she came back, she said: ‘I just asked and everyone said they’re happy so it’s obviously you that’s the problem.’” (A colleague who says he was present corroborates the story.)
Almost every current or former lab member brought up Singer’s treatment of pregnant women; the issue was also on a list of grievances, shared with Science, that lab members say they drew up after a meeting with the scientific advisory board in February 2017 to record what was said. “Pregnancy and parental leave are received badly and denied/turned into accusations,” the notes say.
