Staring at the sun: The eclipse, technology, and the Final Frontier




Staring at the Eclipse with Joe Pappalardo | Return: Tech by Blaze Media youtu.be

The memes about staring at the eclipse were misguided in their assumption: The temptation to stare at the apocalyptic burn would afflict plenty of us.

"I suspect the damage, the potential from the eclipse is kind of overblown,” he says, smiling a bit. “But now I'm not so sure. I'm still seeing spots."

Joe Pappalardo is undoubtedly my favorite science writer. He’s one of my favorite writers in general. As a magazine writer and contributing editor at Popular Mechanics, with bylines in National Geographic, TIME, Esquire, Texas Monthly, and the Smithsonian Magazine, he has given us a writing style that’s part Hemingway, part Kerouac, and part science-minded philosophy.

Joe has written about B-17 gunners, jungle spaceports, Western shootouts, and sunflowers. His book “Sunflowers: The Secret History” charts sunflowers' complicated, mind-blowing history.

Why is there a spaceport in a remote jungle of French Guiana? How will people die on Mars? How do we preserve the Declaration of Independence? Should we be terrified of drones? What was the Wild West like for lawmen and criminals? What would it be like to follow a solar eclipse in a Concorde jet? How bad are the battle scenes in the Star Wars sequel trilogy? Will there ever be a spiritual element of AI? How would it fully achieve original creation? Why did the CIA employ killer monks? Are North Korean nukes an actual threat? Will the future of space exploration depend on the egos of wealthy Big Tech giants? What roles did sunflowers play when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union?

These are just some of the topics that Joe Pappalardo knows well.

So, I wanted to chat with him about the solar eclipse.

And, perfectly, this led us into the cosmos, climbing the stars and whatnot.

You can feel the joyful back-and-forth between wonder and doom throughout this interview. How lovely, a tug like this is, between progress and demolition.

The solar eclipse brought people together and created a sense of unity. "There's very few things that really do sort of unite everybody in an event like this."

Joe also describes a generational divide in embracing new ideas and disruptive technologies, with some people resisting change.

He chatted about the unique characteristics of an astronaut and the future of space travel, which may involve more diverse participants and commercial space flights. SpaceX has ambitious plans for the next couple of years, including launching Starship and landing the booster on the same launch pad.

As Giorgio Agamben put it, “Technology is in fact nothing other than a human action directed at a goal.”

His father influenced Joe's interest in space and science. They’re going to a launch at Starbase this week. We’ll check back with them when they finish their journey.

Finally, Some Good News: The Journalist Population Is Getting Smaller

There's a lot of bad news in the world these days, which is to be expected under a Joe Biden presidency. To avoid being overwhelmed by a sense of hopelessness, it's important that we take time to celebrate the good news whenever it comes.

The post Finally, Some Good News: The Journalist Population Is Getting Smaller appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

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The post National Geographic Says Climate Change Is 'Greatest Threat to Human Health.' It Also Flies Billionaires Around the World on Its Private Jet. appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

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Nat Geo's flowery Fauci documentary is getting absolutely torched online: 'Pure garbage,' 'worst doc ever,' 'This man belongs in prison'



A new National Geographic documentary portraying Dr. Anthony Fauci as an American hero and one of the country's most dedicated public servants is getting mercilessly shredded by critics online.

What are the details?

The documentary, simply titled "Fauci," aimed to show off the shrewdness and brilliance of the longtime National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases director known for managing America's national response to the AIDS epidemic and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

But based on early reaction, that objective was a complete miss. Since debuting in select theaters on Sept. 10, the film has garnered nothing short of an embarrassingly negative response.

As of Monday afternoon, a trailer for the documentary posted on YouTube showed 59,000 dislikes in comparison to just over 4,000 likes.

The documentary is similarly unpopular on IMDB.com, where more than a thousand users have given the project an embarrassing 2.1/10 rating.

Fauci | Official Trailer | National Geographic Documentary Films www.youtube.com

The film's failure, however, may have less to do with the quality of the production and more to do with its slanted admiration for the unpopular subject.

According to one reviewer, the film is "clearly enamored with its subject who has attained movie-star-level fame." But that is not a sentiment shared by many.

Fauci, despite being revered by progressive lawmakers and mainstream media figures, has long since fallen out of favor with much of the American populace, who are tired of his support for draconian health guidelines, endless economic shutdowns, and vaccine mandates.

That's not to mention the fact that many Americans justifiably hold some level of suspicion towards Fauci over his involvement in funding risky gain-of-function research in Wuhan, China, where the virus originated.

What are people saying?

Comments posted on YouTube and reviews posted on IMDB drip with vitriol towards the documentary and its portrayal of the infectious disease expert. Below is just a small sampling:

  • "Pure garbage: Worst doc ever, I would give negative stars if it were possible."
  • "You've got to be kidding: This man belongs in prison. He's literally lied to Americans and destroyed lives. How in god's name is anyone making a movie idolizing this criminal?"
  • "Absolute garbage. Can't even believe this is a thing."
  • "Propaganda 101. Prop em up on a pedestal and shine a big bright light on them to blind us from the lies. Glad to see from the rating and comments, the public is more awake than I thought."
  • "He used US money to pay China to develop this virus. It's his fault we are in this mess. We demand justice."
  • "This man is one of the worst humans to ever walk the Earth. His lies, deceit, and empowered mistruth by the current administration does not deserve a documentary."
  • "If this is not damage control, I don't know what is..."
  • "Props to the camera crew for being able to keep the tail and horns out of frame for the whole movie."
  • "Quite literally nobody wants to see this fraud depicted as something he isn't."

Another YouTube commenter noted the irony of a line used in the film, which says, "If you are a public servant, you don't do it for the money." As the commenter went on to point out, Fauci is the highest paid federal employee, making $417,608 a year.

As if frequent interviews with Fauci were not enough to turn off critics, the producers trotted out notable controversial figures such as Bill Gates and Susan Rice to say nice things about the public health expert.

Despite their best attempts, it seems, America's opinions on Fauci are settled. The only thing that remains now is to see how large the dislike count will grow.

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