Michael Dearing

@AnishA_Moonka Someday there will be a very cool museum built on and around its resting spot. Super tempting to anthropomorphize the little rover that could. So I do. :)

Those wheels you’re looking at are 0.75 millimeters thick. That’s half the thickness of a US dime. Each one was carved from a single block of aluminum, and NASA sent six of them to Mars knowing they’d eventually shred. Curiosity was built for a 2-year mission. It landed in August 2012, and by December that year NASA had already extended the mission indefinitely. Thirteen years and 35.5 kilometers later, the rover is still going, but the wheels started cracking just 14 months in. The damage came faster than anyone at JPL predicted. Sharp embedded rocks were punching straight through the skin between the treads. So NASA assembled a Wheel Wear Tiger Team (a crisis problem-solving tradition that goes back to Apollo 13) and got to work. In 2017, they uploaded a traction control algorithm from Earth that adjusts each wheel’s speed in real time based on the terrain, reducing force on the front wheels by 20%. They rerouted the rover to softer ground and started driving backward when possible, because pulling wheels over rocks produces less force than pushing them into rocks. The wildest part: if enough treads snap off, Curiosity is designed to find a sharp rock on Mars and use it to deliberately rip out the damaged inner section of its own wheel. JPL tested this on a replica rover and found Curiosity can keep driving on just the outer third. They predict this won’t be needed until around 2034. Every 1,000 meters, the rover pulls over and uses the camera on its robotic arm to photograph its own wheels so engineers on Earth can count every crack. Each wheel also has tiny holes that spell “JPL” in Morse code, which Curiosity uses to measure distance by photographing its own tracks in the dirt. These photos directly changed the next rover. When NASA built Perseverance, engineers 3D-printed about 70 different tread designs before landing on 48 curved treads instead of Curiosity’s 24, with thicker skin. They tested the new wheels over 60 kilometers and got zero damage by Curiosity’s original failure definition. “A boring graph with no data on it,” as one JPL engineer put it. A $2.5 billion machine doing self-surgery with rocks on another planet because the mission outlasted its design by 6x.

@AHC1776 @HistoryWJacob This is great! Super glad I found you. Thanks for your work.

Thanks to @HistoryWJacob, I picked up some new followers over the past few days. Here are 15 things I will share about AHC. 1. I have opinions. I rarely share them here. If I do, chances are it has something to do with events before 1899. 2. I have come to really like Teddy Roosevelt. Like him, I am an independent historian. I studied journalism/advertising/history, and have spent 35 years in the business. 3. I read old books and use text/images from them in the entries on the website. 4. Howard Pyle is a genius. Followed closely by NC Wyeth. I really enjoy art and will go on streaks where I post artwork. 5. I am fascinated with old graveyards. The oldest one I've visited is probably in Salem, Mass. Also, battlefields. My favorite battlefield I've visited so far is Kings Mountain. The two big ones I need to get to are Lexington & Concord and Saratoga. 6. My people have been in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Virginia since the Colonial Era. Because of this, I know there are two sides to every story (I'm looking at you, Civil War), but I try not to take sides unless I feel I've done enough research. Case in point, I believe the British fired first at Lexington (read the eyewitness accounts). 7. The Freemasons kicked Benedict Arnold out in a meeting that was held at an ancestor's house in New York. I have a few other really cool stories about my ancestors, who were often standing in the background while important events unfolded. 8. I love baseball and the Cincinnati Reds. Unfortunately, I also love the Cleveland Browns. 9. I have no one to talk to about history, so people on here are my 'history friends.' 10. I have built more online encyclopedias than any one person. 11. AHC is the legacy of my professional career, but it is a work in progress. I have thousands of entries that are waiting to be reviewed, expanded, and published. 12. I have been fighting cancer for 6+ years, which makes #11 a little difficult at the moment. 13. Facts are stubborn things. 14. My favorite books are Cold Mountain, Lord of the Rings, John Adams, and 1776. My favorite essay is In Distrust of Movements. 15. My favorite movies are Star Wars, Godfather, Lord of the Rings, Cold Mountain, Gettysburg, and The Patriot.

@RealSKeshel Q: "How many mail ballots are honestly late in arriving?" A (Dem): "As many as needed."

Let’s all be intellectually honest here. How many mail ballots are honestly late arriving? One percent of all sincerely mailed ballots? People can always go drop it off if they’re running close. The mail in ballots counted for days/weeks are fraudulent ballots. No clearer example than Harris dropping 1.8 million Biden “votes” in her own home state with Trump barely gaining over 2020, yet two R incumbents losing House seats in DECEMBER. The honest world knows mail in elections are corrupt.

@BreitbartNews @bradleyajaye Someone likes his private club memberships and spousal charities and boards of director seats more than he has any political will.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) voted to confirm a dozen Biden judicial nominees who have been responsible for blocking the Trump administration’s agenda, according to a review by @bradleyajaye. trib.al/qZRAKBo

@christopherrufo Just so you know, I choose to concatenate "shekelgolem" and keep in reserve for scrabble beatdown of the Anno Domeni era.

Guys who talk like this should absolutely be gatekept out of conservative institutions. It’s almost always indicative of a deeper psychological problem and they will eventually implode. The fence around your home is there for a reason.

@S_Brightblade I didn't know Theo Von was in a Ridley Scott movie about knights.

Haces una pelicula de caballeros medievales con la gente todavía caliente con juego de tronos, entonces le metes un script feminista a tope. Te putean. Después haces Napoleón, todos esperan una época histórica onda gladiador, le pones un script feminista y completamente negativo con el personaje que la gente quiere ver, napoleon. Te putean. Como que el mercado te está diciendo algo.

@GregAbbott_TX So why isn't anyone stepping up and using Texas Local Government Code Chapter 87 to initate a removal trial? You talk a lot.

All of this will be taken into consideration when I have the final say on the fate of the police officer. This DA's failure to prosecute murderers & repeatedly letting dangerous criminals go free, while prioritIzing prosecuting police, will have consequences. foxnews.com/politics/soros… #FoxNews

@McFranchisee @BENBALLER And the total debasement of the currency.

Me and my 3 kids having lunch at Chick-fil-A. I swear 10 years ago this was the price of a sit down meal at a restaurant for us with 20% tip included.

@TikTokInvestors @SenSanders If you add in his three homes and multimillion dollar net worth, it definitely is.

@SenSanders This might be the most boomer thing i've ever seen

I spoke to Anthropic’s AI agent Claude about AI collecting massive amounts of personal data and how that information is being used to violate our privacy rights. What an AI agent says about the dangers of AI is shocking and should wake us up.

Fair point re: timing. But it'd be very "2026" for them to say: "[Record scratch]... if you thought the home videos were bad, wait til you see our insiders re-cut of the Batchelorette! Give us 30 days to put the good parts BACK IN and you won't believe what you see." lol. I'd watch and I don't even have television.

@mcgd @Oilfield_Rando No doubt she did. Problem for Disney is the precision. Dude dropped this like three days before. No time for reshoots, no time for edits, sponsors are pulling out. At this point, they will probably take the tax write-off.

That psychotic Mormon chick deserves a ticker tape parade and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for getting an entire season of the Bachelorette canceled

California is spending $100 million on a bridge for animals. San Francisco is spending millions on nonprofits that specialize in Egyptian healing rituals and giving massage therapy to black criminals. It's insanity.

@RonDeSantis Kathy Hochul of the Caribbean: "I know we stole what you built before, but come back and put your capital in! We are ready to do business!"

That will go over like a lead balloon in Hialeah.

Leftists (esp west coast leftists) hide behind the perception that they're woo-woo & impractical & idealistic & incompetent but they're just fucking thieves

@christopherrufo @bethpratt God blesses you again and again with A++ foes and antagonists.

BREAKING: @BethPratt, the woman responsible for California's $114 million animal bridge boondoggle, has responded to our investigation with a rambling Facebook post blaming the weather and "unprecedented biodiversity collapse." This is what happens when you put crazy in charge.

California is spending $114 million on a cougar and butterfly bridge, funneling cash to indigenous activists who perform "offerings" of native tobacco and human hair to their sacred "plant relatives." Gavin Newsom has turned construction into sorcery. A boondoggle.

The Right is steadily cannibalizing its ability to advance good policy. Yes, it’s the grifters and psychopaths in the podcast thunderdome, but it’s also the quiet and cynical self-enrichment happening in higher places. In retrospect, the collapse of DOGE was a major defeat.

.@DUDEwipes just gonna let you guys handle this one

@christopherrufo It literally was a "thanks for the memories, see ya."

@mcgd Really awful, and he didn't even issue a mea culpa on his way out.

Howard Schultz spent decades virtue-signaling for every new demand of “progressivism” and now he’s leaving the rest of us to deal with the consequences. A truly dishonorable end to his tenure as a Washingtonian.