Spacecraft awakens, tweets hello

Re: yesterday's story about waking up the Rosette comet probe: it worked. Here's how.

"Star Trackers determine spacecraft attitude." Humans are amazing.

MOVIES Comic Book Resource asks "What should Disney do with 'Indiana Jones?'" Leave it be is not one of the options. There's the "keep on going" option:

While we're at it, cast a tornado siren as a late-middle-aged Kate Capshaw and have it whine INNNNDEEEEE every seven minutes.

If they wanted to reboot with another actor, fine - but give it the look of the first one. No huge CGI set-pieces. No Michael-Bay pacing with a three-second limit on every shot. The first one seems almost leisurely by modern standards, and it works better than anything that came after because it felt real, as if what we were seeing on the screen actually happened.

Seems like a lot to ask these days.

By the way, here's one of "the most limited Indiana Jones items ever!"

CORRECTION Not anything said here, but elsewhere. Did you see the story about the Jumbotron sunsets played in Peking to compensate for the shroud of pollution? Quartz says nope.

The article blames shoddy reporting, and notes: "Western readers eat this stuff up. Based on Quartz's experiences, Western audiences generally love Chinese 'airpocalypse' stories."

Perhaps; personally, I enjoy doomed real-estate development stories, because acres of empty houses and blocks of unoccupied skyscrapers that march into the distance are not only fascinating and unnerving, but an interesting metric of the Chinese economy. How many times can they do this?

SOME WORK, SOME PLAY There's a piece in the Strib today about moving towards a 30 hour work week. The "work less" movement pops up from time to time in different ways; this New Yorker piece discusses how Wall Street is moving away from the 9,000 hour work week.

Ah, but this will soon change, as the culture of Wall Street shifts, and leisure becomes as important as money. Right? Mmmm-hmm. Any day now.

That's what will be different. People will pretend to work less when the boss is looking, instead of pretending to be busy.

MISERABLE, THANKS FOR ASKING NYT: Why the Russians hate to say "Fine" when you ask "How are you?"

Well, if psychologists at the U of Mich have shown it,who am I to dispute it. But if constant negativity leads to fewer symptomsof depression, it might lead to more drinking. I know it sounds insane and anti-science, but it could be true.

The Washington Post is on the subject today, as it happens: "Negative emotions have been shown to have a detrimental effect on the body. Might positive emotions — feeling happy, satisfied, energized about life — have a good effect?"

It's telling that they have to ask the question. The study says the effect is better on older people; younger people, well, who knows. For many, much of their self-identity is bound up in self-drama and auto-pity, and people who are cheerful are just shallow idiots who don't realize the true darkness of existence. They may be enjoying life, but it's the shallow kind of enjoyment you get when you're not thinking about the abyss that yawns behind everything.

!!!!!! !! !!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

????!!!!

WHEW