
I needed to pick up paint and supplies for my next project, so I brought Sparky along. It was in the afternoon, which is when Sparky likes to take his nap. He’d never turns down a car ride, but he was having a hard time staying awake.

I needed to pick up paint and supplies for my next project, so I brought Sparky along. It was in the afternoon, which is when Sparky likes to take his nap. He’d never turns down a car ride, but he was having a hard time staying awake.

For the third night in a row, Sparky has slept on the couch.
Last night, I scattered throw pillows to make the couch seem impossibly high to a furry piglet with too much junk in the trunk. The house rule is that Sparky can come up onto the couch when invited and there is a bedsheet or blanket. I removed the bedsheet and wadded it up on the back of the couch.
He is clearly insubordinate.

As Sparky adjusts to life without Rusty, he is attempting to establish a new normal. Pre-Rusty, Sparky slept in my bedroom, his crate, under the dining room table, and other places that weren’t on the couch.
Two mornings in a row, I have found him on the couch. Sparky doesn’t know if this is going to fly, but he intends to play it out.

NASA’s Artemis 2 moon mission breaks Apollo 13 distance record
NASA is doing their best, but the Artemis 2 mission isn’t exciting, heroic or impressive.

Tarsus Kicks Off Phase 2 Trial of Oral TP‑05 for Lyme Disease Prevention
Calliope will evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of oral TP‑05 in adults at risk for Lyme, with a design informed by the earlier Carpo Phase 2a proof‑of‑concept study.
TP-05 is lotilaner, which goes by the brand name, Credelio, and is what Sparky takes every month to kill ticks.
This is all I wanted. There are a half-dozen methods to protect dogs from ticks, but nothing for humans except fraught news reports about Lyme disease and tick-borne maladies. There is also a bunch of stupid stuff about cutting your grass and tucking your pants into your socks.
I have a patch of land and a super-cute brush piglet. Sparky likes to crawl through brush looking for rabbits and he likes to hop up on my lap. Ticks are going to get through.

When she puts in the effort, Milly Alcock is attractive. When she looks rough, people aren’t kind.

TWZ: F-15E Weapon Systems Officer Shot Down Over Iran Has Been Rescued
The F-15E Weapons System Officer (WSO), missing since his plane was shot down on Friday, has been rescued after a very risky combat search and rescue operation and fierce firefight in southern Iran.
This is a teachable moment.

That’s the reason to change to Linux.
It takes some time and effort to abandon Microsoft Windows, but Linux doesn’t force software updates, require a Microsoft account, or remove programs.
Nobody is reporting the specific problem that Artemis mission commander, Reid Wiseman, had getting MS Outlook to run on his Microsoft Surface Pro, but Wiseman has a degree in Computer and Systems Engineering from Rensselaer Polytech and a master’s degree in Systems Engineering from Johns Hopkins. He couldn’t get his email software to work, and needed to get a bunch of rocket scientists to fix it.
That is messed up.

The crew looks like stowaways traveling in a shipping container.
NASA chose a good looking crew. Then I did some research.

It’s been a cold and gloomy day, so Sparky is wearing his Inspector Gadget outfit.
© 2026 Big Stick Physics
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑