Honestly surprised it took this long. I’ll take two with a shorter barrel, thanks.
Feb 042018
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Feb 042018
IRL trolling, done well and with NSFW language…
Feb 032018
Not a new theory, but now with a bit more evidence:
New research suggests toward end of Ice Age, human beings witnessed fires larger than dinosaur killer, thanks to a cosmic impact
There is one bit that has me raising a skeptical eyebrow:
The KU researcher and his colleagues believe the data suggests the disaster was touched off when Earth collided with fragments of a disintegrating comet that was roughly 62 miles in diameter — the remnants of which persist within our solar system to this day.
A 62 mile diameter comet would be many times bigger than the one that whacked the dinosaurs. So *perhaps* they mean that it was 62 miles in diameter before it fragmented, and Earth only hit a fraction of it. On the other hand if it fragments sufficiently, so that the chunks were reduced in size enough that they would all burn up in the atmosphere, there’d be no cratering. The total amount of energy dumped onto Earth might be many times greater than the KT impact, but it would come in the form of a quick flash of light and a series of mighty booms rather than a cratering event throwing gigatons of ash and tectites into the sky.
An important point for future discussions of planetary defense: it’s better to be ht by a cloud of little bits than a single giant impactor, even if the cloud hits with more total energy. The atmosphere serves as a bit like a bulletproof vest for the planet, and if someone if going to shoot you with a 12 gauge while you’re wearing such a vest, you’d rather they shot you with a mass of birdshot than a single deer slug. So arguments that planetary defense strategies should avoid energetic systems like nukes in favor of soft, slow processes like solar sails and gravity tractors and the like because nukes might fragment the impactor… not terribly good arguments.
Feb 022018
The torch that the Boring Company is selling is cool and all, but it’s not a flamethrower by any real definition of the word. A flamethrower doesn’t just project flame a few feet, but a *stream* of some flammable liquid a considerable distance.
THIS is a flamethrower. It also seems to be being used in a rather unwise manner, but hey, looks like they’re having fun and all, and “because it’s fun” is reason enough for anyone to do anything, long as you don’t damage other people or their stuff.
Hot chicks, fully automatic weapons and destructive devices. Bite me, joyless gun-grabbing safety fascists and hoplophobic pearl-clutching SJWs.
AMERICA, FARK YEAH.
Feb 022018
Terrible photo. Awesome cat.
Feb 022018
Well, now, this stuff sounds like fun.
The acid is often said to contain “naked protons”, but the “free” protons are, in fact, always bonded to hydrogen fluoride molecules to make the fluoronium cations (similar to the hydronium cation in aqueous solution).[5] It is the fluoronium ion that accounts for fluoroantimonic acid’s extreme acidity. Fluoroantimonic acid is 10^16 (10 quadrillion) times stronger than 100% sulfuric acid.
Jeepers.
Like most strong acids, fluoroantimonic acid can react violently with water, owing to the exothermic hydration. Consequently, it cannot be used in aqueous solution, only in hydrogen fluoride as solvent.
Acidity (pKa) = −31.3
Not to be taken rectally, I guess.
Feb 012018
Seems Cape Town, South Africa, is going into its fourth year of a bad drought. The reservoirs are drying up, the city is rationing water, and come April, unless things change, the city will be out of water. So, should we set up an office pool? If Day Zero comes, will the city manage to survive, or will it go all Mad Max?
Cape Town cuts limit on water use by nearly half as ‘Day Zero’ looms
So, like most Americans, I’m unfamiliar with Cape Town. Clearly, though, it must be a far inland city, stuck in the middle of a desert with no access to any sort of water at all…
Say, wait a minute…
Feb 012018
Speculation that the Chinese have built themselves a railgun and mounted it on a ship.
This Is Our Best View Yet Of China’s Ship-Mounted Railgun Prototype
Is This Chinese Navy Ship Equipped With An Experimental Electromagnetic Railgun?
Whether it’s a railgun or not, whether it works or not, I hope that it spurs the DoD to get back on the job and fully funding the development of railguns of our own.
Jan 312018
Recently sold on ebay was an apparently old display model. It came without markings, stand or engine nacelles, which were obviously formerly pinned to the rear fuselage in the usual bizjet position. So just what it is is unknown, but it looks too good to be Just Some Guys kitbash. But what it *is* is a headscratcher. It’s clearly a B-1 bomber forward fuselage grafted to a bizjet fuselage, but for what purpose I can’t guess. It doesn’t make sense to use a supersonic bombers cockpit as the cockpit of a small corporate jet, even as a way to utilize existing manufacturing infrastructure. Might it have been meant as a training plane, to teach future B-1 pilots the fine art of flying a Bone? A flying laboratory for the B-1 cockpit to make sure it was set up right?
Or did someone down at the model shop just get a little likkered up?
It appears t be a B-1A cockpit, dating it to the mid/late 70’s.
Jan 312018
It had been my hope – that I knew wasn’t going to come true because, you know, come on – that President Trump would do what the Constitution calls for from the President for the State of the Union: turn in a report to Congress. Instead, he did what is now culturally expected: stand in front of Congress and the cameras and give a long laundry list of talking points and promises. Same old, same old.
Still, it made for interesting watching. Specifically, it made for interesting watching of the Democrats: would they applaud anything? As it turns out, no. The Congressional Black Caucus, when told that African American unemployment is at a historic low? They looked damned glum. But the high point had to be this guy:
Rep. Luis Gutierrez walks out of Trump’s State of the Union as progressives write off bipartisanship permanently
When exactly did he walk out? When a bunch of Republicans started chanting “USA! USA! USA!” that so triggered Gutierrez that he had to retreat to a safe space. Because if there’s anything that a Congressman should be offended by, it’s people chanting the name of the country that Congressman is in.
This is Rep. Gutierrez:
Not saying there’s a resemblance to this memetastic feller… but there is:
Keep acting that way, Dems. Keep acting that way ON CAMERA, and you’ll turn your almost inevitable gains in the forthcoming midterm elections into another pro-trump tidal wave.