The Orville gets an early season 2 renewal
The bad news: season 1 will only have 13 episodes. But an early renewal indicates a promising future.
Nov 022017
admin
Nov 012017
Since yesterdays Cultural Enrichment Event in New York, I’ve heard more than a few politicians on the right argue that the driver should be dealt with not as a criminal, but as an enemy combatant. from a certain point of view this kinda makes sense… the guy is not a US citizen and he was pledged to a foreign political entity and an alien ideology. But the thing is, though… if he’s an enemy combatant,that makes him a prisoner of war. And there are two problems I have with that:
1: There is dignity and honor in being a POW. This feller has neither.
2: POWs go home.
There are two preferable outcomes for the driver after a proper trial: execution or life in a deep dark hole. Can’t execute a POW. The upside, though, is that POWs go home when the war’s over… but this war? I can’t see how it will *ever* be over. Who’s the leader on the Surt Worshipping Cultist side? Who has the power and authority to surrender or draw up an armistice? And even if someone did, does anyone honestly think that the attacks would stop, the radical would de-radicalize, the jihadists would convert to quiet Lutheranism, Mecca would become a world famous tourist attraction known for its welcoming acceptance of all creeds? No, this war is never going to end, so the POWs would remain POWs forever… or until some weak-willed administration decided to trade them away.
Treat the guy like what he is: a criminal. A good, honest trial followed by a life sentence in general population.
Nov 012017
The universe is full of places.
Kepler data reveals existence of 20 promising exoplanets ‘hiding in plain sight’
Nov 012017
Our betters, those fine Hollywood types who are forever going on about how enlightened they are, how tolerant and diverse and whatnot they are, and how those of us in flyover country – you know, the little people, the deplorables, the unenlightened – should leave our backwards ways and be more like them… it seems they have themselves a bit of a problem:
Andy Dick Fired From Movie Over Sexual Harassment Claims
Jeremy Piven accused of sexual assault on set of ‘Entourage’ by actress Ariane Bellamar
Kevin Spacey: More allegations of sexual harassment surface
NPR’s top editor placed on leave after accusations of sexual harassment
Dustin Hoffman accused of sexual harassment
‘Sex and the City’ heartthrob was ‘a piece of meat’ for Hollywood execs
Six women accuse filmmaker Brett Ratner of sexual harassment or misconduct
… and so on.
On a surface level a lot of this just simply doesn’t make sense: if you are rich and famous (at least, if you’re rich), you don’t need to use force to obtain sex. You can just easily pay for it. But it seems to me that a whole lot of this seems to be less about the actual sex and more about the exercise of *power.* That’s certainly what it seems to have been with Weinstein.
But here’s the thing: the infotainment industry seems to have more than its share of this problem right now, which would seem to indicate that it has more than its share of people who are in it for the *power.* Which should, I would hope, inform public opinion about the wisdom of listening to these people when they start yammering on about political issues. Couple their excess in preverion, their lust for power and the fact that they live in a world of make-believe and fantasy, and you’d think that people would be smart enough to not ever listen to them.
Nov 012017
NASA has compiled a playlist of “spooky” space sounds (what with it having been Halloween and all) derived from space probes such as Juno and Voyager. I debate the actual spookiness of them, but they are certainly interesting and several are certainly a bit unsettling.
Nov 012017
Utah nurse violently arrested in viral clip settles with hospital for $500G
Y’all will no doubt recall the thrilling tale of Nurse Wubbels and Detective Payne, where the detective aggressively arrested the nurse because she refused to draw blood from an unconscious patient when the detective did not have a warrant. She was utterly in the legal right; he was a dick.
I’m on her side here. But… dayum, half a million bucks? Does that not seem perhaps a bit much… especially since it’s partially coming not from the now-ex-cop, but from the hospital? The half million is split between the hospital and the city of Salt Lake, even though the hospital did not arrest her. I guess the worst yo can say is that the rent-a-cops just stood by, but I wonder just how many security guards anywhere would ever intervene in an arrest.
Oct 292017
From a theological point of view, “witchcraft” is no sillier than any other religion. From a practical standpoint? Yeah, it’s pretty damned silly, and not all that useful.
And thus, we get this:
Is Tumblr witchcraft feminism – or cultural appropriation?
It’s a perfect storm of every SJW identity politics group getting into a circular firing squad. The nucleus of this is a book written by a non-Wiccan, non-religious Hindu-Quakers working with an atheist who doesn’t believe in the occult that purportedly aims “to arm women – ordinary women who may scoff at spirituality or magic – with the subversive feminist powers of traditional witches.”
Yeah.
It’s the kind of empowered identity promoted in podcasts about toppling the patriarchy and Facebook posts about the radical importance of self-care.
Snerk.
As the article points out, there are several categories of witches,” including Tumblr/Instagram-dwelling SJWs who are politically active idjits generally supporting regressive political nonsense and using the iconography of newage claptrap to advertise and support their delusions. This new book is supposed to be aimed at that group. What’s startlingly hypocritical here is that this book is written by people who clearly don’t believe it. It would be like me writing a book on how to colonize Mars using acupuncture and dowsing rods. I suppose that might actually sell well… it would certainly be a unique item on the book market, but it’d make me feel sullied and unusual to write unless I wrote it as a satire. But to write it in such a way as to buttress the silly and self defeating beliefs of the deluded? Lame.
Oct 282017
Some NASA art from back in the day. Click to embiggen.
Oct 282017
Here’s an odd thought:
Did Ceres once have an ocean?
The dawn spacecraft has detected minerals that seem to indicate that there was once liquid water on the surface. By “once,” that means “4 billion years ago.” The evidence indicates that there is still substantial water bound upon the surface “rock” of Ceres, with the possibility of meaningful amounts of liquid water still existing under the surface.
But with a surface gravity of only 0.029 g, back when it had an ocean it must have been a bizarre place. That’s far too low a surface gravity (more specifically, far too low of an escape velocity) for Ceres to have retained any sort of atmosphere. Air would quickly just… drift away to space. So the ocean must have been in a constant state of near-boiling, with an astonishing evaporation rate. The atmosphere must have been largely water vapor; the atmosphere would blow away, forming a cometary tail likely to have been pretty impressive. This would have been while planets like Earth were still in the process of being formed, so the entire solar system would likely have been a busy place, with *lots* of giant comet-like objects like Ceres.
Oct 272017
Europe seems to be just slightly less peaceful and unified and satisfied with its borders as is often portrayed…
Spain Seizes Power in Catalonia After Region Declares Independence
What’s more, there are a number of independence movements around Europe. Many are no doubt honest expressions of ethnic/cultural differences. Some are no doubt due to irritation at the insidious nature of the EU government. And I’ve no doubt that some, perhaps most, are being egged on by the likes of Putin. Europe falling to bits would be handy for the dreams of a Russian empire.
Beyond Catalonia: pro-independence movements in Europe
