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If I drank coffee…

 art, awesomeness, humor, politics, wisdom, youtube  7 Responses »
Sep 172017
 

… I’d give these guys a shot.

See, there are two ways that a modern company can deal with politics: either avoid it like the plague and hope to offend nobody, or dive headlong into it, *knowing* that they will offend and drive away half the market, but trusting that they will succeed on the *other* half of the market. These guys seem to have chosen the latter approach.

These would, I imagine, trigger our local Aussie-commie gunphobia fetishists. But… screw ’em. Guns, despite what the civilian disarmament fascists would have you believe, are *fun.* So a coffee company that shows its employees having fun with guns? Awesome.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 2:26 pm

Could North Korea make North Korea go *foom*?

 blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  7 Responses »
Sep 172017
 

Now this here could be all kinds of entertaining:

Mystery Shocks at North Korea’s Sacred Volcano Trigger Eruption Fears After Nuclear Test

It seems that the North Korean undergroudn nuclear test site is really close to the active volcano Mount Paektu. As the article says:

“For an individual nuclear detonation to do serious damage to the volcano, previous research shows, the blast would need to be at least 100 kilotons, which the explosion earlier this month was estimated to be.”

Now, this would be dumb on a couple levels. First off, setting off one of their own volcanoes on their own turf? Dumb. But second off, the volcano is basically also on the border with China, so this *could* annoy the one nation that can actually tolerate the Kim regime.

So one might wonder if further unwise testing may cause the Chinese to finally get off their butts and do something. China could *easily* march right in and take over the joint, or at least take over the Nork nuclear sites and probably install their own puppet. On the one hand… well, good, I guess. But on the other hand, that would not free the people of North Korea, and it would move the Chinese border and military to within just a few miles of Seoul, South Korea. So the Chinese *could* use the wackiness of the nuts in North Korea to further their expansionist, imperialist aims.

 

CONSPIRACY THEORY: The Chinese are popping up the Norks and quietly aiding them in their nuclear programs *specifically* to set up a situation where they can march in and play the hero, and wind up in a strategically superior situation.

 Posted by at 1:45 pm

Viva socialism: The Venezuela Success Story

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., I'm from the government, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  3 Responses »
Sep 162017
 

Venezuela’s dreams are dying

Some basics:

Socialism: the state controls the means of production.

Communism: the state owns everything.

Nanny/welfare state: could be free market capitalist, fascist, socialist, communist.

Venezuela has been pursuing socialism since Chavez; the state nationalized not only Venezuelan oil companies but *foreign* oil companies (and people act surprised when foreign investment dried up). The state has put price controls on things like food and toilet paper… prices *below* the cost of production (and people act surprised when people stopped making and selling those things). The state decided to create a massive welfare state to raise the standard of living of the truly, shockingly poor… by nationalizing everything, confiscating wealth and making enemies of businesspeople and people act surprised that the wealthy and skilled of the Venezuela have been leaving the country in droves).

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 11:29 pm

Large Format Cyanotypes: now closed

 cyanotype blueprints, news  No Responses »
Sep 162017
 

Well, I said they’d be available for a limited time only…

I will likely make them available again reasonably soon, but for right now I’ve had to shut down production. The materials I have on hand turn out to be *crap,* with the result that the latest batch of blueprints are just…. terrible. I’ve ordered more supplies, but it’ll take a while to arrive. Plus, the Summer That Just Won’t Let Up suddenly decided a few days ago to let up, turning full sunlight into overcast murk, making production scheduling impossible.

On the plus side, I found the two missing Dyna Soar transparencies.

 Posted by at 6:02 pm

Stuff for sale: toy spaceships

 models, science fiction, spacecraft  No Responses »
Sep 162017
 

A rather different set of stuff than the recent sales of books, but I’m doing these the same way. I’d prefer to sell these as a single lot, so as always I’m doing a discount. The prices are based on what they seem to be going for on eBay. If you want the lot, let me know via email or comment. Individually these total up to $204; as a lot, I’ll go with $175 plus postage (calculated after I know where they’re going).

Galoob Micro Machines Die Cast Y-Wing, still in package: $6

Galoob Micro Machines Die Cast X-Wing, still in package: $6

Galoob Micro Machines Die Cast Star Destroyer, still in package: $7

Galoob Micro Machines Die Cast Trade Federation Battleship, still in package: $8

 

Johnny Lightning “Legends of Star Trek Klingon D7 Battlecruiser,” still in package: $20

Johnny Lightning “Legends of Star Trek USS Enterprise Refit,” still in package: $20

Johnny Lightning “Legends of Star Trek USS Enterprise w/battle damage,” still in package: $20

 

Galoob Micro Machines “Titanium Series Die Cast” Battlestar Galactica “Battlestar Pegasus,” still in package: $35

Galoob Micro Machines “Titanium Series Die Cast” Battlestar Galactica “Raptor,” still in package:$30

Galoob Micro Machines “Titanium Series Die Cast” Battlestar Galactica “Colonial viper Mk VII,” still in package:2 at $25 each

 Posted by at 4:06 pm

Here’s how to throw off SJWs

 awesomeness, Forward!, Hmm..., humor, news, politics, youtube  4 Responses »
Sep 152017
 

For decades, the approach most people have taken to responding to SJWs and their politically correct ideological shock troops has been to cringe when they demand it, beg for forgiveness for the faintest slight, restrain your opinions lest the screeching harpies of the PC hivemind leap upon you. Such a situation could only last jsut so long before there’s a backlash; thus the return of “out and proud” white nationalists and the likes of Trump. but then, there will hopefully be a lot more of THIS sort of thing:

One single innocuous word, a statement of what a guy – *any* normal guy, if he’s honest – likes, causes the ideological gatekeeper of the show to completely lose the script. The really good part is that the actually honest feller here doesn’t back down, doesn’t apologize, but gets on with making his point.

 

 Posted by at 10:08 pm

“Pitch Black Exoplanet”

 Hmm..., news, science  No Responses »
Sep 152017
 

Pitch Black Exoplanet: Hot Jupiter WASP-12b Reflects No Light

Short form: the “hot Jupiter” (so called because it’s a Jupiter-like gas giant really close to its star) turns out to have an albedo of 0.064, darker than new asphalt.

Here’s the thing, though: WASP-12b is so close to its start that its orbital period is 26.2 *hours,* and its surface temperature is 2600 degrees Celcius. At those temperatures, it would be incandescent, glowing sorta orangish:

So it might absorb virtually all the light that falls on it from its star, but it re-radiates that energy back out into space largely in the visible spectrum. It would not look “black” anymore than the filament in a lit lightblub looks black. Additionally, it’s so close to the parent star that it is physically distorted into an egg-shape. No doubt if you were close enough to see the planet clearly, the pointy-end, closest tot he star, would likely be *really* hot, glowing intensely; the night side would look like a slightly dim star.

The link provides an illustration for the article that seems of dubious value in illustrating the situation:

 Posted by at 9:56 pm
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