Second deadly shooting in Baltimore’s ‘Nobody kill anybody’ weekend
Spectacular.
When was the last time someone other than the Democrats controlled Baltimore?
Aug 062017
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Aug 052017
A couple videos showing how the USAF used to transport the Atlas ICBM back in the day:
Aug 052017
As an 80’s kid, I was sort of a transitional fossil between analog and electronic calculators. When I was in something like the second or third grade, the school not only shut the doors, they *locked* them (yay, violation of fire safety laws) because someone had stolen one of the teachers calculators. This was sometime in the mid 1970s, and if you don’t understand why people getting twitchy about a stolen calculator made sense at the time… SHUT UP and let the old folks babble on about “remember when calculators were new and neato?”
For a while there electronic calculators were *really* expensive, but their price soon plummeted. In the 70’s, during grade school, calculators were big clunky things that had buttons the size of your thumb and plugged into the wall and were the sort of expense that that average family just wouldn’t splurge on. By high school in the 80’s, calculators were solar powered pieces of plastic the size of credit cards and were typically sold in the checkout lines of convenience stores, next to the gum. It’s rare for a whole branch of tech to become that cheap that fast.
Here’s a 1971 commercial for the “World’s Smallest Electronic calculator,” the Sharp ELSI-8.
By “small” they mean “big enough to beat a grown man to death with;” it’s not far from the size of a brick. The price in 1971 was $345; in 2017 terms, that’s about $2,123. That’s more than 42 times the cost of the pawn shop chromebook I’m typing this on, a machine that, while kinda crummy from the standpoint of a modern laptop, would had caused computer scientists to lose they damn minds back in 1971.
If someone offered me a free ELSI-8 today, I wouldn’t take it (unless I looked on eBay and saw they were selling for good money) because it’s now a useless paperweight with neither practical value nor aesthetic appeal. But on the other hand, the type of calculator that was in use just before the ELSI-8… if someone offered me one, I’d be all over it like white on rice. Before the electronic calculator there were mechanical calculators. The highest expression of this was the Curta, built from the 40’s to the early 70’s; useless today, but *dayum* I’d like to have one. because they are spectacular pieces of mechanical engineering, like a modern Antikythera Mechanism.
Unlike electronic calculators, mechanical calculators built by conventional machine tools were *never* going to become cheap. You can only get so inexpensive with professional machine tools and machinists.
But then… what happens when you combine electronics with a Curta? Sure, there are Curta emulators online… who cares. I want one I can hold in my hands. And if I had an extra $1300 burning a hole in my pocket, could wander by ebay and buy one. And from here on, I expect that that price is probably only going to tick upwards. Maybe some day I’ll stop in a thrift store or a flea market and find someone who doesn’t know what they have, and buy their Curta from them for five bucks, and, oh yeah, throw in that ten dollar Enigma machine while you’re at it. But there is a future possibility for an affordable Curta: 3D printing. Someone has already printed a functional Curta, albeit one made of plastic and distinctly bigger than the original (3:1). But unlike a traditionally manufactured Curta, 3D printed versions will only get cheaper from here on out.
Give it a few years, and someone will 3D print a 1:1 Curta in the proper metals, that will look, feel and work like the original. It might take a few more years, but eventually such a thing will be reasonably *cheap.*
The ultimate in hipster irony: advanced technology being used to make an obsolete mechanical device to be used to do what the advanced technology would be better at anyway.
Aug 052017
Hmmm.
MZ-3A AIRSHIP (A-170G NON-RIGID)
Sale-Lot Number:91QSCI17238301
City, State:Lakehurst, NJ
Current Bid:50,000 USD
Bidders:0
Close Time:08/10 10:00 AM CT *
MZ-3A AIRSHIP (A-170G NON-RIGID), Serial #: 107. This is a modified American Blimp Corporation A-170 series commercial airship. Unit is disassembled/deflated as of June 2016 and stored at JB Dix/McQuire/Lakehurst Hanger. Sold-As-Is. Physical inspection is strongly recommended prior to placing a bid. Please click on link below for “additional information.” $10,000 bid deposit is required to gain access to bid, please click on link below for “Bid instructions.” N00383711716012
THE CONDITION OF THE PROPERTY IS NOT WARRANTED.
I already have the cat and the antisocial attitude.
Aug 052017
An article on the continuing war on STEM to brighten your weekend.
Engineering Programs Are Now Teaching Social Justice
AAAAAaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh…
Aug 052017
China mulling ‘small scale military ops’ against India: Expert
Say, that’s neato.
In my fictional future history, the “Pan Asian Wars” were a little further along in the 21st century. But hey, whatever.
Aug 042017
Scientists tally the environmental impact of feeding meat to our cats and dogs. It’s huge
Short form: cats and dogs eat a whole lot of meat, and meat requires water and carbon dioxide emissions to make. thus, kitties and puppies are destroying the planet and you should feel bad for enabling the horrible little monsters. Granted, the author of the study specifically says that he’s not advocating getting rid of pets… but you can bet that the environmental whackos *will.* Keep in mind, the Venn diagram covering “environmentalists” has a lot of overlap with “PETA people,” and there have been few organizations more enthusiastic about killing cats and dogs than PETA.
Something that confuses me a bit… yes, animals are turned into kibble, but it’s hardly like this is a wholly separate industry from human food-animal production. The pet food “environmental impact” should therefore be simply a fraction of the agricultural environmental impact that has no doubt already been calculated.
Also: yes, the current process for feeding cows and pigs and such is a major environmental issue. You have to grow corn (or wheat or whatever), which requires tractors and irrigation and the like. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t *need* to. Cows can eat *grass.* Yes, it takes a lot more grass than corn to fatten up a cow, but in many places grass grows for free, on its own. During the “Old West,” grillions of cows roamed the plains gnawing on wild plants. Before them, jillions of bison did the same. So except for the fact that the country is now divided up into itty bitty chunks, this process should still be feasible, and would seem to be reasonably carbon neutral.
So, if we are all agreed that the environment is in danger and we need to do whatever we can to reduce the carbon footprint, perhaps we should consider the use of eminent domain in order to buy up a lot of terrain to turn it over to natural grasslands and cow feeding ranges. The government can use its overwhelming force in this time of crisis to use eminent domain to take the bank accounts and property of environmental activists and pressure groups and use that money to buy land currently used to grow corn.
Aug 032017
Hollywood goes back to the remake well for the billionth time, this time the 1974 “classic” Death Wish (a series of movies that I never care for because they were, well, just not at all good). This time, though, the remake has two things going for it:
1) Casting. Who better to play Paul Kersey than Bruce Willis?
2) The SJWs. They are already offended.
SJWs Melt Down over Bruce Willis’ ‘Death Wish’ Trailer: ‘Alt-Right,’ ‘Racist,’ ‘Nakedly Fascist’
I have a challenge. Watch the trailer and explain to me how:
A) Bruce Willis killing a bunch of fellow white guys is “racist”
B) Depicting the police – and the rest of the government- as completely ineffectual is “fascist.”
Aug 032017
As rumors persist of Star Trek Discovery circling the drain, new rumors arise about the mysterious second Star Trek project being worked on by “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” director Nicholas Meyer. Rumors have suggested that what he was working on was a new series to replace STD after its first – and only – season; perhaps trying to make STD into an “anthology” series, where each season is something entirely new. While certainly possible (“American Horror Story” does that), it has been assumed that this approach was simply a way for CBS to save face, a “we always meant to do that” after the disastrous decisions made for STD.
But in the fact-deficient article linked HERE, a new idea is proposed: what Meyer is working on is a miniseries featuring Khan Noonian Singh, the genetically enhanced super-jackwagon from the TOS episode “Space Seed” and Star Trek II. It is surmised that the miniseries takes place between those two while Khan & Co. are stranded on Ceti Alpha V.
On one hand… kinda meh (yet another Trek into its own past, rather than pushing into the future; a story about people the audience can’t really relate to dumped on a backwater planet with no technology). On the other hand, Nick Meyers. On the gripping hand, it’s *apparently* a miniseries, which means a beginning, middle and end.
In Star Trek Into Darkness, Khan was inexplicably played by Benedict Cumberbatch, i.e. Whitey McWhiteguy. Khan was a Sikh (who’d originally been played by a Mexican of Spanish ancestry). So I suppose that in the miniseries he could be played by a Korean fella. But it would be nice to have Khan played by someone who actually fit the part… either a convincing Sikh, or someone who made a good Ricardo Montalban. Any suggestions?
About that last point: as the rumors of STD sucking have grown (aided by the reveals of plot points that are questionable at best), CBS has taken to using the Ghostbusters: 2016 defense playbook: accuse the haters of being misogynists/alt-righters/racists/whatever because the main character is a black woman. It’s easier to deflect than defend, though that strategy didn’t work that well for Sony & Feig. As part of the deflection, reference is always made to the history of Star Trek being “progressive,” featuring multicultural crews and such. Well, here’s the thing: while it is undeniably true that TOS was well ahead of the curve and featured, for the time, an astonishingly multi-ethnic cast, it was anything but multi-cultural. Virtually everyone came from the same culture, a Federation that came off as a somewhat smoothed-over version of the United States. Uhura, for example, came from somewhere in Africa… but she spoke with an American accent and behaved as if she was raised in American culture. The only accents to be found were on Scotty and Chekov. The only distinctly different culture to be found on board was Spocks Vulcan – importantly, non-human – culture. When Next Gen rolled around, the same situation held true; the only distinctly different culture on display was the Klingon. While the religious affiliations of the crew didn’t come up much on TOS, it was clear that by the time of TNG, all humans (supposedly) had the same religious views, which is one of the more unlikely predictions made on that show.
Look out, Uhura, there’s someone behind you…
A convincing case that Uhura is STEM, not LibArts.
Aug 022017
Last few days there’s been some discussion hereabouts about “artificial wombs,” and how they’d play with the legal and social aspects of abortion. Some have suggestion that *if* artificial wombs become practical and *if* the extraction of a fetus and implantation into an artificial womb becomes easy and reliable, then there may be a shift towards looking at natural pregnancy as irresponsible. This may be true.
But another thought occurs. If arti-wombs are easy and practical, then there could be some interesting *politics* developed. The western industrialized nations are currently undergoing a severe drop off in the birth rate, such that a lot of people are suggesting it’s a good idea to import millions of third worlders to replace the native ethnic group and the local culture. For those who see this replacement as an intentional act, a replacement of, say, white Christians with brown Muslims, this is known as “white genocide.” And boy howdy is that an easy way to start a flame war between the SJWs and the alt-right.
Setting aside the conspiracy theories about whether “white genocide” is an actual goal, artificial wombs coupled with fertility treatments – artificial insemination – would play a major role in the discussion. How much of the dropoff in western birth rates is due to women being too busy, to wrapped up in their careers to take the time to get pregnant? If modern western women/families could convert baby-making into something that’s not a whole lot more complex than a visit to a fertility clinic and then a second visit nine months later to pick up Junior, would that simplification be enough to raise the birth rate to replacement levels or even beyond? How many westerners – or indeed anybody – would look at this new convenient approach to babymaking and decide to not just have one or two extra kids, but to have a *lot* of kids? Artificial insemination often leads to half a dozen or more “excess” fertilized eggs. How many people would decide “Great. Grow ’em all!”
Would this led to a “baby race?” Would there be enough white supremacists cranking out platoons of decanted rugrats to counter the rise of black supremacists growing large numbers of test tube arti-womb babies? Would this baby race be a private thing, or would you perhaps have nations – Japan, say, or Denmark – starting up their own modern “Lebensborn” movements to promote the continuation of the native ethnic group and culture? This might be done by having the government explicitly growing babies, but it might also be done by government simply encouraging it on the private level, providing substantial welfare benefits to locals who are growing “approved” crops of kids.
Religious aspect can’t be ignored, either. I once worked with an evangelical feller who planned to have not just a couple of kids with the missus, but a *lot.* Their plan was to have as many kids as they possibly could, because of that “be fruitful and multiply” thing. Well… something along the lines of twenty kids seems to be the approximate limit, if the Duggars are anything to go by. In that case, the wife is kept more or less permanently pregnant, which to my mind is a “what, really? No, really?” sort of situation. But if the artiwomb comes on the market, “being fruitful” could take on a whole new meaning. A family into this sort of thing could easily have a crop of half a dozen kids a year for, say, ten years. *Affording* all that might be a bit of a chore, but if you honestly hold to the notion that God wants you to make as many kids as you can, then how could you ignore this technology?