The self-proclaimed Islamic State has issued a statement condemning self-proclaimed comedian Kathy Griffin, accusing her of “cultural appropriation” after she posed for a photograph with a mock severed head of President Donald Trump.
The group, which has been protective of its brand ever since taking over vast swaths of Iraq and Syria and establishing itself as the premier beheading agency in the Middle East, said it was deeply disturbed by Griffin’s “ignorant and offensive” use of a “sacred Islamic State tradition.”
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“Of course, the West’s social justice ‘warriors’ have always been our ally, and once again, they did not disappoint. We’re thankful that our fatwa friends immediately identified her offensive appropriation of one of our most cherished rituals,” said Aahil al-Raqqa, an executioner for the group.
Heh. The Duffle Blog is usually pretty good; this one nails it.
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. — Due to manning cuts and years of major airliners paying higher wages for sweet abs, the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command may begin allowing normal-looking people become fighter pilots as early as 2020, sources…
This purports to show the effect of sea level rise on new York City after two°C of temperature increase. This is of course relevant today since Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord/Agreement/Anything-But-A-Treaty, which would have accomplished nothing because its strictures on the US were minimal and nonexistent on the likes of China and India, both of which are far greater “carbon footprint” threats going forward than the US. Additionally, since Trump made his announcement a number of US cities and states have come together to say they are going to reduce CO2 by the US’s agreed-upon amount anyway… which shows that it’s not the FedGuvs job in the first place.
Anyway, the video. It’s technically really good; the water in the streets looks real. I’ve seen some people claim that the water levels are inconsistent from street to street, but I don’t know NYC, so I can’t comment on that. I’ve also seen people comment that this is some terrifying vision of the future, but I honestly don’t see it. For starters, the ocean level rise shown here is what you might expect after a century or more. And if NYC does anything, it’s knock down old stuff and build new stuff. Sea level rise like this in a century? Not a problem. Secondly: I’m forever hearing New Yorkers whine about traffic. Well… here ya go! The city streets are now cleared off not only of cars, but of junkies and bums. Plus, look at the buildings, water or no: most of them look like, well, “tenements.” Horrifyingly soul-crushing people-warehouses. The city just looks *ugly.* From the looks of it, most of NYC getting washed away could only improve the joint.
AND ANOTHER THING:
The radio and TV talking heads keep yapping about how the US is abandoning “leadership” of fixing climate change to the likes of China. Ummmm…. how, exactly? Before this, American tech firms, science labs and universities would invent some spiffy new PV cell or improvement thereupon, the Chinese would promptly Culturally Appropriate it and mass produce the hell out of them via slave labor and crappy environmental regulations, flooding the market with PV arrays so cheap that it doesn’t make sense to manufacture them in the US. After Trump’n’Paris… how’s this going to be different? What *exactly* was the US FedGuv going to do otherwise that would have been so important that American companies, if it made any economic sense at all, weren’t going to do anyway? Before this, was the US government going to crank out terawatt-class thorium reactors by the cargo ship load, but now they’re not?
The essence of maturity is not only knowing when to deny yourself, it’s doing so.
As an example, may I present this video of a caracal kitten making the oddest, cutest noise to attract its humans attention in order to feed it:
Now, what sort of inhuman monster looks at that and says to themselves, “naw, I have no interest in that beast.” But here’s the thing: caracal kittens grow up. And when they do and it’s time for foodening, you get this:
And you can see that this animal is *not* what you’d call exactly domesticated. There are several noises contained here that should be enough to convince a wise person that this is not a pet to keep. Not least of which is the sound of bones being *crushed.*
An absolutely crappy copy of an old Lookout Mountain nuclear detonation compilation film. But even though the resolution is low and the original film is in terrible shape, it’s absolutely fargin’ amazing. Included are several shots of something I’d not recognized before… smoke generators. They’d shoot a plume of smoke into the air just before detonation, then the shock wave would come rolling by and… well, see for yourself. The rockets we’ve all seen before, but the smoke plumes are more rarely shown.
If someone were to get the original negative of this and do the Trinity & Beyond cleanup… shut up and take my money.
I remain amazed that people keep funding this. But, they do, and the design continues to evolve as the people behind it get smacked upside the head by basic physics.
When it first aired, “Airwolf” was undeniable awesomeness. As with so many things, it doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny *now;* much of it is just terribly dated. But at the time? That helicopter, with the added jet engines, styling by the fella what who designed the Enterprise-D, and deployable weapons that broke the laws of physics (telescoping machine gun barrels… always good for a laugh)? Best thing to hit the skies in the 80’s.
The theme music was also something very much of its era.
I’m not generally a fan of remakes. But here’s something that, done right, *could* actually make for a damn fine new series. It should be a reboot, not a “thirty-five years later” sequel (if for no other reason, so nobody even *thinks* about trying to get Jan Michael Vincent onto the set. Yeeesh). And with that… what should the “Airwolf 2018” be based on? The original Airwolf was a Bell 222 with fiberglass cosmetic alterations. And spiffy as it was, a modern helicopter should be used. But let’s face it: there aren’t really a whole lot of new helicopters that are more futuristic looking than the Bell 222. And I’ll storm off the set in a huff if they tell me “we’ve decided to go entirely CGI with the chopper.”
Obviously the new Airwolf should be based on a helicopter that is not immediately recognizable to the bulk of the TV-watching public. You’re not going to fool the aviation geeks, so don’t even try. A few suggestions:
Kamov KA-52 “Alligator”
OK, sure, it’s Russian. But face it: most Americans wouldn’t recognize it, and it’s *damn* spiffy. And being Russian, I’ve little doubt that Hollywood could buy a half dozen of ’em, with all the spare parts and tech support they might need, for reasonable sums.
The Bell 525 “Relentless”
Bigger than the 222, but clearly designed with similar aesthetics. It’d make for a more capacious Airwolf, capable of carrying substantial cargo & passenger loads… perhaps it could carry an ED-209 as standard equipment. The 525 is still in prototype, awaiting certification, so that might be a little bit of an issue.
Sikorsky S-97 “Raider”
Now this would be cool. And since it’s a terribly expensive prototype still in testing, very unlikely.
Bell V-280 “Valor”
Airwolf wouldn’t necessarily need to be a helicopter. A tiltrotor might do the job, and the V-280 looks promising. Small problem: the V-290 hasn’t actually flown yet, though it should soon. Something that can be done with this: do as with the original Airwolf and add some fiberglass “turbojets” to the fuselage, say, at the wing root. Then when the thing goes into high speed flight, do some CGI tinkering and show the proprotors stop and then fold back.
Suggestions? What other choppers would fit for a revived “Airwolf?”
Tonight I tapped out the final sentence on my tome. All told… 137,000 words, or about 450 pages in a standard novel format. Yeesh.
And then came the question… “now what.” I’m going to spend the next few months editing, which will probably mostly entail making relatively minor corrections. Then it’ll get passed on and supposedly, hopefully, read by A Science Fiction Author Y’all Have Heard Of. Hopefully he’ll not throw it in the trash. And then… who knows. Maybe it’ll be good.
The headline pretty much nails it. A bunch of self-acknowledged criminals were protesting in Austin, Texas, and apparently causing trouble, so Representative Matt Rinaldi called the authorities, in this case ICE. This seemed to annoy Representative Poncho Nevarez. From there claims are contradictory, but *apparently* Nevarez threatened to “get” Rinaldi on his way to his car, and Rinaldi responded by stating he would defend himself with a gun. Scuffling and good times ensue.
Given the current advocacy for violence on the part of so many on the Left, this seems like just the beginning of this sort of thing.
