So there you are waiting at a stop light in Seattle when *this* happens…
May 032017
admin
May 032017
It has been a long time since I regularly watched The Simpsons. Seem like there might still be a spark left in the old girl.
May 022017
American Gods Examines the Hidden Cost of Immigrating to the United States
And what, praytell, is the “hidden cost of immigrating to the US?”
“We are a country of cultural appropriation,” says executive producer Bryan Fuller.
What Fuller is talking about is a country where the dominant culture is made up of watered-down bits of other cultures that have been deemed “acceptable.”
You say this like it’s a bad thing. When it is, in fact, one of the great things about the US (and, let’s face it, any other nation that accepts immigrants).
So your home country had some bit of fashion or folklore that you take terribly seriously, and when you dragged it to the US, the people already here decided that it was worthy of being turned into a T-shirt. And for some reason you’re upset about that?
Let’s be honest: ain’t nuthin’ special about nobody. Those cultural knickknacks that you think are so important and vital? They mean precisely *squat* to everyone else. So getting turned into kitschy tchochkies is better than pretty much *everything* deserves. When you decide to pull up stakes and move to a whole new country with a different culture, you had *better* be prepared to have your old culture replaced by the new one. What civilization has *ever* survived if it has openly accepted immigrants, but denied them assimilation into the larger, central culture?
I’m sure there are holidays other than Chinese New Year, but that’s the one America’s decided represents all our Chinese immigrants. Same with St. Patrick’s Day for the Irish. And Cinco de Mayo for the Mexicans. Everyone gets a parade, or a day, or a month. But these capsulized celebrations cordon off cultures, flatten what it means to be from somewhere else, and drive home the idea that, every other day, you’re supposed to be American.
Guess what: if you are American… YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE AMERICAN. If you want Cinco de Mayo to be something more than a transitory reason to party, then stay where that’s a thing. Because no culture can possibly exist for long if every holiday celebrated earnestly by every culture is celebrate equally earnestly all at once.
If your culture had something that American culture as a whole thinks worthy of acceptance, even if it’s changed in important ways (Scandinavian elves, for example, are entirely unlike the Keebler or Santas Workshop elves), then congratulations. Your original culture had something of at least some use or value. And now it’s a part of American culture. Upset that it’s been “watered down?” Fine. Don’t come here. Stay where worshiping weeds or whatever dumbass practice you’re so fond of is still terribly, terribly important.
May 022017
Now on ebay:
QUEEN ALIEN LIFESIZE 1:1 BUST PROP STATUE ALIENS BEYOND RARE 1 OF 5 MADE IN 90’S
Giggity:
Can be yours for a paltry $75,000. Free shipping!
Apr 302017
Sure, that’s not really news. Many of them can be set off simply by the appearance of a white man, or a woman expressing views that are not in line with Angry Feminist Theology. But here’s the latest:
Two members of alt-right accused of making white supremacist hand signs in White House after receiving press passes
And what is this “white supremacist hand sign” they made?
No, really. SJWs are convinced that the age-old “ok” sign is a Sekrit White Power Gang Sign. They have diagrams and everything:
Sure, why not.
And So On.
Now, for all I know white supremacists actually do use that hand sign for… something. Damned if I can figure out what for. But if it is actually being used by white supremacists *now,* it’s almost certainly for the purpose of trolling the idiots who think that white supremacy is a real and serious problem right up there with the patriarchy and the wage gap and Pepe the frog. A whole lot of non-white supremacists will *certainly* be flashing that sign for no purpose other than to annoy the kind of person who’s annoyed by that kind of thing. And there are a lot of those kind of easily annoyed people loudly proclaiming their leftist annoyance.
Of course, it turns out that the “ok sign is a white power symbol” was a hoax/stunt on “Sup forums,” the intent of which was to get the SJWs/media to actually believe it. And they succeeded… “Operation O-KKK”has been a roaring success.
Apr 302017
A clever solution to the age-old problem of how to make a fully automatic crossbow. Obviously external power (in the form of a cordless drill) is needed; the device is perhaps more of a slingshot than a crossbow since it uses rubber bands rather than a steel bow. Still, one can see how a true full auto crossbow capable of penetrating the armor of those pesky invading Mongols or Turks can be devised using this system as a basis.
What would be unrealistically spiffy: a system where each crossbow bolt had its own built-in battery or capacitor. Each bolt in turn would completely discharge its power supply into the crossbow; that power would be used to operate the mechanics. This way, the full weight of the battery needed to operate the system would not need to be carried at all times; the weight of the battery would form part of the weight of the bolt itself. But this might lead to excessively expensive bolts. And of course a true replaceable box magazine would be a good addition.
Plus, one can never get tired of the true supervillain laughter of a man who takes joy and pride in the construction of fully automatic deadly weapons that manage to circumvent the laws of his native Germany.
Apr 292017
The Magnus Effect is lift generated by a rotating sphere/cylinder/cone/spindle/whatever while in forward motion. Spin a spanwise cylinder properly, the relative airspeed over the top of the “wing” will be higher than under the “bottom,” with the consequent lift that would be expected from womens and gender studies basic aeronautics. People have been looking at building aircraft using rotating cylinders for the wings for over a century now; and while the idea is interesting, the weight and complexity, coupled with drag and other issues, have over-ridden any perceived advantages. Still, as this video showing the considerable efforts a guy went to to make an RC airplane using spinning Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets for wings shows, *if* you can make a functional Magnus Effect aircraft, you might be able to perform some interesting maneuvers. And possibly even intentionally
And because why not, here’s another Magnus Effect video. But this one… welll… it seems a tad lacking in the “wisdom” department, but definite winner in the “hold my beer and watch this” department.
Apr 282017
No, it has nothing to do with airlines chucking unruly or unfortunate passengers. Instead, here’s a time lapse video taken from the cockpit of a jetliner fling from Zurich to Sao Paulo. It’s definitely worth watching.
Apr 272017
Humans aren’t the only animals to be disturbed by robots that *kinda* but *not* *quite* look like them:
This toy robot cat seems to only lay there, meow every now and then and “groom itself.” Soon enough there’ll be robocats that get up and wander about and interact with their environments in an intelligent, aware manner; that’ll really put feline tolerance to the test.
Apr 262017
On one hand, you might think that I’d approve of the recent “March for Science” because if you’ve read this blog for more than a few minutes you’ll realize I’m a fan of the scientific method. Secondly, I recognize that the world seems to be increasingly full of derp and bringing the value of science to the forefront seems like a damned good idea.
But…. nope. Couldn’t have cared less about the “March for Science.” Largely because it didn’t seem to be a “march for science,” but rather a “march for some science and for certain politics.” Now, granted, the right wing, which I suppose most people would at least nominally lump me in with, seems to be on a particularly anti-science course. The tardtacular creationists seem to be creatures almost wholly of the right, and they’re sheer wrongness is as obvious as a suicide bomb. The current administration (which is somehow assumed to be right wing, against all evidence) seems to have a hardon for slashing science funding. But the left has their anti-nuclear idiots and the anti-GMO scumbags… and even their pro-science advocates often seem to be more religious zealots than adherents to a methodology that starts off with “well, maybe I’m wrong here; check my math.”
Even Slate sometimes gets it:
The Problem With the March for Science
… most “pro-science” demonstrators have no idea what they were demonstrating about. Being “pro-science” has become a bizarre cultural phenomenon in which liberals (and other members of the cultural elite) engage in public displays of self-reckoned intelligence as a kind of performance art, while demonstrating zero evidence to justify it.
The sad fact is, most people don’t have clue one what science *is.* Most people seem to think that “science” is “technology.” But it ain’t. Science is a method. A method that, at it’s core, is simply a rational way to separate fact from bullcrap… even if the bullcrap is what the scientist doing the work desperately wants to believe to be true.
Science isn’t proclamation from on high; science is often hard damn work, with a whole lot of number crunching and statistics. But the really, really grating thing is this: science need not be that hard to explain and understand. Oh, sure, the more advanced corners of it will always be well beyond the vast majority of people… start going on about *anything* that involves tensor math and my eyes instantly glaze over and I start pondering something simple and sexy like “gee, wouldn’t it be fun to build a small ejector ramjet in my back yard, one hardly needs *any* complex math for rocketry.” But the basics of science are – or at least should be – taught to every school child. It’s really not that hard… see an issue, come up with a hypothesis, run some tests and try to prove yourself wrong. As tests produce data that conflicts with your hypothesis, either change the hypothesis to match, or ditch it entirely. Imagine if every adult got enough of a refresher course so that this sank in. People wouldn’t be able to create new antibiotics or search for gravity waves, but they might be able to do some basic science about “what’s the most cost effective way to do my laundry” or “what’s the fastest route to work” or some such. If people would apply the scientific method to everyday issues, they could not only improve their lives, they’d also come to appreciate science… at the same time they lose the cargo cult religion aspect of science worship.
It occurs to me that “science” has something in common with “firearms” here. Science and firearms are both used by some people, not used by most people; science and firearms are things that are held to be virtually magical by some people, and treated with respect by others. And in both cases, it’s the people who use and understand them that treat them with respect; it’s the people who don’t use and understand them that convert them into fetishes. It’s Hollywood and the gun grabbers who venerate firearms as magical killing machines, capable of doing things they cannot, and attributing to them motivations that firearms do not have.