It’s astonishing what slowing the tape down 50% will do…
Apr 222016
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Apr 222016
Once again, the US military is bombing Germany from the air:
Somebody’s got some splainin’ to do.
Wah-wah-waaaaaahhhh…
Apr 212016
By “hybrid” they don’t mean “it can drive on land and water.” Pretty sure that big battery serves as a pretty good boat anchor.
Gotta love how thrilled the reporter sounds.
Why am I getting a distinct “Bernie Sanders voter” vibe here?
Apr 212016
Here’s Buttons “helping” me work on my latest CAD model…
Apr 212016
OK, kids, the celebrity Dead Pool has begun again. First up: Prince.
Singer Prince dies at 57
No cause as yet, though it appears he was ill.
And possibly #2, though this clearly isn’t celebrity in the same league as Prince:
Wrestler, entertainer Chyna is dead at 45
So… who’s next?
Apr 212016
Russia bolsters its submarine fleet, and tensions with U.S. rise
It seems Russian attack subs are greatly increasing their patrols near Scandinavia and Scotland.
“We are not quite back in a Cold War,” said James G. Stavridis, a retired admiral and the former supreme allied commander of NATO, who is now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. “But I sure can see one from where we are standing.”
Hmmm…
Apr 202016
When CBS first started airing “Person of Interest” some years back, I didn’y pay it much attention. It was just another “rogue cop doing justice behind the scenes” show, with the mior tweak thay said cop was given heads-up on crimes by some smart coputer. Meh. But then I started hearing that the show slowly became more than that. Rather than staying a one-dimensional Macguffin, “The Machine” turned into something really important… and the show slid into full-up science fiction. It began to deal with the what-if of artificial intelligence that has access to the complete surveillance apparatus of the US, what it could do with that, and whether or not that was a really good idea. And then it got even better: “The Machine” had been “raised” to be ethical. But there was a *second* artificial intelligence that *wasn’t* raised to be ethical. And the two AIs… don’t like each other. Season Four had it’s finale more than a year ago; season five will, at long last, finally return May 3.
The season 4 finale was a damn fine finale. It would have been frustrating had it been the series finale, which it looked like it might be for a good long while; and had it been… it would have still been a really good one. Person of Interest always did a good job of incorporating songs into the show, and the last few minutes of the finale *finally* had the one song that was most appropriate: “Welcome to the Machine” by Pink Floyd. That song, coupled with the fact that the Machine’s creator is under fire (by the enemy AI’s agents) while trying to back up The Machine, and the Machine finally speaks to its creator… it’s kind of a tear jerker. Almost up there with Babylon 5’s finale, “Sleeping in Light.” There’s just something about some depictions of AI that make you sympathetic to the little synthetic buggers.
Apr 202016
Here is Part Two of the story of Sarah, Zane, Loff and George transporting a shipload of rich folk to Gimli, a place where regular folk just don’t get to go. If you want to catch up in advance, Part One is available HERE, and the previous story, “Mass Disappearance,” is available HERE. A couple story fragments starring this crew are available HERE and HERE.
If you like it, feel free to tell your friends, family, co-workers, random strangers, whoever. Like it, hate it or meh it, I’m interested in your thoughts via comments. In particular: do you read it in EPUB pr PDF??
I recently finished Part 4 and started in on Part 5. Part 5 will be the final portion of this yarn, and will probably be shorter than the others.
Apr 202016
Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill
A lot of people will be annoyed by this. Me… meh. One thing I do appreciate is that a politician is being replaced by a non-politician.
In my view, the faces on our money should be chosen from two groups:
1: The Founding Fathers
2: American citizens who have made important and valuable and historic contributions. *Actual* contributions. This would almost by default exclude politicians, celebrities and the like.
So, who might be in group 2? A whole lot of people. The Wright brothers. Einstein. Von Braun. Robert Goddard. Mark Twain. Norman Borlaug. Edison. Ford. Kelly Johnson. Patton. John Moses Browning. Crew of Apollo 11. Martin Luther King. Alexander Graham Bell. George Washington Carver. Ted Taylor. William Sherman. Eugene Stoner. Poe. Oppenheimer. Tesla. Noah Webster. Asimov. Heinlein. Milton Friedman. Carl Sagan.
Possibly noticeable here is a dearth of women. It’s not “discrimination” in the negative sense, but the fact that there do not seem to have been as many famous women contributors as men. Apply what excuse you will for that… anything from “women have been socially suppressed when most of the Big Important Stuff was happening” to whatever you like. But the fact remains that there just don’t seem to be as many famous women to rank next to Edison or Einstein. Still, a list of women might include:
Sally Ride, Stephanie Kwolek, McNulty/Jennings/Snyder/Wescoff/Bilas/Lichterman, Grace Hopper, Annie Jump Cannon, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Annie Oakley, Clara Barton, Nelly Bly.
Go ahead and make yer own suggestions.
Apr 192016
Buttons and Speedbump love to fight. I’m assuming it’s playful sibling-tussling, rather than actual beatdowns, but it’s certainly energetic. I’m always amused by the posturing that goes on just before the combat starts, such as Buttons here giving Speedbump the stink-eye.
And here’s how interested Raedthinn is in the younger cats’ shenanigans:
