Early in the month the skies were clear and beautiful. Recently, and somewhat appropriately, they’ve turned gray and kinda sad, yet still photogenic. Here’s the first set of panoramas (out of three).

Put in an appearance over Thatcher, Utah, this evening:

Kinda in a bit of a financial bind here, so I’m going to sell off some stuff. The first thing up: a large format print of a scan of Model 2050E X-20 Dyna Soar in the final, as-almost-built configuration. This was printed off some years ago on good quality heavy glossy photo paper; I’d always wanted to have it framed and on my wall, but never got around to it. Plus, framing it properly would be a a bit of an effort due to the size of the print, but if it was done it’d look *great.* Waste not, want not: the full rez scan didn’t quite fill out the 24-inch-wide paper, so I added in some of my Utah panoramic photos to take up some of the excess space. So with a bit of trimming, if you buy this you not only get the Dyna Soar, but some Utah as well. The whole print is I think six feet long.

UPDATE: didn’t really seem to fly off the shelves, so I’m going to slice this up and put it on ebay at some point.

Photos:

The local fire department burned down a small empty house this afternoon.

Saw this on the road a few days ago, heading south on I-15 between Brigham City and Ogden. Theory: the government is getting ready for the Yellowstone supervolcano to go off and to do so with such force that the Great Salt Lake will be tossed around, a giant wave of brine sent sloshing southwards. Second theory: anything else.

An update to THIS STORY from a bit over a week ago, where a guy doused himself with gasoline and a quartet of cops tried to keep himself from going FOOM. If you don’t want to see security camera footage of what some folks on fire looks like, don’t click on it. If you do… well, here ya go.

And then there was this entirely unrelated piece:

Sadly, the video cuts off a few seconds too early. The best part was the uncomfortable silence for a few seconds among the anchors as they processed the end of the piece, followed by laughter.

These, like yesterdays, were all taken with a 5-year-old cell phone and stitched together in Photoshop. Even more Utah than before… these were all taken either in my yard or quite nearby, within the confines of the megalopolis of Thatcher, Utah.

Gentlemen, behold: Utah.

The local news has been having a blast with this bit of video for the past few days. Short form: on March 4, a pickup truck pulling a trailer was driving down a slushy, icy Utah highway when a car ahead of it lost control. The truck driver skillfully and *calmly* avoided impact, with the result that there was no damage to anybody. Normally this probably wouldn’t merit coverage on the news, but the music being listened to seems to amuse the frak out of anyone who watches the video.

It is (or at least was) a common trope in Westerns for someone to be accused of being a horse thief, and to face a hangin’ as a result. These days, lots of people react in horror to the concept of a death sentence for theft… “property isn’t worth a human life” and similar tired bromides are often trotted out. But horse thieving was seen as worth a hanging for the simple fact that the horse – a piece of property – WAS very often the owners lifeline. Without a horse, the owner could be stranded, not only putting his life at risk, but those who depended on him. Take a mans horse and chances are you’ve just killed someone.

These days the closest analogy to a horse is a car. And if you take someones car… well, they get on the phone, call a taxi or get an Uber, get where they need to then contact the insurance company and get the car replaced. It’s a hassle and a financial hit and a pain, but it’s not the clear threat that a stolen horse was in earlier times. So does that mean that theft is not longer the heinous villainy it once was? Hmmm…

Porch pirate steals Utah boy’s life-saving medication

Someone thought they had the right to steal a random package and as a result they’ve put a small child’s life at risk. Go on, tell me why that should not be at least considered assault. Or child abuse or attempted manslaughter or depraved indifference or some such.

There have been a number or proposed and implemented “solutions” to the problem of “porch pirates” stealing stuff in broad daylight. Such as this one:

Porch pirates beware, this package shoots back

It’s a “bait box” that when picked up fires off a blank shotgun shell. It makes a loud noise, and that’s about it; the idea is that it scares off the thief, causing them to run away and rethink their thieving ways. There are those who question the legality of it, since they erroneously believe that:

1: It’s an explosive device (it’s not… gunpowder isn’t an explosive)

2: It’s a firearm (it’s not, as there is no barrel and no projectiles)

It just makes a loud bang. The chances of it actually injuring the thief are minimal.

An actual boobytrap would be illegal. Even something that simply traps the thief would be illegal… gates that slam down, a trapdoor that dumps the thief into a holding cell, a box covered in cartoony instant glue, or a taser, all would be illegal under the current set of laws. But… should they be?

The reasons for banning boobytraps are not without merit. While I would not go up to a neighbors door and mess with a package in front of it, another package delivery guy might; a Girl Scout hawking Thin Mints might; or any of a number of other random, innocent people or even critters might nudge a box or even pick it up intending to be helpful.

But: if someone winds up getting injured or dead while in the process of stealing other peoples stuff, should we *really* feel too bad about it? At the same time, should we perhaps consider people who do stuff like this, willingly putting random peoples lives potentially at risk in order to steal a box of stuff they don’t even know what it is, to be unworthy of remaining in society? Executing porch pirates might be a tad excessive… but deportations to penal colonies (I understand a lot of space has recently opened up in Syria) seems like it might be worth considering. Granted, deportations are an unlikely and joking suggestion, but how about:

1: *Hard* labor

2: A *permanent* additional tax on all their future income and a lifetime ban on all public assistance

3: A return to corporal punishment: public floggings, perhaps

4: Drafted into some sort of military or public service (similar to #1)

These are not poor desperate people stealing a sammich cuz they’re starving. They are not even idjits who have poor impulse control. They are scumbags who go out of their way to harm regular folks, and are indifferent not only to the cost, but to the *risk* they impose on others.