Apr 012022
 

… but I understand.

Now Putin can bleat and whine about those awful, awful Ukrainians attacking Russia. Putin will be forced to respond/escalate.

That said, alternate take: this was done to *make* Russia retaliate, to throw more bodies into the war effort. Why might this be a good idea for the Ukrainians? The war so far has been so monstrously incompetent that it’s a safe bet that the retaliation for this will be even more filled with unthinkery and dumbassery, leaping into the fire without making the least bit of a plan. If the Ukrainians planned this far ahead, the Russians might dump a buttload of troops and equipment directly into a big woodchipper made of RPGs, Javelins, Stingers, NLAW and snipers.

More likely, thought, some Ukrainians just got pissed off and took their shot.

 Posted by at 7:13 pm
Mar 312022
 

One where the sort of toys you can buy at WalMart or Best Buy can help you dial in your mortar gunnery:

Mortars aren’t my field of specialization, so I’m curious about the little cloth bags they’re tying to the mortar rounds. My *guess* is that these are smoke charges of some kind to help the drone spot where they’re landing?

 

 

Bonus: Now it can be told… the reason why Putin is in such a foul mood.

 Posted by at 8:14 pm
Mar 292022
 

“Dual” is a forthcoming movie with a  simple premise; in the future if you are dying you can get a clone made to replace you (I presume there’s some memory copy-transference thingamabobber involved at some point). But if, after the clone is up and running, you turn out to *not* be dying (personally I’d expect a medical system able to make an adult clone of you with your memories and personalities would be much better at not only wiping out terminal illnesses, but being certain about who is actually terminal), then you and your clone have to fight to the death, because it would be ridiculous to have two of you running around. So, ok, the plot is that a woman gets a clone made, finds out she’s not dying, and now has one year to get ready for arena combat. She gets a trainer. The trainer sez the second smartest thing you’ll read today:

Always use the gun if it’s an option.”

To which she replies: “I find guns to be boring and overused.”

Which is countered with the smartest thing you’ll read today: “If it’s the difference between life and death it’s ok to be boring.

 

 Posted by at 4:19 pm
Mar 252022
 

Well, this makes the future look that much more sunny:

AI suggested 40,000 new possible chemical weapons in just six hours

In short: an AI is used to weed out theoretical medicines because of side effects. That’s great. But the people running it decided “what if we ask it to do the opposite?” and it came up with thousands of innovative new ways to kill people. The AI invented existing nerve agents… and invented some new ones that the predictive modelling says should be *more* toxic than what’s currently on hand.

That’s… greeeeeeeaaaaaaat.

Just wait until the same techniques get used to dream up neato new viruses. Those sci-fi theoretical pathogens that seek out specific genetic markers… hair color, ethnic traits, intelligence, whatever, and kill, stupefy, disable? Yeah… might not be sci-fi for long.

Hurry the frak up, Elon. Humanity might be needing self-sufficient  colonies separated by distances great enough that travel times alone provide a quarantine effect real soon.

 Posted by at 5:41 pm
Mar 242022
 

I don’t usually go in for religious iconography, but, hey.

St. Javelin / Saint Javelin

St. Javelin or Saint Javelin refers to an image of Madonna Kalashnikov (the Blessed Virgin Mary) holding a javelin missile that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance during the 2021-2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict. Although the image is an exploited version of a 2012 painting, it was first re-edited and created in early 2018 on the Russian social media site VK where a user replaced the original AK-47 with a javelin missile. The image received an uptick in usage in February 2022 coinciding with the escalation of the conflict and invasion of Ukraine by Russia, effectively becoming a symbol of Ukrainian resistance on social media and resulting in lots of redraws and fan art. St. Javelin was also seen as controversial by some for promoting violence and the war at large.

And because why not, it’s funny:

 

 

 

 Posted by at 1:14 pm