Norse runes: older than thought

 awesomeness, history, Hmm..., news  No Responses »
Jan 192023
 

World’s oldest rune stone found in Norway, archaeologists believe

Believed to be somewhere in the range of 1800 to 2000 years old, this means that runic writing has been around for a good long time. Doubtless there’s a link between the runes and Greek writing, but the currently popular theory that runes derived from Roman sources would seem to be much less likely now. The runes seem to have been fully developed and in use well before there was much contact between the Romans and the northern Europeans.

 

Some Twitter threads by the researchers working on this.

 

 Posted by at 8:57 pm

“Hello Tomorrow”

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., rockets, science fiction, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 192023
 

This new Apple+ show looks like it *could* have truckloads of potential… and I can see where it could torpedo itself. Behold “Hello Tomorrow!” Some sort of alternate history where the 1950’s never ended yet technology continued, so there are hover-cars, robots and spaceships that all look like they belong in the 50’s. This *could* be friggen’ spectacular: a bright, uplifting story of possibilities. But there are unsubtle hints that “things are not what they seem,” that could turn the whole thing into garbage. “Ascension,” anyone?” The space colonies don’t work, or there are dark conspiracies, or bog-standard “racism and misogyny and transphobia, oh my,” or it’s all some sort of simulation.

Remember the days when you saw a great-looking trailer and you actually held out optimism? But as I don;t have Apple+, I guess it doesn’t much matter…

 

 Posted by at 11:27 am

Cyanotypes: update

 art, awesomeness, cyanotype blueprints, news  No Responses »
Jan 172023
 

After multiple rounds of iterating improved tools and techniques, I seem to have finally nailed the large format system (at least up to 24X36, haven’t gone bigger yet… 24X72 is coming). I plan on mailing off the first clients prints in a few days. He has suggested that I sell further copies of these prints to whoever wants them; I will discuss this a bit more, and if all are amenable, I’ll make them available. Until then I don’t want to divulge much other than to say it’s a copy of a prop-blueprint with modifications, not an aerospace blueprint.

 

The new system relies on UV lamps rather than sunlight. This took some time to get right; 4 lamps turned into 8. But the exposure time has dropped from something like 5 to 7 minutes of Utah summer daylight to 1 minute fifty seconds of consistent ultraviolet bombardment, day or night, sun or cloud.

 Posted by at 10:47 am

Wormhole table

 art, awesomeness, science, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 162023
 

I’m not sure how practical this is; the actual tabletop seems like it might not be extravagantly study, being held together with many, many glue joints. But as *art* it’s pretty durned nifty.

 

 Posted by at 1:39 pm

You and what army?

 awesomeness, blather, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 142023
 

Attorney General says if sheriffs won’t enforce gun ban ‘there are other people there to do the job’

The attorney general of the state of Illinois is annoyed that the great majority of the county sheriffs – elected officials who do not report to the Governor, nor can he remove them from office – have told the Governor to get bent over the issue of arresting several million citizens for the crime of owning semi-automatic rifles and standard capacity magazines. The AG believes that other police forces than county sheriffs can do the job, such as the State Police. Perhaps he thinks the Governor can call up the National Guard for this task. But for those sheriffs who take their jobs seriously, they may well arrest State Police who attempt to arrest citizens. And the sheriffs would be right to do so: their oaths tend to include words to the effect of “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” and banning magazines and firearms is, especially in light of recent Supreme Court decisions, monumentally and obviously unconstitutional.

 

This would not be unprecedented. Recall the ATF agent who got himself arrested a couple years ago. This was an arrest and tazing that didn’t need to happen; it followed the same script as so many other arrests: someone high on drugs or entitlement refuses to comply even a little bit with simple orders of the police, and things go badly for them. in this case, the ATF agent was high on his sense of overwhelming power… which it turned out he didn’t actually have.

 

I imagine if State Police or some such start actually arresting the law abiding, various resistance movements will start up that will keep them under surveillance and sic Sheriffs and vigilance committees on them. Real-time monitoring of anyone suspected of trying to enforce the unconstitutional law would seem entirely feasible in this day and age.

 

Also: virtually all police enjoy “qualified immunity,” which protects them from getting sued when they behave badly. But as I understand it, that immunity goes away if they are doing something unconstitutional. So, ummm… if you are a State Police officer who really doesn’t want to lose his house, his saving and his kids college fund, maybe think twice before violating someones Constitutional rights. Just a thought.

 Posted by at 10:29 am
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