Elephant guns at 82,000 frames per second create some interesting phenomena. Especially interesting are the very brief flashes upon contact with the ballistics gel.
Jul 032023
Jul 012023
As I don’t speak Spanish or Portuguese or Klingon or whatever this is, I can’t follow along with the mission control. But there are a few subtle hints that there are a few hiccups.
Jun 302023
The “journalists” here are freakin’ irritating, but the story is interesting. A *brief* clip of the audio of the *original* Wilhelm scream, with an alternate take and audio direction.
Jun 292023
Supreme Court strikes down college affirmative action programs
The court ruled that both programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and are therefore unlawful. The vote was 6-3 in the UNC case and 6-2 in the Harvard case, in which liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was recused.
Affirmative action, i.e. systemic racism, is a bad idea on several levels. Firstly, it’s simply racist; it foment distrust and discord. Second, it’s not only unfair to those who are excluded, it’s unfair to many of those it purports to help. For example:
How insane did Harvard's affirmative action policies get?
An African American student in the 40th percentile of their academic index is more likely to get it than an Asian student in the 100th percentile.
Black students in the 50th percentile are more likely to get in that… pic.twitter.com/9vvBuQXA24
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 29, 2023
Harvard is an elite institution in part because it’s *difficult.* Just because you get in doesn’t mean you get through. It’s my understanding that the curriculum and grading policies there are such that you have *got* to be the best of the best. but if you got in while being the best of the mid, your chances of making it through a Harvard degree are in serious doubt. How much debt did you put your family in to go to a school you’re very likely going to fail out of? After you’ve been made to feel inadequate *and* impoverished, are you going to go to the mid-level school you should’ve in the first place, or are you going to simply bail on the whole thing?
When I was getting ready for college, I had dreams of going to MIT or Stanford or the like. My advisors, fortunately, were both smart and honest and, indeed, *good* enough to tell me that that was an insane notion. I was *not* at that level. It would have been ruinous to try, even if I had someone squeaked in. Fortunately, I didn’t have some institutionally racist program in place to bend the rules to jam my piddly ass into a program I was ill-suited for.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, it’s unfair to society: by driving away the best and brightest in favor of the mediocre, society is denied the opportunity to be served by the best and brightest in their best capabilities.
The Supreme Court just ruled against Affirmative Action. Why?
Because it is systemically racist.
Harvard applicants in the top academic decile have different chances of admission depending on their race:
– Asians: 12.7%
– Whites: 15.3%
– Hispanics: 31.3%
– Blacks: 56.1% pic.twitter.com/AhI6p4n14h— The Rabbit Hole (@TheRabbitHole84) June 29, 2023
Obama just released a statement on today's SCOTUS decision in which he said affirmative action "allowed generations of students like Michelle and me to prove we belonged."
Did he just say that he and his wife were not qualified to get into college and only did because of their… pic.twitter.com/IEUVqjKztk
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 29, 2023
Let’s see if cities burn.
Jun 272023
AI doing the jobs humans won’t…
Jun 222023
A “hovertank” is, of course, a terrible idea. A hovering vehicle pretty much by definition has no traction with the ground, thus cannot well handle a lot of recoil… which is the sort of thing a cannon provides in spades. And anything that hovers has to be built light enough to get lurched off the ground, which reduces the capability to be armored. And… on and on.
Nevertheless, the “hovertank” has it’s place in science fiction.
And now modern consumer electronics and drone technology has reached the point where a hovertank can in fact be yours. In subscale plastic model form at any rate.
I’m honestly surprised and impressed that that bitty quadcopter could lift that, and do so effectively. Now imagine that the kit was designed for that from the get-go, using vac-formed parts… or even carbon fiber laid-up components. Far lighter, and better integrated with the lift system.
Jun 152023
Sometimes I look at some of my goofier projects like the “2001 Briefcase Computer” and I think to myself “that’s actually pretty cool.” Then I see guys like this and I know that my nerd-cred is minuscule.
Jun 102023
Even with a specially made setup and at close range, it’s difficult. This should drive home the difficulty and impressiveness of hit-to-kill interceptors that take out incoming warheads or missile from tens of *miles* away at closing velocities far greater than those of mere bullets.
Also: bullets don’t as a rule fuse together; rather, they explode in a shower of flattened lead fragments.
Jun 072023
The cord was cut from a guitar cord; it looks just about right. The keyboard has an incomplete set of cast urethane keys. As can be seen, these aren’t simply glued to the surfaces, but poke through. My own replica will have them slightly sprung, but someone with more enthusiasm for electronics than me will be able to use this as the basis for an actual functional keyboard & computer. There will be a fair bit of internal volume for such things.
Jun 052023
Early Universe Crackled With Bursts of Star Formation, Webb Shows
The JWST shows galaxies as far back as 400 million or so years after the Big Bang. Try gaining insight into the universe like this with something, *anything,* other than western science. Suck it, “other ways of knowing.”
