The President of the United States calls white people stupid and gets a room full of laughter.
Feb 282023
Feb 272023
There is one “Blockbuster” video rental store surviving, in Bend, Oregon. Given that Blockbuster went bankrupt in 2010, it’s a bit surprising that one exists at all. The surviving store appears to exist on nostalgia; tourists taking in the novelty of The Last Blockbuster. Well, whatever works.
Kids these days will never know the thrill of getting to go to a mid-1980’s video rental store and perusing the aisles of VHS tapes. Seeing fantastic box art for movies that in your heart of hearts you know is going to be utter trash… some low-budget “Star Wars” or “Conan” knockoff, starring who’s-that spouting garbage dialog and wearing laughable costumes. It was friggen’ fantastic… at the time. Now, a bunch of these movies that back then you’d have to go out of your way to find are now instantly streamable; the ease of access makes their crappiness stand out all the brighter, with none of the fun. Bleah.
Rarity makes things seem more valuable. This is not an amazing revelation, of course. And now movies at home aren’t rare, aren’t difficult to access. There’s little to no social aspect to picking out a movie; instead of driving to the store and communing with strangers about what might or might not be worth renting, you just click on something and up it pops. I imagine that in not so many years you’ll be able to think of a movie and it will promptly start playing directly into your head, courtesy your government mandated Neural Chip. And soon enough after that, AI will make that Brain Streamable movie be anything you like: that “Jaws 2” meets “Debbie Does Dallas” crossover you always wanted? Here ya go. And shortly after that the Brain Streaming Content will be fully interactive; you’ll be able to live out the adventure yourself inside your own head; no holodeck needed. The entire accessible universe of time and space and imagination will be instantly and nearly freely available. And after a few weeks, everyone will be bored of it.
At least for now that last Blockuster is operating, and has a sense of humor.
Feb 242023
A program progress film from 1959 describing the US Army’s “Saturn” rocket. This would soon be transferred to NASA, eventually becoming the Saturn I (then Ib). The basic layout of the first stage would remain, but the upper stages would change utterly; as shown here, they are derivatives of the Titan ICBM. Note that the first stage is shown being recovered. This feature lasted a surprising length of time, with components being built into the early NASA Saturns. The idea was that the stages would be parachute recovered with solid rocket motors firing at the last second to cushion splashdown. The motor firing would be set off by a trigger that would be released from the booster to dangle some distance below. As soon as the trigger hit the water, it would signal the motors to fire. The stage would splash down soft enough to be recovered, but it was assumed it’d be damaged beyond refurbishment. The idea was to examine the stage to see how it did, and introduce incremental improvements until *eventually* it was able to be recovered intact enough for cost effective refurbishment and reuse.
Feb 202023
I’m’a stay outta da water for a bit.
Feb 182023
So there’s this forthcoming movie, “Space Oddity.” The premise is that a guy is selected for a one-way mission to Mars. This is not an unrealistic idea… for every colonization mission throughout history there have been people – lots of people – who went on a one-way trip. That’s how we colonized the entire planet, and that’s how we’ll colonize the entire universe. But instead of the movie being about the boldness of the mission, the braveness of the guy, the vision for the future… it seems to be about the people dragging him down, refusing to let him have his dream. Fark the future of mankind, stay down here with us in the dirt (rather literally in this case).
It’s not entirely clear how the movie will end, but the trailer seems to be one of those that lays out the entire plot. And it indicates that, gosh, love conquers all, including the urge to explore. To that I say: bah. And to my satisfaction, so do a lot of the commenters on the video.
Feb 162023
A university in Tokyo has made a four-legged spider robot. That’s nothing too special, except that it can fly. Unfortunately, in order to fly it has to be extremely light weight, which means its joints and servos are incredibly weak. In order to walk it needs its thrusters to fly its legs from position to position.
Feb 162023
The train crash in East Palestine Ohio was a toxic mess. Those claiming that everything is just fine now seem to not be entirely accurate in their assessments.
NEW – Today, U.S. Senator Vance visited East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed.
Look what happens when he puts a stick into a creek.pic.twitter.com/gJbEYd1RPo
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) February 16, 2023
Even MORE proof that the EPA is LYING to the people of East Palestine.
THIS WATER IS INSANELY CONTAMINATED. pic.twitter.com/rNlNxxBTDd
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) February 16, 2023
A lot of people are trying to shift blame, including (of course) blaming Trump because he cancelled regulations about adding electronic braking to trains carrying certain dangerous payloads. It’s not at all clear that that would have made the slightest difference here. Especially when you look at the video below: those tracks are so screwed up that I don’t imagine any brakes in the universe would have prevented derailing if the train went too fast. These are just awful. However, I believe the video is fairly old and from a minor rail line; it’s doubtful that a *major* rail line that would carry dangerous chemicals in large quantities would even try to run on rails like this. Nevertheless… yow.
Shocking! This is an actual freight train moving over a twisted, "bendy" railway track linking Ohio and Indiana in the USA!!
It's like a 4th world country.
America should fix its sh*thole infrastructure rather than waging endless wars.#Russia #Ukraine #China pic.twitter.com/EPs9rca9pL
— S.L. Kanthan (@Kanthan2030) February 16, 2023
Feb 162023
Debunkings can be fun, once you get past the headache and heartache of having to debunk nonsense in the first place. Penn & Tellers “BS” is sadly missed here, but this video might help tide you over a bit. It has become politically fashionable in recent years to erase the actual inventors of numerous objects and ideas and replace them with people more politically expedient and useful, despite the fact that their roles in the inventions are often minimal, or misunderstood, or simply nonexistent.
The woman responsible for the original video claims to be a historian, or at least getting schooled in history. Yet her “history” is filled not just with factual inaccuracies, but easily fixable factual inaccuracies. She was either lazy or, as I think more likely, willing to dupe herself to reach a desired conclusion. Neither is a good look for a “historian.”
I have a particular hatred for re-writing the history of science. Science is a process; it is probably mankinds greatest invention. It has allowed us to rise up out of the muck and we’re now on the precipice of launching ourselves out into space. This will be the greatest moment in human history. But science cannot function if you are so readily willing to lie about it. If verifiable objective facts can be swept under the rug in favor of a preferred outcome, science collapses. Women like this would, given their druthers, bring about a new dark age.
Feb 162023
Man made horrors beyond your conception brought to you by AI:
Feb 152023
The idea that there are bioweapon labs in Ukraine is pretty effectively debunked by Ryan McBeth:
The fact that there are *biological* labs in Ukraine strikes me as entirely unsuprising… and entirely to be expected. Ukraine is an agricultural nation, and where you find agriculture *and* modern society, you find laboratories that study agriculture. And a large part of that is studying the diseases and pests that can damage agriculture. The midwest of the United States is littered with such labs, many in local universities, where researchers study everything from anthrax to locusts, aphids to fungi. But the Russian propagandists months ago made a big, fake deal of this, and a distressing number of people in the West fell for it.
@joefelice5062
5 days ago