Iron from sand

 art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., science, youtube, YouTubers worth watching  No Responses »
Sep 012022
 

The “Primitive Technology” channel shows how to process iron from river sand. The level of effort and the raw materials needed in order to produce a *tiny* amount of iron are impressive, but the results show that it can be done at a very low tech level. A bit of refinement and a useful amount of workable iron could be produced on a fairly regular basis by a small family, tribe or village. Why you’d want to go to the bother *today* I’m not so sure, but maybe this sort of thing would be useful for those of a prepper mindset, or planning on colonizing new worlds or time traveling. I’m not here to judge.

A couple months back the same guy showed how to make an iron knife – admitted a bad one, but an iron knife nonetheless – from bacteria. I was *certain* that I’d posted this video, but a concentrated, detailed search of the blog for more than ten seconds did not turn it up. Shrug.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 10:23 pm

“On leave”

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, religion, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 312022
 

Some progress on the story of the assistant principal who screwed himself by explaining how he screwed others:

There is a brief snippet of an interview with James O’Keefe. The biggest irony here is that the reporter goes to some effort to point out that the videos that PV released were edited… and yet, the news station released only a tiny fraction of their interview with O’Keefe. You know… some edited bits. Here’s the full thing, released by PV:

 Posted by at 10:01 pm

Well, THAT was unwise

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., Hmm..., weapons, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 312022
 

In “Jaws,” the Sheriff takes out the shark by shooting a SCUBA tank with an M-1 Garand. The tank, clenched in the sharks jaws, kerplodes and shreds the Shark. Many years later Mythbusters tried to do the same thing, with the result that nothing much happened: holes were poked in the tank and it quickly blew down, but didn’t explode. Myth busted.

But then… GunTuber Edwin Sarkissian put an oxygen tank in a safe and shot through them with a .50 BMG rifle. The results were energetic and nearly Kentucky Ballistics in their effect. “Put a thumb in it” would not have been sufficient.

 

Not entirely relevant: restoration of a Pakistani home-made Kalashnikov 12-gauge shotgun, left in a wall for a number of years and rusted badly. Back when I lived in a free state I had a 12-gauge AK, and it was fun as hell to shoot… but you couldn’t pay me enough to pull the trigger on this thing.

 Posted by at 12:48 am

A career-limiting interview

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 302022
 

Project Veritas had an enlightening hidden-camera chat with a public school assistant principal. In it he describes how to go about making sure that conservative employee candidates are rejected on the basis of their politics, how Democrat/progressive politics are injected into the classroom, how religious discrimination is normalized. It should be interesting to see if he maintains his employment. The chances that he’s alone in his practices is essentially zero, so expect that someone like this may well be at work in *your* school district.

 Posted by at 10:14 pm

This is not the “Notting Hill” the movie promised

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 302022
 

Only one murder so far!

Dancing revellers crash through a bus stop ROOF near Notting Hill Carnival as partygoers enjoy first event in two years since Covid – while police arrest 38 people including two for sexual assault

How long until Britain is just a fading memory among people in far-flung lands?

 

 

 Posted by at 4:50 pm

Firestarter

 aircraft, Hmm..., weapons, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 302022
 

Randomly stumbled across a video of a drone or helicopter (sounds like a chopper, glimpses of what looks like a landing skid) attempting to start a forest fire. Some of the comments indicate that this was part of a controlled burn, but I couldn’t find out more about it. There are a number of videos on YouTube showing the “heli-torch” in operation, basically an unmotivated flamethrower package that can be carried suspended beneath a helicopter (looks like usually a Bell UH-1, but also Rangers and Loaches) for the purposes of started prescribed burns in more difficult to access locations.

In any event, a drone that not only can start forest fires but actually has would be an interesting development. Looks like it’s spraying out gasoline or something. But if, instead, it squirted out napalm or thermite, the military applications could be reasonably horrific; swooping in over trenches to lay down dribbles of fire on enemy troops would seem a first use. This sort of thing would be unlikely to kill a lot of soldiers except for the rare instance of setting fire to a pile of ordnance or a fuel dump… but flaming drips falling onto soldiers heads or backs would very likely take them out of action.

 

@swat_leader

#katastrophe #pozari #vatra

♬ Originalton – 𝕾𝖜𝖆𝖙 𝕷𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗

 

Heli-torch vid:

 Posted by at 12:08 am

Have a Coke and a Meh

 Hmm..., Meh., russian empire, youtube  No Responses »
Aug 292022
 

So a Russian feller reviews the replacement for McDonalds. It’s sort of Uncanny Valley McDonalds… everything is *like* McDonalds, but a little off. There weird thing (to me, anyway) is the lack of fries. I always kinda thought that Russians had taters in vast abundance? Where’s their vodka come from? And $14 seems kinda pricey.

It seems a little strange to me to think of McDonalds as some kind of “experience,” to look back fondly on the “soul” and “love” of McDonalds. But I guess McDonalds emerging at the end of Communism must have been a heck of a thing, and to go back to the smile-free Soviet Experience must be a bummer.

 Posted by at 8:19 am

Whoopsie

 AARRRGH, dumbassery, Gah., news, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Aug 292022
 

So who knew that newly manufactured rolls of foam sheeting are full of butane gas? This guy does. Well, he knows it *now.*

Fun fact:

https://www.borealisgroup.com/polyolefins/polymer-solutions/foam-solutions/10-frequently-asked-questions-about-po-foam

Question 1: Which physical foaming agent (gas) is the best in PP foam production?

Answer 1: The choice of the best physical foaming agent depends on the target foam. Hydrocarbons, like iso- or n-butane, are used in production of the lowest density foams, whereas inert gases, like supercritical CO2 or N2, are used in production of foams with densities typically higher than 200 kg/m3.

 Posted by at 7:53 am
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