Maybe I’m being optimistic with the title to this post; Biden, Harris, Tate and all the rest might all rise to the challenge. But it’s a high bar:
The lawsuit from this should prove to be lucrative.
Dec 312022
Dec 282022
I have been poking away at resuming cyanotype production using the new setup and the old transparency negatives. In order to go forward successfully, I need to be able to print on transparent film up to 2 feet wide by six long. I have encountered a lot of trouble here, which has baffled me. No print shops within a hundred miles seem to be able to do that. I put in an order to buy a roll of the film myself to keep at one of the local shops to print off on as needed… and was informed today that the roll will be delivered no sooner than late *February.* The manufacturers don’t have the raw materials for it.
What’s baffling is that when last I worked with this, circa 2017 or so, getting these sort of prints was no trouble whatsoever. I’d send the files to a local print shop in Utah and within a few days the job would be done at reasonable cost, no sweat. Now, though… it’s just not done. And it turns out there is a reason: up until about 5 years ago, it seems people were still regularly using diazo-type blueprinting for architectural and other industrial diagrams, which required this sort of film. But around five years ago, digital printing finally drove the last nail in diazotypes coffin. Without the market, there’s no supply.
So, hopefully the film will still arrive. But I have a customer who kinda wants his custom job, and that’s an unreasonable wait. So something new is being done. The customers line diagram is being printed not on thin transparent film, but on thin *plexiglas.* I can see this resulting in superior cyanotypes; the plexiglass will be vastly less prone to being anything other than dead flat, so the prints should be sharper. But plexi is *far* more expensive (two full size prints will cost as much as the entire roll of film that’s hopefully coming)… and when not in use, I can’t just roll it up and stick it in the corner. If I get 24 inch by 72 inch prints on these, not only is storing them going to be a problem, I can’t even fit them in my car. Grrr. These are problems that will be solved, but, grrr. Everything is always harder not only than it needs to be, but than it used to be.
Dec 262022
We’re clearly being led by the very, very best:
The War on Merit Takes a Bizarre Turn
For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned in.
Spectacular.
I have hopes that the lawyers sure to be hired by the families involves *are* fans of merit and are the best at what they do so they can sue this high school and its administration into oblivion.
Dec 242022
The woman in this video does everything she can to make sure she gets arrested. The level of entitlement she displays is monumental, which is amusing considering the level of ignorance she displays. I remain baffled at what aggressive idiots like this think they are going to achieve. Weird that the actual criminal in the tale is far more chill and reasonable.
Dec 242022
So yesterday the former head of Roscosmos decided that the thing to do was hold a birthday party for himself in a city under occupation.
Russia’s notorious former space chief Rogozin wounded in shelling
Dmitry Rogozin – who has called for the extermination of Ukraine – was in Russian-occupied Donetsk, but someone ratted him out to the Ukrainians who launched some artillery at him. They didn’t kill him, but they did get him with some shrapnel. If wholly unverified rumors are to be believed… wounded rather more than previously suggested:
Apologies, here is the proper link.https://t.co/M7bxF2vyFT
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) December 23, 2022
It should be pointed out that Rogozin got into “Twitter spat” with Musk back in May, threatening him for supplying Ukrainians with Starlink terminals. Determine for yourself it if would be “ironic” or “poetic justice” or “downright hilarious” if Starlink was used to transmit intelligence on Rogozin’s location or to aim ordnance.
Dec 212022
The great majority of the time when someone says “there aught to be a law,” there really aughtn’t. But a law I’d get behind: any new bill in Congress must be read, in it entirety, on the floor of the House and Senate by those who wrote and co-sponsored it before it is allowed to come up to vote. Only those who sat there and listened to at least 75% of the reading would be allowed to vote on the bill; those who weren’t there are automatically registered as “no” votes. This would have the effect of making bills *vastly* smaller than the bloated monstrosities they’ve become.
Take, for example, the latest budget. The R. Lee Ermey bit at the end wholly encapsulates things.
A Major Announcement
AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., Meh., news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ
No Responses »
Dec 162022
WTF.
A guy who made his billions by selling stuff is… selling stuff. Just… ridiculous stuff. This doesn’t really seem to be the actions of someone who thinks he’s destined to retake the White House.
Dec 152022
Tell me if this sounds familiar: convicted felon out on parole commits murder. This time, execution-style multiple murder on the street because he was asked to leave a birthday party.
Even in Illinois, it is illegal for a felon on parole to have a pistol. So yet another Gun Grab Success Story as well.
Sent in. Video of the triple homicide, 4 people shot at Central and School stemming from Vera Lounge this weekend. A cold blooded execution. #Chicago pic.twitter.com/Y9wJ2Anxsl
— 16th & 17th District Chicago Police Scanner (@CPD1617Scanner) December 13, 2022
There is, of course, a solution for this sort of thing. The killer here was charged with first degree murder (in a home invasion) in 2009, but got a lesser sentence because his co-defendant admitted to the killing (which should nevertheless have made him complicit in felony murder). He was paroled in October. Had he been sentenced to life without parole or, better, death, or even better, jettisoning off Earth towards the moon via mass driver, this problem would not have occurred.
This is what “progressive” polices lead to.
GRAPHIC VIDEO
Aftermath of the scene at the triple homicide at Vera Lounge at Central/School.
An off duty nurse is seen trying to render aid.#Chicago pic.twitter.com/MUqC8yc4ZN
— 16th & 17th District Chicago Police Scanner (@CPD1617Scanner) December 13, 2022
Dec 152022
And here we are:
OMG MY SIDES pic.twitter.com/4ZhODAdFgI
— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) December 14, 2022
There are of course comments by people who don’t understand the concept of “context:”
Baby it’s Cold Outside is about a woman in the 40s, who was worried about the neighbors gossiping about her being unchaperoned with her boyfriend after a certain hour, and deciding not to worry about what they think, you perverted l0ser.
— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) December 14, 2022
Dec 142022
Well, this can’t be good:
Problem with Soyuz MS-22 on the ISS right now! pic.twitter.com/V4Ymvnn2D1
— Chris Bergin – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) December 15, 2022
Good thing the US has it’s own ride now. SpaceX, stand by with a couple Dragons…