Star Trek Actress Nichelle Nichols Passes Away Aged 89
Not much detail, but she’s known to have suffered from health issues of late.
Jul 312022
Jul 302022
So some friends and I are watching through “Star Trek Discovery.” We’re Trek fans from *decades* back, so it might surprise some that it’s taken us this long to get around to wading through all of STD. We’re well into season three… and we’ve made an important decision.
Star Trek, whether the episode was good or bad, was always pretty much *fun.* But STD is *not* fun. A lot of it is downright painful. So while we’re generally interested to see where the plot goes, the characters themselves are often just nightmarish. So the decision was made to stand by on the Fast Forward button. Someone starts crying? Fast forward. Someone starts a monologue about how awesome someone else is, or any form of emotional validation? Fast forward. That cringy Trill/human “couple?” They show up… fast forward.
We’re getting through episodes *really* fast now. More than anything, this cringe-edited version of STD reminds me of those Super 8 versions of sci-fi movies that were available in the late 1970s.
I remember seeing, circa 1979-1981 or so, a desktop “unit” that had a film cartridge that showed Star Wars boiled down to maybe five minute on a display just a few inches across. Until VHS, that sort of thing was the only way to watch Star Wars on demand. And fast forwarding is the only way to watch STD *at* *all.*
Jul 302022
Oh, goody.
Monkeypox: First deaths outside Africa in Brazil and Spain
Good thing people are behaving in a rational, intelligent manner and are moderating their voluntary behaviors.
Jul 292022
In this case, a Stupidity Transmitted Disease.
First, a news video:
The guy with the pox here is said have likely gotten it from going to a bar and “kissing another person.” That’s… a little vague. Fortunately, he’s one of those attention-seekers who goes out looking for clout and ends up being a cautionary tale. Behold:
Gay Houston Man Battling Monkeypox Raises Awareness
“I knew what it was, I knew I was at risk,” he says. “I tried to get the vaccine, but I couldn’t. I thought I was being careful. Clearly, I wasn’t being vigilant enough.”
Over the July Fourth weekend he went to several bars and, while he was shirtless, hugged and kissed a few men. The following weekend, he started seeing little white bumps under his chin.
That’s… that’s just *stupid.* But wait! There’s more!
Wallace is going on a month of prescribed quarantine, but he thinks his lesions will be healed in a week and he will at least be able to leave his house again.
FFS.
So, yeah. Another case of someone going out and actually *working* at catching the latest fashionable disease, then acting shocked. And if it stayed strictly within people who have no sense of self control – men, women, gay, straight, whatever – then… who cares, that’s on them. But these yahoos could well come into contact with, say, children. And children come into contact with *other* children. And viruses mutate, and the more people who have a virus, the more opportunities for mutation.
People this frikken’ dumb could doom us all.
Jul 292022
This incident appears to have occurred while the plane was still on the ground (what looks like ground crew dealing with it). Some sources say Spirit Airlines, some Allegiant. It seems to me that this sort of thing used to be a lot rarer.
Crazy Spirit Airlines fight from the air. What has been your worst in flight experience and what carrier were you traveling? #spirit #spiritairlines #fight pic.twitter.com/qIj2Qwhgxa
— Belinda Post (@Belinda_Post) July 25, 2022
Jul 292022
House passes assault-style weapons ban
It bans the sale and transfer of standard capacity magazines and weapons that are in common use. It’s chances in the Senate are slim, though not nonexistent; Biden will of course sign it. If it gets that far hopefully the Supreme Court will tear it apart before it can foment a civil war.
There were a few Dems who had some sense:
Democrats Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jared Golden of Maine, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas and Kurt Schrader of Oregon voted against the ban.
And there were sadly some backstabbers:
Republicans Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Chris Jacobs of New York voted for the bill.
Jul 292022
So this guy decided to go gambling at a Las Vegas casino. Normal enough. Parked his vehicle on top of the parking garage. Normal enough. But he left his puppy in the car on a day when it reached 113 degrees. Not normal, not good. Spent two hours inside. *And* he taped the dogs mouth shut, probably to keep the famously noisy Husky from alerting people to its plight..
Fortunately the casino security found (or was alerted to) the situation and rescued the dog through the sun roof and called the local police. Police body camera footage shows the moment the owner walked up and the cops response to him. The police officer maintained discipline and professionalism… but you can tell … just barely. The officer was PO’ed, and rightly so. You can imagine that everyone involved here might well have been hoping that the owner would do something stupid (well, additionally stupid) so as to merit a few love taps from a billyclub. The police officers tone and actions just scream “contempt.” As well they should: I imagine cops dealing with brutalized children and animals must be about the hardest parts of their jobs (after getting shot and stabbed, obviously).
WHAT NOT TO DO IN VEGAS:
On July 20, we got a call from security from a hotel & casino at 3600 S. Las Vegas Blvd. (The high temperature that day was 113)
Security spotted a puppy inside a locked vehicle on the top floor of the parking garage with its mouth taped shut around 3 pm pic.twitter.com/kmZJ9CcQyU— LVMPD (@LVMPD) July 28, 2022
Looks like the casino staff put in a good effort… there are multiple uniformed security guys, a woman caring for the pup, and a guy in a suit who looks… ummm… a bit like A Casino Guy in A Suit You Don’t Want Coming For You. Also a guy with a bicycle who might have been just a bystander, or might have been the guy who found the dog. Shrug.
Some commenters at the twitter thread note that the dogs owner was not read Miranda rights before being arrested. But… Miranda is used to make sure the suspect is aware of their rights before being interrogated. I’m not sure that that directly applies here. It will before he is questioned at the station, but “Is this your car?” doesn’t really seem like that big of a deal.
Who would do this? WHY would anyone do this? Assuming the dog pulls through, I have little doubt that the line of people wanting to adopt it will wrap around the block.
NEW: We just got an update and the 3-month-old Husky puppy is still with animal control and receiving medical treatment for this July 20 incident. https://t.co/T7PP0p7Kmd pic.twitter.com/IZzoTK1t4g
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) July 28, 2022
Feh.
Here’s some brain-bleach:
Human found puppies he thought were just protecting cat, but he found surprise… pic.twitter.com/GAoBh6se7U
— Feline Defence Force 🇺🇦 (@FDF_Ukraine) April 22, 2022
— Feline Defence Force 🇺🇦 (@FDF_Ukraine) May 4, 2022
Jul 292022
This does not seem survivable.
Inquiry ordered in Hong Kong after giant screen crashes down onto stage at Mirror concert, injuring 2 dancers; remaining shows cancelled
Oh yeah. Lawsuits incomin’.
Jul 282022
Dead spiders reanimated as creepy ‘necrobots’
Taking a dead spider’s lifeless body and reanimating it as a robot is an idea that would be the stuff of nightmares for most people. But scientists aren’t most people. Recently, a team of researchers turned the corpses of wolf spiders into arcade-style claw machines that could pick up and move a variety of objects — including other dead wolf spiders.
Because it’s creepy as hell, I moved the gifs of this scientific abomination below the break…
Jul 272022
The one where Brandon Herrera tries to replicate the home-made piece of junk firearm that was used to assassinate Shinzo Abe. The result works, but would likely be fatal to the shooter. This indicates that the assassin either somehow found a way to test and perfect his design (which seems unlikely in Japan), or he thought it through better than Herrera from the get-go.
I bet this one ends up getting yeeted by YouTube, since it shows how a disarmed populace can arm itself.
UPDATE: Yeeted. One might consider it odd that an American company would ban videos that kinda-sorta a little bit show how to make things that are legal for Americans to make. Odd, that.