Now that’s just *stupid*

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., news, nukes, politics, russian empire, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 312022
 

There’s a lot stupid about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The fact that it happened in the first place, of course. The fact that there are so many people in the west who think Putin is anything but a cheap villain. The use of inadequate weapons. The lack of preparation. The lack of logistics. The failure to dominate the skies first. And on and on and on. But this… this is on a whole new level of mind-boggling stupidity.

Russian Troops Suffer ‘Acute Radiation Sickness’ After Digging Chernobyl Trenches

And…

Workers at Chernobyl site say Russian soldiers drove through the highly-radioactive ‘Red Forest’ with no protective gear

Is the Russian leadership *trying* to destroy the Russian military?

Forty years ago, when Soviet missiles were pointed almost directly at my head, I would have cheered on Soviet soldiers being abused and wasted in this fashion. Now it’s just freakin’ sad.

 Posted by at 10:56 am

Leave no man behind. Except these two, they suck.

 AARRRGH, Crazy, news, politics, russian empire, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 292022
 

Russian trucks try to get the hell out of Dodge. Two of the soldiers get left. Womp womp.

YouTube says this video is age restricted.  Not sure why… no death or destruction on display, just military incompetence or panic. I suppose if I was a Russian truck driver in Ukraine and I found out there was a drone looking down at me, I’d want to unass ASAP too. But, damn, son.

 Posted by at 12:25 pm

I support this rant

 art, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., humor, news, politics, wisdom, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 282022
 

Doomcock goes off about Will Smith’s coarsening of culture and suppression of speech:

There remains doubt over whether the slap was real. Both of those involved are actors, both have had action movie roles; both could doubtless have faked this successfully. But it *looked* real… looked real enough that the intent was to make it seem real. If it had been done as a joke, it would have come off as a joke, but it comes off as exactly what it seems. But real or not, the intent was to show that if you say the wrong thing, it is valid for someone to try to physically harm you. This is a Bad Message, but it’s one that many extremists in society today can get behind. This incident, if Will Smith goes unpunished (as it seems he will), can only lead to more violence against not just standard comedians, but especially those who traffic in political humor.

At least there will be some good jokes to come from this:

 

 

 Posted by at 5:28 pm

Will Smith does his best…

 Crazy, dumbassery, Gah., Hmm..., news, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 272022
 

… to keep the Oscars weird. This *seems* like it’s an actual example of him losing his cool and committing assault live on TV. It looks kinda like a scripted joke until he gets back to his seat and starts yelling FCC-unapproved profanities at Chris Rock. The problem seems to be that Rock made a joke about Jada Smith being bald, which is not a fashion choice but a medical issue and Will Smith – who initially laughed at the joke – apparently decided to leap to violence.

Ricky Gervais wasn’t the host, so I didn’t care to watch the Oscars (honestly… who does anymore?). But the YouTube algorithm decided that I needed to see this, so, so do you.

 Posted by at 10:40 pm

This seems a bit much

 aircraft, art, blather, Crazy, eBay, history, Hmm..., projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Mar 272022
 

I have long bemoaned the fact that interesting aerospace history stuff sometimes sells on eBay at painfully high prices and sometimes even to people who aren’t me (the outrage of it all). Such is the case with this listing:

Vintage NASA Concept Art Frank DiPietro Martin Marietta SV-5D PRIME Lifting Body

Two nice vintage lithographs… one of the Martin SV-5D (AKA, X-23) subscale lifting body, and one of the NASA-Langley HL-10 (an early concept with a raised cockpit, possibly also a Martin interpretation). The initial bid price for these was $100; after a number of recent eBay expenditures, that was more than I was willing to go for. So it’s just as well that the final selling price was $384, which seems really, really high. Perhaps the bidders thought that these were the original paintings? Or perhaps the market for lithographs has skyrocketed.

Well, I guess it’s time that I unload some stuff. Not that I necessarily want to, but the bills lately…. uuuuugh. I recently saw a modestly cruddy Convair F-106 joystick go for well over $700. Well, guess what I have: a *really* *nice* F-106 joystick. Anybody want to bribe me before I put it on eBay? If so, send me an email with your insanely generous offer…

 Posted by at 10:23 pm

Well, that’s college paid for

 awesomeness, Crazy, news, youtube  No Responses »
Mar 272022
 

Turns out the driver of that truck that got rolled and spun by a tornado a week or so back is just a kid. If he plays his cards right, that old truck could prove a windfall.

Chevy wisely gave him a brand new truck and fifteen grand. The piece didn’t say what happened to the old truck, but I remain convinced that it could do well at auction.

 Posted by at 9:57 pm

Russian biological warfare in Ukraine

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Hmm..., news, politics, russian empire, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 262022
 

It turns out that Russia is littering the countryside of Ukraine with the bodies of dead Russians. One might think that the Ukrainians would be happy about that, but it turns out that there are *so* many dead Russians lying about that once it warms up and thaws, there could be a bit of a stink and the usual nonsense about diseases and such. And the Russians don’t seem to want them back. If I was a Russian citizen, I think I might find this strategy vaguely disturbing and unsatisfying.

The bodies of Russian soldiers are piling up in Ukraine, as Kremlin conceals true toll of war

 

 Posted by at 12:32 am

Another “terrible humans, terrible dogs” story

 AARRRGH, Crazy, critters, Gah., news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 252022
 

Great-grandmother charged with second-degree murder after 7-month-old killed in Georgia dog mauling

Lots of “wrong” in this story. but what jumps right out at me: the “great grandmother” here is FIFTY SIX YEARS OLD. mean an average age at spawning of about 18. Certainly not historically or biologically unreasonable… it just seems weird and unwise.

Also what jumps out at me: the great-grandmother was attacked by the dog as well… and the dog wasn’t *her* dog. Important details are left out of the story, such as what the frak happened such that *she* is getting charged with murder for someone else’s dog going buggo on a baby.

 Posted by at 6:54 pm

Looks like Skynet won’t need nukes

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., Hmm..., news, science, science fiction, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 252022
 

Well, this makes the future look that much more sunny:

AI suggested 40,000 new possible chemical weapons in just six hours

In short: an AI is used to weed out theoretical medicines because of side effects. That’s great. But the people running it decided “what if we ask it to do the opposite?” and it came up with thousands of innovative new ways to kill people. The AI invented existing nerve agents… and invented some new ones that the predictive modelling says should be *more* toxic than what’s currently on hand.

That’s… greeeeeeeaaaaaaat.

Just wait until the same techniques get used to dream up neato new viruses. Those sci-fi theoretical pathogens that seek out specific genetic markers… hair color, ethnic traits, intelligence, whatever, and kill, stupefy, disable? Yeah… might not be sci-fi for long.

Hurry the frak up, Elon. Humanity might be needing self-sufficient  colonies separated by distances great enough that travel times alone provide a quarantine effect real soon.

 Posted by at 5:41 pm

Excess population update

 AARRRGH, cats, Crazy, critters, dumbassery, Gah., news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Mar 252022
 

The two responsible for the mauling of Buddy the cat have turned themselves in:

12-year-old, 17-year-old turn themselves in to authorities following vicious attack on Buddy the cat

Sadly the two have not been identified because they are juveniles, which also means that they will very likely get a slap on the wrist at best. They came in to the SPCA with “a parent.” This probably means they’re brothers. And it raises the question “why not both parents.”

 

Interestingly, if you let the video embedded in the above link play, it cycles through a number of stories, including one about a skunk. Here, some people saw a skunk with a peanut butter jar stuck on its head roaming randomly in a panic; they called animal control who successfully got the jar off its head with nobody getting injured or sprayed. Ta-da. A more opposite sort of story would be hard to immediately invent…here, an animal that, unlike a cat, is generally *disliked*, finds itself in trouble and humans actually give a damn and go to some effort to provide aid to the animal. Granted, it’s not detangling a sharktopus from radioactive razorwire, but still… compared to two monsters taking joy in the destruction of a loved, harmless animal? It’s fricken’ Nobel material.

 

And unrelated to cats and critters, but related to Philadelphia:

Family members identify teen gravely injured after shooting in Wissinoming

The teen is 15, and by “gravely injured” they mean “brain dead, will die in a day or so.” Apparently he was merely a bystander to some sort of altercation that led to shots fired. Police think it might have something to do with an attempted robbery around the corner.

Philadelphia sounds like a nice place to stay the hell away from.

 Posted by at 5:07 pm
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