Aug 302022
 

Mikhail Gorbachev, who ended the Cold War, dies aged 91 -agencies

There will be a number of glowing hagiographies shortly describing him in positive terms because he saw the peaceful end of the Soviet Union through “openness” and by not sending the tanks to crush the various smaller Communist countries when they split from the Soviet Union. But the thing to never, EVER forget: he was a Communist. His policies weren’t intended to see Estonia and Latvia and East Germany gain their freedom; those were unintended consequences. His plan was not for the Soviet Union to go away without firing a shot; his goal was to perpetuate the USSR and Communism for all time. His goal was not the end of the Cold War with the West left standing, but the conquest of the  world and total subjugation to Communism. He was just kind of incompetent *and* not a complete monster. So, yes, he wasn’t the worst Communist. Kind of like how Admiral Doernitz wasn’t the worst Nazi. But a Nazi is still a Nazi, a Commie is still a Commie, even if they smile at you while planning on erasing your family from existence.

 Posted by at 4:08 pm
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
Aug 032022
 

Disney slammed for ‘Andor’ trailer featuring an AK-47: ‘Pissed me off’

“5 seconds into the trailer and you’ve already pissed me off,” one fan raged. “The guy has got a f–king AK-47! IN A STAR WARS SHOW! YOU’RE SO LAZY! You couldn’t be bothered to design a space gun. I’m so tired. So very tired.”

Oy. The guns in Star Wars were almost entirely based on real-life firearms, dressed up to one degree or another with added details to make them look like “space guns.” Han Solo carried a modified Mauser C96 “Broomhandle” pistol. The Stormtroopers were armed with Sterling submachine guns and MG34 machine guns and Lewis machine guns, all with minor to modest cosmetic alterations. That there would be something that looks a whole lot like an AK-47 in that universe – a galaxy with billions of inhabited worlds – should hardly be surprising.

 Posted by at 9:20 am
Jul 292022
 

This video is *claimed* to be some sort of official bit of Russian governmental propaganda, extolling the supposed virtues of Russia to get westerners to move there. But it comes off more like satire. When it says “beautiful women,” if shows two pre-adolescent girls. It claims “no cancel culture,” for the same country that’ll throw your ass in jail if you call the current war a “war.” It claims a “rich history,” but fails to mention that that richness is soaked in blood. It’s just *weird.*

 Posted by at 8:11 am
Jul 092022
 

The sustainable cities made from mud

Where the BBC extols the virtue of buildings made from mud in a desert climate. “It is the architecture of the future.”

Every year the residents of Djenné gather together to repair and reclay the mosque, supervised by a guild of senior masons. … Everyone takes part. Boys and girls mix the mud, women bring the water and masons direct the activity. 

Because buildings that require the *entire* community, down to children, to labor to repair on an ongoing, annual and permanent basis… sure, that’s “sustainable.”

Much is made of the mud architecture of Yemen. Great. Ummm… what was the last great contribution to science or engineering or philosophy or medicine to come out of Yemen?

I imagine Britain will be seeing a lot of mud buildings soon enough. As modern Britain falls to the third world, the millions of invading colonizers will, after tearing down what the natives built over a course of centuries, construct their new mud-filled civilization using the wrack and ruin they stand upon. I’m not sure how great mud will be as a construction material on an island that gets fairly constant rainfall, but, hey, such questions are inappropriate in this new world of Other Ways Of Knowing.

 Posted by at 5:01 pm
Jul 042022
 

I have no idea who this weirdo is. There are far, FAR too many of them in the world, with their rampaging narcissism and LookitMeAintISpecial makeup, to even begin to catalog them. That said, what she says in the first few seconds of this clip is *fascinating:*

the most hurtful response I get when I speak about my sexuality is “I don’t care”.’

Get used to it. Because most people *don’t* care. Not just about your sexuality, but about your religion, your politics, your mental diseases, your tragic backstory… about YOU. And you trying to make every damn thing about you makes people care all the less.

I’ve said it before: there is a flaw in the human operating system that makes seeing oneself as a victim, as the oppressed, as the loser in the great game of life as a *desirable* thing. These are the people who get outraged at, say, British people proudly hang up the Union Jack and want to maintain Britishness in Britain; Americans who do not feel automatic and utter shame about America because our history was not ethical purity from the get-go; any man who is not ashamed to be a man, any woman who wants to be a feminine woman. These people *live* on feeling hated, whether they actually are or not. And a few decades ago… sure, they would have been. But when I was a kid in the 80’s that time was largely already past (with, of course, loudmouthed exceptions). My generation was raised on “everybody is ok, don’t be a dick about it.” You could not turn on an “after school special” or a “very special episode” without getting hammered with The Message.

So… they look out into the world and *don’t* see the hate surrounding them that it seems they feel the need for. So they do one or both of two things:

1) They just dream up that hate anyway, and attribute it to anything that isn’t 100% affirming and validating

2) They ramp up their own weirdness until they start pushing buttons, get pushback, and then bask in the warm glow of their oppression. See: Antifa, BLM, Drag Queen Story Time, “Pride” parades featuring things that would get an NC-17 rating, celebrating grooming.

To this kind of person, the worst thing they can hear is “I don’t hate you. I just don’t care about you. You don’t factor into my thoughts at all.”

 

 

 Posted by at 6:35 pm
Jul 012022
 

So some guy makes an animation of a cartoonish aircraft. Fine, great, wonderful. But it’s getting an unreasonable amount of press from mainstream media who think that this is actually a serious “design” rather than what it is… just a cartoon.

Inside the nuclear-powered ‘flying hotel’ that can stay airborne for months

Inside giant flying luxury hotel that can stay in the air for years

Concept Video Imagines a Giant Nuclear-Powered Sky Hotel Airplane

Would You Take A Sky Cruise In A Nuclear Powered Flying Hotel?

It may or may not be good from a modeling and animation point of view, but it is clearly not something to be taken even remotely seriously from an engineering point of view. You might as well debate the merits of a spaceship that showed up in a “Far Side” comic.

This is modern “journalism.” The same trade that’s telling us that Trump “lunged” from the back of a limo and tried to yoink the steering wheel. Same people told us to believe without evidence “Russia collusion” and “Jan 6 was worse than 9-11.”

 

 Posted by at 9:49 pm
Jun 202022
 

So last night the neighborhood resounded to the sound of random explosions. I was confused until I remembered that today is the new Federal High Holy Day “Juneteenth.” Yay, strike up the marching bands, fire up the amateur and unwise fireworks. So, how enchanting of a day is this going to be going forth? Here are some hints from Our Betters in the media:

How to Celebrate Juneteenth Without Misappropriating It

How thrilling: a “holiday” that comes with racialized lecturing. I don’t recall such things for, say, Saint Patricks Day or Bastille Day or Pearl Harbor Day or 9/11 or Leif Erikson Day. And where are the lectures on how to celebrate Yuri’s Night? Where, indeed, are the jeremiads on how to celebrate Apollo 11, or the Wright Brothers, or D-Day or VE Day or VJ Day or The Day The Berlin Wall Came Down or The Day The USSR Went The Frak Away or Trinity Test Day or Edison Lights A Bulb Day or Moses Browning Day Goddard Launches A Liquid Rocket Day? To be honest, though, some other holidays *do* come with lectures… Cinco De Mayo (Drink Like A Fish Day) and Dia Die Los Muertos (Mexican Halloween) tend to come with finger-wagging harangues about how we’re not supposed to view them as lightly as St. Patty’s Drink Like A Fish Day or Actual Halloween.  And of course Columbus Day tends to comes with screeds about how it *shouldn’t* be celebrated and the fact that history lined up in such a way that *you* exist should be seen as a monumental tragedy.

So, yeah, this one will be a hoot, at least until it is “celebrated” like all other basically meaningless artificial holidays:

 Posted by at 6:46 pm
May 112022
 

Before Star Trek, I was a fan of the 1950’s run of “Tom Swift jr.” books back when I was in grade school. Those were some of the first books I read, kicking off a love of science fiction literature that has lasted for more than forty -five years. The whole idea of A Kid Like Me being a scientific/engineering genius appealed, and undoubtedly played some role in my becoming an aerospace engineer. So just imagine how thrilled I was when I saw this trailer for an Extra Special version of Tom Swift soon to premier as a series on the CW:

I *defy* anyone who read the 1950’s run of Tom Swift to suggest with a straight face that this has any resemblance beyond the name and the concept of “genius inventor.”

Is there any intellectual property that modern Hollywood *can’t* or *won’t* turn into crap? The existence of this series does not negate the original books, of course… but the existence of *this* series negates the possibility of the good series that *could* have been made.

 Posted by at 11:21 am
May 082022
 

Well, huh. When I think of “profoundly British television,” one of the first things to come to my mind is “Dr. Who.” Well, I guess the BBC has decided to end that nonsense… they’ve selected the next actor to play Dr. Who. He’s Rwandan. How long before Dr. Who is filmed in Mandarin? Why does the BBC persist in English-language supremacy?

 

 Posted by at 12:23 pm