Oct 222021
 

The job of an actor is to look pretty and say words scripted for them. When they say their *own* words… you get crap like this;

‘What a fool’: fellow actors criticise William Shatner’s space flight

Appearing on The Jonathan Ross Show on ITV, Collins said: “It’s amazing isn’t it? What a fool. Who wants to do that? No, absolutely not. Did you see Bill Shatner?

“He was in the air and they were turning him upside down. Let’s take care of this planet first before we start going off.”

Asked if he would visit space, fellow show guest [Brian] Cox replied: “No, absolutely not. I think it’s ridiculous. I remember watching [Sir Richard] Branson and Bezos going up for their 11 minutes or whatever …

“No, we do not need more spaceships. We’ve got enough crap flying around up there. We do not need any more.”

Shut up, morons.

I have zero respect for people who rake in outsized buckets of cash for playing pretend, then get pissy that other people are spending *their* buckets of cash on things they don’t like. *Especially* when those things promote the general welfare of mankind.

 Posted by at 10:56 am
Oct 212021
 

China launches, apparently, nuclear-tipped (or nuclear-capable) hypersonic glide weapons into orbit, in violation of international treaty. How does the mighty US State Department respond? Why, with Sheer Manliness, of course!

If you are as confused by “International Pronouns Day” as any rational person should be, don’t worry… they have a FAQ. And why yes, thank you for asking, the executive board members are all American  academics.

International Pronouns Day – Executive Board Members

  • Founder and Co-Chair

    • Shige Sakurai, MBA, MA (they or ze), University of Maryland

  • Co-Chair

    • Crystal Huff (they), Include Better

  • Board Members:

    • Courtney D’Allaird, MBA, MA (they), University of Albany

    • Andrea Holland, MLIS (they), University of Colorado System

 

 

 Posted by at 3:55 pm
Oct 192021
 

Student at ultra-liberal $80,000-a-year Oberlin College complains that contractors hired to install radiators in ‘women and trans safe space’ dorm rooms were ‘cisgender men’

Wow. *He* is upset that men installed a radiator in his room. Because there are just so many women in the radiator installation field, I guess?

You can read this delicate snowflake’s editorial here:

Male Workers Allowed Into Baldwin, Unsettling Residents

And if you think this idjit is alone in being an Oberlin idjit, allow me to introduce you to:

Why Must International Students Assimilate?

Where someone with the name of “Aishwarya Krishnaswamy” complains about:

When I introduce myself to people, I often receive a “You don’t expect me to say that, right?” in reference to my name. When I went with my friends to Walmart and struggled in the self-checkout counter — having been to Walmart no more than five times in my entire life — my friends were impatient and uncomfortable, slowly skirting away from me. When I sit in conversations laden with American-centric references, I reach a point where tuning out the conversation is easier than asking for the 10th time, “What does that mean?” I’ve even walked into my professor’s office hours and introduced myself, only to have them ask, “Do you have a shorter name?”

And then the absolute topper on the cake of woke idiocy and self-important privilege:

As a foreigner here, I am eager to learn aspects of this new culture, but I refuse to do that at the cost of my identity. Two years ago, it was not easy to brush away subtle acts of “othering,” such as exclusively conversing in American references — on cinema, music, politics, sports, etc. — or mocking me for not doing things the “right” way, not realizing that what happens in this country is just a way, not the way, of doing things. I am a third-year now, and not one thing has changed.

Holy shit, dude. You came to a completely different country and surrounded yourself – of your own free will – with people from that other country. And you’re cheesed off that they converse about *their* culture? you’re PO’ed that Americans in America see the American way of doing things as the right way of doing things? Ummm… what do you call Americans who go to *your* homeland and bitch about the way things are done there?

I have high hopes that that pendulum will swing back, sooner rather than later. With that swing will come the acceptance that some people are just crazy; they deserve our sympathy, our help and hospitalization, but society does not deserve to have their increasingly bizarre and unreality-based  desires foisted upon it.

 Posted by at 4:12 pm
Oct 182021
 

Update: Claimed to be a hoax. But as we’ve been told repeatedly in recent years, the seriousness of the accusation is more important than the accuracy of it.

Canada Has a Problem With Brandon

If this is accurate and not a hoax, this seems a rather remarkable abuse of power:

In a notice written late last week, a [REDACTED] official (see photo below) warned that “the use of the wording ‘Let’s Go Brandon” and any variation thereof under any circumstances is banned.”

“Violation of this policy,” the notice concludes, “will be grounds for immediate dismissal without recourse or labour union representation.”

If this is accurate, is there a complete list somewhere of things Canadian government employees must not ever say or write? If it has gotten all the way down to “Let’s Go Brandon,” you’d imagine that that list would be EXTENSIVE.

Also, it should be noted that whoever wrote that memo should be promptly fired without recourse. Note that it specifically says “the use of the wording ‘Let’s Go Brandon” and any variation thereof under any circumstances is banned.” That’s quite clear. We’ve all heard of cases where people have gotten fired/cancelled/demoted/threatened for saying A Bad Word, even when in the context of simply technically describing what the Bad Word is and how and why it’s Bad.

Also seemingly relevant: the Streisand Effect.

 Posted by at 2:50 pm
Oct 172021
 

Uuuuuuuuuuugh…

The video, politics aside, is just horrifying in its cringiness. Badly written, badly acted, terrible plot. Kids – all actors of course, chosen seemign to tick diversity boxes – set about to build telescopes… but it’s never explained how scopes work. The science, physics, engineering of a telescope, or even the history of telescopes, is left out. but oh boy, they get to decorate them! Because that’s what kids desperate for STEM want: none of that “explanation” crap, bring on the glitter! NOTE: there are none of those evil, EEEEEVIL straight white cis males among the “team” of kids. Presumably they’re on their own team. That secondary team didn’t get any screen time and probably didn’t get to decorate their scopes. They had to make do with history and math lessons, and the heartache of designing and building their own equatorial mounts.

If for some reason you want to subject yourself to the whole thing unfiltered… don’t blame me, you wanted it. Here ya go, in all its ratioed glory.

Your tax dollars at “work.”

 Posted by at 11:07 am
Oct 172021
 

China Tested A Fractional Orbital Bombardment System That Uses A Hypersonic Glide Vehicle: Report

Short summary of Fractional Orbital Bombardment System:

Your typical ICBM lobs its payload onto a ballistic trajectory, an elliptical orbit that intersects Earth at two points: launch and target. FOBS, on the other hand, puts the warhead into a circular orbit like a conventional satellite. Typically a *low* orbit, but a circular orbit nonetheless. This is harder than an ICBM lob, but there are a few advantages. The biggest advantage is that, being in a low circular orbit, the warhead is below radar detection until it is almost on top of the target. At which point it fires a de-orbit motor and drops out of the sky with very little warning.

The reason why it’s called a “fractional” orbit is that it is generally assumed that it won’t complete a full orbit, but will de-orbit the first time it passes over the enemy. But that does not need to be the case; it could stay in orbit for some time, pretending to be, say, a weather, communications or spy satellite. Additionally, a FOBS system could theoretically launch in *any* direction; instead of Russian or Chinese ICBMs launching over the Pacific or Arctic to reach US targets, they could be launched south, pass over Antarctica and come at the US from Mexico or the Gulf where we have relatively little in the way of either early detection systems or missile defenses.

A disadvantage of FOBS is that the warhead, typically, must be aimed more or less directly at the target, as there is little cross-range to play with. Thus only a few orbits will pass close enough to the target; most orbits will be many hundreds or thousands of miles too far away. But by using a hypersonic glider as the warhead, cross-range is increased. So now something that looks like a mundane satellite launch that will pass nowhere near a US target will now sprout wings and fly right down Main Street.

The US and Russians have a treaty banning FOBS; the 1967 Outer Space treaty explicitly forbids the deployment of weapons of mass destruction in space, which is exactly what FOBS does. The Chinese are on board with the OST, but hey, look, they don’t care. Shocker.

Glad we have a crack team of stalwart patriots and geniuses in the White House to deal with this.

 Posted by at 10:15 am
Oct 162021
 

Protestors violently invaded a government building in order to force the government to bend to their will (i.e subvering democracy through violence and intimidation). Will this insurgency receive the same level of media vitriol as the Mostly Peaceful Protest in January?

Violent protesters arrested after storming Interior Department, injuring officers

Doesn’t look like any of ’em got capped.

 

 Posted by at 12:19 am
Oct 152021
 

Yow:

Amnesty International brief against right to bear arms

AI displays some shocking lack of reason. A group supposedly meant to help people attain and maintain their human rights, they are opposed to people being wiped out in genocides being granted the means to defend themselves:

“We at Amnesty International are not going to condone escalation of the flow of arms to the region.” Indeed, “You are empowering (the victims) to create an element of retaliation.” “Whenever you create a sword-fight by letting the poor people fight back and give them arms, it creates an added element of complexity. You do not know what the results will be.” In sum, “Fighting fire with fire is not the solution to genocide. It is a dangerous proposition to arm the minorities to fight back.”

And more recently, they are currently arguing that New York finally recognizing the right of its citizens to bear arms would be against international law, Constitution be damned. The whole thing is worth reading… and then passing on to anyone you know who may be a donor to AI. AI’s position is that international law makes it a requirement of the US Government to protect criminals from *victims,” that allowing victims the means to defend themselves violates the criminals rights.

ᛖᚪᛏ ᛗᛖ, Amnesty International.

 Posted by at 6:21 pm