Construction is underway of an unmanned rocket-powered aircraft to be carried by the Stratolaunch “Roc” aircraft. The Talon-A is supposed to be something like the proposed X-24C… a lifting body hypersonic platform that can have various experimental units – including scramjets – attached to it. The Roc would be capable of carrying three Talon-A’s at a time, though it seems unlikely that there’s a really good reason to do so.
First there is the original video, apparently shot at the University of Ghent in Belgium back in 2017:
And a much more recent “commentary” video:
There is some description of the event with photos HERE, but sadly it’s in some strange moon-man language.
YouTube comments of note:
A website that aggregates stories about election fraud issues.
Separates stories based on “Significance,” “Claim,” “Type” and “Admissibility,” as in a court of law. That last one is simultaneously probably the most important while probably also the most subjective. So… take it for what it’s worth. Might be a good site to keep an eye on.
While driving down the road I had an idea for a comic book. With my luck it’s probably been done, maybe even a few times. But if so… shrug. Not like comic book ideas are all that unique anymore. Anyway, here’s my idea:
The main character(s) is just a guy. An accountant, or an analyst, something like that… boring guy, boring office job, 9 to 5. No superpowers. Not super intelligent or rich. But reasonably intelligent, average basically uninteresting guy who who works in midtown Metropolis. After work he goes to the nearest bar and has a beer or two with a group of his like-mindedly dull co-workers.
So, the world they inhabit is standard dullsville. The closest thing to truly abnormal they’ve got in the news are the stories of that caped weirdo vigilante down in Gotham City, the one with the rogues gallery of equally bizarre villains. But that’s got nothing to do with our guys, except to spice up their conversations from time to time. But by the end of the first issue, something new has appeared in Metropolis: some weird guy in red and blue tights who seems to be able to fly.
In the second issue, people are learning about this “Superman.” Perhaps our main characters see him flash by from time to time. As the months go by they begin to understand his powers: the standard non-insane set of abilities, like great strength, bullet resistance, flight, laser vision, great hearing. But he’s not super smart, not telepathic, not omniscient. So as time goes by our main characters watch as the crime in Metropolis changes. Bank robbers, muggers, back-alley rapists start finding themselves captured. Street level crime goes in two directions: in some ways it fades as criminals decide the risk isn’t worth it; in some ways it goes kinda nuts as muggers decide that the only way to ply their trade is to go about it *fast.* Stab the victim in the back, kill them before they can utter a sound. Higher level criminals start finding their jobs are becoming very risky. And people start to see the rise of “super criminals,” people that commit risky robberies and try, to various degrees of success, to actually counter Superman using crazy technologies and strategems involving threats about hostages and the like. As this goes on our mains learn more about Supermans psychological limits… won’t kill, won’t brutalize or torture, won’t even threaten the bad guys with anything but capture. But on the whole, criminals, including the organized crime families, start to find life becoming very challenging.
So, our main characters being regular people, they shoot the breeze. The local news breathlessly covers the details of every failed criminal caper. And our guys start wargaming the issue: if *you* were a criminal, how would you go about your job with Superman breathing down your neck? Our guys come up with a hundred different plans, and then start working them through. This one fails because of X, that one because of Y. But *this* one… it might work. As time goes on, they keep daydreaming and discussing; the plans get revised and perfected. It’s all in good fun. But they begin to find that their planning of criminal ventures is more exciting, more fulfilling than their actual jobs. How long before they actually try to enact the plan? One day, just for giggles… they do. And they get away with it. It’s nothing spectacular, but they succeed. And Superman never got involved. Their schemes do not involve trying to fight Superman, but to stay below his radar. And with one success, they decide to keep it up. And as time goes by and more super heroes and super villains show up, our accountants keep their enterprise going. While Superman is duking it out with robots made by Lexcorp, our guys are using their knowledge of the systems, coupled with knowledge of history, to successfully rob banks, plunder warehouses, pilfer crime lord mansions. After a few successes they try to focus on robbing from the bad guys of the world, but it’s defined a bit loosely. They use knowledge of successful resistance efforts: the cell system allows them to be several steps removed from the actual crime. They use decoys: they hire and train street thugs to go rob two banks on the same day. Superman can only be in one place at a time, so the first bank robbery is an expendable diversion. The second robbery is *also* a diversion. While Superman is dealing with the robberies and the cops are cleaning up the mess, our heroes are yoinking diamonds out of a storage facility on the far side of town or knocking over a mob boss while making it look like his main rival did it.
For years this goes on, our main characters raking in millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, funneling it into untraceable accounts and shell corporations. They live well, but not so well that even the IRS notices. Instead of living like Kingpin, they live a decent life happy in the knowledge that the money they’ve stolen has funded that private Mars colony, or built a dozen hospitals, or endowed five new major universities, or overthrown a half dozen corrupt Marxist dictatorships. They end up going to work for corporation that they just happen to own and run, though nobody can prove it.. or even suspects it.
The main characters start out as utterly boring complete nobodies. And years later they are, to all appearances, still that. But they’ve led a massive criminal enterprise directly under Supermans nose. They are technically bad guys. So given “Cuties” this should be the sort of thing Netflix should stand ready to throw a few dozen million dollars at to get made. Hell, SyFy: y’all actually wasted *how* *much* making “Vagrant Queen,” a TV series based on a comic book that sold *hundreds* of issues? I take cash, checks, PayPal.
©, baby!
Well, this sounds just spectacular:
The text of the BREATHE Act is available HERE. It calls for some interesting things, including but not limited to:
That last one there is interesting. At they same they want to stop Federal police from using “military grade weapons” (which in modern progressive parlance means any semi-automatic weapons) as well as tasers and pepper spray. This will make them *incredibly* vulnerable to criminals armed with little more than ball bats, never mind the automatic weapons that will be available to criminals in abundance. And they want to eliminate body cams, which will show how the federal cops are being set upon by the now-empowered criminals who do not have to worry about actually facing real resistance.
The BREATHE Act also repeals:
The Act would raise the minimum age to be tried as an adult to *24*
It would end both the death penalty *and* life sentences
End deportation of illegal aliens who also commit violent crimes
Basically end all bars to immigration
And here’s the really good part: within 5 years of the Act, prison population would be reduced 50%, and by 10 years, *all* prisons would be emptied.
There are 126 pages of this gibberish and I could not be bothered to read all of it. So go ahead and imagine how much of it will be read by those genetic defectives in Congress who will vote for it. Will this pass into law? Almost certainly not. Even as addled as he is, Biden is probably goign to realize that this Act, were it to become law, would result in the prompt destruction of the United States as a going concern. Very few republicans would be stupid enough to vote for it, and a bunch of Democrats would likely realize how nonsensically destructive this BS is. Still: this is the sort of thing that some “mainstream” Democrats such as Pressley and Tlaib are pushing for.
Documentary film maker Werner Herzog has this to say about mankind trying to become an interplanetary species:
“The thought alone is an obscenity.”
Turns out he’s one of those misanthropes who compares humanity to locusts, who thinks we need to solve all the problems Here before moving There (one wonders if he thinks hominids should have stayed in Tanzania, or if he’s upset that amphibians left the ocean), and who somehow compares Nazism and Communism (ideologies that were all about limiting human options) to interplanetary expansion (which is all about expanding options).
One wonders if Herzog is at the top of BidenHarris’s list of people to run NASA.
UPDATE: “Good” news: a link in the comments section explains what happened here. Bleah.
I recent bought a model kit of a tank (a 1/35 Dragon T28). it has been *decades* since I’ve built a tank model, and right now with the Book projects building models is not a high priority, but what the heck. So I popped open the box, started looking at the parts and realized there was a problem.
The tracks are supposed to be flexible bands of molded vinyl. Fairly standard for a model kit… the two general approaches are either bands of flexible vinyl, or individual tracks and links. The tracks and links approach can produce the best looking model, but it can be a time and brain consuming nightmare to link hundreds of parts.
But there was a problem with the tracks. Instead of being flexible vinyl… they’re more like brittle cast resin. They actually shatter and crumble in the packaging:
As best as I can determine, this is the legit actual part. Based on YouTube videos of other people doing reviews and assemblies, the color is spot on, the vacuum-packed plastic sealed bag is right. The molding is crisp and clear, far better than would be expected if I somehow got someone’s resin recast of the vinyl tracks. But as you can see, the tracks are extraordinarily brittle… and they’re wet. They’re soaking in what seems to be some sort of oil.
So what am I looking at here? Is this some sort of weird manufacturing mistake… a set of resin tracks instead of vinyl? Or could this be vinyl that has degraded to a phenomenal degree? Is the oil the cause of the brittleness… or did the vinyl exude the oil and become brittle?
I’ve contacted the manufacturer and *might* get a set of replacement tracks in a couple months. That would be nice. But I am really curious about what the problem really is here. Anybody know of a series of reasonably safe tests that could determine what the oil is (silicone? hydrocarbon?) and whether the tracks are vinyl or resin. The easiest test I can think of: burn some resin, burn some vinyl. Then burn the tracks, which does it smell like? Simple, straightforward likely toxic as all get-out, so, yeah, no.
If’n you’re looking for a few minutes of nothing much punctuated by someone getting the nonsense knocked out of ’em, this video’s for you:
An explanation:
In short: a Chinese “martial arts master” got his ass handily handed to him by an amateur boxer. Why? Because a *lot* of martial arts is more akin to dance and ritual than actual fighting. The more “spiritual” you are with it, the more reality is likely to come up and knock you upside the head. And with the bonus that a lot of these “masters” are just schmucks who *claim* to be masters based on… well, nothing much. Sometimes they are charlatans. But often they seem more like cult leaders who have bought into their own BS. And thus they willingly get into a ring with someone with ACTUAL beatyerass skills and get their ass beat. They actually think their nonsense about “energy” and “chi” and assorted babble will actually protect them from someone who knows how to throw a punch or deliver a kick.
History has shown that reliance on spiritualism, the supernatural, God, angels, whatever, doesn’t do diddly to protect you against kinetic energy. As the saying goes, “God helps those who shoot first at extreme range with good large-caliber rifles with excellent well-calibrated optics.” Or something like that.
Or perhaps the Corn Pop.
According to Rasmussen polling:
75 percent of Republicans believe it is very likely (61 percent) or somewhat likely (14 percent) that the election was stolen from Trump. But, according to the poll, while 69 percent of Democrats say it is not at all likely (61 percent) or not very likely (8 percent) that the election was stolen from Trump, 30 percent of Democrats believe it is very likely (20 percent) or somewhat likely (10 percent) that it was.
Gonna be an entertaining few years, especially when Pelosi 25ths Biden out to Shady Pines and the Democrat the Democrats *least* wanted takes over.
Imagine the drinking games and betting pools people will come up with.