One Hundred

 Book X, books, news  No Responses »
Oct 182020
 

As of yesterday, the diagram count for Book Two surpassed one hundred. The spreadsheet lists a bit short of 160,  but I think it’ll realistically top out at 120-ish. The final product may have notably fewer; many of the designs feature two and even three separate diagrams (for 2 to 3 separate pages), including not only general arrangements but also inboard views, sections, undersides, scrap views and the like. The publisher will decide whether or not to include them all, trading off size vs. cost. But progress, while slower than I’d hoped, is still moving forward.

 Posted by at 11:46 pm

Hardcore Bardcore

 art, awesomeness, history, Hmm..., youtube  No Responses »
Oct 182020
 

I mentioned “bardcore” a while back… modern songs sung/played in medieval style. The ones I linked to previously were in more or less modern English… but a few go the extra mile to translate the songs into actual medieval languages. Whether the results are good music that you’ll listen to over and over is up to you, but they are clearly the results of considerable craftsmanship.

 

 Posted by at 5:29 pm

Reprieve for a murderer

 blather, Hmm..., news, politics  No Responses »
Oct 182020
 

Gotta admit to some mixed emotions here. So one Steven Gallant beat a firefighter to death and was sentenced in 2005 to 17 years in prison. That seems rather light to me, but then I don’t see why any out-and-out murderer should ever see the light of day ever again. Call me a little strict, I dunno. Anyway, last year he was out of prison on a day release program to help with a conference on prisoner rehabilitation, when another Mostly Peaceful Religion Enthusiast decided to go on a stabbing spree in London. Gallant grabbed a Narwhal tusk and stymied the Cultural Enrichment Practitioner until the Police could get there and shoot him. As a result of his actions, Gallant has been given a *bit* of a reprieve by the Queen of England… ten months off his sentence.

On one hand… someone who does something heroic should be recognized and rewarded for it. On the other hand:

“Gallant had been among a gang who battered his dad Barrie to death outside The Dolphin pub in Hull in April 2005. It was so savage paramedics who tried to revive him couldn’t find his mouth.”

Ummm. Fortunately, the murder victims son seems ok with this turn of events. But if he hadn’t? Had Gallant had a proper sentence of life plus 180 days (an extra six months in his cell to freshen the air for the other murderers on his cell block) and got a sudden *actual* get-out-of-jail pardon, and if the murder victims family had a real problem with that, then there would be a real quandary. In that case, I think the best solution would be to let him out, but to declare him outlaw. Just like the good old days.

Murderer on day release who foiled London Bridge terrorist is granted sentence cut by Queen

 Posted by at 4:47 pm

Could Yelp be sued for this?

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Oct 182020
 

So a few days ago the review site “Yelp” decided that it would be a neato-keen idea to institute a new feature on their reviews of businesses: a button you could click that would plaster a “this business is racist” warning on your review. This was an astonishingly obvious avenue of abuse, and it appears that it has already been used to cause harm, both in the form of reputational damage as well as harassment and bullets. Recently some media outlets have found to their financial cost that falsely labeling people -ists and -phobes (and whatever the latest moral outrages are about) is not a good idea. So can Yelp be held to the same fire here? Could this be the sort of thing that brings their finances and existence crashing down?

 

 Posted by at 2:17 pm

National reciprocity

 news, politics, weapons  No Responses »
Oct 172020
 

Our basic civil rights are up for vote again.

Donald Trump: I’ll Sign National Reciprocity if It Reaches My Desk

In order for the 2nd Amendment to be truly incorporated nation wide, concealed carry reciprocity would need to be federally mandated. Just as your divers license and marriage are recognized in all fifty states, so should your ability to carry. There are, unfortunately currently no such bills before Congress; but if Biden/Harris win, the Republicans would need to take over both houses of Congress with veto-proof majorities. And given the Harris-Biden teams obvious intention to pack the Supreme Court with political appointees, even if Congress passed such a bill and got it past a Harris veto, her lackeys in the 15-member USSC would simply shut it down.

 Posted by at 3:35 pm

Compare and contrast: Town Halls

 blather, Meh., news, politics  No Responses »
Oct 162020
 

I watched the two Presidential “Town Hall” broadcasts last night. There were very VERY clear distinctions between the two:

1A) Trump: The moderator spent a good chunk of the time (seemingly the majority) interviewing Trump, not letting the audience ask questions

1B) Biden: The moderator let the audience do almost all the asking

2A) Trump: the moderator was adversarial in the extreme

2B) Biden: The moderator was friendly

Each approach seemed fine in its way… on one hand, it’s the job of the press to grill the candidate; on the other the “town hall” format is supposed to be for regular people to ask questions. Just interesting to note the stark difference. Also noted: somehow, *nobody* seemed to ask Biden the important and obvious questions, such as “how do you think history will remember you if you try to enact your claimed policies and you incite a wholly unnecessary civil war (with the gun grab) and/or destroy the US economy (Green New Deal)?” or “so just how much money did Hunter make from selling influence to the Chinese, Ukrainians, Russians and who all else?” Every question was a softball.

 

 Posted by at 9:09 am

Downgrading Betelgeuse

 Hmm..., news, science  No Responses »
Oct 162020
 

According to a new study, Betelgeuse is both smaller and closer than thought…

“Our results say Betelgeuse only extends out to … a radius 750 times the radius of the sun… Our results show it’s a mere 530 light years from us—25 percent closer than previous thought.” 

I would have thought that the distance to Betelgeuse would have been determined via parallax. In fact, it was... and the precision that approach gives is pretty fluffy.

 Posted by at 3:33 am
 Older Entries  Newer Entries