A room full of cats

 awesomeness, cats, critters, Hmm...  No Responses »
Dec 022019
 

Visited an animal shelter today that had a cat room and and a bunch of dog kennels. Here’s why I prefer cats: the cats who didn’t like me? They avoided me, or simply ignored me. The dogs who didn’t like me? They would have *killed* me had they been able to do so. I don’t speak dog, but I’m pretty sure a lot of that barking would translate into something akin to “me eat your throat out” or “doghu ackbar” or something.

A room full of cats and kittens, though? A small slice of rightness in the world.

 Posted by at 5:54 pm

Buttons in close-up

 cats, photography, science fiction  No Responses »
Dec 012019
 

On top of everything else, a couple weeks ago my phone started acting up in a “well, it’s about time to die” sort of way. I guess I should not have been too surprised… it was five years old, which is probably about four years past the expected replacement date. So, I had to plunk down yet more money to procure a replacement (a “mid-grade” version… I sure as hell wasn’t going to blow $900 on a phone). At least the new phone’s camera seems to work pretty well.

Examples: a few photos of Buttons taken at fairly extremely close range.

 

Bonus photo: Banshee saw a stargate and figured that that was her chance to return to her homeworld. Alas, it was merely Hollywood trickery.

 Posted by at 10:02 pm

When swords are banned…

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, religion, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Dec 012019
 

Real Men will wield narwhal tusks:

When Usman Khan decided to help enrich the culture of London by using Knives Of Peace, a Polish chef named Łukasz pulled  a tusk off the wall of “Fishmongers Hall” and decided to enstabulate Khn with it. Another Londoner hosed Khan down with a fire extinguisher.

Khan, as it turns out, was an interesting fellow. Here’s a photo of him (far left) and his fellow Bo-lu from 2012 when he was jailed for a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange:

A few questions immediately spring to mind:

1: If he was convicted of an an attempted terrorist bombing less than a decade ago, what the frak was he doing out and about? Answer: there was a maximum sentence permitted under British law, and he was set free.

2: Why the frak was he still in Britain, rather than deported back to Caprona? Answer: he was apparently a British citizen, born and bred there. As English as the Queen, eh wot.

Might be a few lessons there.

 Posted by at 4:27 pm

Possibilities of New Business Growth: Space Station Lifeboat

 projects, spacecraft  No Responses »
Nov 302019
 

Rockwell suggested in 1985 that manned versions of their ballistic cargo return systems could be used to return astronauts from the space station in the event of an on-orbit disaster. Two concepts are illustrated (“ENCAP” and “SAVER”), one similar to the Douglas “Paracone” from the 1960’s, and a version using a balloon to provide drag. So presumably the cargo return system, illustrated with a lifting body diagram, would actually closely resemble one of these systems.

 Posted by at 1:21 am

Gun laws: a raging success

 Hmm..., news, politics, weapons  No Responses »
Nov 282019
 

So what happens when you use laws to make owning a gun legally difficult? You incentivize the trade in illegal guns. And you incentivize the manufacture of home-made guns.

California HS shooter used untraceable ‘ghost gun,’ sheriff says

And it wasn’t even an Evil AR-15, but a mundane .45 caliber pistol, built off the books Because firearm manufacture, especially now in the era of affordable CNC mills, is within the grasp not just of registered firearms corporations, but of modestly dedicated amateurs.

 Posted by at 9:54 am

NASA space art: Shuttle contributions

 art, history, Hmm..., nukes, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Nov 282019
 

Sometime around 1973/74, NASA put out a report on future aeronautics and space opportunities. While lean on technical detail, and devoid of diagrams (bah), it did have some vaguely interesting 1970’s-style art. The painting below illustrates some of the “other” things that the forthcoming Space Shuttle could do, like launch solar power satellites, lob nuclear waste into deep space and be used for point-to-point Terrestrial passenger transport. Yeah, about that…

 Posted by at 9:31 am

ET 2

 science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
Nov 282019
 

It only took about 40 years, but ET finally gets a sequel.

Yes, it’s a commercial. But remember Reese’s Pieces? The whole movie served as a monumental commercial for that minor confection.

 

 

 Posted by at 9:24 am
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