Some are more equal than others

 dumbassery, Forward!, I'm from the government, Meh., news, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 112019
 

Why Ald. Ed Burke May Have Been Allowed To Have 23 Guns In Government Building

Y’all will doubtless be shocked to hear that a Chicago politician is corrupt.

He’s been a staunch supporter of gun control measures for decades, but in a surprising twist, federal prosecutors revealed Thursday that nearly two dozen firearms were discovered in Ald. Ed Burke’s offices during their raids in November.

It’s still not known if the guns that were found in November were discovered at Burke’s ward office or at City Hall, but it’s hard to miss the irony of a staunch gun control advocate having to turn over 23 guns as a condition of his bond.

Things could be sped up by the simple expedient of simply arresting anyone suspected of being a Chicago politician.

 Posted by at 7:05 pm

This Presidential candidate annoys my cats

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, THIS is why Trump won, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 112019
 

Kamala Harris is the junior Senator from California and is apparently positioning herself to run for President, because if 2008 showed us anything it was that good salesmanship, overpowering intersectionalism, generations of group-guilt and basic intellectual and ideological bullying can overcome a complete vacancy of resume. She was at some public event or other and a number of the people there started making a ridiculous sound, which surprised one of the reporters in attendance:

As it turns out, this horrible racket is a registered trademark of a racialist sorority, and lack of knowledge of this tripped the offended.exe subroutines of a number of NPCs.

So now we need to be educated in the childish cultural minutia of sub groups of sub groups, or else we’re racist. Note that the comparison is made to a reporter being sent to interview farmers needing to know something about farmers because farmers are as rare and culturally irrelevant as members of one sorority at one university.

In case you are unaware of what “Skee Wee” is, it’s this. Please note: a room full of sleeping cats suddenly became a room full of awake and spooked cats when I played this.

Basically, this:

Welcome to 2019.

Via the Althouse Blog.

 Posted by at 2:20 am

And so it begins… again

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., I'm from the government, news, politics, religion, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 112019
 

Diane Feinstein Proposes New Gun Ban

The bill bans the sale, manufacture, transfer and importation of 205 military-style assault weapons by name, but it does say existing owners may keep existing weapons.

Any assault weapon that accepts a detachable ammunition magazine, has one or more military characteristics (including a pistol grip, a forward grip, a barrel shroud, a threaded barrel or a folding or telescoping stock) will be banned. Owners may keep existing weapons.

Magazines and “ammunition feeding devices” that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, which allow shooters to quickly fire many rounds without needing to reload will be banned.

Unlikely to pass the Senate or White House, but eternal vigilance against this sort of evil should nevertheless be forever maintained.

Full text and list of everything Feinstein wants to ban (for now) follows…

Continue reading »

 Posted by at 1:54 am

The Flickr of Broken Dreams

 Antidote For Nostalgia, history, Hmm..., photography  No Responses »
Jan 102019
 

Thanks to a snarky Fark photoshopping thread, here’s a Flickr page full of 1970’s 8X10 glossies of hopeful entertainers… who, I imagine, have been all of them all but forgotten by history.

the kriegsmann files

On one level they’re kinda funny… goofy lookin’ people in bad 70’s fashions with bad 70’s hair styles. On the other hand… here are people who had dreams of fame and glory, and who were they? But then look at any high school football or basketball tam, filled with kids with dreams of going pro: dreams that will come to a screeching halt with a broken ankle or a realization of a lack of adequate talent.

Still… go take a look and behold the wonders of the perm and the polyester leisure suit.

More than a decade ago NPR ran a piece on this:

Dumpster of Forgotten Musicians Launches Quest

 Posted by at 7:50 pm

Stratolaunch approaches

 aircraft, Hmm..., news, projects, rockets, spacecraft  No Responses »
Jan 102019
 

Stratolaunch airplane nears first flight

On Jan 9, the giant Stratolaunch plane did a taxi test that reached a top speed of 219 kilometers per hour (137 mph), and the nosewheel rotated off the ground. Flight tests probably aren’t far off.

I remain a little baffled about the business plan for Stratolaunch, especially since the initial payload is apparently supposed to be *three* Pegasus XL launch vehicles. That eems an odd thing to do. But Stratoluanch intends to eventually build their own better-optimized expendable and reusable launch vehicles. And the more launchers, the better.

 Posted by at 3:02 pm

“Star Trek” cancellation speculation

 Hmm..., news, science fiction  No Responses »
Jan 102019
 

Doomcock presents some speculation on the rather truncated future of Star Trek.

1: “Star Trek IV,” the long delayed Kelvinverse flick, is pretty much certain to be cancelled. If Bad Robot doesn’t have a Star Trek movie in production by summer, they lose the license. No more LensFlareKelvinVerseNuTrek. I know a lot of people like those movies, but to me they’re … meh.

2: Rumors and evidence abound that season 2 of STD will be the *last* season of STD. Good.

The story on the “Picard” series now in development is tht it takes place not only after “Nemesis,” but after the Prime universe events that led to the Kelvinverse: a star goes supernova and wipes out the Romulan Empire (exactly how that happened has never been well explained) and Spock disappeared in an effort to prevent that. This would still be the Prime timeline; the kelvin timeline would have split off from it and could be safely ignored.

 Posted by at 2:04 pm

Yeeeeeeesh

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., news, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 092019
 

Yet another Nope Dope:

Prowler licks California home’s doorbell for hours with kids inside, video shows

I figure this would turn out to be a clickbaity headline and the “intruder” would turn out to be a deer or a dog or something. Well… nope:

A security video shows a stranger approach the front door of a Salinas, California, home early Friday, then look directly into the camera before proceeding to lick the doorbell — for hours, KION reports.

The video from the movement-activated Ring doorbell camera also shows the intruder interrupted his lascivious licking “to relieve himself in the front lawn” and steal extension cords used for holiday lights, KION reported.

WTF. WTF, I say.

 Posted by at 12:59 am

“The Orville” ratings stink

 AARRRGH, news, science fiction  No Responses »
Jan 092019
 

Bah.

The Orville Slips to Series Low

But the show’s Thursday timeslot debut was more concerning.  It slipped to only a 0.6 rating with 2.8 million total viewers which is a series low and would rank it among FOX’s lowest rated shows.  There was not much competition on the night with ABC running a JFK special and CBS airing repeats in the hour, so the show doesn’t get to opt out with a mulligan.  The Orville did perform well in delayed viewing last season, so we will have to see how those numbers play out. 

With luck, millions of people simply recorded it for later viewing. Without luck, it’ll get Firefly‘d.

 Posted by at 12:34 am

Bell VTOL”Taxi”

 aircraft, art, news, projects, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 082019
 

Bell has unveiled their idea of what an electric intra-city VTOL “taxi” would be, in the form of the “Nexus” AirTaxi. one wonders if it’s more human than human?

Bell reveals the ‘Nexus’ VTOL

On one hand, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the Bell X-22. On the other hand, there are some design choices there that make me scratch my head. The thrust from forward ducts would be bisected by the main wings at forward tflight and then blast right into the rear fans. During transition, the forward thrust would be disrupted by the main wings, which would seem to lead to some fantastic turbulence.

 Posted by at 8:28 pm
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