I don’t have arachnophobia, but I think running face-first into this nightmaresauce would just about do it.
[youtube UPujnYOX9dc]
“It’s raining spiders in Brazil.”
Feb 102013
Feb 102013
B-5 was a great show (if you think otherwise, you’re wrong). But for a show from the *relatively* recent past (ran 1993-1998… holy crap, 20 years ago), it’s actors have been keeling over at a rapid pace, the most recent just a few days ago.
Robin Sachs died a few days ago, played a number of aliens… Narns Na’Tok, Na’Kal; Minbari Coplann and Hedronn
Turhan Bey, played the Centauri emperor, died in September 2012.
Michael O’Hare, who played the station commander Jeffrey Sinclair for the first season, died in September 2012, two days before Bey.
Jeff Conaway, played Zack Allen, died in May, 2011
Johnny Sekka, played Dr. Kyle in “The Gathering” pilot, died September, 2006.
Andreas Katsulas, played the inestimable G’Kar, died February, 2006
Tim Choate (Zathras) died in September, 2004.
Richard Biggs, played Doctor Franklin, died May, 2004
Paul Winfield, played Doc Franklin’s dad, died March, 2004
Gah.
The Babylon 5 cast in their prime.
Feb 092013
I don’t remember if I posted this before. Either way, behold: Robot Chicken’s “Lil’ Hitler,” the funniest 44 seconds you’ll see today.
[youtube 9-axJTzj0VU]
Feb 092013
Long before the “Aurora” was flying across the pages of sensationalist magazines at Mach 6+, NASA was studying a range of hypersonic research aircraft. While the designs different, sometimes wildly, there were occasional configurations remarkably like the hypothetical “Aurora.” Some would argue that that means that the “Aurora” was derived from this earlier NASA work, but a more reasonable supposition is that those who envisioned “Aurora” were drawing upon public representations of the earlier NASA work in order to dream up what Aurora must look like.
One such design that is very representative of the iconic “Aurora” image is this Hypersonic Research Airplane configuration from 1973, shown here as a drawing and as a NASA-Langley subsonic wind tunnel test model. The aircraft was powered by liquid rocket engines in the tail and an underslung scramjet pod. It had a cockpit that would raise up at low speed so the pilot could see to land, but was otherwise a very clean configuration.
Feb 092013
Now this is just damned silly.
Remember a couple weeks ago how Obama got re-inaugurated? Lots of expensive pomp and ceremony for what should have been a two-minute process. Part of that was a parade. Part of the parade were a bunch of Marines in full dress uniform. And part of their uniform is the M-1 Garand semi-automatic rifle. While it’s seriously obsolete, it’s still a classy weapon, and actually much better suited for this sort of thing than the M-16 due to its size, heft and clean lines. Here’s a video of this part of the parade:
[youtube NuJRf7HNVSo]
Here’s a screenshot:
Notice anything out of the ordinary? Probably not at this resolution. Here, try this:
And this:
The bolts have been removed from these rifles.
Ummmm…. why? Who was afraid that the Marines were going to turn out to be the Joker’s gang and were going to try to cap the President?
On January 13, these same Marines (along with USAF and, I think, Army) were video’ed practicing for the parade:
[youtube eAjmsu6pVE4]
The resolution isn’t as good, but it sure looks like at that time their weapons weren’t… neutered.
The rifles were not disabled for the 2009 inauguration:
[youtube 6Z5BIiBckvs]
Feb 092013
A discussion of the eternal question: “Muslims stealing from non-Muslims: good idea? Or best idea?”
The Ruling on Dispossessing the
Disbelievers wealth in Dar al-Harb
In short: if you are a Muslim living in Dar Al Harb (literally: “The House of War,” or any land not under the control of Islam… like, oh, the USA), you are *supposed* to steal from the non-Muslim locals and use that money to fund jihad against ’em.
Think I’m exaggerating or taking it out of context? Fine. Read it yourself.
Does this reflect the position of all Muslims? Doubtful. But Westboro Baptist Church hardly reflects all Christians, and those jackholes are worth pointing and laughing at.
Feb 092013
So: here you are, three British girls endowed with free time, low intelligence, no morals, a video camera… and a kitten. So how do you spend the time? Throwing the kitten, naturally. Knocking it unconscious by flinging it around and bouncing it off walls & ceilings (spoiler alert: the kitten is fine, and got adopted by another family). Then of course, posting the video tape of that super-fun session to Facebook.
So: here you are, Anonymous, and you find this video. What do you do? Why… use your trolling superpowers to find out who the girls are, what their names, addresses and relatives and school administrators names & contact info are, and then spreading this info across the cat-luvin-Internet. (Spoiler alert: the two girls on camera were nabbed by the British police, were put on trial and were dealt with as harshly as the British legal system can: a small fine and a stern talking-to.)
As lame as the legal remedy against the girls was, having come to the attention of Ye Olde Internet is going to be a mistake that will pay off against them for years to come.
Feb 092013
I don’t often push out the tip jar and shake it in people’s faces. But when I do, it’s because of honest but bland reasons like: “I have a stray cat I think who’ll die without medical intervention, and these things cost money.” This did, much to my surprise, result in some real generosity from a number of y’all (THANKS!), enough so that Marvin the cat got examined, medicated and is now scheduled for surgery, the bulk of which would not have happened otherwise.
Still, I suspect if I had been cleverer, I could have really raked in the cash.
That’s just awesome.
21 Incredibly Effective Tip Jars
Feb 092013
Measles cases at 18-year high because parents are failing to get children vaccinated
While it’s from the Daily Fail, the article itself is perfectly fine… it points out that since people started buying into the “vaccines give you autism” claptrap, vaccinations are down and cases of measles are up in Britain. But where your faith in humanity will suffer terrible blows is the comments: it’s loaded with idiotic conspiracy theories about Big Pharma, how convicted fraudster Andrew Wakefield is a hero, etc.
Feb 092013
They put it on the internet, so it must be true.
The latest bit of gossipmongering is that John Brennan, Obamas pick to head the CIA, converted to Islam while working in Saudi Arabia. The evidence for this seems lean… bsically, the FBI guy who wrote a “Muslim Brotherhood training a manual” for the FBI, says so.
Maybe true, maybe not. If it’s true, it’ll be interesting to see how the confirmation hearings go, if the fact of him being a convert to Islam is even raised at the hearings. It is, after all, somewhat akin to finding out that a prospective head of the CIA in 1955 was a convert to Communism. It would explain why Brennan purged such training manuals from the FBI as being “offensive” to Muslims.
A common enough cliche – common because there’s a whole lot of truth to it – is that converts to different religions or political ideologies are usually more fanatical than those born into them.
Another observation: it would be difficult to argue that the 9/11 attacks weren’t successful for Islam. Consider this: after the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans got tossed into internment camps. Loyal Americans were made to suffer due solely to their ethnicity, and had to jump through many hoops in order to simply serve. The idea of an American government official converting to the Shinto faith and becoming director of, say, the OSS is just patently ridiculous. Fast forward to the post-9/11 world: the first new President elected after the attacks was a guy raised in the Islamic faith, has an Islamic middle name and is considered by a great many people to be a Muslim.