It’s kinda old news, but some might have missed it: there is one simple slightly profane punchline that seems to work in *any* comic strip. Kinda startlingly effective just how well, in many cases.
Nov 242013
Nov 232013
Nov 232013
An animated gif of two comets. In this case, taken by the STEREO spacecraft, of comets Encke and ISON.
The way in which Encke’s tail waves honestly surprises me. You never get that sense of motion from still photos (well… duh, I suppose).
Nov 232013
Yow. This thing sets white paper on fire almost instantly, wood, in just a second or so.
[youtube 96E0RfyL2Gc]
I’m honestly surprised that they purveyors of “safety” laws haven’t gotten this sort of thing banned. Imagine the mischief potential. I think the only thing keeping professional arsonists from using this to set piles of rags or papers on fire at a distance is that, being a visible spectrum laser, it points both ways. But perhaps in full daylight, it might go unnoticed.
Nov 232013
In very early January of this year, I opened a “store” on Zazzle in order to sell prints and such of my photos. Imagine my surprise when, mere moments ago, I had the very first sale.
http://www.zazzle.com/scottlowtherphotos
It’s been many months since I’ve even *thought* of it. Heck, the failure of it to be even remotely interesting to folks is a large reason why my camera largely sits unused these days (well, apart from the 14,000 or so photos I took on the trip a few months ago).
It got me thinking: what happens to essentially unfrequented “stores” like these when the owner keels over? Ten years down the line, assuming the hosting company is still in business, do the stores stay open?
Nov 222013
I’ve said before that I hoped that the trend over the past few years of declaring “Racism!” over every damned thing would eventually lead to the word losing it’s power to bully. No more shakedowns. No more hustlers making fortunes by terrorizing the well-meaning. Sadly, my hope hasn’t come to pass, at least not yet.
But sometimes the claims of “Racist!” are so bizarre, over the top and oddly mis-applied that my hope returns. Take this example out of Britain:
Children of 8 are ‘racist’ if they miss Islam trip: School’s threatening letter to parents is met with outrage
Dear Parent/Carer,
As part of the National Religious Education Curriculum together with the multicultural community in which we live, it is a statutory requirement for Primary School aged children to experience and learn about different cultures.
The workshop is at Staffordshire University and will give your child the opportunity to explore other religions.
Children will be looking at religious artefacts similar to those that would be on display in a museum. They will not be partaking in any religious practices.
Refusal to allow your child to attend this trip will result in a Racial Discrimination note being attached to your child’s education record, which will remain on this file throughout their school career.
As such our expectations are that all children in years 4 and 6 attend school on Wednesday 27th November to take part in this trip.
All absences on this day will be investigated for their credibility and will only be sanctioned with a GP sick note.
Dude. WTF?
For starters, there’s the explicit threat against *children* if their parents do not choose to send them to go look at some trinkets… for which privilege they’ve also got to pony up cash. But the truly whackobird thing about it? If the kids don’t go see somethign about a religion, they’ll be accused ot being prejudiced against a race. Bwah? And what race would this be, exactly?
This one, mayhaps?
Looks fairly British to me, and yet… Muslim. So… not wanting to go see the Muslim exhibit will mean that little English kids are racist against… the English?
A number of the parents understandably went bonkers when they saw this blackmail attempt, and the school has backed off. However, it seems to me that the best long-term approach would be:
1) Fire whoever wrote the letter
2) prosecute them for attempted child abuse
3) Advertise the prosecution far and wide. Make it known and understood that the era of such blatant political correctness is over, and anyone trying to use the power of the government to enforce this sort of rubbish will be run out of the public square on a rail. Or at the very least, stripped of their power to bully children.
Nov 222013
The smallest individual spacecraft concept proposed for the Strategic Defense Initiative was the “Brilliant Pebbles” system. Instead of vast, multi-hundred-ton battle platforms like the lasers and neutral particle beams and railguns, Brilliant Pebbles were *relatively* small rocket vehicle designed to intercept enemy missiles and warheads while in space. The system was composed of a rocket-powered kill vehicle (usually fueled by dense, easily storable propellants such as nitric acid and hydrazine), and a “cocoon.” The latter was a shroud that protected the kill vehicle while it waited out the years floating in space.
The kill vehicle, in order to do its job, had to be *extremely* high performance. It was composed of a series of thrusters, lightweight composite propellant tanks, optics to spot and track the target, a computer to run it, communication systems, batteries… and not much else. The Brilliant Pebbles (so named because they were derived from the concept of “smart rocks,” which was a jovial way to describe a hit-to-kill system: instead of taking out the target with a warhead, you actually ram the target with your vehicle) vehicles were said to have the propulsive capability of boosting themselves out of Earth orbit and doing a fast flyby of Mars. This performance was needed in order to be able to launch from wherever they happened to be and race to intercept enemy missiles.
Data, such as mass and dimensions, is sadly lacking. Guesstimate that the cocoon is about the size of a Volkswagen. Where the bigger systems such as lasers would require heavy lift launchers, Brilliant Pebbles could be launched by much smaller rockets… and a whole lot of them. *Thousands* of Brilliant Pebbles would be needed in low Earth orbit to provide basic coverage. For every Brilliant Pebble that would be in place to take on a Soviet missile, many more would not be. It was the need to launch vast flocks of these that the SDI program began studying reusable, low-cost launchers, leading to the Delta Clipper program.
Nov 212013
Here’s an entertaining news story…
‘Point ’em out, knock ’em out’: Brutal game ends when assault victim fires his concealed handgun
In short: a dumbass in Lansing, Michigan, decided it would be a fun lark to pick out some random schmoe on the street and knock him out with a stun gun. But the stun gun fails when he jabs the feller. Who then pulls out a .40 Smith & Wesson semi-automatic and pops a cap in his ass. Literally, as it turns out.
This was apparently a variation on “the knoutout game,” where a thug picks a random victim and attempts to knock them unconscious in a single punch. The “game” has also been referred to as “polar bearing.” The news reports on this exciting new trend in youth hijinks have generally been pretty lean on certain details of these activities. However, it’s starting to get more press. Hopefully, more incidents like this will end up like the one in Lansing, with the perpetrator on the receiving end of a gunshot. The problem, of course, is that “the knockout game” comes out of nowhere, with no time for the intended victim to prepare.
[youtube gzptOuQ0M9U]
Nov 212013
… as we all point towards London, England, and say, “Dude. WTF???”
Three women ‘held as slaves’ in south London
The “highly traumatised” women are alleged to have been held against their will for 30 years – with one born in captivity
With this almost inevitable little tidbit:
Their alleged captors are not British
Let me guess. Dutch. It was the Dutch.
Nov 212013
Oy.
How Christian fundamentalists plan to teach genocide to schoolchildren
The headline sounds hyperbolic, and coming from “The Guardian,” it’s certainly prudent to be skeptical. However, if the story is even close to accurate… yup, the headline fits. The “Child Evangelism Fellowship” is using the story of God commanding King Saul to exterminate the Amalekites (Not just all the men. All their wives, and all their children, and all their sheep, and all their cattle, and all their cats and dogs. All of them. All of them gone for good.) to drive home the importance of unthinking, immediate obedience to Authority, no matter how vile or horrific or just plain *stupid* the orders.
“King Saul should have been willing to seek God for strength to obey completely,” the lesson plan on the Amalekites reads, and in three separate places it instructs teachers, “Have children shout ‘God will help you obey!'”
Gah.
I always thought the story would have been better if, when God told Saul to slaughter everyone, Saul thought for a second and said, “You know what… no. Just… no.” Then God could have smiled upon Saul and patted him on the head and said how proud he was that he was beginning to grow up and *think,* rather than just being a malevolent tool.
But hey, that’s just me.
