Ummm… yeah. Sure. Why not.
[youtube T-D1KVIuvjA]
Dec 202013
Dec 202013
The latest trend in gormless chickenshittery being foisted upon western civilization is ulcerating over – and attempting to bully people into “correcting” – the supposed problem of “microaggression.” You know… not when someone walks past you on the street and suckerpunches you dead in the face, or steals your identity and destroys your life: no, it’s when someone doesn’t refer to you by your chosen pseudo-gender pronoun, or assumes that just because you’ve lived your whole life in the US that you understand English and have some understanding of American culture.
Read up on this dire threat to mankind here:
Unmasking The Mustachioed Menace Of Microaggression
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Now: with that out of the way, I shall now endeavor to engage in some blatant microaggression (or perhaps milliaggression). This is based on the latest bit of odd propaganda to come out promoting Obamacare Zealotry posted to Obamas Twitter account:
That’s just… ummm… Sorry, dude, but I can’t respect a grown man dressed in a one-piece childs pajama outfit, focused on driving his family nuts by yapping incessantly about how wonderful Dear Leaders policies are, wearing that look of insufferable smugness.
There is, fortunately, a wide field of mockery. Because Internet:
The Dozen Funniest Variations of Obama’s Pajama Boy Propaganda
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Here’s the thing: The world is *full* to overflowing with instances of “microaggression.” You have two chocies before you: you can stamp your feet and demand that the entire universe conform to *your* worldview, politics, opinions, behaviors and even grammar and diction… or you could, oh, let’s say, MAN THE HELL UP.
Anyone who sees themselves in Pajama Boy and agrees with the yammering yahoos on the importance of eliminating “microaggression”… you need a good solid dose of insensitivity training. You’ll be stronger and happier for it.
And unless you were thinking that Pajama Boy is just some poor schlub whose stock photo was used in a bizarre Tweet to prop up Obamacare… turns out he’s an employee for “Organizing for Action,” the successor group to the Obama election organization.
[youtube BVzZ83N5y58]
Dec 202013
Some footage of the Hard Mobile Launcher being driven through its paces. The HML was a truck and trailer system… the trailer containing a single MGM-134a “Midgetman” Small ICBM. The idea behind this late 1980’s program was that the trucks would disperse around vast military reservations in the American West, and would be exceedingly difficult for the Soviets to effectively target. Once at the launch site, the trailer would lower itself and hug the ground. The truck would separate and head for the hills; the sloped sides of the trailer would, it was hoped, shield it from shock waves produced by nearby Soviet nuclear explosions. The trailer would then automatically raise and launch the missile.
[youtube ZtdM9BOUunk]
This particular HML is one of two very different Boeing designs, and currently resides at the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio.
Dec 192013
I’ve recently brought up a few movies that I think touch on the popularity and/or importance of space exploration (the trailer for “Interstellar” for importance, the film “Gravity” for popularity). I was reminded of a 2001 TV commercial for the financial company AIG that impressed the hell out of me back in the day, though it didn’t seem to have *squat* to do with… errrr… whatever it was AIG did. But by combining the whiny cowardice described in TS Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” with the boldness and daring of the early space program, I thought it produced a powerful pro-space-exploration message.
(Yes, I know I’ve posted a YouTube link to this before. Bite me. I like it.)
[youtube At6F0M4bSP8]
Dec 182013
A study has demonstrated that it’s better to be right than happy. Because, in short, trying to be happy – rather than trying to be right – quickly makes you unhappy.
Being right or being happy: pilot study
The short form is this: some scientists in New Zealand wanted to see if marital happiness could be increased by the husband simply giving up his urge to be right, and instead simply agreeing with his wife at every turn. No matter what dumb, pointless or otherwise wrong thing she had to say or order to give, the husband was to simply go along with it. Obviously, the husband was in on the study; the wife was not. So, how’d it turn out?
Disaster.
The pair were asked to rate their general happiness at the beginning… he was 7 out of ten, she was 8. By day six, she was at 8.5… and by day 12 he was down to 3, quite depressed. Why? Because as he acquiesced to her every demand, she lost respect for him, and she became increasingly critical. So on day 12, the husband simply gave up, terminating the experiment.
It seems that being right… is a cause of happiness, and agreeing with what one disagrees with is a cause of unhappiness. …
The availability of unbridled power adversely affects the quality of life of those on the receiving end.
Well, duh.
Now, a word of warning: this study seems to be rather tongue-in-cheek… it might not be entirely on the up-and-up. Example:
The study has some limitations. There was no trial registration, no ethics committee approval, no informed consent, no proper randomisation, no validated test instrument, and questionable statistical assessment. We used the eyeball technique for single patienttrials which, as Sackett says, “more closely matches the way we think as clinicians.”
Were this not in the British Medical Journal, one might be forgiven for thinking it came from the Journal of Irreproducible Results. Still, the results should not be surprising: for many (I’m guessing most) people, suppressing what you believe to be right just to avoid disagreement is grating. And this extends well beyond one-on-one relationships, on up to international politics: appeasement is a disastrous policy when facing power-mad opponents, whether it western powers facing off against Nazi Germany or the USSR or Iran, or whether it’s weak-spined Republicans facing off against the Democrats. Agreeing with what you know to be wrong might avoid confrontation for a while, but it weakens you and emboldens the other guy… while making them lose respect for you.
In my own case, I’ve always found it at best difficult to be “diplomatic” in the face of nonsense or falsehood. Makes me fun at parties. And at church.
Sadly, society is such that “No, you’re wrong” is something that a lot of people just can’t stand to hear.
[youtube ahj7k8KXUu4]
Dec 172013
Remember James Costello, the Boston Bombing victim and focus of this photo?
Turns out he got quite badly burned in the blast. Bad enough to need hospitalization. And then extended rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Where he had a nurse named Krista D’Agostino. Who he has now proposed to. And she said yes.
So… good on ya, Jim.
Chinas Lunar Endgame: Nuking Europe
art, blather, Crazy, Forward!, news, nukes, politics, spacecraft, ಠ_ಠ
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Dec 172013
Not long ago I mentioned that there was a suggestion that China use the Moon as a launch site for nuclear weapons. Apparently, there is some subtle propaganda bolstering that notion:
Chinese rover diorama shows Europe being nuked
The photo is Reuters shot, and being unthrilled with the notion of being sued I’ll just let y’all go look if you want. But it’s an industry show with a mockup of the Yutu lunar rover with a stock image of Earth (“Nuclear Explosion on Earth from Space”) as a backdrop…. but it’s an Earth with a ginormous mushroom cloud over Europe.
UPDATE: It’s *not* really a “stock image” so much as a piece of art posted on Deviant Art.
“EDIT: Many thanks to the chinese goverment for stealing & printing my work, with no credit. www.n-tv.de/wissen/China-will-….
I hope your Jade Rabbit falls into a ditch on the moon and is unable to recover, you communist bastards.”
Dec 172013
A woman discovers that kicking snow in the face of a stray cat might not be the best of all possible ideas.
[youtube o-oVhu2fu20]
Sadly, this being the Detroit area, the government came down in force upon this cat.
Dec 172013
A photo of a bit of NASA concept art, found on eBay. Dating from 1968, this shows an astronaut doing some geology (“seleneology?”) with a six-wheeled rover and a remarkably slim space suit.
Dec 162013
LLNL artwork depicting the hit-to-kill terminal stage of the Brilliant Pebbles, sans the booster drop-stages. It does not seem to have a go-forward thruster; that would seem to have been provided by the boosters. What it does have is a fair amount of divert capability provided by the thrusters mounted at what should be the center of gravity.
While dimensions are unknown with any certainty, this would be a fairly small system. The kill vehicle – which in this case is somewhat difficult to distinguish from the propulsion system – had a mass goal of only 2.5 kilograms (according to THIS), while the booster was to mass about 100 kilograms. THIS source said the vehicles were about one meter long.