Apr 032015
Apr 032015
So, a local TV news organization in Indiana sent out a reporter looking for businesses that supported the recently enacted, more-recently adjusted “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” bill. They found one such in the form of “Memories Pizza,” a small mom-and-pop pizza and ice cream joint; the daughter of the owner said that they were a Christian business and they wouldn’t cater a gay wedding. The responses were predictable, such as:
“Who’s going to Walkerton, IN to burn down #memoriespizza w me?”
As a result of the barrage of threats, Memories Pizza decided to close up shop. So… terrorism works, I guess.
But then there’s this GoFundMe effort:
Support Memories Pizza
Purpose: To relieve the financial loss endured by the proprietors’ stand for faith.
One day into the funding campaign, it has reached the paltry sum of… $536,155.
Huh.
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Because such things need explaining these days: I see both sides as full of jackasses.
1) If you’re a business… why would you turn away business?
2) If a caterer didn’t want to do business with you… do you really want to do business with them?
Let’s take it to an extreme: you’re putting together a bar mitzvah. You need to get a caterer to provide… well, whatever it is folks generally eat at bar mitzvahs (Hamburgers? Pizza? Cake? Lutefisk? I dunno, not my area.) You have a choice of caterers. One of whom is “Adolphs Bakery,” currently having a special on Swastika Cakes and Aryan Muffins. Do you *really* want them providing your chow?
Apr 022015
Another piece of artwork depicting the construction of a solar power satellite. This design features a “trough” design. Instead of a vast flat plain covered in PV arrays, this design had a central strip of PV cells between two walls of very reflective and very lightweight mylar (or a similar reflective foil). Thus the same total amount of sunlight would be directed to PV cells. Since PV clls generally work slightly better at higher illumination levels, in theory this type of PV array should generate more power for the same frontal area.
Shown slightly to the right of center is the aimable microwave emitter used to beam the energy to a receiving station on Earth.
Apr 022015
Egad.
Apr 022015
This “concept film” came out a bit less than two weeks ago, and has apparently already been snapped up to be turned into a full-fledged Major Motion Picture. If you haven’t heard of it, I recommend watching it cold, to see if you can figure it out. It is one of those bits of art that goes for “deep,” with some success. For a flick that cost all of $50K, it’s visually *very* impressive, even if plot-wise it seems kinda flawed and screwy and I’m hard pressed to see how it can be stretched from 15 minutes to 90+. But if you just like neato scenes of destruction, including one *extremely* creepifyin’ airplane crash, this is good. The end is one of those Mind=Blown sorta things. Spoilers in the comments section.
Best watched at best resolution on your best screen.
Apr 022015
Putin: try to take Crimea away and I will give you a nuclear war
You know, I can understand having an 80’s nostalgia. But come on, there are better aspects of that time to focus on. If Putin were to hang up some Debbie Gibson and Tiffany posters and listen to some Flock of Seagulls, maybe he’d get over his Soviet-style nuclear aggression.
In seriousness: there seems to be a whole lot of crazy over yonder.
Apr 022015
Axe to the nads: Just Say No.
Apr 022015
A trailer for yet another movie that wasn’t exactly screaming to get remade:
Apr 012015
NASA scientist: California has one year of water left
What it *should* say: California has one year of above-ground fresh water in its reservoirs left.
Because:
Now, the water shortage in California is actually a Big Deal. The state government today finally got around to passing some water rationing; it’ll be interesting to see just how badly the Californians ignore it and keep watering their lawns.
But assuming that the drought doesn’t magically turn itself around (and there’s good reason to think that wacky weather in the US is being driven in part by economic development in China… something I doubt the Chinese will bank back on in order to help us out), California will have to think long and hard about actually *doing* something about the water shortage. Desalination plants should dot the shoreline. But there are some alternatives to conventional desalination plants: how about offshore wind farms which use the power of the wind to turn turbine blades… which are filled with tubes that suck up ocean water and spray it into the sky at the top of the arc? Sure, the efficiency will be pathetically low… but you’ll increase downwind humidity some. Or pump filtered but non-desalinated water up to various mountaintops, and on the hottest, driest days of the year spray that water up into the wind. The water evaporates and the salt filters down to the ground; locally you’ll salt the earth, but downwind you’ll add not only water vapor and precipitation, but perhaps also increase cloud cover, reflecting sunlight and reducing solar heating, countering Global Warming. I’m unsure of the wind patterns, but if the mountains around Death Valley are appropriate as a location to add water vapor, I’m pretty sure adding *salt* to the ground won’t really cause a problem. Similarly, if you pump seawater to to the Bonneville Salt Flats and try to flood the place, you won’t really cause much harm by adding salt to the salt.
Apr 012015
Heart transplant recipient Anthony Stokes dies in police chase, crash
The story reads like a bad sitcom. Two years ago Stokes was denied a heart transplant because of a history of medical non-compliance… i.e., he wasn’t taking his meds, so the doctors figured if he got a new heart he’d screw up the opportunity and wind up wasting the transplant. However, “civil rights” groups got involved, caused a legal ruckus and got the docs to change their ruling. So Stokes got his heart. What did he do with his new lease on life?
- Carjacked a car from a mall
- Shot at an elderly woman in a home burglary
- Led the police on a high-speed chase through populated areas
- Hit a pedestrian
- Crashed the car (which, again, was not his), nearly cutting it in half
- Died.
Not mentioned in the story: whoever *should* have received the heart that Stokes got, and instead had to wait, or perhaps died.
Stories like this make me yearn for the day – hopefully not *too* far in the future – when simple organs like the heart can be replaced not with donations, but clones. Then the issue won’t be “who is the bet fit for what we have,” but “who can pay.” Had that been the case here, the “civil rights” groups that demanded that Stokes get his heart could have simply passed a hat around and collected the funds to clone him a heart.
UPDATE: I have doubts about the current structural integrity of his organs, for those wondering if they can be harvested for further transplantation:
One good thing about this news item: it led to the funniest Twitter exchange of the day.
