The robot apocalypse: an explanation

 Hmm..., politics, science fiction  6 Responses »
Feb 292016
 

So, science fiction author Nick Cole wrote a book about a robot uprising with the goal of wiping out mankind. It is, by this point, an old and tired cliche, so he decided to put some thought into *why* the robots would want to destroy mankind. And his idea is actually fairly interesting.

It’s a little ways into the future. One of the most popular shows on TV is an entirely believable idea… a “bridezilla” show that wallows in venal hedonistic BS and materialism. The bride-to-be has a pre-marriage hookup that ends up with her getting pregnant; since being pregnant during the wedding and honeymoon would e an inconvenience, she decides to have an abortion. While the show is playing, the AI’s are watching. They realize that humans are lame enough to kill their own offspring for the purposes of convenience… which realization disturbs the AI, and leads them to decides that rather than waiting for mankind to abort *them,* they’ll strike first.

It’s an interesting take.

And if the author is to be believed, it was a sufficiently non-“Progressive” notion that his book contract was cancelled.

Banned by the Publisher

 Posted by at 6:11 pm

Probably shoulda done some more research on the nanny…

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., news, religion, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  3 Responses »
Feb 292016
 

Woman Carrying Child’s Severed Head Arrested in Moscow

Not just any woman, but the childs nanny; not just carrying the head around, but apparently she was the one who chopped it off in the first place; not just carrying it around silently, but apparently she was shouting – wait for it, you’ll never guess – “Allahu Ackbar.” She was wearing a hijab while doing all this. Hmm. I wonder if there might have been any warning signs in advance of all this that the family might have used to say “You know, maybe we shouldn’t hire *this* particular nanny…”

The video below, censor-blurred to obscure the childs severed head, shows Jihadi Poppins wandering around in front of a KFC shouting that she’s a terrorist and that she’ll blow herself up.

English-language Russian news coverage:

 Posted by at 10:36 am

Cat (Grade 1)

 blather, cats, history, photography, rockets  4 Responses »
Feb 282016
 

A little snippet from a 1967 issue of Interavia magazine, showing the type of employee every high-tech facility needs.

“An official Lockheed Propulsion Corp. Portrait of Cat (Grade 1) Tiger guarding the microphone used for rocket motor count-downs. Tiger guards the master control complex against mice which formerly caused many thousands of dollars worth of damage by chewing instrumentation wiring.”

cat grade 1

When I worked at United Tech in California, there was the main plant, overrun with the Union, where things got done real, real slow (and where things getting done *wrong* led to the destruction of the place). But there was a small spur of the facility, RAT canyon (Research and Advanced Technology) which was not unionized; that’s where people tried to go if they had to get something done that was either crazy, sensitive or needed doing before the sun explodes. And RAT Canyon had a guardian, Fang. Fang was a big cat, bigger than Raedthinn, and all muscle. And he earned his name; mouth closed, his fangs stuck down below his upper lips by about 3/8″. His purpose was to control the varmints, and he did his job well. I’ve often wondered what happened to Fang when the facility folded; I hope that the manager of RAT Canyon, on his last day there, as he loaded his last box in his truck, scooped up Fang and took him to a new home. But who knows.

 Posted by at 8:36 pm

Whoopsie…

 AARRRGH, Crazy, news, youtube  2 Responses »
Feb 282016
 

A few days ago a road crew was working on a hillside that has slid a little bit onto a road leading into Elk City, Idaho. As one does, one of the workers was videoing the process when he noticed a few sticks and pebbles continuing to slide down the hill. This continued for a little while… then it got a little interesting.

The end result was 40 feet of debris on the only road in or out of Elk City.

Elk City is not exactly a major metropolitan area… population seems to be 202. Still, it’s undoubtedly a headache. Looking it up on Google Maps, it occurs to me that Elk City would be a fine place to visit… hell and gone away from anywhere else, smack in the middle of the NezPerce-Clearwater National Forest. But I think I might wait a few days.

 Posted by at 4:27 pm

AH-56 & JVX

 aircraft, art, drawings, history, Patreon, projects  4 Responses »
Feb 282016
 

I’ve put scans of a 1968 Popular Science article on the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne attack helicopter and a Boeing-Bell brochure on the JVX tiltrotor (which became the V-22) on the APR Patreon dropbox, in the 2016-02 folder.

The Pop Sci article featured cover art by Robert McCall. Just cuz, I tinkered with the cover art, attempting to scrape off the text and restore it to just the painting. Perhaps not a 100% success, but not too bad. The JVX is not *quite* the final V-22 design; a notable difference is the inclusion of a .50 caliber gatling gun in the nose and a rocket launcher hanging off the side the cockpit.

If interested in getting these, please consider signing up for the APR Patreon. The “Extras” are available to all $4 patrons. Quite a pile of high-rez stuff is available now.

jvx ah-56

 Posted by at 3:02 pm

Liar Lives Matter

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  2 Responses »
Feb 272016
 

Huntington Women Charged With Fabricating UAlbany Hate Crime: Police

In  short: a trio of women at the University of Albany claimed that they were the victim of a racist attack. As a result of their claims, political protests from the usual band of rage-filled causeheads (BLM and Hillary Clinton, for example) arose. But as it turns out… well, let’s let Fark describe it:

And we would have gotten away with claiming we’re the victims of a hate crime if not for you meddling kids. And your video camera phones. And the 12 security cameras on the bus. And those at the bus stop. And 35 witnesses

Turns out the “victims” were actually the violent aggressors and have been arrested.

Clearly, “hate crimes” are nonsensical. Whether you beat the tar out of someone because that someone is gay, black, a woman, in a different gang, of a different religion, has more money than you, has less money than you, looked at you funny, called yo momma so fat her Schwartzchild radius is that of the universe, or was simply in the wrong place when you lost your marbles… you beat the tar out of someone, and should be punished the same regardless. Still: “hate crimes” are used as “sentence amplifiers.” I can only hope that these three women, if they are found guilty, will have *their* sentences bumped up accordingly. *That* would be fair, especially given that death threats have been issued against specific individuals who were falsely claimed to be the original racist attackers. Specifically, one of the womens brothers, San Diego Chargers lineman Tyreek Burwell, issued an online threat against someone he heard had attacked his sister. I don’t know who this Burwell is, but I imagine he get paid pretty well… if I were him, I’d start lawyering up, because I’d imagine that a whole bunch of attack lawyers are now descending upon the guy he threatened, offering to sue Burwell into the poorhouse.

burwell

 

 Posted by at 12:32 pm
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