Snerk

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., humor, news, ಠ_ಠ  19 Responses »
May 242016
 

St. Petersburg teen sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder

That’s not a funny headline. And it’s not a funny story, considering how it has robbery and someone getting shot three times. I’d be tempted to say that there’s nothign funny about this at all.

But if I said that, I’d be a dirty, dirty Hillary. Just… lies, nothing but lies. Because there’s one aspect to the story that is worthy of laughter.

The name of the attempted murderer:

Le’Genius Wisdom Williams.

Let that sink in a moment.

When lil’ Le’Genius Wisdom was 13, he tried to murder someone, and now he’s 16 and has been sentenced to 8 years in prison. That’s bad.

But he was sentenced to a lifetime of FAIL when his parents decided to name him “Le’Genius Wisdom.” A name like that *screams* “this is all of the parental give-a-damn I’ll ever be able to muster, and it’s downhill from here, kid.”

 Posted by at 1:24 am

Oh boy! Mayhem!

 news, politics  4 Responses »
May 232016
 

Get ready for some exciting times in Baltimore:

Freddie Gray verdict: Officer Edward Nero not guilty

Nero was charged with second-degree assault for allegedly touching Gray during an arrest that prosecutors said was illegal. He also faced two counts of misconduct, as well as reckless endangerment for not putting a seat belt on Gray when he put the prisoner in a police van.

So, yeah. He touched Gray during the arrest. Kinda hard to see a real issue there. He failed to buckle Gray in, which is more problematic. There seems to be some debate about who is actually responsible for belting in passengers in the van; you’d think that ultimate responsibility would be with the driver.

 Posted by at 9:32 am

A brief note on trolling

 blather, Meh.  No Responses »
May 232016
 

For a long time I blacklisted commenters *very* rarely. Maybe one every year or two. Recently, though, I’ve been blacklisting a number of obvious trolls because they are, well, obvious trolls. Here’s the thing: however long it takes you to write an argle-bargle comment about how I want to do this or that Horrible Thing, it takes me waaaaay less time to hit the “blacklist this idjit” button. And guess what: I’ve been on the internet a long time. Quite possibly longer than your standard troll has been *alive.* And while, yes, that does make me feel old, it has also been time enough to learn to just shrug off vile trolling. I don’t get all that upset by it anymore. I just hit the Button.

Yes, I’m all for free speech. And if you are a troll or associated form of jackass, you are free to yap all you like elsewhere. So, you want to tell me I’m wrong, fine. You want to argue, fine. But if you want to troll or insult, I’ll blacklist you with the same passion with which I hit the “spam” button on those robot-auto-ad comment things… none whatsoever. Just FYI.

Oh, and if you have been blacklisted and you are trying to find a way to come back to continue to be a jackass… take this opportunity to ask yourself why you even care enough to bother.

 Posted by at 12:17 am

Supersonic Split Line Nozzle

 rockets  4 Responses »
May 222016
 

This here is what you call a  “supersonic split line nozzle.” It’s not commonly encountered out in the wild, but it has been tested for decades for use as a vectorable nozzle on relatively small solid rocket motors, generally military missiles. The ball-and-socket design allows the nozzle to be gimballed (either hydraulically or electromechanically); the unusual location of the splitline (where the fixed part meets the movable part) downstream of the throat means that the joint is moved out of the high-pressure environment within the motor. A nozzle like this *should* have lower leakage and erosion issues that a subsonic splitline nozzle, while being easier to move than a nozzle with a flexible joint (basically a rubber gasket that is bonded to both sides and requires a whole lot of force to horse around) with easier thermal issues.

ssslnozzle

 Posted by at 8:51 pm

Trump now leading Clinton

 Hmm..., news, politics  5 Responses »
May 222016
 

Fun times must be brewin’ over at the Clinton Election Politburo…

General Election: Trump vs. Clinton

 

Trump is up by 0.2%.

polls

Trump got real close to Clinton twice before, but only for very brief moments. Should be interesting to see if this lasts. If it lasts and is meaningful…

huhcat

In related news…

Gary Johnson sees huge jump in new poll

… former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is polling at 10 percent.

Run, Bernie! Run!

Could be real interesting this go-round.

 Posted by at 8:18 pm

Say “hello” to you new protected class

 Hmm..., news, politics  4 Responses »
May 222016
 

As much as I despise the very idea of “hate crime laws” since they set some people up as being more important than other (just about the most un-American thing I can think of, next to anti-blasphemy laws and soccer), I can’t help but get a chuckle out of this:

Louisiana could be the first state where targeting police is a hate crime

Targeting cops was *already* the sort of thing that got you extra time in the pokey, but now there’ll be even more plus extra fines.

 Posted by at 2:59 pm

California & desalination

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., history, Hmm..., I'm from the government, news, nukes, politics, science, wisdom, ಠ_ಠ  26 Responses »
May 212016
 

California’s last resort: Drink the Pacific

The article mentions that a desalination plant near Santa Barbara can be brought online with the expenditure of buckets of cash… and that the plant has been sitting there, idle, for 25 years.

Apparently, it was built during a drought, and about the moment it came online the drought ended, so they stopped running the plant. But the thing that gets me: during all the time that California supposedly hasn’t needed the water, California has been draining the Colorado river dry. Which leads to *this* news story:

Lake Mead declines to lowest level in history

Yeah, desalination is expensive. But then again, so are social programs and prisons and sanctuary cities. So I have no sympathy for a state that is rich as hell, blows it’s money on silly nonsense and ignores the things it needs to do. If California would build a hundred desal plants along the cast, each with its own nuclear powerplant, much of Californias water problem could be dealt with during droughts. And when the droughts end, the nuclear powerplants would power the state.

Something California doesn’t seem to understand is that there are *other* states that rely on the Colorado River… states that, unlike California, don’t have a vast ocean coastline to fall back on. I wonder about the possibility of states like Nevada and Arizona suing the bejeezus out of California, suing them for, say, a trillion dollars. *That* might inspire the California state government to finally shake off the scourge of Greenpeace and the like and doing what needs to be done to actually protect the environment.

 Posted by at 8:42 pm
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