Sportsball

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Hmm..., Meh.  8 Responses »
Aug 212017
 

As well all know, the war crime known as “soccer” is just about the dullest thing in the known universe (“it’s worse than watching paint dry, it’s like watching paint play soccer”). However, it’s hardly the only crashingly dull sport to watch. I’ve never been any sort of fan of football (“American,” not “weeny”); it doesn’t interest me at the best of times, but it seems like every time I’ve turned on a football game, they weren’t actually playing football. Turns out there’s a reason why I have that impression:

An average NFL game: more than 100 commercials and just 11 minutes of play

The 11 minutes of action was famously calculated a few years ago by the Wall Street Journal. Its analysis found that an average NFL broadcast spent more time on replays (17 minutes) than live play. The plurality of time (75 minutes) was spent watching players, coaches, and referees essentially loiter on the field.

An average play in the NFL lasts just four seconds.

Feh.

 Posted by at 2:57 pm

WANT: STOL Edition

 aircraft, awesomeness, youtube  4 Responses »
Aug 202017
 

Back when I was young and filled with hope and excitement for the future, I wanted me an airplane. Granted, lots of people want airplanes. Some want luxurious corporate jets. Some want flashing helicopters. some want jet fighters. Me? I wanted something like this:

Sigh…

Now, this is just plain showing off:

 

(“Plain?” “Plane?” Get it? Bah.)

 Posted by at 3:09 pm

Guess what’s racist: the eclipse

 Forward!, Gah., history, Meh., politics, ಠ_ಠ  9 Responses »
Aug 202017
 

I keep telling myself I’m going to stop posting about identity politics for a little while, to give this nonsense a rest. But the social justice warriors keep sucking me back in…

American Blackout

It has been dubbed the Great American Eclipse, and along most of its path, there live almost no black people. … Presumably, this is not explained by the implicit bias of the solar system. It is a matter of population density, and more specifically geographic variations in population density by race, for which the sun and the moon cannot be held responsible. Still, an eclipse chaser is always tempted to believe that the skies are relaying a message. 

The message: there’s nothing so unrelated to race-based politics that it can’t be used to buttress race-based politics.

“Sun Goes Supernova, Exterminates Humanity: Women, Children, Minorities Affected Most.”

 Posted by at 12:29 pm

The Great Galactic Ghoul

 art, history, spacecraft  1 Response »
Aug 192017
 

In the 1960’s, sending space probes to Mars was a crapshoot; both the US and USSR lost very expensive spacecraft. This was due to one simple fact: spaceflight is hard. But in 1965, JPL engineer (John Casani) jokingly told a reporter that the problem was the Great Galactic Ghoul, a Mars-based monster that kept eating spacecraft. A few years later when Mariner 7 seemingly disappeared, a JPL artist (G. W. Burton) painted the Ghoul chomping down on the probe.

I’ve posted the full-rez scan (from an 8X10 B&W glossy) to the 2017-08 APR Extras Dropbox folder for APR Patrons ($4 and up level).

 Posted by at 11:23 pm

USS Indianapolis found

 awesomeness, history, news, nukes, ships, youtube  2 Responses »
Aug 192017
 

Awesome:

Billionaire Paul Allen Finds Lost World War II Cruiser USS Indianapolis in the Philippine Sea

Found 18,000 feet deep.

 

If “USS Indianapolis” doesn’t necessarily ring any bells, this scene from “Jaws” should just about cover it. This is one of the *great* scenes in movie history; it’s done simply, straightforward and it’s freakin’ brilliant. This is due not only to Shaw’s magnificent performance, but due also to the speech having been written by John Milius (and cut down from Milus’ 10 pages to 5 by Shaw himself).

It’s my understanding that the story of the Indianapolis was largely unknown to the public prior to “Jaws,” and that at least a few of the survivors went into the movie unaware of what was coming. That must have been… something.

It’s impractical to the point of being impossible, but it would be great to bring the Indianapolis back up to the surface and restore it to an extent. Perhaps put it next to the USS Arizona memorial. Of course, it’s probably right to leave it where it is as a memorial to the dead.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 9:57 pm

Predict the Future

 blather, Hmm..., news, politics  15 Responses »
Aug 192017
 

With all the chaos around the Trump presidency, it may be amusing to predict the future and, if the internet still exists in a few months to a few years, check back and compare what happened with what was predicted.

Less than a year into the average Presidency, there are a few generic predictions that one can reasonably guess at:

  1. He’ll lose the next election.
  2. He’ll win the next election.
  3. Assassination.
  4. Death by accident/natural causes.

Those would seem to be about it… normally. But with Trump, some other options seem not unreasonable.

  1. Removed from office
  2. Resigns
  3. Decides not to run in 2020
  4. The Republicans replace him in 2020
  5. Starts World War V, and it doesn’t matter anymore.

The way things are going, with a historic turnover of his staff, his supporters fleeing, the opposition party salivating over the chance to prosecute him and his own party turning their backs on him, it just doesn’t seem that unlikely to me that he’ll be out of office well before the end of his first term. So far I haven’t seen anything that would merit forced removal from office, though his business dealings are worrisome and who knows what the investigations will turn up (keep in mind that both Bill Clinton and Martha Stewart were eventually punished over things that were *not* what the original investigations were looking for). As for resigning, I’m of two minds:

  1. He seems like the kind who’ll stick around out of spite if nothing else
  2. On the other hand, he’s bailed out of things before.

So if he calls it quits, I imagine he’ll *somehow* do so while declaring victory. It won’t make a lick of sense, but it’ll be entirely in character.

So we got this:

‘Art of the Deal’ Ghostwriter Thinks President Trump Will Resign Before the End of the Year

So… I dunno. I have serious doubts about him bailing before the end of the year, but I’m coming around to the idea of him quitting before 2020. At the very least, I just don’t see him winning in 2020. Unless something important changes, he’ll continue to gaffe his way forward.

If Trumps resigns, Pence becomes President. The Dems won’t hate Pence more than they hate Trump; conservatives and mainstream republican will probably like him more. So if Trump resigns *soon,*  Pence should have a reasonable shot in 2020.  And if he actually manages to win and does an ok job, he can run *again* in 2024. If he wins that (note: to be able to run in 2024, Trump would have to resign *after* Jan 20, 2018), he’ll be in office until 2029, the longest Presidency since FDR. He’d be 69 at the time… younger than Trump and Hillary are *now.*

So… my *guess* is that Trump will bail sometime in the next few years.

Feel free to comment with your own predictions. Keep the Nazi-calling to a dull roar, please…

 Posted by at 12:53 am

A Reminder: This is how you deal with a Klan/Nazi march

 art, awesomeness, humor, politics  2 Responses »
Aug 172017
 

I posted this YouTube video before, but for some reason it seems relevant again:

 

 

I would hesitate to suggest doing this at the next ANTIFA gathering; they might beat you to death with a bike lock.

Also: a better approach than violence and destruction for all those Confederate monuments:

Arizona woman turns Confederate monument into 2nd place participation trophy

Ha. HA! I say!

 Posted by at 10:47 pm
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