The makers of Star Trek: Discovery got themselves sued over allegedly stealing a small video game makers concept and design for a tardigrade-based FTL propulsion system. A few days ago STD ran a new episode that featured some cartoonishly evil new alien race what looks like this:
From what I can see in this one still, it’s a humanoid with black shiny skin, long clawed fingers, no obvious eyes, tentacles hanging from the face, undefined lower extremities and it reportedly lives under water (or under some liquid… dunno, haven;t seen the episode, just going off reports).
A random YouTube recommendation tonight brought me to this image from 2014. It’s a humanoid with black shiny skin, long clawed fingers, no obvious eyes, tentacles hanging from the face, undefined lower extremities and it lives under water.
too often political operatives get away with using misleading stats to push their narratives. It’s always refreshing to see someone pushing back and demanding *accurate* data and useful metrics.
What we have here is someone arguing that two people who work very different hours should get paid exactly the same… or two people who work the same hours but have very different levels of productivity should also get paid the same. Which means that someone terribly unproductive who works few hours should get paid the same as someone who is extremely productive and who works very long hours. Which would, of course, incentivize laziness and leaving early, and would dissuade the hard workers from putting in the extra effort.
Let’s see how that works out for you. I bet history might have some useful lessons about that.
John Oliver isn’t exactly Penn & Teller or The Amazing Randi, but anything that points out the shocking ridiculousness of anyone in Current Year buying into psychic bullcrap will have my attention.
So at the same time Venezuela enters either a death spiral or the beginnings of a civil war, Americas very own Bernie Sanders, backed up by a complicit media such as the NY Times, enters the fray and continues to argue that what America needs to do is follow in Venezuelas dying footsteps.
As may be expected, I’m not a fan of this. As has been pointed out ad nauseum, I have a number of cats (that number is 4, as it happens). Why do I have cats? Because I *like* cats. I like their personalities and their company. What I *didn’t* get cats for was as a convenient food source for when the socialists take over the US and I’m forced to consume my pets to stave off malnutrition for another week.
If you find someone *actually* flacking for Nazism, it is fair to assume that they are cool with the idea of genociding Da Joooz, and it’s fair to pre-judge them for that. Similarly, if you see someone proposing socialism, it’s fair to pre-judge them for doing what socialists have always done. Personally, when I see a socialist, I see someone who wants to kill and grill my cats. I leave it as an exercise for the student to determine my feelings about someone who would murder my critters on the altar of their ideology.
I’m not terribly good at providing a proper emotionally satisfying rant. I leave that to the professionals. Fortunately, Razorfist has produced an informative and entertaining rant on just this topic. I wholeheartedly recommend giving it a listen.
So there I am, doing stuff, when a cat pops up out of nowhere, staring at the ceiling. This lasted *just* long enough to get one photo, then there was the mad dash out of the room. Maybe Banshee heard a mouse up there. Or saw a bug. Or a ghost. Or she just went insane.
It’s a fun read. I fully expect the 21st century to see the collapse of several civilizations… Europe and North America in particular. Europe will fall first under the weight of demographics; the US will follow shortly after. When the population of a civilization becomes majority “I-don’t-like-this-civilization,” then it would seem that collapse is inevitable.
Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” came out when I was a little kid, waaaaaaaaaay back in 1975. At the time (and for several years), it was a cultural monster; to promote the song, Queen produced what is basically the first modern music video. You could not possibly hope to avoid it. As is the way of things over time it faded. But it never truly disappeared, as “Wayne’s World” amply demonstrated. It’s kinda like “Star Trek:” it has always been there, and it boggles my mind whenever I stumble across someone unaware of it.
And it seems that some youngun’s are unaware of it, assuming these “reaction” videos are honest (and in the era of Smollett… who can say). In a way I kinda envy them. It’s not every day you are introduced to “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the first time.
If you search on YouTube for Bohemian Rhapsody Reaction, there are a *lot* of such videos. So as far as I know, there might be some sort of meme where people are *pretending* to hear it for the first time and be blown away. it’s possible. But another thing to note is that at first glance it appears that the great majority of those being exposed to this for the first time are black folk. I do not recall that in the mid 1970’s Queen was considered particularly exclusive white folk music; perhaps in the intervening decades the segregation of media has cut a lot of people off from *good* music and left them stuck only with hip-hop.
Admittedly, “reaction videos” are about the lowest form of YouTube video… no script, forethought, planning needed. Just sit there and emote. But if these are even halfway honest, I remain shocked that “Bohemian Rhapsody” is *apparently* so unknown. Like it or not, there’s no denying that “Rhapsody” is a *lot* better, technically, than the vast majority of the gibberish that passes for music. While it’s lyrics are essentially nonsensical and taste in musical styles is of course highly variable and subjective… it is craftsmanship.
Feh. Kids these days.
This video makes my eyebrow raise in skepticism…the kid seems to protest ignorance of the song, Queen, even the pronunciation of “Bohemian” a bit too much. I do wonder if he’s acting.
I have no idea of how legit this is. The claim is that what we have here is a complete set of specs (both old-school machinists drawings as well as 3D models) for an AR-15 including heat treating. So if you have CAD-CAM capability, or *really* advanced metal 3D printing capability… well, here ya go. Caveat emptor.
I’m in favor of the idea of personal weapons technology being readily available to the public. One thing I do worry about: if the files are flawed in some way,either accidentally or because they’ve been hacked or, perhaps worse, they were intentionally made flawed. Rest assured that anti-gun groups, from whacko activists to government agencies, would love to flood the internet with designs for guns that look good but blow up in your face. It’s a common enough tactic in war: leave some ammo where the enemy will find it.Grenades that explode the moment you pull the pin, bullets that lock up the gun, ammo that simply detonates when someone touches the box. Makes the enemy wary of picking up anything they might happen to find.
It's time. The AR15. For you. For everyone. Forever.
Share it. Make this something the powers-that-be cannot undo. This project is yours now – each and every one of you.
