Here are two crazy people to mess with your day

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 312019
 

First up, DeWayne Craddock. Right now he’s Big News, because he went buggo and killed ~12 of his former co-workers in Virginia Beach. Since he shot them, this should be Big News for days or weeks. But like the recent Colorado school shooting (do you remember that? The news media sure seemed to forget it in a hurry), there are a few details about Mr. Craddock that make him problematic for the narrative.

NEXT DAY UPDATE: information on Mr. Craddock came out last night before midnight… name, photos, screenshots of social media posts, etc. He was no mystery when I made the original post. But due to a (presumably) cold virus deciding that today would be an excellent day to take up residence, I’ve spent much of the day in something of a haze of discomfort, plopped in front of the TV. Because illness sapped my enthusiasm for so much as changing the channel, the TV was on CNN most of the day. And I noticed something interesting:

1) Around noon CNN posted an infographic on the shooter with some basic info including name, but where there should have been a photo there was just a silhouette, as if CNN couldn’t find a picture of the man.

2) Around 2, one of the talking heads started discussing the shooter, but not only did they not show a photo, they announced that they wouldn’t be saying the shooters *name.*

It’s almost as if CNN thinks there might be something inconvenient about the shooter in this case.

But hey, that’s depressing. Instead, let’s all gaze in wide-eyed wonder at a type of crazy that’s probably not terribly dangerous, but is sure damned entertaining. Some NSFW language here and you have to get through a commercial, but it’s worth it.

The rise of this sort of whackadoodlism with, for a few generations, harm the western worlds ability to reproduce itself. But if (and, sadly, it’s a big “if”) we can get through it without dying out or being taken over, the gene pool and the *cultural* pool will be stronger for having gone through the winnowing. Who wins the future? Those who show up. And people like this are unlikely to contribute their genes to the future. Fortunately.

 Posted by at 10:36 pm

This appeals to me somehow

 art, awesomeness, Hmm..., science fiction, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
May 312019
 

A little CGI fan film based on the idea of “what if Star Trek technologies were available more or less now.” An American starship, an EU starship, a Russian starship. This is how it should be. Throw in a Brit starship, an Aussie starship and a Japanese starship, and I think we’ve pretty much got it covered. Maybe a SpaceX starship…

 

One wonders if any of the heads of CBS/Paramount ever look at what fans design and hang their heads in shame.

 Posted by at 9:38 am

Oh, sure, THIS one I miss

 AARRRGH, Hmm..., news, rockets, spacecraft, youtube  No Responses »
May 302019
 

Since I moved out here in 2004, I think until today I had skipped a grand total of one test of a Shuttle booster or one of the derivatives. I “meh’ed” on the test today of the “OmegA” test… and of course this was the test where things had to get interesting.

Had this occurred in flight, it might well not have had any meaningful impact on the mission. Thrust would have been substantially cut down, and possibly thrown a little off-axis, but it occurred so late in the burn – at about 120 seconds – that the effect would have been small.

Still: that there might be something they’ll want to take a look at.

 Posted by at 10:14 pm

If you use “Salesforce” products, you might want to stop

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, news, politics, weapons, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 302019
 

Software Maker Salesforce Tells Gun Retailers to Stop Selling AR-15s

Not *just* AR-15s.

Salesforce’s “Acceptable Use Policy” goes beyond a ban on AR-15s, to include any semiautomatic firearms “that have the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and any of the following: thumbhole stock, folding or telescoping stock, grenade launcher or flare launcher, flash or sound suppressor, forward pistol grip, pistol grip (in the case of a rifle) or second pistol grip (in the case of a pistol), [and/or] barrel shroud.”

The policy also makes clear that gun retailers cannot sell “high capacity” magazines if they want to use Salesforce software.

The “deplatforming/depersoning” of anyone – or anything – to the right of Stalin continues. So if you use “Salesforce” products, even if you’re not actually int he firearms industry, you’d probably be well advised to start looking for alternates. Because if you or your business aren’t sufficiently woke, they might shut you off at a moments notice.

I understand that there was once an age when businesses wanted your businesses, whoever you were. It’s a business model that I still ascribe to; I honestly don’t care if you’re left, right or indifferent, I want you to buy my stuff. But then, I guess I’m old fashioned.

I certainly wouldn’t fit in in Hollywood. For example:

Olivia Wilde Told Trump Supporters Not to Watch Her Film and Now It’s Flopping

In contrast: hate me all you want. Buy my stuff.

 

 Posted by at 7:38 pm

Not *MY* intelligence, bucko

 AARRRGH, blather, dumbassery, Forward!, Hmm..., news, politics, science, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 302019
 

Twitter is eroding your intelligence. Now there’s data to prove it.

Using Twitter reduced performance on the test by about 25 to 40 percent of a standard deviation from the average result, as the paper explains.

Color me stunned that trying to get educated via Twitter leads to dumbnification compared to traditional teaching methods.

Notably, the decline was sharpest among higher-achieving students, including women, those born in Italy and those who had scored higher on a baseline test.

It seems that Twitter doens’t just make everyone dumber, it is more effective at reducing the intelligence of smart people. A groundless speculation on my part is that it erodes away at the frosting-like extra smartness on top of the cake that is the basic human animal. If you don’t have that much to begin with, Twitter doesn’t have that much to work with.

This finding, the paper notes, bolsters the conclusion that blogs and social networking sites actively impair performance, rather than simply failing to augment learning.

Hey. HEY! This here blog is Teh Smartness. But by all means, avoid “social media,” especially Twitter. And for Odin’s sake, avoid at all cost any celebrity or especially “journalist” who seems to get their data from Twitter. And someone *please* take that damn thing away from Trump.

I’ve never been tempted to sign up for Twitter. Now I know that I are the smart.

 

 Posted by at 5:30 pm

Hmmmmmm….

 art, awesomeness, history, science fiction, youtube  No Responses »
May 302019
 

This actually looks pretty good, at least technically. It’s being done practically with animatronics & puppets, just lihe the original, though there’s some CGI on display for some of the “lightning” and suchforth. Let’s hope the writing doesn’t stink. But clearly the people making “Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” are willing to put in a *lot* of hard work, so chances seem pretty good that the writers will as well.

The 80’s, man. What a time.

 Posted by at 4:09 pm

I… *guess* this is good?

 Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Hmm..., humor, news, politics, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 302019
 

I don’t exactly pay a whole lot of attention to Australian politics. But I gather that there was a national election there recently where the non-communists won and as a result, the local Ozzie SJWs melted down. So on the one hand, I guess it’s good to see that America isn’t uniquely cursed by the existence of these overly-dramatic crazy people who scream that every example of democracy that doesn’t go exactly their way is proof that their nation is run by Nazis. It’s always comforting to find that you are not alone. But on the other hand, this also means that this particularly horrible brand of SJW is perhaps prevalent world-wide, and that the damage they do to discourse, to culture and to *lives* is perhaps universal, indicating that the entire world may be in a spot of bother.

Language is a tad NSFW. so if you work in an office filled with leftist fascists… well, I’m not going to suggest that you hack into the PA system and play this at substantial volume, but if you do so, try to film the result.

 Posted by at 11:48 am

Sikorsky S-65

 aircraft, art, history, projects  No Responses »
May 292019
 

Throughout the 1960’s Sikorsky tried to sell a civilian passenger transport helicopter to airlines. The helicopter in question was the “S-65,” not to be confused with the CH-53 Sea Stallion which also bore the S-65 designation. The civilian S-65 design effort dragged on into the early 1970s and involved a very wide range of designs. One of the earliest configurations (1962) was a more or less civilianized version of the military S-65/CH-53.

The design quickly changed, diverging far from the CH-53 basis and beginning to incorporate unconventional elements. By the end of 1962 the CH-53 elements were almost gone (the cockpit and engine/rotor system are visually somewhat similar, but clearly different), and the tail incorporated an unusual dual-torque rotor configuration, one rotor on the end of two butterfly tails.

By 1965 the tail had reverted to a more normal layout; the fuselage was now circular in cross section and visually rotund.

By 1968 the S-65 had transformed from a pure helicopter into a compound helicopter, adding two turboprops under two stub wings. These would greatly increase forward speed and cruise fuel efficiency, at of course added weight and cost. The tail reverted to the earlier butterfly configuration, but with a single torque rotor.

By 1969 the 1968 design was modestly refined and proposed to the USAF as a search and recovery aircraft, which a compound helicopter should theoretically be good at. This was more or less the end of the line for design development. Throughout the project, a number of varitions on each configuration were proposed, including a version using more or less the last design but with telescoping main rotor blades that would shrink in diameter during high speed flight, reducing drag.

 

 

 

 Posted by at 7:09 pm

Oh, God, SHUUUUUUUT UUUUUUP

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., news, religion, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
May 292019
 

So I was working on the computer yesterday, doing some 3D computer modelling of a vehicle for the next issue of US Launch Vehicle Projects. I was tapping away at the computer, getting more and more into it (yes, sometimes I can become terribly engrossed in my work), and I absently turned on the TV for some background noise. I paid zero attention to the TV for some extended period. Coulda been an infomercial, coulda been a televangelist, coulda been a sitcom; didn’t pay it any mind. As it turns out it was CNN. At some point I glanced up from my work and became transfixed by what I was suddenly hearing. It was truly astonishing.

What it was was a press conference by Amanda Eller, a hiker who disappeared for 17 days in the forests of Hawaii. Normally I’d pay little attention. And normally I’d pay a Regular Schmoe a whole lot of slack when it comes to saying ridiculous things. But what I heard, at least for the few minutes I was stuck listening before I could tear myself away and stab furiously at the “turn it off, turn it off!” button on the remote, was mind-shredding self-involved newage spiritualist nonsense.

I won’t be surprised if this turns out to be another Balloon Boy.

In the video below, I first started noticing it on the TV at about the 30-minute mark.

Fortunately the Magickal Crystal Dumb Rays lost their hold on me after just a few minutes… but I see from the video that it went on for another *hour.*

 Posted by at 12:56 pm
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