This is certainly nice and generous of ’em: (in case it doesn’t embed properly, here’s the direct link)
For extra yuks, imagine that the actual password is “password.”
Aug 312020
Aug 312020
Late 1970’s depictions of “realistic” starships as understood at the time. These include an Orion vehicle (which, despite claims to the contrary, would make a terrible starship, since the specific impulse of a reasonably conceivable Orion is an order of magnitude or two too low for practical interstellar craft), two Bussard ramjets, and a “golden globe” minimum weight starship proposed by Robert L. Forward, whose operating principles I am currently a bit fuzzy on.
Bussard ramjets would use magnetic fields to collect interstellar hydrogen. The hydrogen would be compressed in a fusion reactor, preferably a steady-state one, and used to provide thrust to the starship. For a number of years this concept promised great things, but in recent decades it has been pretty much discounted. On one hand, the magnetic fields are not very likely going to work well at a reasonable mass, and they tend to not form open-mouthed funnels, but rather closed-mouthed “cups,” thus preventing the hydrogen from getting into the engine. Whoops. Second, thrust is unlikely to exceed drag much above maybe a percent or two of lightspeed, meaning a Bussard ramjet might serve as a decent “anchor” or drag brake, but not as an accelerator to relativistic velocities.
Aug 312020
I honestly don’t know if this is silly or useful. Still… kinda cool:
‘Starfleet’ amendment puts Space Force in a political bind
In short, the amendment, put forward by former Navy SEAL Rep. Dan Crenshaw, would use Naval ranks rather than Air Force ranks. This may have been spurred on by an op-ed written by William Shatner.
Beyond changing names – Colonels would become Captains, for example, I’m not sure what *practical* difference there would be. There would doubtless be a change in the *feel* of the thing I suppose. And of course if Biden wins – especially if the Dems gain in the House and Senate as well – the whole Space Force will stand a good chance of vanishing like the Apollo Application Program, the Space Exploration initiative, the Nova booster and all the rest.
Aug 312020
I know some people don’t like raccoons. They tend to get into garbage cans and scatter stuff about, making a mess. But… I’m sorry, just no. NO.
VIDEO: BLM Supporters Run Over, Beat Raccoon to Death
Warning: the video there is no freakin’ joke. Whether you like trash pandas or not, what these “people” do to this animal is unconscionable.They don’t just kill this animal, they cause it great and extended pain… and fear. And they – a sizable group – laugh gleefully as this happens. They take pleasure not in the killing of an animal for the food or resources it can provide, or as a way to defend against a dangerous predator… no, their pleasure comes from the pain and fear they inflict on a creature that they get under their power. The guy who filmed it – and laughed about it – then goes on to use the video to *support* BLM. I don’t generally want to link to images and/or videos of animal abuse, but here it’s important to know what kind of people are out there. It has long been known that those who abuse animals often go on to abuse humans. What these “protestors” do to this raccoon they will soon try to do to *you.* I would be utterly unsurprised if it turns out that one or more of those involved have already attempted murder or succeeded at it.
There is a lust for bloodshed and pain and violence here that should not be ignored and cannot be understood by civilized, intelligent people. Don’t assume that it’ll be sated with the screams of a small creature, or with the flames of an unoccupied business.
Anyone think PETA will take them on, and do so effectively?
“The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest. “Henry David Thoreau
Aug 302020
Athletes No Longer Playing Games: Historic Moment in Sports as Teams, Players Protest Racial Injustice by Refusing to Take Court, Field
It seems sportsball-playing millionaires are deciding to take a little extra time off, and are using rare incidents as an excuse. My favorite quote from the piece:
Tennis champion Naomi Osaka, whose father is Haitian and mother is Japanese but has lived in the U.S. since she was three, took to Twitter to announce she would not compete in the semifinal of the Western & Southern Open Thursday saying “continued genocide of Black people at the hand of police is honestly making me sick to my stomach.”
“Genocide.” That’s awesome.
What do you want to be that they still want to get *paid?* Maybe the thing to do is for people to simply decide to set professional sports aside for, oh, three or four years. Wipe the slate clean, let it sit fallow for a few years, start fresh in a few years. Same with Star Trek.
Aug 302020
I’m currently editing a small, somewhat ridiculous bit of Lovecraftian fiction I slapped together over the last few days that explains the current world situation in terms of the Cthulhu mythos… but in the mean time here’s a video that explains the current world situation in terms of Jurassic Park.
Aug 302020
Chants of “Death to America.” On American streets.
“Death to America. Death to America”
Violent rioters chant on the streets of Oakland, CA
These are terrorists who openly admit they want to destroy this country
So why does the corporate media and Democratic Party insist they are peaceful protesters?
pic.twitter.com/kw7UY7WPWA— ELIJAH RIOT (@ElijahSchaffer) August 30, 2020
And here’s your “maybe reconsider your vote for Biden” video for the day:
“I am not sad that a f*cking fascist died tonight”
Portland Antifa cheer & celebrate the execution of a Trump supporter late last night
This is what pure EVIL looks like
— ELIJAH RIOT (@ElijahSchaffer) August 30, 2020
Aug 292020
Know Your Meme:
CNN “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests” Parodies
The original:
And so it begins:
Bonus round: imagine being the author of THIS TWEET.
Aug 292020
EDIT: The original YouTube video was removed by the uploader. Don’t know why. But here’s a news article on the subject:
New Jersey police department sends 18-year-old BLM organizer a $2,500 overtime bill for security cost at her 40-person protest
ORIGINAL POST (based on the now-deleted video):
The city has a law on the books allowing it to bill for police services for private events… which this would seem to have been.
Money quote:
“I was shocked when I read that I had to pay to exercise my first amendment rights.”
Huh.
She also has a *second* amendment right. One wonders if she’d be shocked that the government won’t just *give* her a gun, that she has to pay for bullets and targets and training and range time.
Also: those arrested and convicted of rioting and looting should, as part of their sentences, be fined for the costs of restocking looted stores, rebuilding burned-out buildings. A lifetime bill of a few million dollars might be a bit of a disincentive to being a violent destructive jackass. Similarly, crowd funding efforts to support convicted rioters/looters should be leined-upon.
NEWS UPDATE:
Englewood Cliffs mayor rescinds $2,500 bill sent to teen organizer of Black Lives Matter rally
So, now you can monopolize the police at no cost to you.
Aug 292020
This is an informative and interesting read… an interview with a left winger who advocates *for* looting, including the looting of small businesses. Including the trashing and destruction of small grocery stores in food deserts. because the author is not only evil, she’s a fricken’ *moron.* She believes that looting is just a fair way to redistribute stuff that those people deserve, and that every time they destroy a business, the business will simply restock for the next time.
And the reason that the world is organized that way, obviously, is for the profit of the people who own the stores and the factories. So you get to the heart of that property relation, and demonstrate that without police and without state oppression, we can have things for free.
Riiiiiiiiiight.
One Author’s Argument ‘In Defense Of Looting’
The author has all the very latest, most leftie-approved notions. Looting is ok, because the word “loot” was appropriated by white people from brown people. Looting is ok, because it destroys even the basic *idea* of owning property, because “property” is white supremacy.
Looting strikes at the heart of property, of whiteness and of the police. It gets to the very root of the way those three things are interconnected. And also it provides people with an imaginative sense of freedom and pleasure and helps them imagine a world that could be. And I think that’s a part of it that doesn’t really get talked about—that riots and looting are experienced as sort of joyous and liberatory.
Cthulhu nods approvingly.
But looters and rioters don’t attack private homes. They don’t attack community centers. In Minneapolis, there was a small independent bookstore that was untouched. All the blocks around it were basically looted or even leveled, burned down. And that store just remained untouched through weeks of rioting.
ᚠᚢᚳk ᚣᚩᚢ ᚪᛋᛋᚻᚩᛚᛖ.
I do wonder about whether a business that gets looted after this can sue *her* for damages. I wonder about suing NPR and her publisher for giving her a platform.