This critter takes me back to the 90’s…
(after the break because it’s a loud auto-playing video)
Jan 052021
Jan 052021
Officer who shot Jacob Blake will not face charges, district attorney says
Remember the protests in Kenosha? Well, get ready for Round Two…
Now, in a sane world it would have never gone this far. The police shooting of Jacob Blake was good not just because he was going for a knife… but because, according to all available evidence, HE ALREADY HAD ONE. Someone in the process of kidnapping children while holding a karambit would seem like a bad person and a valid bullet sponge.
Now for all charges to be dropped against Kyle Rittenhouse.
Jan 052021
Well, *this* didn’t come to pass either. And in many ways… *good.* The monkeymotions the operator(s) has to go through to get the car into driverless mode would be too much for most people, then or now… and the idea of each car requiring a minute or more of a dedicated ground traffic controllers time is just nuts. A few million cars on the road would require a few hundred thousand controllers, most likely… possibly pushing close to one-to-one around rush hour. And everyone breaking out in song… yeesh. Families that sing together? Yeah, them days is gone, folks.
Something else: “dad” here looks like he’s well past 60, but he has a distinctly teenage daughter. How many families back then actually had Dad having kids so late… past 45, well into his fifties? This trope seems to pop up a *lot.*
Bonus: pre-digested food cooked by infra-red. Ummm… yum?
Jan 052021
This looks *good.* I especially got a kick out of the very last exchange.
This is a movie made by The Daily Wire, a conservative outlet. Thus explaining some of the YouTube comments:
Jan 052021
Los Angeles County ambulance crews told not to transport patients with little chance of survival
“Effective immediately, due to the severe impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on EMS and 9-1-1 Receiving Hospitals, adult patients (18 years of age or older) in blunt traumatic and nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) shall not be transported [if] return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is not achieved in the field,”
If after 20 minutes of effort the EMS crew cannot get your heart pumping, there you’ll stay. Makes sense, but, yeesh. They are also beginning to ration *oxygen.*And when an ambulance does take you to a hospital in some cases the ambulance waits outside the hospital for *hours* before the patient can be brought in due to the emergency rooms being overloaded. And this means that fewer ambulances are available due to being tied up.
More reasons to avoid California.
Jan 052021
This is *spectacular.*
A Student Mob Took Over Bryn Mawr. The College Said Thank You
Seems to me, there are a bunch of parents who should be demanding their money back. There are a bunch of students who should be out on their ear, loaded with student debt and without even their useless degrees. And there are a bunch of staffers who should get to explore exciting new opportunities in the food service industry. Sell the college to some other educational concern, one actually interested in *education.* One that will say “We value your opinion” to student agitators, who will calmly take down their names and then calmly escort them off campus.
Jan 042021
Let me get this out of the way: flying cars are a COOL IDEA that, when the rubber meets the road and the math hits the calculator, generally doesn’t make much sense. You end up with a car that isn’t that good married to an airplane that isn’t that good. More expensive than either a car or a light airplane should be, with the performance of neither.
Nevertheless, it remains an evocative notion. And from the standpoint of an aerospace engineer, an interesting engineering exercise. And one of the more recent, more interesting flying car concepts is the “Firenze Lancaire.” This design says “to hell with making a flying car for the masses” and goes straight for the “hypercar” market. The end result is a carbon fiber bodied vehicle with Tesla motors and batteries for getting around on the roads, and two turbojets for getting around in the air. The car is quite large and would be difficult to park, but if you’re paying five million dollars for a car you’re probably not taking it to WalMart.
The website is filled with snazzy images. It just looks sci-fi-cool. But it also looks… kinda incomplete. There are no control surfaces; the wing structure is largely undefined. The wing folding mechanism is interesting and all, but the wings do not appear to have a good structural attachment to the car. They look like a modest G-load and they’ll snap right off.
Is this for real? Is it a serious engineering effort… or is it just someone’s demonstration of their ability to make spiffy CAD models? I don’t know, though I have suspicions. There are enough moving parts on this thing to get it legally qualified as an Autobot, and that worries me some.
Jan 042021
This will be of interest to American males in a certain age bracket…
Tanya Roberts Dead at 65
If you were alive and had HBO back in the 80’s, you remember that they played “Beastmaster” the way a rapper uses expletives. And Tanya Roberts was one of the more watchable aspects of that… well, let’s call it a “movie.”
UPDATE: No she ain’t.
Actress Tanya Roberts is still alive, according to her publicist
You’d think that “dead” or “alive” would be straightforward enough determinations for medical professionals to make.
UPDATED UPDATE: Yes she is.
Tanya Roberts is dead, partner says after premature death declaration
Someone’s got some splainin’ to do.
Jan 032021
Well, *THIS* didn’t happen…
Some of that was a bit prophetic. A lot of it is downright silly. But all of it denotes an era willing to think bigger and better. Back when the American populace was actually expected to feel pride in America and look forward towards a better and more prosperous future, I guess that sort of thing was possible. But if you want progress (*actual* progress, what with improved quality of life and all) today, you’re kinda SOL.
Jan 022021
Snerk.
