Feb 192021
 

The Lock Picking Lawyer is always a channel worth watching. And if you ever find yourself in need of defeating a lock, he might well have a video that can show you how to do it… and often how to do it *very* quickly. Some locks turn out to be ridiculously easily defeated.

Such is the case here. This is not a practical lock, but a lock meant purely as a gift. It is a keyless lock that, once closed, is supposed to never be opened again, to demonstrate the permanence of love. He opens it in about three seconds.

 

 Posted by at 5:52 pm
Feb 192021
 

Burning down a brick-and-mortar science fiction bookstore was not good enough for the modern book burners; now they’re going after publishers who publish wrongthink in order to prevent those books from getting printed in the first place. In this case, Baen Books which has the temerity to publish some authors who are libertarians and even GASP conservatives.

THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT BAEN’S BAR

Publishing House Baen Books Attacked by Cancel Culture

 Posted by at 10:34 am
Feb 182021
 

Once again the transitory nature of life is driven home to me by one of my computers giving up on doing its job. This was my dedicated internet computer, an HP that has a plastic case that has been falling apart for a year now (apparently a common problem with that model). It still runs, but it has decided that it no longer wants to actually connect to wifi, which kinda defeats the purpose of an internet computer.  It might be tomorrow or longer before I’m up and running again.  This is being tapped out on my phone, which is a pain.

 

UPDATE: Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnd now it’s working again. Hmmm. Should I trust it to keep functioning? Hmmm. I think I’ll put as much faith in its continued functioning as I would in the continued proper functioning of a career politician who has recently stumbled across a sane policy position. in other words: still gonna hunt down a replacement.

 Posted by at 10:31 pm
Feb 182021
 

Last year the ore carrier “Stellar Banner” ran aground off Brazil (February 2020). The decision was made to scuttle the vessel, and in June of 2020 it was sunk in deeper waters. This process took 20 minutes… but most of the actual sinking occurred in a matter of seconds:

Once it started going, it went down in a hurry.

 Posted by at 12:57 pm
Feb 182021
 

It will hit the Martian atmosphere at 3:55 PM eastern coastal elite/12:55 left coast time (2:55 central/1:55 mountain flyover country time). With any luck, about seven minutes later it will hit the Martian surface at a speed that doesn’t turn the rover and it’s helicopter payload into scrap.

Here’s a chatty NASA live stream:

Animation of the landing process:

 Posted by at 12:26 pm
Feb 182021
 

This ornithopter (Russian form the looks/sounds of it) recently flew in a controlled manner. It looks like it was a rough ride; it’s not clear to me what practical advantage such a system has over pretty much *any* other form of aerial locomotion beyond “because it’s cool.” Which is, of course, reason enough to do pretty much anything.

 

An earlier flight of a prior iteration did not go so well.

An even earlier flight of an even earlier iteration *did* fly successfully, if slowly and incredibly loudly:

A video of the designers. Turn closed captioning on to read what they have to say:

 

I suppose if they could improve the system so that it takes off and lands vertically, then switches to fixed-wing forward flight with a conventional propeller, it might turn out to be an efficient-ish  drone for some applications.

 Posted by at 12:06 pm
Feb 172021
 

Here’s your slightly obsolete word of the day:

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/blithering?s=t

adjective

talking foolishly; jabbering
informal stupid; foolish you blithering idiot

Example:

All sales are final.

 

 Posted by at 3:54 pm
Feb 172021
 

Rush Limbaugh, conservative talk radio pioneer, dead at 70

He’s been fighting lung cancer for a while. Get ready for a tidal wave of gloating by The Worst People In The World.

UPDATE: As Expected.

And more.

Some actual wisdom:

 

 Posted by at 11:55 am