A compilation video of training launches of three of the more important weapons to come out of the first motnh of Putins folly:
Mar 262022
Mar 262022
It turns out that Russia is littering the countryside of Ukraine with the bodies of dead Russians. One might think that the Ukrainians would be happy about that, but it turns out that there are *so* many dead Russians lying about that once it warms up and thaws, there could be a bit of a stink and the usual nonsense about diseases and such. And the Russians don’t seem to want them back. If I was a Russian citizen, I think I might find this strategy vaguely disturbing and unsatisfying.
The bodies of Russian soldiers are piling up in Ukraine, as Kremlin conceals true toll of war
Mar 252022
Great-grandmother charged with second-degree murder after 7-month-old killed in Georgia dog mauling
Lots of “wrong” in this story. but what jumps right out at me: the “great grandmother” here is FIFTY SIX YEARS OLD. mean an average age at spawning of about 18. Certainly not historically or biologically unreasonable… it just seems weird and unwise.
Also what jumps out at me: the great-grandmother was attacked by the dog as well… and the dog wasn’t *her* dog. Important details are left out of the story, such as what the frak happened such that *she* is getting charged with murder for someone else’s dog going buggo on a baby.
Mar 252022
Well, this makes the future look that much more sunny:
AI suggested 40,000 new possible chemical weapons in just six hours
In short: an AI is used to weed out theoretical medicines because of side effects. That’s great. But the people running it decided “what if we ask it to do the opposite?” and it came up with thousands of innovative new ways to kill people. The AI invented existing nerve agents… and invented some new ones that the predictive modelling says should be *more* toxic than what’s currently on hand.
That’s… greeeeeeeaaaaaaat.
Just wait until the same techniques get used to dream up neato new viruses. Those sci-fi theoretical pathogens that seek out specific genetic markers… hair color, ethnic traits, intelligence, whatever, and kill, stupefy, disable? Yeah… might not be sci-fi for long.
Hurry the frak up, Elon. Humanity might be needing self-sufficient colonies separated by distances great enough that travel times alone provide a quarantine effect real soon.
Mar 252022
The two responsible for the mauling of Buddy the cat have turned themselves in:
12-year-old, 17-year-old turn themselves in to authorities following vicious attack on Buddy the cat
Sadly the two have not been identified because they are juveniles, which also means that they will very likely get a slap on the wrist at best. They came in to the SPCA with “a parent.” This probably means they’re brothers. And it raises the question “why not both parents.”
Interestingly, if you let the video embedded in the above link play, it cycles through a number of stories, including one about a skunk. Here, some people saw a skunk with a peanut butter jar stuck on its head roaming randomly in a panic; they called animal control who successfully got the jar off its head with nobody getting injured or sprayed. Ta-da. A more opposite sort of story would be hard to immediately invent…here, an animal that, unlike a cat, is generally *disliked*, finds itself in trouble and humans actually give a damn and go to some effort to provide aid to the animal. Granted, it’s not detangling a sharktopus from radioactive razorwire, but still… compared to two monsters taking joy in the destruction of a loved, harmless animal? It’s fricken’ Nobel material.
And unrelated to cats and critters, but related to Philadelphia:
Family members identify teen gravely injured after shooting in Wissinoming
The teen is 15, and by “gravely injured” they mean “brain dead, will die in a day or so.” Apparently he was merely a bystander to some sort of altercation that led to shots fired. Police think it might have something to do with an attempted robbery around the corner.
Philadelphia sounds like a nice place to stay the hell away from.
Mar 252022
The 4K remaster of the Directors Edition of Star Trek: the Motion Picture hits Paramount Plus on April 5. Lots of people dunk on TMP, and many of the complaints are fair… but damn, that there is one pretty, pretty movie. It also has one of the best scores *ever.*
Mar 252022
Before the Europeans got involved int he transatlantic slave trade, *they* were enslaved by Africans and Middle Easterners. This, of course, is inconvenient for The Narrative.
Mar 252022
As anyone who has ever had to deal with the myriad of medical maladies that can afflict them, cats are fragile. Conversely, they can be tough little bastards. I saw that years ago when Fingers was still an outdoors farmcat, stoically shrugging off a neck wound that would have utterly ruined a human. And Buddy the cat, set upon by two pit bulls and two “humans,” manages to continue to fight to survive.
Buddy the cat is ‘hanging in there’ after vicious attack by 2 dogs in Philly
There is a brief Facebook video embedded there showing that he is up and about, kneading. That would seem to be a good sign.
No word as yet whether the perpetrators have been found.
Mar 242022
Well, if you want your day ruined, I can hook you up (after the break, cuz this story sucks):
Edit: the story deals with the torture of a cat. Those who know me or who have followed the blog long enough will recognize that this sort of story sets me off in a way few other stories will. Some people argue that this is a mismatch of priorities: in a world of rape and murder and war and genocide and Star Trek Discovery, surely one little cat is a small thing compared to the other horrors humans perpetrate. But as I mentioned a few days ago, animals cannot understand the world as we do. When humans mistreat other humans, even on an industrial scale, humans can understand what’s going on. Even if the “why” is unclear, it’s really not that hard to figure out. But to a cat (or a dog, or a horse, or a racoon, or a squirrel, or a mouse), someone committing acts of horror on them is beyond their comprehension. The human in that story becomes a cosmic horror, a god of pain and madness. THAT is why I refuse to harm critters that I don’t need to (mosquitoes? f’em) for any trivial reason. I’m not some touchy-feely hippie who refuses to eat meat because cows or pigs or fish are sacred, but I will demand that the animal not be tortured. I will have the urge to apply boot to ass to anyone who abuses critters for fun. Because cosmic horror should be avoided in real life.
Anyone who tortures an animal becomes, in a very real sense, a demon. And for someone who does not believe in demons, that’s quite a statement.
Mar 242022
I don’t usually go in for religious iconography, but, hey.
St. Javelin / Saint Javelin
St. Javelin or Saint Javelin refers to an image of Madonna Kalashnikov (the Blessed Virgin Mary) holding a javelin missile that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance during the 2021-2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict. Although the image is an exploited version of a 2012 painting, it was first re-edited and created in early 2018 on the Russian social media site VK where a user replaced the original AK-47 with a javelin missile. The image received an uptick in usage in February 2022 coinciding with the escalation of the conflict and invasion of Ukraine by Russia, effectively becoming a symbol of Ukrainian resistance on social media and resulting in lots of redraws and fan art. St. Javelin was also seen as controversial by some for promoting violence and the war at large.
And because why not, it’s funny:
