Donal Trump had a relationship with the truth that was, shall we say, a bit strained, especially when it came to touting his greatness. But Joe Biden? Yeah, the guy’s either a nonstop liar or outright delusional.
Apr 202022
Apr 202022
The “Galactic Starcruiser” at Disneyworld pretends to be a Star Wars themed “cruise” that runs several thousand dollars for two days and nights of… “fun,” I guess? Honestly it looks kinda halfassed, and it doesn’t really look so much “Star Wars” as “Generic Space Conflict.” YouTube is replete with videos talking smack about it; no need to rehash them. So the video below seems to be a *positive* review of one particular area of the attraction. It’s… huh. Disney is certainly not only skilled at the art of resource extraction, but bound and determined to do it. I’m all for capitalism, but this seems a little… I dunno, desperate.
Given Disney’s recent determination to come out in support of child-grooming, my chances of splurging on a trip to Disneyworld have plummeted from zero to some arbitrary negative number.
Apr 192022
Did someone spin a wheel of random policy ideas? Did this headline slip through from an alternate reality? Is this some ploy that sounds good on the face of it but which is really a devious scheme to turn it all upside down?
Biden launches $6B effort to save distressed nuclear plants
The Biden administration is launching a $6 billion effort to save nuclear power plants at risk of closing, citing the need to continue nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of power that helps to combat climate change.
Yes, saving nuclear plants is a good idea. Yes, nukes are the best way to de-carbonize energy production. No, I don’t know why *this* President suddenly recognizes these basic facts. Of course I won’t *begin* to trust this until *new* nuclear powerplants start coming online.
Apr 192022
Sometimes the tasee has it coming. Like this time:
Apr 192022
In looking up the latest news about the war in Ukraine, Google News decided I needed to see this:
Netflix saves scrapped show helmed by Star Trek: Discovery boss
In short: CBS had a pilot and decided not to go forward with the show, but Netflix picked it up. The pilot was helmed by one Jordon Nardino, a “co-executive producer” on Star Trek: Discovery. This show now to be produced by Netflix is described thusly:
Coming to Netflix: Miss Benny (they/them/theirs) will star in GLAMOROUS as Marco Mejia (he/him/his), a young gender non-conforming queer man whose life seems to be stuck in place until he lands a job working for a legendary makeup mogul.
Uh huh. This explains a *lot* about modern Star Trek and why it sucks so badly and is so unlike actual Star Trek. In Star Trek: TOS, it was made abundantly clear that mental illness was almost entirely eliminated, with the Federation having something like 15 incurable nutballs until some new medicine comes along that cures even them. In all actual Star Trek, what is celebrated is someone trying to actually do something meaningful and useful with their lives. This new Netflix show is the polar opposite… as are modern debased Star Trek.
Apr 192022
After far too long of letting unhinged lunatics do whatever the frak they want, it’s nice to see the cops sometimes come in and sweep these loons off the streets. In Pittsburgh, some anti-civilization insurrectionists were illegally blocking the streets, the police showed up to shuffle them off, they became even *more* unhinged, and one alleged “person” tried to go hands-on with a cop and discovered that not all cops are pushovers.
The video below is from The Young Turks, which includes not only additional footage but also “analysis.” Given that it’s The Young Turks, the analysis is reliably 180 degrees off to reality.
Apr 192022
Here’s an odd thing currently on ebay:
Vintage Boeing SST Presentation Wall Art, Copper Sheet formed for 3D perspective
It’s a piece of Boeing 2707-100 supersonic transport concept art, a painting I’ve seen before. But the difference is that it’s painted on an embossed sheet of copper. I recall this sort of thing being popular-ish back in the 70’s, having done myself as a child back then. I don’t know if this is in any way an official Boeing rendering, or some unofficial piece of “folk art,” but it looks reasonably good.
Note: I looked up the artist, “C.E. Pearson.” Turns out this person seemed to do a *lot* of “copper art,” including a bunch of – wait for it – clowns (this was from before Pennywise and John Wayne Gacy nuked the idea of clowns as being anything but creepy). Gah. My guess is it’s not official.
It’s not something I’m going after. Have at it.
Apr 182022
An Italian bus caught fire. Nothing too terribly newsworthy, except that it was fueled with compressed propane or natural gas. Still not overly newsworthy except that the emergency valves seemed to open (as they were supposed to) and released impressive jets of fire. Had the valves not opened, the fire likely would have eventually cause the gas tank(s) to burst, resulting in one massive fireball. This occurred out in the boonies; had it happened in town there would have been collateral damage.
The video is quite something.
While digging up this video I stumbled across another one, about an Italian bus fire from 2019. While the one from a few days ago seems to have been an accident with no passengers on the bus, in 2019 a “migrant” bus driver in Italy set a bus on fire with 51 Italian children on it as a “protest.”
The goal there was apparently to kill every last one of those kids as a way to make the Italians more sympathetic to their invaders and colonizers.
And here’s a bus kerplosion from Stockholm. Seems the CNG tank is up top and the bus tried to go into a tunnel that was too short for it. Whoopsie.
Pop quiz, hotshot: how tall is your friggen’ bus?
Apr 172022
Seems legit. Notes: it’s shown in daytime, so it survived a number of hours after the late-night attack. The seas *seem* calm, belying the “sank in a storm” story. The hull *seems* to show a vertical split; the forward part of the superstructure is obscured by smoke, but it seems kinda trashed. The bow may be gone. if so… The Front Fell Off.
Here is another image of the same ship, for those who cry "fake" immediately. pic.twitter.com/Vfprvs3VSg
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 17, 2022
Apr 172022
I was asked about a poorly-documented idea for an aircraft to be carried in and launched from a Polaris missile tube in a submarine. The aircraft was dubbed “Dipper,” and from the extremely lean description I have seems to have been dreamed up by drunks. But while I have no further data, it *seems* irritatingly familiar. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?