Now this is odd, to say the least:
Not a whole lot of info yet.
Airport open following vehicle fire in car rental overflow area. @InkyM @ACKCurrent pic.twitter.com/3o048KtJRY
— Nantucket Airport (@AirportACK) November 28, 2022
I don’t smoke. I don’t vape. And if I did, I would not have inhaled anything made in China. That decision came about well before I saw the video below, which purports to show the method of testing of vape products in a Chinese vape factory.
Gee golly gosh, it sure is a mystery how some epidemics seem to spread so quickly…
Several news reports (example) have come out in the past few days saying that stockpiles of weapons such as anti-tank missiles, MANPADS, artillery shells, etc. are running low in NATO countries. We have apparently sent a *lot* to Ukraine, which has spent the last nine months using those weapons to grind down the Russian military. The result is that NATO may soon run out… meaning no more for Ukraine, and little enough left for us. This is, perhaps naturally, portrayed as a Bad Thing.
But, utilized correctly, it’s not. It is in fact a Good Thing. Why? Because the war in Ukraine is, comparatively, a small one. Compared to Russia invading NATO, or China invading Taiwan or Japan, this war is dinky. And if we’re running low on ammo now… that is one hell of a bright shiny message that we need to stock the frak up. Doing so will take time of course… and we’d better start that clock *now* rather than waiting for when the Big One actually comes. Some of these weapons will take two or more years just to ramp up production… often, the last time these weapons were made was before the soldiers likely to use them were even born.
This will of course cost a lot. But the war in Ukraine has shown that western weapons are pretty damn effective, certainly compared to the Russian systems; it’s not just NATO and Ukraine that will want them, but *everybody.* It’s conceivable that the costs involved in restarting production could be paid for by export sales. Hell, just avoiding the insane student loan forgiveness idea would save the funds needed; perhaps those student loans could be paid off by said students working in the arms factories. Put those gender studies degrees to good use running lathes.
But he seemed like such a sensible, straight-laced and rational fella…
The state of Minnesota has charged the Department of Energy’s recently-hired head of spent nuclear fuel management with felony theft, court documents show.
According to a criminal complaint filed Oct. 27 in Minnesota’s 4th Judicial District Court, Sam Brinton, who began working in June as DOE’s deputy assistant secretary for spent fuel and waste disposition, is accused of stealing a bag from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport’s baggage claim area in September.
Under Minnesota law, the crime with which Brinton was charged carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both.
Walking the red carpet of the #Oscars2018 representing LGBTQ youth with the @TrevorProject was the definition of affirmation for The #genderfluid life I’m finally starting to live freely and fully. #WeHearYou #WeAreHereForYou pic.twitter.com/ePlWgVgGrd
— Sam Brinton (@sbrinton) March 5, 2018
I wonder how J Edgar’s FBI would have handled this situation.
I’m not the biggest fan of dress codes, but there’s something to be said for having some friggen’ *dignity.* This is the look of the men who got us to the moon:
On the other hand, there may be some small benefit here. “Looks crazy” stands a chance of mapping fairly linearly to “is crazy.”
A day or two back I posted about “Established Titles.” In short… nah. I had wondered if the recent surge in interest in ET being less than entirely above-board might have some effect on any of the YouTubers who have been raking in sponsorship money from them… and lo and behold, one of the more entertaining YouTubers, “Casual Geographic,” posted this:
So as many of you have made me aware, a brand I’ve promoted twice has been exposed for pretty much being a scam (or at the very least, incredibly misleading). That’s obviously a massive failing on my part and on me and me alone. I can see now how the brand was meant to be intentionally misleading. For example, their website claims it’s a “fun, novelty product” but explicitly had us say things like “the first x people will receive a plot right next to mine” (which ,not gonna lie, should have been a red flag). Clearly implying that you’d be purchasing a physical plot of land, which clearly is not the case. So the two videos where I promoted them have been archived and I’m in the process of returning the money received from the partnership as well as cutting ties contractually. As soon as I can be sure I’m not in a position for the brand to come after me legally, I’ll repost them with the sponsored segments removed. I’m sorry for promoting what is essentially a grift and apologize to anyone that gave this brand money because they trusted me. Obviously it doesn’t really matter what my intentions were because either way I promoted it but I hope you all understand that I’d never willingly push a dishonest product and am genuinely sorry that I did.
Well done.
I don’t have much animosity towards those who were paid to promote this; the YouTube business model, much like the pre-Musk Twitter model, is seriously broken. Videos that could and should earn the makers *substantial* sums could and often did get demonitized on a whim, sometimes regularly; YouTubers who should make a good living by being entertaining and informative could find their incomes slashed due to false flagging and simple incompetence, with a heavy dose of shady politics. Thus it’s not unreasonable that they’d jump at the opportunity to sign on lucrative sponsorships, and the “buy a plot of land and be called a Lord” thing is sufficiently both weird and mundane that on first glance it probably seems fun and harmless.
If you’ve bought into Established Titles, or you “bought and named a star,” don’t feel bad. If you did so for the entertainment value, for the conversation value… then it’s worth what you feel it’s worth. If you bought in as an investment… well, that’s kinda dumb. Your financial planning is bad and you should feel bad. But speaking as a guy with a surprising number of toy spaceships and a vast number of model kits that will certainly never be finished, I’m not gonna knock someone for buying objectively useless stuff just because you want to. Where I get twitchy is when they sell it to you dishonestly.
Anyway good on Casual Geographics. I heartily recommend this feller. He talks about critters in a way that’s both informative *and* incredibly entertaining. A fair amount of nature red in tooth and claw, so be advised.
There is a video at THIS LINK that shows the aftermath of a number of thieves trying to break into a guys property (home? car?). The thieves are uninjured… but they are seriously *cowed* by the cameraman, the owner of the property in question. He’s able to wander around and berate the thieves one by one… and not only do they not run off, they follow his orders which include stripping buck nekkid. It’s amusing to be sure. But there are some plot holes:
1) How does he command their obedience? Some possibilities:
1A) He’s well armed
1B) He has off-camera backup that is well armed
1C) The thieves didn’t know who they were robbing, and now know that he is, perhaps, some locally respected criminal leader. Gang activity is not to be discounted.
2) What happened next? Beyond the NSFW options, were the cops called? Did the interactions end with a series of gunshots? Were the thieves sent on their way sans wallets, phones, clothes, shoes? They seem to have been in possession of one of more cars. Presumably not after this encounter, though it’s reasonable to assume they stole those cars in the first place.
Note that one of the thieves was found to have an ankle monitor. This means that not only has he committed crimes before, he’d been arrested, tried, convicted and punished by the legal system… and wasn’t dissuaded from continuing criminality. One wonders if getting caught and humiliated by one of his intended victims might have a more salubrious effect on his future plans than getting arrested would. Given the propensity of so many local legal systems to simply decriminalize crime these days, having non-official responses to criminals might not be a bad thing.
As to the ankle monitor: cutting it off might have some captivating results for the guy who’s supposed to be wearing it.
Early in the LHX program (gave birth to the late lamented RAH-66 Comanche) the Army’s requirements were sufficiently aggressive and vague that Bell Aerospace held out hope that a tiltrotor might be chosen. So Bell designed a few single-seat “scout” tiltrotors under the BAT (Bell Advanced Tiltrotor) moniker. Most were more or less similar in configuration to the Bell XV-15, but one design – which I know solely from this one piece of art, published in 1983 – went a little further. The fuselage and tail surfaces were shaped to reduce the radar cross section, making the vehicle hopefully somewhat stealthier. Sadly, no diagrams or technical information for this configuration. If someone knows more, or has a better version of this artwork, by all mean let me know.
Oddly, the PBS special “In The Event of Catastrophe” from 1978 is age restricted. Click on it, it’ll take you to YouTube directly. Shrug.
“First Strike” from the RAND Corporation. A docu-drama depicting a Soviet first strike that effectively wipes out America’s nuclear retaliatory capability and leads to the capitulation of the USA. Bits of this were used in “The Day After” a few years later.
This one from the National Film Board of Canada runs kinda light on pointing out that the Commies are setting off the nukes. Instead, the nuclear explosions just sorta happen, some vague result of American actions.
And just for fun, here’s a German 1998 alternate history show (“Der Dritte Weltkrieg”) where 1990 goes a little differently:
Doutbless there are more than a few readers old enough to remember when “buying a star” was a thing. You’d send someone money, they’d send you a certificate telling you which of the bajillions of stars in the sky is now yours, and let you know that your name for it has been entered into some “star registry” or some such. I suspect most people of average-and-above intelligence knew that it wasn’t anything of any real seriousness; it had no force of law behind it and is wholly unrecognized by the International Astronomical Union. It was uncharitably a scam; charitably, a briefly amusing gag gift, maybe a nice gesture for a friend or family member.
Something similar has popped up in recent months: “Established Titles.” You can pay someone fifty bucks to buy one square foot of Scotland and call yourself “Lord” or “Lady.” The idea seems to have a *lot* of similarities with the star naming bit from decades past. I’m unschooled in British/Scottish law but I do know there’s this bit in the US Constitution:
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-9/clause-8/
No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
If I’m reading that correctly (who knows), this says two main things:
1) The UNITED STATES won’t issue titles such as “Lord” and “Lady,”
and
2) Nobody holding some sort of governmental office in the US will be allowed to accept such a title from a foreign power.
So (again assuming I’m reading this correctly), Joe Schmo can be freely granted a title of nobility from the Brits, no problem. But Representative Bill Yahoo or Senator Joe Schmuck is legally barred from doing so. It would, it seems, be a Federal crime for an officeholder to spend fitty bucks and buy themselves that one square foot. Shrug.
Me, personally, I’ve no interest in it. I’m an American; the basic idea of being called a “Lord” or being in any way associated with royalty is distasteful; any American who takes such a title seems to me to have something a little askew about them. But I have little problem with anyone else if they want to buy into this… just so they do so with adequate knowledge of what it really is.
YouTube has been *crawling* with “Established Titles” sponsorships for a few months now, rivaling the “World of Warships,” “World of Tanks,” “League of Legends” and “Raid Shadow Legends” sponsorships that lousy up so many videos. I’m just glad that YouTube has a fast forward function. > > > > Some YouTubers, though, are less sanguine about this. If you’ve been tempted to spend money on this, perhaps as Christmas gifts, maybe take a look. Some points:
1) These “souvenir plots” aren’t registered with the Scottish government, You don’t actually own the land.
2) You don’t actually become a “Lord” or “Lady.”
3) “Established Titles” is apparently a *Chinese* company. Send them $50, and you end up not actually owning a bit of Scotland, not actually being a “Lord,” and actually funding the Chinese Communist government.
Just try to imagine this happening in the US Senate or House of Representatives. We have much to learn from the enlightened citizens of Sierre Leone. I look forward with great interest to Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy throwing down. Of course this raises questions: would doing so be “cultural appropriation,” or would failure to do so be “cultural erasure?” Hmmm…