I’ve never gotten into RC aircraft. Partly because I know that I am fated to spend thousands of hours building something only to have it promptly flop over two seconds after I launch the thing. But static display models? All about that. So this electric RC B-1B bomber looks intriguing. At $800, it’s out of my price range and I *certainly* don’t have a place to display it (seems to be about 1/23 scale)… but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s just neato.
The President of the United States calls white people stupid and gets a room full of laughter.
There is one “Blockbuster” video rental store surviving, in Bend, Oregon. Given that Blockbuster went bankrupt in 2010, it’s a bit surprising that one exists at all. The surviving store appears to exist on nostalgia; tourists taking in the novelty of The Last Blockbuster. Well, whatever works.
Kids these days will never know the thrill of getting to go to a mid-1980’s video rental store and perusing the aisles of VHS tapes. Seeing fantastic box art for movies that in your heart of hearts you know is going to be utter trash… some low-budget “Star Wars” or “Conan” knockoff, starring who’s-that spouting garbage dialog and wearing laughable costumes. It was friggen’ fantastic… at the time. Now, a bunch of these movies that back then you’d have to go out of your way to find are now instantly streamable; the ease of access makes their crappiness stand out all the brighter, with none of the fun. Bleah.
Rarity makes things seem more valuable. This is not an amazing revelation, of course. And now movies at home aren’t rare, aren’t difficult to access. There’s little to no social aspect to picking out a movie; instead of driving to the store and communing with strangers about what might or might not be worth renting, you just click on something and up it pops. I imagine that in not so many years you’ll be able to think of a movie and it will promptly start playing directly into your head, courtesy your government mandated Neural Chip. And soon enough after that, AI will make that Brain Streamable movie be anything you like: that “Jaws 2” meets “Debbie Does Dallas” crossover you always wanted? Here ya go. And shortly after that the Brain Streaming Content will be fully interactive; you’ll be able to live out the adventure yourself inside your own head; no holodeck needed. The entire accessible universe of time and space and imagination will be instantly and nearly freely available. And after a few weeks, everyone will be bored of it.
At least for now that last Blockuster is operating, and has a sense of humor.
All hail China’s wise socialist leadership! Had they been capitalists, this mine collapse in Mongolia a few days ago in “Alxa League” in China’s inner Mongolia region might have been bad. Fortunately, this strip mine, which was digging for green, clean, environmentally friendly coal, was run by communists and/or their hand-picked functionaries. So huzzah!
Note the gigantic dump trucks being tossed around like toys.
Mass casualty mine collapse in China
Wake up every day and remember it could be your last
Appreciate every moment! pic.twitter.com/MegphLHyad
— E (@ElijahSchaffer) February 27, 2023
A couple pit bulls got out of their yard in San Antonia and attacked people, killing an old man. Unlike a lot of dog attacks, this one was caught on video as a woman drove by. The attack is… something. It’s not safe for work. If you watch it, even though parts of it are blurred, you’ll need some mind bleach; these dogs tear the man apart. I think you can see when they rip his face off. So… maybe ya wanna watch it, maybe ya don’t. The Link HERE includes the attack video as well as a later video as three firefighters – presumably the first responders – try to deal with one of the pit bulls with *axes.* Three grown men wielding fire axes can’t deal with the damn thing.
Yeeeeeeeesh.
Extra yeesh: last week I took my garbage can out to the curb late at night. While out there I heard yelling down the block. Like a friggen’ moron I stood there in my front yard trying to see what was going on; sounded like a bunch of kids chasing someone or something. Turns out they had lost control of a dog, now running loose. Like a FRIGGEN’ MORON I continued to stand there as the dog came out of the darkness and ran up to me. A pit bull dragging a leash. We stood abut 8 feet apart just staring at each other, me suddenly feeling like a FRIGGEN’ MORON for not packing heat. Fortunately the kids came running up a few seconds later and got hold of the leash and hauled the dog away. I don’t know what would have happened had things gone on a few seconds more, but it’s possible that that might have been the end of this spectacular blog.
I’ve seen a lot of people wanting to ban the pit bull breed. And then I see a lot of brainlets try to link banning a dangerous breed of dog to “See? You should also want to ban assault weapons, hurr durr!” It’s a bad analogy. The AR-15 is just a tool… as are the pit bulls teeth. Nobody suggests banning dog teeth, but banning the dangerous *entity* wielding those dangerous weapons. So if you want to link pit bulls, AR-15’s and bans… ban the crazy dangerous *people* who would behave like pit bulls.
A program progress film from 1959 describing the US Army’s “Saturn” rocket. This would soon be transferred to NASA, eventually becoming the Saturn I (then Ib). The basic layout of the first stage would remain, but the upper stages would change utterly; as shown here, they are derivatives of the Titan ICBM. Note that the first stage is shown being recovered. This feature lasted a surprising length of time, with components being built into the early NASA Saturns. The idea was that the stages would be parachute recovered with solid rocket motors firing at the last second to cushion splashdown. The motor firing would be set off by a trigger that would be released from the booster to dangle some distance below. As soon as the trigger hit the water, it would signal the motors to fire. The stage would splash down soft enough to be recovered, but it was assumed it’d be damaged beyond refurbishment. The idea was to examine the stage to see how it did, and introduce incremental improvements until *eventually* it was able to be recovered intact enough for cost effective refurbishment and reuse.
Since when is a 17-year-old actually a “child?” Especially one who is six and a half feet tall and weighing 270 pounds?
Watch the video and determine for yourself whether he’s a threat. You want him in school with YOUR kids?
Every day I become more and more convinced that homeschooling, formerly the province of religious weirdos, is the answer for parents who don;t want to be complicit in child abuse.
Graphic video.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office (in Florida) arrested a 17-year-old 6’6”, 270-pound student who was recorded severely beating a Matanzas High School aide on Feb. 21 after she confiscated his Nintendo Switch. He’s been charged with felony aggravated battery. pic.twitter.com/EuVpLvQcxb
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) February 24, 2023
The foreperson in the grand jury going after former President Trump in Georgia decided to give televised interviews. Since the grand jury’s job isn’t over, this has been described as, charitably, “unwise.” I’ve seen a lot of people on the right going off on this, especially her enthusiasm for wanting to swear in Trump. Honestly, though, it seems entirely understandable: who *wouldn’t* be excited about swearing in a former President, whether you were a fan or an opponent? And a lot of people on the left are going off on her as her shenanigans might endanger whatever case the prosecutors might have thought they had.
I really wish Emily Kohrs would just keep her mouth shut! Trumps Defense right now is drooling over these interviews. You dont talk about this now….If she wants to blabber..wait until AFTER an indictment at least. Total airhead! 😒 #GeorgiaGrandJury #EmilyKohrs. pic.twitter.com/aDlLkr06F9
— AC (@ACinPhilly) February 22, 2023
That all said: this is a story *made* for mockery. Why? Because the foreperson in question is not just unwise and energetic… she’s apparently a witch. No, really, a witch-witch. Wicca and all that.
CONFIRMED❗️ The #Georgia grand jury forewoman , #EmilyKohrs , who laughed about bringing down President TRUMP is a witch. 😮
Many of her social media accounts have been deleted but her Pinterest page remains with collections of pins dedicated to Wicca and Witchcraft. 🧙♀️#GaPol pic.twitter.com/lQj0GWk0gQ
— Arch Kennedy (@ArchKennedy) February 23, 2023
Emily Kohrs, the foreperson on the Trump grand jury in Georgia, really putting the WITCH in Witch Hunt. pic.twitter.com/BghMzoAnOU
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 22, 2023
Well. Huh.
Turns out the AI are learning to code. Two immediate takeaways from that:
1) There goes another career path.
2) Dear Sweet Baby Jeebus, have none of these people ever watched *any* science fiction? Giving an AI that has a demonstrated lack of morality the ability to re-write itself is the very height of “I *told* you not to do that!” insanity.
I saw a somewhat astonishing thing today. GPT was asked a question that it needed to write code to answer, and given access to a Python REPL. It wrote buggy code, then based on the error message it fixed its own code until it worked (and gave the correct answer). It debugged. pic.twitter.com/O6cdxH8gvC
— John Wiseman (@lemonodor) February 22, 2023
In May of 2022, Mark Middleton, aide to Bill Clinton who flew to Epsteins island an umber of times and signed Epstein into the White House to meet with Clinton a number of times, was found tied to a tree with an extension cord and a single gunshot wound to the chest… and no firearms nearby.
“Suicide.”
Muh-huh.