The one where a reasonably normal guy dives into “pronoun wiki” and becomes embedded in madness. It’s entertaining, but also produces a good point: for people who so often claim to be anti-nationalist, they sure do love them some flags.
Mar 012022
Mar 012022
Banshee looking either startled or annoyed. Or both.
Mar 012022
… from French Guiana, anyway:
Russia halts Soyuz rocket launches from French Guiana over European sanctions on Ukraine invasion
Feb 282022
The moment someone says that line, you can expect nothing good to follow. This now *former* Republican candidate for Congress demonstrates this magnificently. There are a lot of uncomplimentary words that can be used to describe this guy; the two that sprang immediately to my mind end with “-canoe” and “-nozzle.”
This level of jackassery ended this schmucks political ambitions… as well it should. Unfortunately, the same level of jackassery is permitted among those much higher up.
Feb 282022
A few diverse subjects:
A vapor cone forming around an F-35 at an air show last year. It’s an impressive shot (that I can’t seem to embed in the blog post… just click on it, it’s worth a few seconds). It would be unfortunate if the F-35 gets its combat debut in the skies over Ukraine… and then Belarus… and then Moscow…
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUku2KsJBO8/
In other news, non-Ukrainians are lining up to go there and kick Putin’s ass:
And sooner or later, appearing in Ukraine – hopefully – will be the defiant FU defenders of “Snake Island:”
The defiant soldiers of Snake Island are actually ‘alive and well,’ says Ukraine’s navy
Feb 282022
An interesting video on the subject of “what ethnicity were the ancient Egyptians.” One point raised that I’d never heard of before, but which is obvious now that I’ve seen it, is that in Egyptian art the men are consistently shown as darker than the women. The explanation for this *seems* to be that at least for the “Egyptians who mattered,” you know, the rich and powerful, the menfolk went outside and did stuff while the women stayed in the home, out of the sun. Thus the men would get tanned while the women wouldn’t. This is more a function of lighter skin.
The end result is that apart from the Ptolomaic pharaohs, who were ethnically Greek, and the 25th dynasty pharaohs, who were ethnically Nubian, the average Egyptian would have been… Egyptian. Neither a blond, blue-eyed white guy nor a black sub-Saharan African, but akin to other north Africans. Being at the crossroads of continents and cultures, doubtless Egypt would have been a melting pot of ethnic groups from the region. As more and more mummies are subjected to genetic testing, the picture should get clearer.
Feb 282022
While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has not been defeated by any stretch of the imagination, it certainly does not seem to have gone according to plan. It looks like the Russians thought that this would be a cakewalk… either an easy military victory, or the Ukrainians would welcome them in. Instead, Russian forces *seem* to be catching hell from every quarter. At least from what’s been reported, it looks a bit embarrassing for Vlad.
I’ve seen a lot of vids of Ukrainians smack-talking the Russians, proud of their apparent victories, confident in the future. But Russia has so far used relatively minimal force. So is that Russia’s next step? if this wave of the invasion flops, will Russia step it up? Carpet bomb the cities into gravel, send wave after wave of soldiers who are under orders to *not* play nice with the Ukrainian citizens? Odin forbid, nuke the join? Because it *really* doesn’t seem likely that Putin will just accept the failure and go home.
Feb 282022
UPS and FedEx halting shipments to Russia and Ukraine
I can only assume they’re also halting shipments *from* Russia and Ukraine. So if you didn’t order your goodies in time… you ain’t gettin’ ’em.
DHL has bailed from Ukraine; no word yet on Russia.
Feb 272022
Dmitry Rogozin, the director-general of Roscosmos, had some interesting things to tweet:
мусором, коим ваши талантливые бизнесмены загадили околоземную орбиту, производится исключительно двигателями российских грузовых кораблей "Прогресс МС". Если заблокируете сотрудничество с нами, кто спасёт МКС от неуправляемого схода с орбиты и падения на территорию США или…
— РОГОЗИН (@Rogozin) February 24, 2022
Google translates this (and associated other tweets) as:
SANCTIONS OF ALZ-GEIMER Biden said the new sanctions would affect the Russian space program. OK. It remains to find out the details: 1. Do you want to block our access to radiation-resistant space microelectronics? So you already did it quite officially in 2014. As you noticed, we, nevertheless, continue to make our own spacecraft. And we will do them by expanding the production of the necessary components and devices at home. 2. Do you want to ban all countries from launching their spacecraft on the most reliable Russian rockets in the world? This is how you are already doing it and are planning to finally destroy the world market of space competition from January 1, 2023 by imposing sanctions on our launch vehicles. We are aware. This is also not news. We are ready to act here too. 3. Do you want to destroy our cooperation on the ISS? This is how you already do it by limiting exchanges between our cosmonaut and astronaut training centers. Or do you want to manage the ISS yourself? Maybe President Biden is off topic, so explain to him that the correction of the station’s orbit, its avoidance of dangerous rendezvous with space garbage, with which your talented businessmen have polluted the near-Earth orbit, is produced exclusively by the engines of the Russian Progress MS cargo ships. If you block cooperation with us, who will save the ISS from an uncontrolled deorbit and fall into the United States or Europe? There is also the option of dropping a 500-ton structure to India and China. Do you want to threaten them with such a prospect? The ISS does not fly over Russia, so all the risks are yours. Are you ready for them? Gentlemen, when planning sanctions, check those who generate them for illness Alzheimer’s. Just in case. To prevent your sanctions from falling on your head. And not only in a figurative sense. Therefore, for the time being, as a partner, I suggest that you do not behave like an irresponsible gamer, disavow the statement about “Alzheimer’s sanctions”. Friendly advice
A veiled threat to de-orbit the space station and drop it onto the US or Europe? Yeah, that’s neato. This sort of rhetoric should be a disqualifier for NASA, the ESA or any western government administration from *ever* working with him again.
Feb 272022
Figured we need some levity around here: