Indistinguishable from parody

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Hmm..., news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 172022
 

Sometimes you stumble across a sentiment that could be a lunatic raving, or it could be a parody… and you just can’t tell which. Such as this supposed twitter post from early 2019… the account existed, but has been banned for some reason. There are a number of posts about this tweet, all asking the question: “real or nah?”

And in looking this one up, other “I can’t tell if they’re joking” posts come up. Such as a video showing someone attempting to park and doing it very, very badly. That’s mildly amusing with no further context, but the driver is purported to be Delegate Elanor homes Norton of D.C, nominated by the Biden Administration for a top spot on the House transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

That’s the sort of irony that you gotta scratch your head over. Someone wholly incompetent at basic transportation, being put in charge of transportation? The idea is so ludicrously stupid that it seems not just plausible, but inevitable. Like those goombahs who blather on about how awful guns are and how we should listen to them and do their bidding  about banning guns, when they don’t know the first thing about guns but are happy to stand in front of the press and wave an AK-47 around.

 

 Posted by at 8:49 pm

Early Aerojet Sea Dragon

 art, awesomeness, history, projects, rockets  No Responses »
Jan 172022
 

The “Sea Dragon” launch vehicle concept is reasonably well known: a giant “dumb” booster, using two pressurized stages built massively heavy using shipyard tolerances. it would be floated out to sea and fueled while in the water. Everything about it was meant to be simple. However, this was the *final* Sea Dragon design; earlier iterations had some different configuration details. Unfortunately, while the final design is well known (detailed diagrams of it are often shown, usually reproductions of the diagram I posted on my site way back in 2005), the evolution of the design from initial concepts is not well documented. And thus I have artwork depicting a rather different version that used a conical first stage tucked into a giant fixed conical nozzle of the second stage. It *appears* to be substantially more complex than the later version, possible pump fed with lighter structures. Sadly, art is all I have. If anyone has *anything* on this design – data, diagrams, descriptions, etc. – I’d love to see it.

 Posted by at 8:13 pm

It sure would be nice to have some sort of Federal bureau that investigates crimes and threats to the nation

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 172022
 

The Middle Kingdom Meets Higher Education

How U.S. Universities Support China’s Military-Industrial Complex

Imagine how J Edgar would have reacted had the Nazis or the Soviets had such blatant tentacles in American institutions.

I’m reasonable deeply set in basic libertarian philosophy, but at some point practicality has to override ideology. And in this case, the role of the government is at it’s most fundamental to defend the people of the country. To that end, using the power of the government to cut off the ability of foreign powers to influence American culture, laws and such, as well as to *steal* our stuff, sure seems like a good idea.

 Posted by at 3:47 pm

Well this is just *stupid*

 AARRRGH, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, blather, Book 3, Book X, books, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, news, politics, wisdom, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 162022
 

Here’s your “dumbest news story of the day:”

Waterstones apologises after award-winning author Owusu asked for ID

The short form: an author wanders into a bookstore (“Waterstones”) and asks the staff on hand if he can sign a couple of his books sitting on the shelf. The staff asks him for his ID to make sure it’s actually him. THAT’S IT. That’s the outrage. Waterstones has issued a groveling apology for their staff having the temerity, the gall, the outright *racism* to try to make sure that some rando who wandered in the door isn’t going to just scribble all over some books and ruin them.

As I’m sure I’ve made abundantly clear, I’ve had a book of  mine on the shelves at Barnes & Noble. It was kind of a thrill the first time I saw them sitting there (rather less of a thrill when I saw them still sitting there months later… sigh…). But it did not occur to me to just start scrawling in them. And now that the idea has been brought to my attention, if I *did* decided to enscribble books on a shelf I’d *want* the staff to make sure I am who I say I am.

a spokesperson for Waterstones said: “We are incredulous and dismayed that any bookseller would ask an author for their ID when they have offered to sign their books. Of course, rogue individuals will, from time to time, want to sign books of which they are not the author. Any sensible bookseller can discretely and easily compare the author photo – present on almost every book – and, if there is an obvious mismatch, make a joke of it.”

Make a joke of it? For frak’s sake. Not every author is JK Rowling, with a bagrillion copies of their books on the shelves. Some of us have books printed in numbers that are relatively tiny, and having even a few ruined is kinda painful to contemplate. And no, there are no photos of me in or on “SR-71,” B-47/B-52,” or probably *any* book that may come down the line. Ain’t nobody need to know what I look like (is your life better knowing what Steven King looks like? Does it make the experience of reading “Cujo” better?). But if I go into a place of business to mark up the merchandise, I’d *want* them to check on things like ID.

– – –

Which reminds me. This is hardly the only news story of late regarding morons getting PO’ed about the idea of being asked to show their ID. the current decrepit President of the United States has been telling some whoppers lately to rile up the ignoratti about how terrible it is that they might need to prove that they are who they say they are before they vote:

 Posted by at 6:35 pm

Seditious Conspiracy

 blather, history, Hmm..., news, politics  No Responses »
Jan 152022
 

After more than a year of the Democrats and their media lapdogs shrieking about “insurrection” at the Mostly Peaceful Protest in D.C., *finally* some charges have been filed that, if carried through to conviction, would bear out in at least a handful of cases the Dems claims. But there are numerous issues with the charges, as discussed here:

Seditious Conspiracy: A Look at the New January 6 Oath Keepers Charges

In a way this could be an important historical point, somewhat in the way the Rittenhouse case was. In that case, it was a clear and obvious case of self defense; had the prosecutors convinced the jurors to convict, the entire concept of “self defense” would have potentially been deleted from practical consideration. In this latest set of charges, it appears that the whole case rests on some nuts blathering on in Internet Badass Mode. If convictions are made in this case, then, with  a change in Administrations and priorities, a whole bunch of Lefties who blather on it exactly the same sort of way could find their tweets coming back to haunt them for the next 20 years in FPMITA prison. “First Amendment? Never heard of it.”

Consider:

The words of the seditious conspiracy law – using force to “prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States” or to “seize, take, or possess any property of the United States” – may be broad enough to sweep in certain kinds of civil disobedience, disruptive protests at the Capitol and elsewhere, and plans to resist mass arrests.

Take any property of the United States. Could that be whittled down to “Joe Antifa stole an FBI guy’s jacket, which is property of the United States. Ten years!” I don’t know. But it’s hardly impossible. Could it have applied to the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol and the Supreme Court to prevent the appointment of Justice Kavenaugh? I dunno, but it doesn’t seem impossible. Anyone who blocks access to a military base, or throws rocks at an FBI office, or shrieks at a snowflake government official like AOC could be charged under these rules.

 Posted by at 4:17 pm

Zeva flight test

 aircraft, Hmm..., news, youtube  No Responses »
Jan 152022
 

To a certain limit of the definition of “flight,”

Once again, another flight test video where the audio is obscured, in this case by music. I fully imagine that this thing was brain-meltingly loud nearby, a result of the basic physics of high disc loading.

 Posted by at 1:52 pm

It’s racist to not be ignorant

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Forward!, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Jan 152022
 

When you are planning a move, it’s wise to know something about where you are moving to. What the taxes are like, what the weather is like, reliability of gas, electricity, phone, internet, public transport; all that stuff. And knowing if you are going to be regularly robbed, raped and murdered is something most people would want to know in advance, so they can plan accordingly. But is seems that having that information makes you a bad, bad, terabad person:

Trulia to drop neighborhood crime data from home listings, after Redfin speaks out against practice

“We believe that Redfin–and all real estate sites–should not show neighborhood crime data.”

I believe someone should develop some sort of app/add-on that automatically displays crime data when you pull up mapping or real estate websites. With appropriate warning based on the severity of the local criminality and incompetent governance. “WARNING WARING: The city has defunded their police. Do Not Approach. Do Not Invest.”

 Posted by at 1:39 pm
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