Jul 072023
 

The “weak man creating hard times” in France speaks out:

After days of destruction, Macron blames a familiar bogeyman: video games

Uh-huh. Which video games?

“European Invasion and Conquest: 2022?”

“Border Dash 3?”

“Street Fighter Marseilles?”

“Boko Haram Book Burning Simulator 2023?”

“Final Jihad Fantasy XVI?”

 

 Posted by at 3:49 pm
Jul 062023
 

Yet another corporation feels the sting of their social media marketing disasters:

Ben & Jerry’s Insufferable Overpriced Ice Cream decided that the US needed to be destroyed on July 4. Oddly enough, the American market seemed to not think very highly of that.

 

 Posted by at 11:15 pm
Jul 052023
 

So the Russians are claiming that the Ukrainians are gonna blow up the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and then blame it on Russia. That’d certainly be a neat trick for the Ukrainians, since the Russians occupy and control the place. Ukraine claims the Russians are going to blow it up and blame it on Ukraine, but it seems that the wind would tend to blow the fallout into Russia.

Ukraine, Russia accuse each other of planning to attack Europe’s biggest nuclear plant

There have been two similar “false flag” attacks in this war: the Nord Stream pipeline and the Kakhovka dam. Small problem… sober analysis seems to indicate that both of those were destroyed by incompetence and/or neglect rather than direct action. But the nuclear power plant is shut down; it should be nicely inert. So if it explodes… somebody exploded it. Who is more likely to do that, Ukraine or Russia? Ukraine could probably only pull that off with some sort of major assault… a lot of troops, planes and armor, aided by HIMARS and the like raining down. While possible, that could hardly be disguised as a Russian attack. And of course, Ukraine wants the reactor back. It’s theirs, after all. Never mind the environmental devastation of its destruction, it’s worth a bucket of cash. Repairing it would be cost prohibitive, and resuming power generation would be an economic boon.

On the other hand, the Russians could well have mined the place. At the push of a button their could turn it into garbage.

Why would they do something so crazy? I dunno. Ask Prigozhin. Why do Russian military/political leaders do *anything,* and is there anything resembling reason, logic or sense to it?

If it happens… things will likely get sporty. An attack on Ukraine is not an attack on NATO. But intentionally causing a reactor meltdown or setting fire to spent fuel rods? That *might* send clouds of fallout over Germany, Poland and the like. They could consider that a radiological attack, and might invoke Article 5. And then it’s NATO vs Russia.

 Posted by at 10:56 pm
Jul 042023
 

That movie was utterly forgettable. Why bring it up? Because I was reminded of the trailer for the movie, went and watched it again, and checked out the comments. Grok.

Me after the trailer: “Life is good.” Me after the movie: “…that could’ve been better.”

 

Say what you will about the movie, but we can all admit this trailer is a masterpiece.
Whoever edited this trailer deserves a raise. I don’t know how you made that disaster look so badass here.
You can say anything about how bad this movie is, but this trailer is a piece of art. Perfect music, perfect editing, its sells the movie like no other trailer in recent memory. Two years later I still come back to it and have goosebumbs all over by body.
It’s like watching your wedding video after filing for a divorce.

 

Near the end, when the beat perfectly matched the Phalanx systems firing? Followed by Wonder Woman swinging through the sky by lassoing *lightning?* Utterly silly… and entirely awesome and badass. And then… the movie came out and it was forget-a-mess.

 Posted by at 11:42 pm
Jul 032023
 

Ryan released this piece of art in 1958 depicting a tailsitter fighter somewhat like their X-13. However, this was clearly a much larger vehicle, operational rather than experimental. More than anything it resembles a slimmed-down and stretched-out Avro Arrow. It’s unclear that this was based on an actual engineering study, rather than artistic license.

This would seem to be an interceptor, presumably installed somewhere in Europe within hidden underground bunkers. It’s not at all certain to me that in the event of all out war there’d be any real point in having these aircraft be able to land vertically as their bunkers would probably be radioactive glass by they time they got home… and without the dedicated equipment needed to catch the aircraft, they’d be unable to land.

 

 

 Posted by at 10:10 pm