So today I signed the contract for my third book. This one will be a little different than the previous two: rather than covering one or two specific aircraft types and their evolution, competitors and derivatives, this one will cover a *category* of aircraft. Details later.
Sometimes you just need a good actor. And if what you’re shooting for is “holy frak that’s creepy,” a good actor who is literally dying at the time of filming can be incredibly effective. Such as Julian beck here in “Poltergeist 2.” Thirty years ago this bugged the bejeebers out of me, and it *still* works.
Nope.
Nope.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE.
By hiding the shuttles and simplifying a number of the components, my system was just able to render the complete vehicle. Huzzah!
Currently going for fourteen bucks and change (the ad below says $23, but the page it links to shows $14). Christmas is coming. Stock up!
I recently stumbled across some vids on youTube showing something I didn’t know I needed: networked radio communications that don’t need cell networks or subscriptions. They seem to be basically dinky encrypted radios used for text messaging. These would be handy in the event that cell networks go down or get mangled or overloaded, or for communicating where cell networks simply aren’t available. They look like snazzy devices… and for the life of me I can’t seem to actually find commercial version of them, only hand-made units. These things seem like they’d be popular as hell; the cost of parts seems to be well under $50 so you’d think a proper manufacturer could sell them for a hundred bucks a pop and make a fortune. So… where are they?
Over nine thousand on the cringometer!
The information these yahoos provide about who used to live there, what their current ethnicity and genders are, what they’re wearing? Really only one valid response to that:
But… ah… not of who the allegations were aimed at.
Whoopsie.
Bonus: not relevant, but wisdom nonetheless.
Hidden behind the news of Virginia’s election of governor flipping the office from D to R is an election in New Jersey, where a truck driver defeated the State Senate President. Since the new State Senator Edward Durr has the Wrong Politics, his social media postings have been scrutinized to find all the horrible, horrible things this man said during the years when he was just some blue collar guy that nobody in the media paid the slightest bit of attention to:
The first posting they quote is a tweet from 2019, where he refers to a particular religion as “false” and its founder as a “pedo.” Uh-huh. So… is it wrong to declare *any* religion as “false?” If I am, say, an atheist who believes actively in the actual non-existence of any and all gods, to me *every* religion that teaches that gods exist is false. If I am a theist who believes one specific god exists but others do not, another religion that teaches that *my* god doesn’t exist but theirs does is false. Durr may or may not be factually right or wrong to claim that any particular religion is “false,” but he’s not morally or ethically wrong to do so, no more so than if he had said “my religion is true.” And if the founder of a religion is described in his own official hagiographies as have boinked a 9-year-old… how is he *not* a pedo?
And multiple posts from his Facebook account downplayed the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — one called it “not an insurrection … (but) an unauthorized entry by undocumented federal employers!”
And… hmm. “Undocumented federal employers” is a dandy description of taxpayers.
And speaking of the elections…
One of the best episodes of any of the Trek series aired 25 years ago today.
AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH.
On one hand: crap, I’m ooooooold. On the other hand: this episode, which saw Our Heroes from Deep Space Nine sent back in time to the original series “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode and seamlessly slotted in using CGI tricks and well constructed sets, props and costumes, showed that the original series designs worked *perfectly* well in an era of higher resolution. And when Star Trek: Enterprise did it itself some years later, with even higher visual resolution, that cemented the fact that the Nu Trek eras determination to redesign everything was just ridiculous and, let’s face it, ugly.
Nothing STD or STP has produced has improved on this:
As a bonus: in order to produce footage that the new characters could be inserted into, vintage Trek footage was remastered digitally. The end result was so good that it help to assure that a complete remaster of the original series was created and released on Blu Ray.
The parallels between the seventies and the current era are numerous. A shameful abandonment of allies, allowing them to be over-run by savages. A feckless and wholly incompetent President, in far over his head. A NASA in shambles, promising a New Thing but facing constant technical issues, delays and massive cost over-runs. An economy in deep trouble, with looming inflation. An energy crisis. Deep cultural and racial divisions. New York and other major cities being known more for their crime than anything else. And on and on.
So today, while out and about I stopped in a convenience store to get something to drink. Over the past few months there have been occasional shortages… sometimes they don’t have the syrup to make this or that fountain drink; or they don’t have straws, or they don’t have polypropylene cups, or they don’t have styrofoam cups. Various bits of shelf space bare from time to time. All annoying side effects of the current economic conditions brought about by the pandemic and ridiculous policies that trash the ability of American ports to do their jobs. But nothing quite screamed “the 70’s are back, baby!” to me quite like today: I got my drink, pulled out a paper-wrapped straw, and unwrapped it.. to find a *paper* straw.
I haven’t seen a paper straw in 40 or more years. I didn’t like ’em then, because they turned into a soggy mess well before you were done with them. I don’t like them any better now, because of what they represent: an admission of failure. I don’t know if these straws hold up any better than they did 40+ years ago because as soon as I got to my car I swapped it for a proper plastic straw. But I kept the thing. It’s still there, mocking me, promising to bring on stagflation and a return of lime green polyester leisure suits, wide lapels, bell bottoms, perms.
Get ready for it. it’s coming back, like it or not.
