Well. The circular rings don’t actually move or shift, just the colors within them. Proof: put a fingernail or some such on an edge.
なんと動いてません#ド直球に言いますがフォローしてください pic.twitter.com/qthgo7k2UN
— じゃがりきん (@jagarikin) April 21, 2021
Apr 252021
Apr 252021
Whether its cops who are woke, or cops who just don’t want to get cancelled/arrested for doing their jobs, or whether its cops replaced by social workers… here it is:
— Mr. Alexopoulos (@GPrime85) April 21, 2021
Apr 242021
It is legal for you to build your own firearm from scratch (assuming you live in a civilized region that recognizes your basic human rights). Where things get tricky is if you try to *sell* your home-made firearm. If you don’t have proper Federal licensing… you can get in a *lot* of trouble.
But there seems to be a loophole: government “buy back” events. They will buy any piece of junk gun for a relative pittance, no questions asked. They will then (probably) check the firearm to see if it was used in a crime, and if not, they will then (probably) destroy that firearm, no matter how rare, valuable or historically significant it is (unless, gasp, someone in the chain recognizes its value and absconds with it).
“Buy backs” are of course dubious for any of a number of reasons. The guns they get are typically either junk that couldn’t function to be used in a crime, or grand-dad’s old war relic that hasn’t seen the light of day in years and isn’t likely to be used in a crime either. And of course there’s the existential issue with buy-backs: how do you buy back something you didn’t own in the first place?
Here’s the fun part: you can make a functional crappy zip gun or slam-fire shotgun for a few bucks in scrap and labor. And these buy-back morons will buy them for substantially more than they cost you to make. And it’s all legal, apparently. Gentlemen, behold – the 1776 Boomstick, the profit-making venture of the future:
Florida Man Sells Homemade ‘1776 Boom Sticks’ At Gun Buyback, City Runs Out Of Cash In 30 Minutes
The gentleman selling the “Boom Stick 1776” shotguns told me he called the City rep before the event, and asked if they would purchase a single-shot shotgun – because the flier said they were buying semi-automatic firearms. Allegedly, he was told they would pay $125 for single-shot shotguns. So he attended the event.
At the checkpoint, he did have to demonstrate that they were functional (they were), and he was sent to the payment line, guns in hand.
Maybe ten bucks worth of junk, twenty bucks worth of labor, for $375 in sales. SPECTACULAR.
Would it be illegal or unethical to petition your local city or county to hold a buyback, while you have prepared a stock of slamfire shotguns for the specific purpose of selling at ten times their cost? I dunno, maybe… but it would be *appropriate,* and got-dam hilarious if you pulled it off.
Side note: take a look on that cops face. It is the weary look of a man who knows that he’s getting played, and knows that there’s nothing he can do about it, and who knows that there are *far* better things for him to be doing with his time.
Apr 242021
Well, I suppose it was bound to happen… I agree with Biden on something.
Biden officially recognizes the massacre of Armenians in World War I as a genocide
Now let’s see what he has to say about the Holodomor and the more recent hijinks by his Chinese paymasters.
Apr 232021
What an *adorable* Nazi killing machine…
Gotta wonder what kind of market there might be for these things. Almost certainly rather pricey, especially with shipping… but it’s a safe bet that everyone reading this blog knows at least one person who’d be willing to buy a subscale tank for, say, the price of a new car. Especially if it is actually made out of good steel and is reasonably bulletproof.
Yoink the fake cannon off it, add a more powerful engine and the drive train that made the “Ripsaw” so friggen’ fast, and you have something that would be a blast to go tearing up and down the streets in. Just the thing to serve as an about-town runabout for Minneapolis or Portland.
Apr 232021
In 2019, numerous observatories detected a monstrous flare from the nearest star, Proxima Centauri. A red dwarf, it is notable not only for being close but also for having a roughly Earth-sized planet within the habitable zone. Being a red dwarf, the habitable zone is *real* close to the star, meaning the planet is almost certainly tidally locked and devoid of moons. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the flare jumped up the ultraviolet emissions from the star by a factor of 14,000 for about seven seconds. An Earth-like planet in the path of such a flare would have its atmosphere seriously damaged and any life on the surface massively roasted. Since the flare lasted only a few seconds, all observations came from telescopes that happened to be looking at the star at the time. Indications are that while this flare was probably extraordinary, similar flares happen roughly daily.
Humongous flare from sun’s nearest neighbor breaks records
Apr 232021
SpaceX has launched four astronauts into orbit via Falcon 9/Dragon, as well as recovering the booster via drone ship.
Most people launched at one time since the Space Shuttle.
Apr 232021
Some important news:
Book One: Started in January of 2020, it was scheduled to be turned in in July of 2020… but a pandemic came along and trashed the planetary economy. the publisher pushed the deadline back a year. Today I saw the probable layout for the cover, as well as finished another 3-view bring the total to 191.5 pages of diagrams. Quite a few more to go.
Book Two: started a month or so after Book One was delayed, it’s to be a smaller work. The manuscript was turned in a month ago. Today I saw a near-final revision of the layout, with some corrections to be made. Around 109 or so distinct designs are illustrated; some two or more to a page, some taking two pages to illustrate. A number of inboard profile/plan views.
It seems that Book One is likely to be announced Real Soon Now, now that the cover is worked out. At that time, the details of the publisher, format and contents will be made available.
Apr 222021
Virginia moving to eliminate all accelerated math courses before 11th grade as part of equity-focused plan
Equity: stomping down on the high achievers.
Apr 222021
A cop comes up on a rock-throwing guy who pulls out a knife, takes about one step towards the cop, then catches a bullet. I think in the strictest sense, this was a legitimate shoot; cop told the guy several times to drop the knife, and instead he advanced towards the cop. But it all happened *real* fast. Britlanderish blog readers might well point out that their cops deal with knife wielding criminal types all the time and hardly ever shoot them… I believe the approach is the bring in a whole lot of backup and whallop the tar out of them with billyclubs (or to just let them go; I’m not really sure). And of course there are Tasers, of sometimes dubious reliability.
So, what should be the preferred approach in such circumstances? The subject is armed and aggressive, but if the cop retreats the subject probably does not pose an *immediate* threat. But if the cop retreats, the subject, who is clearly a menace to society, could get away. BUT simply being a probable threat may not be adequate cause for the deployment of deadly force. And on and on.
My view: I’m all in favor of “no duty to retreat.” Someone comes at you with a knife, *especially* if you are pointing a pistol at them, you – any form of “you,” from cop to soldier to housewife – have every right to do whatever you feel you need to to defend yourself. And on the other hand, those who are tasked with enforcing the governments’ will should probably be held to a reasonably high standard.
At least they can’t fault the cop for shooting off a wild volley of rounds. One shot and the guy seemed to be dead before he hit the pavement.
Once again, a situation that could have been more peaceably resolved if we had access to phasers with heavy stun settings. Or dart guns that fired transporter-lock tags: shoot the guy and he gets beamed directly into a jail cell. Sigh. It’s the year 2021, but where are the flying cars? I was promised flying cars. I don’t see any flying cars.