Woo.

 blather  No Responses »
Feb 202021
 

New  (i.e. new from the pawn shop, freshly factory reset, slathered with new anti-virus software) laptop being used to post this message. And not a moment too soon… as mentioned before, the old laptop seemed to have given up the ghost as far as connecting to the WiFi, but then it got back on the ball. And then… it fell off the ball. And now it’s back on. I suspect it’s not doing so great. At least this time I’ve got the replacement up and running while the old one is still seemingly functional.

Reminder to self: stock up on cheapo laptops. Build a good supply, keep in cold, dry place…

 Posted by at 6:19 pm

If you can get online…

 AARRRGH, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., humor, news, politics  No Responses »
Feb 202021
 

… you ain’t black. So sayeth the most popular and non-senile President in American history.

 

It’s really remarkable… the left has been burning the midnight oil for *years* proclaiming that anyone who wants low taxes, limited government, gun rights, objective reality, cops and non-crappy comic books are racist white supremacists. And yet, who is it that you can consistently rely upon to talk down to anyone darker-complected than a paper bag?

 

 

 Posted by at 2:42 pm

How to behave in Britain

 art, history, Hmm..., politics, wisdom, youtube  No Responses »
Feb 202021
 

This training film for US soldiers deployed to Britain during WWII is a little uncomfortable. It comes across as a film made by clueless Hollywood types based on crude cliched British stereotypes… but it was made by the British Ministry of Information. So… I guess it’s cool?

I’m curious whether:

1: The stereotypes were broadly accurate

2: The stereotypes were what the MoI *wanted* to be real

3: The stereotypes were what the MoI wanted the Yanks to *believe*

And interesting ponderable: about 80 years ago, Americans flooded into Britain. They were expected to learn the local customs and laws and to behave themselves accordingly. Feel free to compare and contrast to events from more recent years.

 Posted by at 10:22 am

Rush on Phil

 awesomeness, history, Hmm..., humor, politics, youtube  No Responses »
Feb 192021
 

This is an interesting summary of Rush Limbaugh from nearly 30 years ago. Much of it applies as much today as it did then, including the brain dead moron who accuses Rush of being a fascist, but who cannot actually *define* fascism. Most of the topics discussed are such that it could have been filmed today… except, of course, one of the fellers being dead and the other being long since culturally irrelevant.

Note that it includes the original commercials. Most of them are utterly forgettable… but a few of them might, if you are old enough, give you flashbacks.  “Jean Luc!”

 Posted by at 11:27 pm

Nuclear Princess Model

 aircraft, drawings, drawings&documents, history, models, nukes, projects  No Responses »
Feb 192021
 

Recently for sale on ebay was a display model of the Saro “Princess” turboprop flying boat, as Convair planned to modify it into a nuclear-powered research prototype. This late 50’s design was ballsy if nothing else: a nuclear reactor would be installed within the fuselage, providing superheated air from the reactor to the inboard above-wing modified turboprops. Unlike the NB-36H, this aircraft would have been actually powered by the reactor.

A description of the concept was written up HERE. A set of detailed diagrams are available as Air Drawing 8.

 Posted by at 8:52 pm

Flip the color values and imagine the results

 Crazy, Forward!, news, politics, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 192021
 

First up:

New York School Encourages Parents To Become ‘White Traitors,’ ‘White Abolitionists’

Abolish white people, y’all.

And then:

Huh.

I wonder what would happen if Coca Cola put “Try To be Less White” in great big letters on their packaging.

 Posted by at 7:46 pm

This is both cruel and hilarious

 AARRRGH, art, awesomeness, Hmm..., youtube, YouTubers worth watching  No Responses »
Feb 192021
 

The Lock Picking Lawyer is always a channel worth watching. And if you ever find yourself in need of defeating a lock, he might well have a video that can show you how to do it… and often how to do it *very* quickly. Some locks turn out to be ridiculously easily defeated.

Such is the case here. This is not a practical lock, but a lock meant purely as a gift. It is a keyless lock that, once closed, is supposed to never be opened again, to demonstrate the permanence of love. He opens it in about three seconds.

 

 Posted by at 5:52 pm

The Book Burners again turn to sci-fi

 AARRRGH, books, Crazy, dumbassery, Forward!, Gah., news, politics, science fiction, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 192021
 

Burning down a brick-and-mortar science fiction bookstore was not good enough for the modern book burners; now they’re going after publishers who publish wrongthink in order to prevent those books from getting printed in the first place. In this case, Baen Books which has the temerity to publish some authors who are libertarians and even GASP conservatives.

THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT BAEN’S BAR

Publishing House Baen Books Attacked by Cancel Culture

 Posted by at 10:34 am

And another computer goes kaput

 AARRRGH, blather, Gah., ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 182021
 

Once again the transitory nature of life is driven home to me by one of my computers giving up on doing its job. This was my dedicated internet computer, an HP that has a plastic case that has been falling apart for a year now (apparently a common problem with that model). It still runs, but it has decided that it no longer wants to actually connect to wifi, which kinda defeats the purpose of an internet computer.  It might be tomorrow or longer before I’m up and running again.  This is being tapped out on my phone, which is a pain.

 

UPDATE: Aaaaaaaaaaaannnnd now it’s working again. Hmmm. Should I trust it to keep functioning? Hmmm. I think I’ll put as much faith in its continued functioning as I would in the continued proper functioning of a career politician who has recently stumbled across a sane policy position. in other words: still gonna hunt down a replacement.

 Posted by at 10:31 pm

Scuttling goes quick

 AARRRGH, Hmm..., ships, youtube, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Feb 182021
 

Last year the ore carrier “Stellar Banner” ran aground off Brazil (February 2020). The decision was made to scuttle the vessel, and in June of 2020 it was sunk in deeper waters. This process took 20 minutes… but most of the actual sinking occurred in a matter of seconds:

Once it started going, it went down in a hurry.

 Posted by at 12:57 pm
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