So, here are a young couple reacting to the movie “Apollo 13.” Nothing particularly noteworthy, except to the likes of me: they didn’t know how it was going to end. The public schools may well teach kids to hate western civ and to think the US was built by slaves and to count an uncountable number of imaginary genders, but actual history? None of that.
The AI apocalypse has just been made inevitable:
How is a woman of no intelligence going to save us from artificial intelligence? The only possibility i can think of is that once a suspected threatening AGI is produced, the CIA/FBI/NSA/USSF/NASA will plop Harris down in front of it and have her begin to babble her incoherent nonsense in the hopes that the machine will do like Landru or Nomad and burst into flames, it’s processors driven past the the point of incandescence trying to make sense of her gibberish.
The funniest Italian-Iranian pro-life right wing comedian you’ll probably see today:
Three main options:
1) Ukrainian quadcopter flew hundreds of miles.
2) Russians PO’ed about their crappy government and their stupid war
3) The Russian government did it themselves.
Personally, #3 makes the most sense to me. Caiming that Ukraine launched an assassination/terrorist attack against Dear Leader is good propaganda, and it gives the Kremlin permission – as if it really needs it – to launch further extermination campaigns against Ukraine. If evidence can be manufactured to show that the drones came from, say, Germany or Finland or the US, that gives that much more evidence that Mother Russia needs to wipe out the west.
There are, of course, other options:
4) The Chinese did it. Why? For the same reason Red China hired SPECTRE to develop reusable launch vehicle technology in the med-60’s in order to snatch both US and USSR capsules from orbit: to spark a war between the other two powers. China stays out of it, then moves into the chaos and rubble afterwards.
In 2017 a guy stole a pickup truck (pretty sure it’s a Ford, but I’m no trucknologist) and led Oklahoma police on a two-plus hour chase. It’s… something.
The rewards for April, 2023, have been released. They include:
Document: *Partial* Martin report on the M329 Mach 2 jet seaplane bomber
Document: “Flexible Wing Manned Test Vehicle, Final Program Report,” Ryan, December 1961. report on the development of the “Rogallo Wing” test vehicle.
Document: “10 Jahre TKF/J-90 Vorentwicklung,” conference paper from 1983 from Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm Gmbh describing (in German) the development of advanced fighter jets
Large Format: “NASA’s Space Launch System,” poster with detailed diagrams of the Block 1 and Block 1B SLS
CAD Diagram: B-1B weapons loads. This diagram was created and intended for my “US Supersonic Bomber Projects Volume 1” but had to be cut for space reasons. This includes gravity bombers, cruise missile sand the Vought T-22 “Assault Breaker.”
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.
Adam Savage has a bunch of old (decades) silicone molds sitting doing nothing. Silicone, sadly, degrades not just from use, but over time; a mold that is years old will almost certainly fall into ruin if you try to cast a part using it. So, if you have an old mold that you want to get parts out of, what to do? Well, if you are well connected you get someone to CAT scan the mold, create an STL model of the mold, convert the hollow space within into a solid model, then 3D print. Easy! Anybody can do it! But here’s the thing: each scan the CAT scanner makes takes 30 seconds… and each mold could take 1500 scans to complete. So… twelve and a half solid hours on a CAT scanner.
Huh.
The tripod showed up. I do believe it is correct. Compare to the original prop. Here it’s fairly well hidden by the video camera, but the size seems about right in the case:
When extended one leg-segment, the top of both the prop tripod and the one on hand are right at the top of the opened briefcase lid.
Until I either find out what some of the remaining items are (the rectangular “buttons,” the TV screen, speaker cover, “light pen,” knurled knobs), this seems to exhaust my search for and procurement of vintage artifacts. However, the project proceeds. As can be seen, I’ve mostly removed the interior fabric liner and its card backing; that was some tough stuff. The boxes for the keyboard and the numeric/math board will be fabricated; this can be done pretty accurately given that I have the keys and fairly clear photos. The long space bar is going to be a challenge… the typewriter I have has one, and it’s in great shape… but removing it requires undoing some screws that I just can’t reach without an extensive disassembly of the typewriter. Instead, I think I can *just* manage to make a silicone mold of it in place and cast a copy right there.
Note also in the color photo of the prop: the keyboard is off-kilter. It looks like the bits and pieces were just placed into the case and not fixed down in any fashion. My replica will be different: the boxes and the phone will be designed to attach to a fiberglass board that fills the back of the case. There will also be something to attach the camera and the tripod to keep them from flopping around inside the case. Also note… there are no wires connecting the TV screen and memory components in the lid to the keyboard, phone and camera in the base. I suspect this was just a way to keep things neater for the prop (or even an oversight), but I would not put it past the prop people, or even Kubrick, to have made the decision to not have wires. Instead there might have been microwave, laser or radio links between the components. More complex, and needlessly so… but this was a world in which businessmen went to space stations to buy bush babies over the videophone and signed contracts on the moon with atomic-powered pens. So a laptop where the top and bottom communicated via Wifi rather than wires does not seem out of place.
Given that this ridiculous bill is *clearly* unConstitutional, it was largely inevitable, but it’s nice to see it happen. Of course Illinois will doubtless continue to fight for this nonsense, eventually dragging it before the Illinois Supreme Court and then doubtless before the US Supreme Court when the bought and paid for Illinois SC rules in favor of the bill. But it looks like, for now, reason has temporarily prevailed and Illinois residents can once again buy and transfer perfectly legal inanimate objects.
Happy Preliminary Injunction day, Illinois! Judge McGlynn slapped down the “assault weapon” ban HARD. https://t.co/jgrHaCn71N
The state cannot enforce the ban. Also, he makes it clear as to why the citizenry needs access to adequate weapons (the point of the 2A) pic.twitter.com/EaSo1sqOX5
— President Non_Fudd (@Non_Fudd) April 28, 2023
As Americans, we have every reason to celebrate our rights and freedoms,
especially on Independence Day. Can the senseless crimes of a relative few be so
despicable to justify the infringement of the constitutional rights of law-abiding
individuals in hopes that such crimes will then abate or, at least, not be as horrific?
More specifically, can PICA be harmonized with the Second Amendment of the
United States Constitution and with Bruen? That is the issue before this Court. The
simple answer at this stage in the proceedings is “likely no.” The Supreme Court in
Bruen and Heller held that citizens have a constitutional right to own and possess
firearms and may use them for self-defense. PICA seems to be written in spite of the
clear directives in Bruen and Heller, not in conformity with them. Whether well-
intentioned, brilliant, or arrogant, no state may enact a law that denies its citizens
rights that the Constitution guarantees them. Even legislation that may enjoy the
support of a majority of its citizens must fail if it violates the constitutional rights of
fellow citizens. For the reasons fully set out below, the overly broad reach of PICA
commands that the injunctive relief requested by Plaintiffs be granted.
I do wonder if there will be a rush among Illinois residents to buy standard capacity magazines and AR-15’s before the next round of political hackery overturns this injunction. And will in-state and out-of-state businesses sell? It seems to be legal, for now, for businesses to do so… but this is Illinois we’re talking about, and no amount of corrupt chicanery is too much for the shrieking baboons who run the state government. I can see them trying to harass businesses and customers *now*, and then when they get their way again, retroactively harassing businesses and customers.
Plaintiffs have satisfied their burden for a preliminary injunction. They have
shown irreparable harm with no adequate remedy at law, a reasonable likelihood of
success on the merits, that the public interest is in favor of the relief, and the balance
of harm weighs in their favor. Therefore, the Plaintiffs’ motions for preliminary
injunction are GRANTED. Defendants are ENJOINED from enforcing Illinois
statutes 720 ILCS 5/24-1.9(b) and (c), and 720 ILCS 5/24-1.10, along with the PICA
amended provisions set forth in 735 ILCS 5/24-1(a), including subparagraphs (11),
(14), (15), and (16), statewide during the pendency of this litigation until the Court
can address the merits.
The ruling is readable HERE.