A 4-bore rifle. Hmm.
The bullet weigh the same as 40 .556 rounds and produced 200 pounds of felt recoil.
Apr 172023
Apr 152023
Something failed on the launch tower and fell the full length of it, sending out a shower of sparks. Seems like the man-carrying elevator suffered a problem and the counterweight plummeted. This is doubtless not great news for the planned Monday launch.
So, yeah. Another “infrastructure oopsie.” Hmmm.
Here is another angle showing what appears to be some kind of electrical short resulting in an object falling into the base of the tower.
🎥@LabPadre pic.twitter.com/VWqri1yS0N
— Zack Golden (@CSI_Starbase) April 15, 2023
🚀Sparks Fell From the Orbital Launch Tower🚀
At 1:47AM 2023-04-15 sparks rained down from the orbital launch tower (OLT) at the #SpaceX #Starbase rocket launch complex.
The sparks may have been some kind of late night welding or grinding, maybe some kind of mishap.
🎥LabPadre pic.twitter.com/WMC9NCNnn2
— Starbase Watcher 🚀 (@watchstarbase) April 15, 2023
Apr 152023
They’ve got FAA approval:
Green light go: SpaceX receives a launch license from the FAA for Starship
If it goes to plan, as soon as 7AM Texas time on Monday Starship/Superheavy will launch. The booster will splash down 30+ kilometers from the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico; Starship will climb to 235 kilometers, get into *almost* a circular orbit, and re-enter and bellyflop into the Pacific 225 kilometers north of Oahu. Of course the chances of everything going right are probably low; I would not be surprised to see an enthusiastic unassembly early in the flight (though hopefully far enough away to not tear up the launch site). If it claws its way off the pad, it’ll be the most powerful rocket ever launched.
With the state of the world, and especially with the plethora of mysterious “accidents” happening to industrial facilities around the country, I expect to see things not go quite to plan. I hope to be be proven wrong.
Apr 142023
Netflix will be releasing a “documentary” about Queen Cleopatra VII. This “documentary” is apparently based on the fictional notion that she was a sub-Saharan African. This is a long-debunked and remarkably silly idea, but welcome to 2023, I guess. Here’s a good takedown:
When you race swap enough fictional characters, you start in on race swapping the historical characters. then you re-write history entirely. then you *erase* and *invent* history. And then society is whatever those in power want it to be.
Apr 142023
Season One of HBO’s “True Detective” was *spectacular* television. Seasons 2 and 3… not so much (hell, I barely remember them… not sure I finished either season). But Season 4 looks promising again:
Apr 142023
When you need a lot of racism, but society just isn’t producing it anymore… you manufacture it.
Former Florida State Professor Pushed Doctored Data to Create False Sense of Racism
Several studies conducted by Eric Stewart, a former professor at Florida State University, were found to have been doctored to create the impression that the public wanted harsher sentences for black and Hispanic Americans, when in reality, the opposite was true.
Huh. That’s an odd thing to do. Why would a professor commit academic fraud in order to invent racist attitudes?
Stewart, a highly regarded professor at Florida State University with expertise in the intersection of race and criminal justice … held a job as a professor at Florida State University from 2016 to 2022, with a recent 2022 record showing a salary of $189,604.94, which is significantly higher than the average pay for co-workers and the national average for government employees. In 2019, he earned $103,458 as a professor.
Hmm. Nope, got nuthin’. It’s a mystery.
Apr 142023
Remember the “Fyre Festival?” Remember how it was s shit show of historic and utterly hilarious proportions, never to be repeated in this lifetime?
Guess what…
Billy McFarland Announces Fyre Festival II Is ‘Finally Happening’
Apr 132023
Conservative activist launches ‘Ultra Right’ beer as rival to Bud Light after Dylan Mulvaney controversy
I’m amused by this, but also very, very dubious of long-term success. I don’t know from developing a beer brand from scratch, but I suspect it’s not something you can slap together at a moments notice. I suspect developing a *good* beer is a process that takes a lot of time, trouble, money and expertise… not to mention infrastructure.
I get the idea of developing a “non-woke” counter to large corporations that hate you. But I’ve also seen a lot of “right wing/Christian” movies. Or to be more accurate, I’ve seen a few minutes of a number of these entertainment products… and those few minutes were generally painful. When your *primary* goal is Messaging rather than Good Product, you tend to end up with crap. Hollywood is coasting on decades of building up the infrastructure and talent for Good Product; the Message came to dominate after the process for good entertainment-making was already in place. A “right wing beer” sounds like the sort of thing that will be released long before it’s actually a *good* beer, will disappoint the intended fanbase, and fade into oblivion, leaving the supposed market to be dominated by the corporations that were meant to be challenged in the first place.
Apr 122023
As a non-user of mind-altering substances… good:
Federal Judge Tosses Gun Possession Case Against Drug Users
“In short, the historical tradition of disarming ‘unlawful’ individuals appears to mainly involve disarming those convicted of serious crimes after they have been afforded criminal process,” Judge Cardone wrote in her opinion. “Section 922(g)(3), in contrast, disarms those who engage in criminal conduct that would give rise to misdemeanor charges, without affording them the procedural protections enshrined in our criminal justice system.”
As with “red flag laws,” a case can be made for disarming someone. But that case requires the rule of law, the presumption of innocence, due process, the right of the accused to put up a defense. Just yeeting someones rights Because Reasons is unAmerican. And taking someones guns because they smoke dope is pretty stupid when we *don’t* take someones guns because they drink alcohol. I’ve seen drunks, and I’ve seen stoners… and I know which of the two I’d consider more chill, more likely to just sit there and gnaw on some Cheetos, and which group would be more likely to fly into an irrational rage.
Apr 122023
Security fears mount after top-secret Biden Belfast visit plan found in street
I gotta say, I’ve never come across top secret documents about ongoing Presidential security matters just flopping about on the road. The story is unclear, but this seems to be an Irish document rather than a White House document. Which, given this White House, is honestly a bit surprising.