Now going after BR2049 aesthetic:
My “Zaneverse” stories are set about 500 years down the line. The main characters are just regular folk living in a space opera world where mankind is out among the stars, flitting about in ships with hyperdrive and artificial gravity, interacting with a limited range of aliens species. Perhaps not so innovative, I suppose. But humanity in these stories is not and overwhelming wave of colonists sweeping the galaxy aside in our trillions… because humanity out in space is derived form a relatively tiny few who survived the collapse of terrestrial civilization. At the beginning of the 22nd century, humanity is nearly wiped out and has to rebuild and expand off-world. The 21st century turns out to be a long litany of horrible things.
In my stories, this back story is hardly ever mentioned. In a story set in t he current day, how much jibberjabber will there be about, say, the Renaissance or various wars and migrations four or five hundred years ago? Sure, *today* you could well have a story where characters Just Will Not Shut Up about how their ancestors were oppressed hundreds of years ago; but let’s be honest, these people are dreary and meaningless. Still, in order to set up my world of 500 years from now, I had to work up a basic framework of their past. And one of the more important series of events from the mid/late 21st century was to be the “Pan Asian Wars.” China vs Japan. India vs China. Pakistan vs India. Korea vs Korea. Korea vs Japan. Russians getting involved, the US trying Real Hard to stay uninvolved. The end result would be ecological destruction and mass death unlike anything in prior history.
It was *supposed* to happen a few generations from now…
World War 3: India retaliates as Pakistan violates ceasefire – violent clash breaks out
Come on, people. Ya gotta wait until the US sets up a few self-sustaining off-world colonies before you blow the planet to hell and gone.
The Russian tradition of just leaving their amazing aircraft to the whims of nature continues…
Russia’s Flying Sea Monster Broke Free
It was being towed across the Caspian Sea when it broke loose and beached itself. Hopefully it’ll get rescued.
Someone snuck past the sleeping guard on duty and took a number of photos of the interior of the craft. They’re impressive; check ’em out.
Take a moment away from the craziness for some nice, calming, peaceful music:
Wilmington women indicted on hate crime charges after viral MAGA hat theft
“Hate crimes” are stupid. But… so long as they’re on the books, it’s nice seeing them at least *sometimes* applied to to leftist violence. In this case, two 21-year-old women decided it would be a hoot to attack a 7-year-old because he was wearing a MAGA hat. They now face 15 years in prison:
Delaware law states that a person is guilty of such when they commit a “crime for the purpose of interfering with the victim’s free exercise or enjoyment of any right, privilege or immunity protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, or commits said crime because the victim has exercised or enjoyed said rights.”
Whoopsie.
First trailer’s out. Looks… dunno yet.
Pink Floyd, huh…
Biden having a hard time pronouncing words in his speech today.
"Trade diffi-deficit"
"Pharmaceutical indusse"
"Prices on prescription jugs"Says Trump is "trying to do away with all health care in America." pic.twitter.com/YV4vli48zR
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 9, 2020
Yesterday I linked to news that in the future “Best Picture” Oscar nominees will need to meet ideological targets. I suggested that past winners might get erased due to their lack of diversity. If’n you think that’s crazytalk… behold:
Nearly 70-year-old murals taken down at University of Rhode Island for lack of diversity
The original artist is 95. To have lived through WWII, having fought off fascists, only to see them come along and erase his work because it doesn’t fit a political narrative.
Old nuclear test films upscaled and colorized. While not perfect, they’re really quite good.
These come from a YouTube channel with a lot of old B&W films “improved” via artificial intelligence:
An interesting video about the last item that the US military fielded that could be called a “flamethrower,” the M202 “Flash:”
Now, it would probably be inappropriate to suggest that weapons such as this, or perhaps “Dragons Breath” cartridges for tear gas launches, would be an appropriate response to communists in the streets throwing Molotov cocktails. So don’t even think about it.