Dec 192022
 

So today twitter posted a new rule:

It’s a little odd, to be sure. But at a glance, a *lot* of people read that and started screeching about how this is against EU law, how they are outraged, how this is a violation of free speech how they are – yet again – going to quit Twitter and go somewhere else (Mastodon seems to be the popular choice). But as is traditional for these sort of folk, they didn’t actually bother to read the whole thing:

 

 

we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links

 

That’s… pretty clear. It’s not, as many of these brain damaged morons seem to suggest, a rule that prevents casual linking to other sites, but a rule against setting up accounts solely for promoting other platforms. Is that a little strange? Maybe. But I have noticed that whenever I go to a movie theater and look at the *insanely* high prices for popcorn and soda, there is often also a sign that says “outside food and drink are prohibited.” I’m pretty sure if you went into a McDonalds and nailed a poster for Wendys on the wall, they might object. Send a “shop at Target” marching band into Walmart, and you might find yourself asked to leave.

 

How many of the people freaking out are really that dumb, and how many are just using performative outrage, I can’t say. But in either case, these are people who aren’t useful or beneficial in public discourse. So if they want to wander off to some self-segregated niche like Mastodon… hey, great. Twitter was supposed to utterly collapse within days of Elon Musk taking over; so far it seems to be running just fine. A lot of objectively awful people have been suspended for *clear* TOS violations, and they have discovered the wonders of being treated like everyone else.

 

I have wondered if Elon bought Twitter simply to shut it down. That may still be the case, and if so, it would be a net benefit to mankind… so long as TikTok and Instagram and all the rest go down as well. Perhaps he is just screwing around with Twitter before he pulls the plug… might as well, I suppose.

 Posted by at 6:38 am
Dec 182022
 

Ran two prints today. The second one, the 4th test of the new setup, turned out to be pretty much there with just a few minor issues. The main issue I’m looking at now is getting proper coverage of the paper. For whatever reason, the cyanotyping fluid doesn’t really like the vellum paper and you get occasional blotchiness. This was a constant problem before, and was solved largely by tossing prints that weren’t up to code. Experiments will continue…

 Posted by at 12:46 pm
Dec 182022
 

Yes, I’m shocked too… I’m linking to a New York times article that is both interesting and informative:

 

Putin’s War

A Times investigation based on interviews, intercepts, documents and secret battle plans shows how a “walk in the park” became a catastrophe for Russia.

 

For no readily apparent reason, YouTube of late has been tossing videos at me that suddenly started focusing on people reading aloud stories posted on Reddit (handy for when I’ve been working on the cyanotypes). In particular, “HFY” stories… “Humanity F Yeah!” stories, science fiction short tales featuring, generally, aliens deciding to attack dumb ol’ weak humanity and getting their asses handed to them by those hairless monkeys who turn out to be *insanely* capable in the art of war. They are generally fun little tales… usually not *great* by any stretch, often fairly bad by the usual measures of such things, but entertaining. And the idea that Plucky Humans could save the day against galaxy-spanning ravening hordes and evil empires is always fun. But then I read stuff like this NYT article describing the state of the Russian war machine and war effort.

Yes, sometimes humans can be spectacularly expert at the art of war. But often we are phenomenally incompetent. If the Russia that launched this war against Ukraine was the standard of human military capability, even the most mediocre and half-assed alien invasion fleet would mop up Mankind in a lazy afternoon.

 Posted by at 10:10 am
Dec 172022
 

There was a time when vigilantes were more legend than fact, because the police and justice system did the job that needed doing. I guess those times are over. We entered a period of lawlessness… and I suspect that we’ll be seeing more stories like this, where vigilantes start doing the job that cops and security guards aren’t allowed to anymore.

Of course, some places want to pretend that crime *isn’t* a problem. That if you cover it up, people will forget about it. Let’s see how well *that* works…

 Posted by at 1:24 pm
Dec 162022
 

When Twitter banned the New York Post for accurately reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story, the progressive media said nothing. When twitter suspended some “journalists” for doxxing Elon Musk… suddenly, that’s a threat to democracy. The world will fall into ruin unless journalists are allowed to violate the established Twitter terms of service.

President Trump was banned from Twitter while Jihadi/Islamist terrorists were allowed to remain and continue to spit hate and threats. So, no, some journalists finding that the rules apply to them too is not a “precede

 Posted by at 10:45 pm
Dec 162022
 

Todays test involved mounting the UV light bar to a crude frame and just letting it run, not waving it over the print like an idjit. As you can see most of it is pretty uniform; the end of the print that was furthest from the light bar wasn’t adequately exposed. However, come the weekend two more UV lights will arrive and will extend the reach.

 

The learning curve this time around is going *much* faster than the first time. This should probably not be a surprise, but it’s nice to see that things are trending quickly in the correct direction.

 

 Posted by at 6:32 am
Dec 152022
 

Some interesting shots of a brief static test firing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Posted by at 10:11 pm
Dec 152022
 

Tell me if this sounds familiar: convicted felon out on parole commits murder. This time, execution-style multiple murder on the street because he was asked to leave a birthday party.

Even in Illinois, it is illegal for a felon on parole to have a pistol. So yet another Gun Grab Success Story as well.

 

There is, of course, a solution for this sort of thing. The killer here was charged with first degree murder (in a home invasion) in 2009, but got a lesser sentence because his co-defendant admitted to the killing (which should nevertheless have made him complicit in felony murder). He was paroled in October. Had he been sentenced to life without parole or, better, death, or  even better, jettisoning off Earth towards the moon via mass driver, this problem would not have occurred.

 

This is what “progressive” polices lead to.

 

 Posted by at 1:40 pm