I remember reading many years ago someone describing what would happen if a modern anti-ship missile was launched against a World War 2 battleship: after the explosion, a sailor would have to go out on deck and sweep up all the bits of the missile and dump them overboard and probably slap on another coat of paint. The point was that ships used to be massive floating armored installations, and thus required massively powerful incoming weapons to take them out, but more recent ships are lightly built and rely on active defenses (missiles and CIWS along with ECM) to avoid getting hit in the first place.
The war in Ukraine from time to time demonstrates this. For example, the Russians recently launched a “Lancet” loitering munition against a piece of Ukrainian artillery, an old Soviet-era D-20 howitzer. The advanced modern weapon made a direct impact… and blew out a tire. There is value in being built like an old cannon, it seems. The Lancet seems to use a warhead wrapped with bits of cut-up rebar; this doubtless does wonders against soft targets such as trucks and troops concentrations and playgrounds and hospitals and the like, but seems to do diddly-squat against actual armor. Other variants apparently include shaped charge warheads for use against armor; perhaps this was a failure of proper weapons selection.
That time was before beloved franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars and Lord of the Rings were converted into garbage message mechanisms for garbage ideologies. Now… anything that *might* be good is now viewed initially with skepticism, and more often than not finally with contempt.
So will “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” be any good? I have no reason for optimism. There are rumors that the plot involves time travel, and that the end of the movie has Harrison Ford’s Indy being erased from the timeline and replaced with Phoebe Waller Bridge as a female Indy. “The REAL Indy was a woman, all along!” This could be utterly wrong… but things have gotten so predictably bad that I won’t discount the distinct possibility.
For probably a quarter of a million years, the natural response to teenagers being moody, weird and uncomfortable in their bodies has been “Get over it, kid, it’s just a normal part of growing up.” Today, of course, we are now being informed in no uncertain terms that the proper response includes pharmaceuticals, hormones, massive life-altering surgeries including amputations and removals of evolutionarily vital organs and the celebration of contra-factual positions.
Canada is doing one better: making it not just legal, not just socially acceptable, but *praiseworthy* for teenagers who are depressed to seek out medical professionals to END THEM. The “MAID” (Medical Assistance In Dying) program is apparently advancing by leaps and bounds; it’s not just people with horrifying terminals illnesses that promise nothing but agony and degradation, but things as tenuous and potentially *temporary* as depression and PTSD. Something like 7.5% of the deaths on Vancouver Island are the result of doctors helping people off themselves.
Let Me Be Obama-Clear: if you want to off yourself, that’s your decision. If you are an adult of sound-ish mind and you don;t want to live on this planet anymore… it’s your life to do with as you please. Getting the government to help you out with that, though, gets a little weird. If you have a terminal case of explosive xenopolycythemic ass cancer eating you alive causing chunks of your flesh to drop off and detonate, then, sure, I can even get behind your decision. But if you’re just *sad?* If you are not yet an actual adult? Naw. There ain’t no role for the government helping out here, and a pretty big argument for the government trying to prevent that sort of thing.
The Canadian government getting involved here makes sense from a purely ledger-based point of view: make it acceptable and in fact praiseworthy for an increasing fraction of the populace to be euthanized, then you can go after the people you as a government *really* don’t want hanging around: those who consume but do not contribute. Elderly retirees living off pensions and social welfare. People in loony bins. The homeless. Criminals. Imagine a Canada where such people were peacefully marched into Carousel, never to be heard from or paid for again. From a bureaucrats point of view, it’s a spectacular system. (One wonder what happens when they realize what an economic drag “migrants” are.) From the point of view of a conscientious religious person, it’s demonic. From the point of view of a pragmatic skeptic, it’s equally horrifying.
Even Canadian clothing retailers are getting in on the action, producing public service spots extolling the virtues of ending oneself, with no actual valid reason given:
There are times when bringing on death is the proper course of action. But it is never a good thing; at best, it is merely the least bad option.
What in the actual F *is* this? Are those critters, or portions of critters? And how can I make sure that nothing like this ever comes within a hundred yards of my plate?
Twenty copies of the new book have finally arrived, fortunately entirely intact. They took two days to cross an ocean, one day to cross half a continent… and two weeks to cross the customs office. Shrug.
Anyway, here’s what I’m gonna do: signed, numbered and dated copies will be $20 plus postage (media mail). These will come with two 18X24 prints, also signed and dated. If you would like to be on the list for one of these send me an email:
But the first five copies will be auctioned off, with the highest bids getting the lowest numbers. Additionally: numbers 3,4 and 5 will receive three 18X24 prints, while numbers 1 and 2 will receive four 18X24 prints, all signed, dated and numbered. If this sounds interesting to you, email me what your bid is. Bidding ends Sunday night, after which I’ll let bidders know. If there are more than five bidders, six and beyond won’t be held to their bids… but they won’t *necessarily* get the next numbers in line. Once the auction winners are processed, I’ll send out PayPal invoices for the regular copies, and they will be sent out based on the order of payment.
I also have ten “SR-71” copies and five “B-47/B-52” copies. The SR-71’s, singed and dated with two 18X24 prints, will go for $20; the B-47/52 signed and dated with three 18X24 prints, will go for $55 plus postage. If you would like one of these, let me know.
The Bell 214ST (“Super Transport”) first flew in 1977. Derived from the Bell 214, itself derived from the UH-1 “Huey,” the 214ST was substantially bigger and more powerful than the original design. Bell had great hopes for the type, but in the end less than one hundred were produced. A not-inconsiderable part of the problem was that the 214ST was designed to be produced in Iran which, at the time, was an American ally; of course, Iran soon fall to forces of the Stupid Age, and that put an end to notions of Bell designs being manufactured in Iran. It was roughly similar to the Sikorsky UH-60 in size and performance. Bell continued to push for customers into the 1990’s (the art below was published in 1982), but production ended in 1992 without any big contracts.
The full rez scans have been uploaded to the 2022-11 APR Extras Dropbox folder for $4 and up Patrons/Subscribers.
Ukraine was given M101 towed 105 mm artillery pieces by Lithuania. The 105 mm hell is still a standard round used by NATO, so the ammo is new. The cannon are apparently still in good shape and work just fine. Like the M1911, the M101 is no longer top of the line… but it still works adequately well, and you’d be a fool to not be afraid of getting shot by one. While more modern artillery might shoot farther or more accurately or faster… if the Ukrainians coordinate their fire with live drone surveillance, those antique cannon are going to make a mess of whoever’s on the receiving end.
#Ukraine: The first footage of a 105mm M101 howitzer, supplied by 🇱🇹 Lithuania to Ukraine earlier this year, in action with the AFU. Although these are older designs, more artillery is always useful-which is why Soviet WW2-era 85mm D-44 guns still make appearances. pic.twitter.com/2tQvMQ5Lkd
