July 05, 2017
...and They Did it on the Fourth of July
Let me just put this here...
...because, yeah, it needs to stay up.
So, in the aftermath of some recent CNN scandals, including CNN employees being caught on camera admitting that the Trump/Russia story is pretty much a nothingburger set up to garner ratings and undermine the administration AND CNN not only retracting a rather libelous story about Trump and his associates, but firing the reporters and editor involved, one Trump fan took this clip from some WrestleMania and photoshopped in the CNN logo. Trump retweeted it.
One might think that CNN would (after such a dreadful series of self inflicted credibility debacles) react to Trunp's crude but silly victory lap with a bit of good natured contrition.
CNN is staffed by aristocrats who dine upon free range pheasant and whose lips will never touch crow.
No. CNN tracked down the Trump fan who made the .gif and....
CNN's 'KFILE' publisher Andrew Kaczynski wrote the network would not be publishing the identity of the user "because he is a private citizen who has issued an extensive statement of apology, [that] showed his remorse.""CNN reserves the right to publish his identity should any of that change," Kaczynski warned in his article.
Emphasis mine...obviously.
Lets see if we can...translate this.
Nice life you've got there...be a shame if someone were to uhh..doxx you and let all 'dem people in the black masks with the bike locks and the,uh, lettah openahs know where your family lives, where your kids go to school, and where you work. It'd just break our hears if your employer suddenly became the subject of a twitter mob and found employing a suddenly unpopular fellow like you....bad for business. But, hey...we gots an offer for youse...One ya can't refuse.
Meanwhile...
North Korea just fired off a missile that can hit Alaska. If it was a 2 stage missile, then a three stage version ought to be able to hit anywhere in the U.S.A.
Russia is up to no good.
China seems to be basing their foreign policy on the East India Company. (oh the endless ironies of life) and are a major strategic foe.
The various subsets of radical Islam seek to kill, convert or enslave us all.
M-13 and other gangs rampage across our country and kill our citizens.
None of those threaten our freedoms like the notion that our lives can be ruined by weaponized social media because we said something that a powerful person found offensive.
I don't know who this guy is other than that he apparently shitposts on Reddit.
There is a high probability that he is a douche.
That's not the issue.
Now, Trump's tweeting is cancer. It is an oozing zit upon the face of the presidency. Many of his tweets are ill considered stupid and counterproductive. While this was not one of those tweets in my opinion, opinions may vary on that point.
It doesn't matter, because that is not the issue.
This is...
A massive media conglomorate decided to hunt down a private citizen and destroy his life because he published a crude commentary ON THEIR MISBEHAVIOR. Furthermore, the implied threats they use, of censure, becoming unemployable and, (never directly expressed, but very much understood) extrajudicial violence and intimidation are not how we do things in a republic.
This sort of thing has been going on for at least 5 years....
...but it seems to be picking up speed now.
This is how totalitarian societies come about.
When people become to afraid to exercize free speech, free speech is dead.
CNN is a private corporation This cannot be fixed by legislation, as the ability to interfere editorially is exactly the power we don't want the government to have. Extortion is a possible existing charge of course, but such a prosecution might have worrisome precedents.
This needs to be met with public outcry. We as a society need to make it plain that this will not stand.
Whether we still, as a society possess the understanding of Civics to grasp the importance of this is unclear.
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July 04, 2017
241
Even North Korea recognizes today as worthy of fireworks.
How awesome is that?
more...
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July 02, 2017
Just a Reminder That When You Break Out the Apple Pies on Tuesday...
(Language Warning)
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July 01, 2017
Oh.
There was an amazing amount of character development and exposition in this episode, and all of it was superbly written.
I understand now!
And I was all like..."Elf annoys the hell out of me. If she's the hook, screw this noise!"
Well.
Pete was right.
Elf Yamada is a gloriously whacked antagonist. I mean she is epically nutsoid in a most entertaining way. Now in any other show with someone like her that would be the alpha and omega of her characterization, but not in this show...
There was an amazing amount of character development and exposition in this episode, and all of it was superbly written.
I'm afraid I've gotta watch more of this delightful trainwreck.
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Now They Don't Even LET You Read it
With the change from wildcats to mountain ranges comes a new and clever way to ensure that there is no doubt as to whether the customer has actually signed off on whatever conditions Apple might have.
Of course after clicking agree I wanted to read the thing to see if I'd signed away a kidney, a portion of my liver, or was now changing careers to be a non-compensated pivoting blade propulsor operator on some Apple Exec's eco-friendly yacht.
This is H.S. Olympias, but the principle is the same.
Alas: No trace of the agreement can be found.
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Surprise!
"Hey look! What's this?"
This was totally unexpected. I'm not sure, but I think this is just a one-off. However, there are indications that they are setting up for more episodes.
Do sit through the credits.
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June 30, 2017
"Well. There's the Problem Right There. Your E-Mails Have Crabs"
"...and they're eating petroleum, which probably increases your bandwidth expenses."
It's always good not to be the one maiking thee tiepos for a changeling.
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I Wonder if There's a Bag Limit
Earlier today I found myself searching for an artist credit for this image.
(Probably painted by someone not named Pinterest)
After over an hour I still don't have the artists name (in every instance it is used it is credited to one of several image hosting sites).
Normal procedures at this blog are to move on to a different picture (unless it's a reaction shot or meme).
However, the initial Google search I conducted turned up this astounding and edifying result.
Man.
I'll have to be more careful.
Hit one of those, it's going to be worse than a moose.
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June 29, 2017
Alice and Zoroku Ends
Although, Alice and Zoroku is rather schizo in tone, the series leverages this trait quite well..
That was remarkably satisfying despite the fact that I really would like to see more of this show.
For one thing, it has the benefit of being completely unpredictable.
One never knows if an episode is going to be action adventure..
...adventures in floristry...
...fast food appreciation...
....haute cuisine appreciation...
...fantasy horror...
...or merely an excuse to trot out a new action figure....
...whatever genre it's dabbling in, Alice and Zoroku manages to be consistently good.
If you haven't watched it, you are wrong.
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June 28, 2017
Inscrutability
J.Greely has some questions... we don't know what they are, but they are no doubt numerous.
I don't know what this post title means...but any sad girls in snow best get inside lest the same fate befall them.
There is no doubt a tragic story behind this inscrutable clue.
This picture is unrelated:
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Sometimes The Only Way To Win Is Not to Play
...and leave the squabbling oppressors in the old world for the infinite potential of the new.
Because, the house gets to play with loaded dice.
THE CLAW! an interesting piece by DWI or Steyr or Rheinmetall or...somebody.
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June 27, 2017
One Step at a Time
more...
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June 25, 2017
21st Cenrury Outrage
Slow Clap...
Hustler is not my cup of tea, so I'd missed this silly nothing-burger of a story from the earlier this month. It would normally warrant no comment, beyond, perhaps, this...
However, the fact that it WAS a story is the not only worrisome thing about it. There is a non-zero risk the company is taking by tweaking the very Jihadis on whose behalf the outrage is ostensibly expressed. That this angle was not covered at all in the linked articles, is, more than anything about this, truly "problematic".
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June 23, 2017
Mashed Potatoes
The peculiar physics and myriad uses of Mashed Potatoes have not gotten sufficient attention in recent years. While the pulverized tubers are obviously a valuable source of calories, they have considerable potential in a variety of non-culinary applications. That this substance is useful for making scale models of Devils Tower has been understood for many years, but mashed potatoes can also be used for other artistic expressions as well, such as to create a representation of Kansas in winter on a table cloth, create a very passable facsimile of an iceberg in someone's tea and it has surprising utility as a hair volumizing agent. Its low density allows it to be propelled with surprising velocity by an arm with a reach of less than 9 inches and minimal strength. Despite the obviously low sectional density of spudfluff, the fluid dynamics of mashed potatoes in air is such that the aforementioned arm with a reach<9inches can send measurable quantities a surprising distance...into the dining room, down the hall and into a guest bedroom (this latter seems to have required some sort of bank shot, ballistic analysis is pending). Most remarkably all of this can be achieved in the approximately 3 seconds it takes to turn one's back on one's 11 month old nephew to get something out of a microwave.
I propose a study to examine these properties in greater detail and with attention paid to practical applications thereof. I will require $170,000.00, 450 Idaho potatoes and a trebuchet.
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June 22, 2017
Spoiler Warning!
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A Clever Solution to the Boycott Problem
Ian McCollum of Forgotten Weapons and Karl Kasarda on Inrange TV have come up with a response.
It's a reasonable solution. Indeed, being independently wealthy is generally my preferred solution to most problems.
Note that they do have some thoughtful things to say about the implications of demonetization (and internet boycotts in general).
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June 21, 2017
A Republic if We Can Keep It
A couple of things have just bugged me lately...
"This isn't gonna be a rant about politics again is it?"
Probably...
But it's below the fold so you don't have to be triggered, distracted or appalled if you don't want to be.
more...
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June 20, 2017
The Only Battle That Counts Is The Last One
And now for something refreshingly silly.
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Cool Site , Cool Ship
A few days ago we posted some links to cool sites dealing with space and futurism. Now, one of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Stoic Space Babes points us to one we missed:
Fragomatic does cgi animations of space related topics including actual design studies by NASA. Here, he has two videos on Nautilus-X, a design study we reported on back in 2011 and which has been the focus of some renewed interest over the last eight months. 
There's a good deal more stuff in the same vein at his site.
Regarding Nautilus-X, it made waves when proposed, not only because of its features (it is very scaleable, has artificial gravity and impressive passive as well as active radiation shielding) but also because of its predicted low cost, far less than that of the Orion program. This is due to the fact that the ship is not intended for reentry, many of the components are off the shelf (or extrapolations of off the shelf) equipment and because the designers focused on the habitation, logistics and payload and deemed propulsion someone else's problem. The design is essentially a space station with an adapter/shock-absorber module intended to interface with any of several NASA propulsion modules, both existing and in development. The VASIMR module currently under development is the preferred system, but several ion or even chemical propulsion systems like the Centaur could be used.
I tracked down a recording of the presentation to NASA by the designer. His presentation begins at about the 26 minute mark and follows this powerpoint. He explains the design philosophy as being developed from that for the Lunar Excursion Module and his experience with NRO spy satellites. Intriguingly, he explains the latter as is the design origin of the distinctive bow section, with its folding out air lock and bridge. The centrifuge is an extrapolation of an existing spin-stabalization system used on a few satellites. It is 60 feet across and capable of producing 1-g at a tad under 10RPM. However, that's a bit high for comfort so lower speeds and gravities are expected to be used.
Note that the first 25 minutes of the presentation concern an overview of cis-lunar infrastructure ideas of which the Nautilus-X is only one component.
The response to the Nautilus-X proposal in the recording is quite enthusiastic. The engineers seem really impressed, not only by the logic of the design, but by the attention to cost, minimizing design risk and extensive detail work already done.. The design is remarked upon as being particularly well thought out and economical. There is some discussion of the centrifuge and the discussion goes into detail regarding how the half scale prototype would be integrated into the ISS and the way the system is designed to use water pumps to compensate for asymetrical loading due to crewmembers moving around.
The proposed centrifuge test is particularly important. We don't have any idea what the minimum gravity to avoid health issues is. It might well be 1g. We probably want to find that out before people start settling Mars.
This is the sort of thing NASA needs to be doing more of.
'Stoic Space Babe" is by Takeshi Fujisawa , nicked from the box-art of a Hasegawa kit. You can buy his stuff here.
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June 18, 2017
Well Then: That's Not a Good Thing to See When One Clicks on Drudge
Let's review:
We have over 1000 troops on the ground in Syria, a country whose government has not given us permission to be there and which is a very important ally of Russia. Russia, in addition to possessing items of some interest also has thousands of troops on the ground in Syria helping to protect that country (an important ally of their's) by shooting at the Jihadists we are defining as moderates and ostensibly backing. Meanwhile, while we are fighting the (mostly) different jihadis in ISIS (which Russia is also fighting). So, Russian and U.S. troops are on opposite sides of a civil war, armed and both sides are shooting at people who are trying to kill them and that the other side is trying to defend in an area where at least two factions are using poison gas. Iran also has large forces engaged against ISIS and in support of Syria but additionally is giving support to...Hezbollah. Turkey, which happens to have of one of the largest armies in the world, is also involved...mainly as a spoiler but also to exterminate our nominal allies the Kurds, who are a completely different group from the aforementioned revolutionary groups we are backing and are also fighting ISIS.
The shootdown aside, this mess in Syria is a lot more consequential than the coverage it's been getting would seem to indicate.
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