Violence in the streets, America in ignominious retreat on the international stage, shortages, inflation, and me learning to talk, use a fork, and tie my shoes.
It was just the 1970's but all in one year.
But no disco.
I'm completely done with this foetid abortion of a year, but Pixy has gone into rather more detail, while looking at the year from a tech perspective.
It Begins
Elon Musk, the ad-Astra Afrikans-American who has, in the last few years, revolutionized access to space, seems to have dropped one too many red pills.
Devon Delvechio recently did the above video on Musk's changing perspective in the eyes of the hip set but today came a rather pointed rebuke of the man by...the FAA and EPA.
It seems that the FAA has delayed their approval of Musks new spaceship launch until at least March pending an environmental review. Note that the whole point of the rocket is to get completely out of the environment.
Musk has, in the last few years gone from the darling of the Ted-Talk left to something of an annoyance at best. His recent Twitter-feud with Senator Warren and his appearance on the Babylon Bee of all places seems to have cemented his transition in their eyes.
Musk was, for many years, an enthusiastic repeater of leftie platitudes as he took govt. subsidies for electric and solar endeavors during the Obama years. It was this lack of offensiveness from the lefts point of view that likely enabled his much more consequential rocketry project to proceed unnoticed and unmolested.
I suspect that the environmental review delay is a sort of shot across the bow, telling the billionaire to "get back in line". These people, especially those in the Biden Administration, are vindictive enough that they'll strangle a new industry in the crib just to spite Musk.
Worse, it's quite possible that Musks space projects are themselves a primary target. Starlink itself bypasses many donors to the DNC, Solar power satellites could be a big step in curbing emissions...without paying the grifters that fly private jets to conferences to lecture poor people on their carbon footprint.
Musk is an impressive genius but his brilliance is partly a result of his autism, which ill prepares him for the kind of Byzantine emotional maneuvering that is necessary when dealing with our ruling class. Whether this change in opinion of him by the powers that be is something he can survive is something I'll be watching with not a little apprehension.
1
This is, perhaps, our Sakharov moment. The problems of space travel and making a profitable business out of anything related to it are hard enough, and in and of themselves could sink him.
I'd hate for these lilliputian savages dragging our once glorious civilization under to be what ends up ending SpaceX. I'd take Musk over any of these aggressively useless wannabe feudal overlords.
Reminds me of this: https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/natan-sharansky-doublethink
Posted by: notanemail@yahoo.com at Thu Dec 30 15:31:51 2021 (hRoyQ)
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Fri Dec 24 22:56:18 2021 (kDsYc)
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Merry Christmas, Brick. We've all been pulling for you.
Posted by: JT at Sat Dec 25 01:06:29 2021 (0EkmO)
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Yes! Let's hear it for positive cash flow, and looming retirement!
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Dec 25 17:15:46 2021 (Ix1l6)
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Dude.
I'm glad you made it through Christmas! A belated Merry Christmas, too. Hope you have a few days off to recover.
Posted by: Rick C at Sat Dec 25 21:40:45 2021 (2Mei2)
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Merry Christmas!
It was a merry Corona Christmas for me. I vaxxed 2 doses in October and in December it was Covid. Funny how I did nothing and visited all the superspreader events for 2 years, but as soon as I was jabbed, I got it. Honestly I'm wondering if the "vaccine" re-tunes the immune system to respond to a specific variant at the expense of general response. Not like I understand how any of it works.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Dec 27 12:36:17 2021 (LZ7Bg)
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Hooray for surviving, and double congrats for doing it on your terms!
Posted by: DougO at Mon Dec 27 18:41:24 2021 (Rau32)
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Pete: There is some speculation that at least one of the vaccines makes you more vulnerable, not less.
Apparently, one of the mechanisms is converting muscles to producing the protein that the immune system is supposed to react to.
This obviously suggests a possibility of chronic immune reaction, or of mis-classifying the proteins as being normal and not meriting an immune system response. (If your immune system attacked every protein that your body produced, you would die. There is some form of white listing mechanism, and I do not know how well we understand it.)
Keep an eye out for getting sick, and then losing a ton of muscle condition. What of that I'm aware of /may/ be a coincidence, but...
Posted by: PatBuckman at Wed Dec 29 07:11:18 2021 (r9O5h)
I've got to watch this whole thing after work Friday. Hopefully there isn't something NSFW like catgirl pr0n in the middle of it. What I've seen is Epic.
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Speaking of Dumpster Fires. It looks like China is stealing WorldCon 2023 by its own rules.
And when the guy counting them leaked rough numbers, he got canned. Probably because that now makes it impossible to fudge the numbers and give it back to Canada.
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Dec 18 01:21:46 2021 (Ix1l6)
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What the heck did people.think would happen? If Chinese fans were allowed to bid, they were expected to win. And of course bribery/votebuying in the form of memberships is a pretty easy way to win.
I wish the actual Chinese fans well, but I am sure they are more interested in random web novels than in anything coming out from US publishers.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sat Dec 18 09:44:47 2021 (sF8WE)
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This may break TOR's stranglehold on the Hugos.... Of course, it will still be impossible to read the winners, but in this case, because you have to wait for the translations.
China is large enough that they can meet the 800 mile distance requirement between cons, so they could theoretically just KEEP the worldcon in China.
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Dec 18 14:10:03 2021 (Ix1l6)
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Well, as long as your warehouse is not destroyed by a tornado while you're in it.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Dec 14 10:34:25 2021 (LZ7Bg)
2
There are a few places around here that have transaction limits at the pump, but they're usually $150, but it's Texas, and there's a lot of people with trucks.
Posted by: Rick C at Tue Dec 14 21:31:28 2021 (Z0GF0)
3
It used to be $75 in 2008 or so, when I drove a U-haul to New Mexico. That 24' or 26' truck took two or three swipes. I was really happy to rent a diesel truck when I bought my airplane and transported it from Arizona. A gasoline truck of such size would be absurdly expensive.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Dec 15 01:18:17 2021 (LZ7Bg)
4
Mmmm, looking at the picture and wishing my holiday could be that banal.
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Dec 18 01:24:14 2021 (Ix1l6)
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On the other hand....We are seeing Bidet revert to type and choose the 'surrender' button. Given his natural inclination and past history, it is no wonder.
To adapt a Disraeli quote, Biden only gets pleasure when he is contemplating the surrender of an American interest.
Posted by: cxt217 at Thu Dec 9 23:16:05 2021 (MuaLM)
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We have an understanding of Biden that is good enough for all working purposes.
Going, 'Oh he is hurting us', and 'Oh, he will hurt us', all of the time, while true, can be defeatist. Like standing there, imaging how someone will pummel you, while they pummel you.
It's not a productive mindset for a fight, or an escape.
The opposition is very, very obsessed with thinking that the world is a place that operates neatly according to theoretical rules that they understand, and can manipulate. This is a vulnerability.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sat Dec 11 00:28:34 2021 (r9O5h)
3
Adding to what Pat said, they also assume those neat rules they can manipulate apply equally to everyone (Except for that manipulation part) and then don't get it when a) the manipulation doesn't work, and b) the other guy seems to be ignoring the rules and playing by their own.
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Dec 11 21:39:35 2021 (Ix1l6)
Posted by: cxt217 at Sun Dec 5 23:04:35 2021 (MuaLM)
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According to Rumiko Takahashi's "Mermaid Saga", if this soup is made with real mermaid flesh, and I eat it, I'll become immortal. And it's only $17.88? What a bargain!
Posted by: L. Beau Macaroni at Wed Dec 8 21:12:21 2021 (fieDC)
if you eat mermaid flesh willingly you are horribly deformed or die. IRC The immortality curse is for those who dietary choices were unwitting or forced. Disney is letting you know so you'll suffer.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Dec 10 13:44:20 2021 (5iiQK)
Escalation Avoided
In two separate incidents, NATO and Russian ships have been noted doing very provocative acts... the Russians sending a warship to Denmark in a gross overreaction to the seizure of a Russian merchant vessel and a U.K. and Dutch ship practically sailing into Sevastopol uninvited.
In both cases the incidents never happened, but there was some alarm at the time as the international AIS database showed them happening in real time.
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