Tag: Video

It’s Like Watching Brezhnev in 1981

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President Trump and Mitch McConnell are trying to put a corporate bailout ahead of families. It’s simply wrong. We need to be focused on helping hardworking Americans, communities, and small businesses — not handing big corporations a blank check. pic.twitter.com/tMBZm26h3y

— Joe Biden (Text Join to 30330) (@JoeBiden) March 23, 2020

We waited a week for Joe Biden to give a statement on the Covid-19 pandemic, and we got a word salad delivered with all the vigor of Terri Schiavo.

Joe Biden, and his campaign, need to step up their game.

This is not just because he’s now the front-runner in the Democratic Presidential primary, but because he can not get the media attention necessary to shine the light Donald Trump’s attempt to make any potential economic bailout from the current emergency a way to line his own pockets.

I understand that Biden and his campaign staff think that the primary is over, and they want to give him a few days off, but they really need to turn the dial to 11 right now.

Kentucky is F%$#ed Up and Sh%$

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At the Kentucky state house, you cannot enter with a stick or an umbrella, because they might be used to carry protest signs, bu you can carry guns in. 

So, if you are going to protest in the state house, I would suggest that you attach your sign to a replica of a long-pattern Brown Bess musket:

Armed gun owners rallied in Kentucky entering the state’s capitol building in Frankfort on Friday.

The gathering was organized by the group We Are KY Gun Owners. They were spurred into action when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam pushed for new gun control measures that led to threats of violence, culminating with Northam declaring a state of emergency earlier this month.

Astonishingly, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, visitors to the capitol building are banned from entering with umbrellas or sticks that are used for protest signs because they can be “used as weapons,” but guns and rifles are permitted.

Joe Gerth of the Courier-Journal tweeted a video showing security officers instructing armed rally-goers to go around the metal detectors while entering the capitol building.

Weirdest thing about guns in the Kentucky Capitol: if you have one, you’re told to walk around the metal detector. Others must pass through and get wanded. pic.twitter.com/Oqxl9hvl0I

— Joe Gerth (@Joe_Gerth) January 31, 2020


It appears that “Kentucky Man” is giving “Florida Man” a run for their money.

“Robotruck,” Huh?

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Concept


Execution


And the not-so bulletproof windows

So, Elon Musk has rolled out his “Cybertruck”, and I am profoundly unimpressed.

Honestly, I don’t think that Tesla was impressed either, as they set the deposit at only $100.00, as opposed to the $2500.00 deposit required for the Tesla Model Y, and $1,000 for the Model 3.

Its skin is made from 3mm (.118 in) thick 301 stainless steel skin which Musks refers to an an “Exoskeleton”, which means either that it is a unit body (skin is not a part of the structure, also called semi-monocoque), or a monocoque (skin is a part of the structure).

According to Musk, this is literally bullet proof, being able to stop a 9mm round at 10 meters. (The numbers work out for this)

Most trucks, by comparison, are body on frame, where there is a structure , typically a ladder frame, upon which the body is mounted.

This is one reason for the gradual taper behind the passenger cab, it’s needed for a stiff body.

Unit body is typically lighter than body on frame, and monocoque is lighter still than unit body, but significantly more difficult to manufacture, which is why it unit body is far more common in mass produced automobiles.

Also unit body makes implementing changes in the body of the car easier, since the skin merely needs to mate to the frame.

In aircraft, where weight is more significant, a full monocoque is typically used.

In any case, the skin is about 4 times thicker than that of a P-51 Mustang, which was aluminum which is about 2½ less dense than steel, so this is HEAVY.

Based on the pictures shown, and the thickness of the skin, the weight of the just skin is in the 4000 lb range.

When you add in windows, tires, motors, a 500 mile battery, tailgate, seats, electronics, lights, etc.  I do not see the weight of the vehicle being any less than 8,000 pounds, and it might very well exceed 10,000 pounds.

By comparison, a Ford F-150 is about 5,500 pounds.

As such, not only will the car be expensive to operate, more weight means higher power consumption, but the handling is likely problematic, particularly in off road mode, where getting stuck in the mud is a thing.

The angular appearance of the truck may be driven by the choice of material and thickness, as 300 series stainless work hardens a lot, and at 3mm thick, it could be difficult to put complex curves in it.

Also, I’m not sure how it would corner at that weight.   I’m thinking that it’s in the, “Looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow,” category.

Te Stooped! It Burnz Us!!!!

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Just when you thought that the whole Russiagate meme could not get any more insane on MSNBC, they a guest on the show insisted that the Soviets may have been grooming Trump since 1977, when he married Ivana.

Of course, Ivana is not Russia of Soviet, but, to quote Mason Williams, “Who needs truth if it is dull.”

MSNBC analyst Malcolm Nance, long one of the network’s loudest voices when it comes to pushing Russiagate conspiracies, claimed Tuesday morning that President Donald Trump is a Russian asset who was compromised “as early as 1977” via his first marriage to Czech-born Ivana Trump.

………

Having established that he was aware that Russia was looking to interfere in the election at an early stage, Nance then dove headfirst into conspiratorial waters about Trump.

………

“They had ten years of collection and then they brought him to Moscow for what he wanted, which is Trump Tower,” Nance added. “But from that moment on, an enormous dossier of information was collected on him and more importantly, how to exploit him and his simple exploit—as we call it in the intelligence community—and he is avaricious to a fault. He wants money, they now own him. Modern Russia, with a former KGB director as president, they know how to exploit people, they know how to manipulate people, and they know how to buy people.”

………

According to Nance, “supervillain” Putin “took all the files of everyone he had ever flipped” during his Soviet days and “brought that into the business world when it became modern Russia,” claiming it was around 2014 they decided to move Trump from “useful idiot” to an “unwitting asset, where he’s being used and he doesn’t know it.”

Seriously, I Malcolm Nance is a walking avatar of Sinclair Lewis’ observation that, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Seriously this is f%$#ed up and sh%$.

Clearly this means that the Village People were Soviet targets as well:  They came to prominence at around the same time, and they had access to military facilities:

I Don’t Care About the World Series, But ………

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I am Amused

The fact that Donald Trump showed up to game 5 of the world series, and the crowd booed and started chanting, “Lock him up,” is something that I find intensely amusing:

Donald Trump once claimed he was courted by several major league baseball clubs in his youth but turned them down because they couldn’t offer him enough money. On Sunday, baseball got its revenge.

The President attended Game 5 of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros at Nationals Park, a short journey from the White House. When Trump was shown on the video screens in the stadium he was loudly booed by fans. That, perhaps, was predictable: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and both Bushes were all booed while attending baseball games as President. What came shortly afterwards was a little more personal in a city that is heavily Democratic as cries of “Lock him up!” rang out, a reference to the chants about Hillary Clinton used at Trump’s rallies in the run-up to the 2016 presidential elections.

I wish that I could have seen his face when this happened.

Oh, wait, I can:

No. Just No.

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This is an abomination

Dear lord, this is real.

Whoever came up with the idea of making a horror film based on the 1960s children’s show The Banana Splits is not a good person.

I don’t know for certain what drove this idea, but I would suggest that all involved in pitching and green-lighting this film probably need extended time in drug and alcohol rehab.

What ……… were ……… they ……… thinking?

Well, that Was Exciting

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Lmfaooo Baltimore always got some shit wit us but I gotta love my city 😂😭💯 pic.twitter.com/jj29rWKJZT

— tayyfromthetrap (@tayyfromthetrap) August 29, 2019

This is Completely Nuts

I was driving down to Fells Point to pick up Nat from the Fells Point Corner Theater, where she is ASM for the play Perfect Arrangement tonight, and after we got on local streets, we were passed by at least a dozen police cars with lights flashing.

About a mile from the theater, I thought that I heard a large number, 20 or so, gunshots.

It appears that there was a shooting incident, with an officer wounded and the suspect killed:

A male suspect is dead after a Baltimore police officer was shot in the leg in the Southeast District on Wednesday around 11 p.m.

 Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said the suspect was pronounced dead at the hospital after he was struck by gunfire by responding officers.

 Harrison said the suspect is believed to be the man who tried to run over a police officer and fired at another early Tuesday morning while trying to stop an SUV that attempted to strike another officer. He said the vehicle Wednesday is the one that was used during the attacks on the officers Tuesday.

 A woman was injured during Wednesday’s incident, but Harrison said it was unclear whether she was hurt by gunfire or the resulting shrapnel. She and the officer are in good condition, Harrison added.

 The commissioner said officers encountered the suspect at Fayette and North Caroline streets and that officers began firing at the suspect. Harrison said he did not know whether the suspect fired at officers, but added he was believed to be armed.

 Harrison said that after the exchange, the suspect got back into his car and drove down Caroline Street as officers chased him.

After picking up my thespian child, we went home, and there were dozens of cars and at least 20 officers at the site of the incident.

Crazy.

Freddy Mercury is a Busy Man

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So, now Kirsten Gillibrand is dropping out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

Her campaign never took hold, partially because she decided to run almost exclusively as the #MeToo candidate in a race where there are a number of qualified women running, and partially because she was deeply loathed by a significant portion of the party base.

I’m not sure why she was so disliked, though her role in Franken leaving the Senate was a part of it, but she was, at least based on reporting and comments on the net, despised.

Presidential Race Update

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3 candidates for the Democratic Presidential nomination have dropped out, Jay Inslee, John Hickenlooper, and Seth Moulton.

While Inslee actually ran on a substantive issue, he focused on anthropogenic climate change, Hickenlooper and Moulton pretty much ran against the Democratic Party, with Hickenlooper likening opposition to fracking to Stalinism, and Moulton engaging in jeremiads against the Democratic Party.

Good riddance to the last two, though Inslee, did manage to make addressing climate change s significant issue in the primary, which is a good thing.

This is a Thing of Beauty

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I guarantee you that that Mr. Costa thought that he had a great “gotcha” question here, and Sanders owns his lame ass attempt to put half quotes in his mouth.

if you come at the king pic.twitter.com/uDaO0o02Lz

— Current Affairs (@curaffairs) July 16, 2019

An interviewer comes after Sanders with half a quote, and Sanders remembers the whole quote:

MR. COSTA: Let’s stick with that race point you just brought up. In 1974, you said that bussing policies were well meaning in theory but sometimes result in “racial hostility.”

 SEN. SANDERS: What else did I say in that?

 MR. COSTA: Tell me.

 SEN. SANDERS: No, you got it there. Read it. Read the whole quote.

 MR. COSTA: I don’t have the whole quote.

 [Laughter]

 SEN. SANDERS: The whole quote is the federal government doesn’t give a sh%$ about African Americans.

 MR. COSTA: Well, that is true. That’s why I didn’t include it.

 SEN. SANDERS: All right. Okay.

The point that Sanders was making, and the point that he remembered from 45 years ago, was that the Federal government was refusing to enforce fair housing laws.

Facial Recognition, How Does It F%$#ing Work?

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The ICP Song Miracles, where the lyrics for the title come from

It appears that Juggalo makeup prevents facial recognition software fail:

Last year, Ticketmaster and LiveNation invested in a former military facial recognition company, with the hope that the technology could be used to both strengthen and speed up event entry. If that prospect thoroughly creeps you out, here’s a simple life-hack to defeat Big Brother: become a Juggalo. In a revelation that is sure to freak out the FBI, Insane Clown Posse’s passionate fan base have unintentionally unlocked the secret to thwarting facial recognition.

It turns out that Juggalos face makeup cannot be accurately read by many facial recognition technologies. Most common programs identify areas of contrast — like those around the eyes, nose, and chin — and then compare those points to images within a database. The black bands frequently used in Juggalo makeup obscure the mouth and cover the chin, totally redefining a person’s key features.

I’m considering wearing the makeup in my day to day life.