May 25, 2022

American Gun Culture in 7 Charts--BBC

This one especially struck me:



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081

Texas, Texas Texas, Texas..... What is it going to take for that state to wake the fuck up and realize they've been had and now they're dying for it?

May 18, 2022

Opeator Starsky talks Kalashnikovs

Wait for the punch line. Really.

May 16, 2022

Cats Remember Each Other's Names, Japanese Study Suggests

In recent years, scientists have shown that cats actually bond deeply with humans. These complex creatures can and will communicate with us, and they even track our movements when we're not around.

Even more amazingly, cats can recognize their own names (an ability we mostly associate with dogs), and now new research shows that this feline feat goes much further than we realized.

In a new study, scientists discovered that in addition to knowing their own names, cats also appear to recognize the names of other cats they're familiar with, and may also know the names of people who live in the same household.

https://www.sciencealert.com/cats-know-each-other-s-names-experiment-suggests

My old cat (now long gone) loved to watch Maru videos. She'd sit in my lap, glued to the screen, chirping at him. She was bored by everything else, including fish, although videos of big cats would hold her attention for a minute or two. Maru could keep her happy for half an hour or more. She especially loved to see him surf boxes across the floor.

So yeah, not surprised about this study, at all.

May 10, 2022

Why the Ukrainians threw Yanukovych out and don't want another Russian puppet, ever

Yanukovych is said to have stolen in the upper tens of billions, mostly through the corruption at Ukrainian oil and gas companies, most notably Burisma, a company that put Hunter Biden on the board as a signal that Russian corruption would no longer be tolerated.

Here's a stroll through his pleasure palace, something I find overdone and my standards were formed by the pleasure palaces, er summer cottages, of the Robber Barons in Newport. Just the car collection goes on and on and on and on...

So now we know why there is a war, Putin and Yanukovych (in exile in Russia) want their favorite money maker back. I imagine Yanukovych is the originator of the Nazi fiction and Putin's cupidity prevents him from seeing how foolish it makes him look.

May 4, 2022

Partially successful test of helicopter grabbing a returning rocket out of the air

This is pretty neat stuff and more efficient than the Flash Gordon Space X touchdowns:

Apparently there was a partial splashdown and that's why the load felt different.

May 3, 2022

Starsky video, truth testing a POW interview

**Please use skepticism when watching any videos from the war. Thanks**

I posted this because of several things that seem to be true. First, the drug injections. The drugs sounds like Arbidol, which is a Rissoan antiviral, seems odd although it was developed from a tramadol analogue.. Second, the story about Russian soldiers breaking into Ukrainian army stores for underwear, socks and boots is most likely true, I've seen that from a UN observer and an NGO worker, neither of whom had contact with the other at the time.

One NGO worker wisecracked that the Russian troops were from Bottlestan, there were so many empties at the camp sites, probably liberated from stores and wrecked houses. I don't think anyone had to force them to drink. I can see them needing to get so blotto that they shuffle, zombie like, into Ukrainian gunfire, so that seems accurate.

In any case, this guy is done, even if he goes back behind the lines, he'll most likely choose jail over what he's already been through.

I disbelieved about 1/3 of this interview. That makes it uncommonly truthful for a war zone interview. My disblief of part is because he seemingly missed the point of being in the army while not seeming that dumb, and the shifty eyes indicating he was trying to please somebody off camera.

May 1, 2022

Happy May Day!

Builly Bragg updated the words to the Internationale and I can't find much to disagree with in 'em. So here goes:

It should be noted that Communist countries fell far short of the ideal, installing strongmen who enriched their cronies at the expense of everyone else. Communism as it was practiced is not what this song is about.