I mentioned on a Monday Links that Peter Cullen was getting a lifetime achievement award. His acceptance speech was awesome.
Category: Geekitude
Monday Links
This one is going to be a bit tech heavy. Just how the stories came across my feeds.
First, of course, are a couple of Reason links.
With all the brouhaha over Florida punishing Disney by taking away their special district, this infographic is a good reminder that Disney wasn’t the only one receiving special treatment.
Over the Volokh Conspiracy, an article on the large gap on how the generations view the Israel-Hamas War.
In that same vein, we have an opinion piece from the Times of Israel called Dear World: I Don’t Care.
Here’s a couple of Ground News aggregations.
Homelessness rose to its highest levels. The housing shortage is certainly a factor, in addition to the normal causes.
There’s a growing schism in the United Methodist Church. I have some interest in this as I grew up in a UMC.
Let’s do some gun stuff.
Tam has an article on the state of red dots. At some point, I’ll have probably have to jump on the bandwagon and add one to my carry pieces.
If you have a Taurus GX4. there’s a recall notice.
Now on to tech news. I have a couple articles from a new source – 404 Media.
Polish white-hats are being sued for bypassing a train manufacturer’s attempt to force repairs to their authorized sources. I am fine with manufacturer’s saying that if you repair your stuff or take it to an independent place, that it will void the warranty. I do not support manufacturers actively stopping repairs.
A marketing company is saying it can use what your smart devices “hear” to do targeted advertising. I’m not sure if this is hype or actual, but the fact that someone is claiming they can, means that they will try to do so.
Wired has a look at Microsoft’s Digital Crimes Unit.
WaPo discusses recent widespread cyber intrusions linked to Chinese PLA hackers.
And finally from Ars Technica, an article about how some cats like to play fetch. The Brother sent this last one over for consideration.
Monday Links
Reason links time!
Who came to Florida during COVID? Here’s an infographic.
Ohio town is charging $100 to challenge traffic tickets.
Ground News has a collection of articles on how scientists used CRISPR to develop a promising new therapy for sickle-cell anemia.
Now switching to some gun news.
The Reload has an article on the newest gun control bill introduced in Congress. Okay, it’s poorly written and would ban just about every gun sold right now, but it’s an interesting change of tactics by our opponents.
TFB is reporting that there might be a shortage of gunpowder in the next year. May be time to stock up.
Firearms News is reporting that the Broomhandle Mauser turned into Han Solo’s blaster sold for a cool mill, and made it into Guinness.
Hasbro has discontinued their Selfie Series. I’m glad I got mine, but I was hoping to get another.
Monday Links
Let’s start with Reason links.
Confirming some of my priors, a new study finds helicopter parenting is detrimental to kids’ mental health.
An interesting piece on how Congress has not learned the lessons of high interest rates. They also haven’t learned that pumping money into an economy causes inflation, so why should anyone be surprised?
Going on to other news sites.
Related to the last Reason item, the deficit hit $1.7 trillion driven by – surprise! – higher costs for entitlements (Social Security and Medicare/caid).
A new threat to LLM’s from an old technique – prompt injections. As these LLM’s become more prevalent, we’re going to find all sorts of unexpected benefits and threats.
Via Erin Palette, comes this blog post about why Jews may be looking at others with some suspicion. I’ll admit, it hit me wrong. I dislike the whole “I can only trust people in my identity group” attitude. I understand how it arises, and that we’ll see more of this as America transitions to a low-trust society. I will still extend my hand – if you feel threatened and want to learn the basics of gun handling feel free to contact me.
Some gun news from TFB.
CSG – owner of CZ, maker of my beloved Bren – is now the proud owner of Vista Outdoors’ collection of ammunition brands. Including Speer, which makes the ammo I tend to use for my defensive purposes.
If I’d known Smith and Wesson was going to come out with this PCC, I might have not purchased my FSC. I prefer the “AR” rifle configuration over the FSC’s more “Uzi”-style configuration.
Steyr announced a new version of their Scout rifle. The original Scout debuted right when I was getting into guns, and it’s always had a place in my heart. Something about that integrated bipod and the mag holder in the butt. The new one looks like a worthy successor.
Time for light items.
Disney is developing a live-action version of Gargoyles. Well, that could be either very good or very bad. I should really introduce The Wife to the series.
And because I’ve had this song pinging around my head for some indiscernible reason.:
Monday Links
You, know, I had just a few light items for this week. And then shit had to break loose.
Here’s coverage from Reuters about the ouster of McCarthy from the speakership and what will/may happen next. For the record, everyone was kind of half-predicting something like this when the compromise to put McCarthy in the speakership was forged back in January. And Gaetz is a fucking media-whore who acts like a nihilist.
Hamas decided that it was smart to poke the Israeli hornet hive. Israel is replying with full force. Expect “Republicans Pounce” style headlines in 3, 2, 1…
It didn’t help that tensions between Turkey and the US are rising due to the US downing a Turkish drone. In response, Turkey’s stepping up attacks on the Kurds.
For our obligatory Reason article, the federal government is spending billions on new furniture for offices that are mostly empty. I don’t advertise that the day job is with the .gov, but I will state that I’ve told many senior people in my organization that COVID was an excellent chance to reorient how we use space.
I’ve also dug up an AP article that the FBI may have secretly recovered a bunch of gold from the Civil War back in 2018.
Let’s do some lighter items.
After decades on the air, the BBC is pulling the plug on Top Gear. Grand Tour Nation has a pretty good retrospective on the show. There were many years where The Brother, Shootin’ Buddy, and me would watch that show together. I learned a lot about high performance (and not so high performance) cars from that show. I still do not understand the cults around Alfa Romeos and Maserati.
From Anime News Network comes an article about a pilotable Patlabor possibly debuting next summer.
Exo Squad +30
Last week was the thirtieth anniversary of the debut of the cartoon series “Exo Squad.” It’s probably one of the better mecha cartoon series – particularly considering when it debuted and the fact it was aimed at the American market. It echoed a lot of the themes explored in Robotech. I loved the series.
Of course, it wasn’t without controversy. I linked to this video before, but I think it’s a good one to repeat.
And of course, here’s the intro!
Last note. I watched it when it debuted, but I really got into it about fifteen years later when I was doing a lot of travel. I was scrounging on my computer and found it on this then-new site called Hulu.
Monday Links
This one might be a bit scattered. As usual, we’ll start with Reason.
The Biden Administration is proposing a large increase in federal worker pay. It’s the annual pay raise that federal workers get as a COLA. Wow, the same inflation fueled by profligate spending results in government workers need higher wages.
Here’s an article on how fast-food joints are being attacked.
Finally, we have Reason’s coverage of the New Mexico governor’s blatantly unconstitutional “public safety order” banning carrying of guns. Yeah, this was clearly a publicity stunt. And it looks like it’s backfiring. Spectacularly. Particularly when she gets her own officials saying they won’t enforce or defend. Particularly with a US judge quickly handing down a TRO. Particularly when she is forced to narrow it down to playgrounds in Albuquerque.
I’ve got a couple articles from The Hill.
First, some school districts are looking at four-day work week due to teacher shortages and needing to prevent burnout. That will have interesting downstream impacts on parents who will need to figure out childcare.
Second, an article on how most women still take their husband’s last name after marriage. However, there’s an uptick of younger women keeping their maiden name. The Wife and I had the discussion if she wanted to take my last name when we got married. She’d built a strong work reputation on her maiden name, and there were some downsides of the change. Still, like most of the women in the study, she chose to take my last name.
On to some gun stuff.
Kevin Creighton muses on if there really is a Gun Culture 3.0 or if it’s more a matter of Gun Culture 2.5.
The British military has selected an AR-pattern rifle for its Royal Marine Commandos and Ranger battalions. I wonder when they’ll finally ditch the L85 series.
And Beretta’s got a new AR-pattern rifle. I kinda like their ARX-160, but it was never in the running for my home defense carbine. Beretta can be kinda weird sometimes.
I heard about this on ACP. A Michigan ammo manufacturer pissed off a politician, who then used campaign finance laws to threaten the company.
A couple of miscellaneous items.
War Is Boring has an article on China sanctioning LockMart and Northrop Grumman over sales to Taiwan. I think the phrase is “don’t threaten me with a good time.”
Rwanda is allowing a company to test a small-scale nuke reactor. Excellent. Wide spread cheap and carbon-neutral energy will do wonders to help lift people out of poverty.
Finally the light items.
WaPo talks about the 20th anniversary of the pumpkin spice latte.
Crunchyroll has announced the second season of Spy X Family will be debuting on Oct 7. Which I am looking forward to because the first season was uproariously funny.
Monday Links – Catch Up Edition
It’s been a bit since I’ve done the Monday Links. So, this might be a little scattered.
Of course, I have some Reason links.
First, an article about how JAMA purports to track COVID misinformation while still claiming that the lab leak theory is “misinformation.” You keep using that word like that, and it will become completely worthless as anything but political rhetoric.
Continuing on pandemic related issues, millions of students vanished from school rolls during the shuttering of schools. Since reopening, they haven’t returned. Of all the carnage wreaked upon society from the pandemic, the over-extended school shutdowns may have the most lasting impact.
Following in educational trends, Arizona’s public universities have dropped their requirements for DEI statements for job applicants. Because compelled speech is bad.
Also in education, it’s amazing how well the movie “PCU” stands up, even after 30 years. It’s still one of my favorite movies – and I find it was more prescient than people think “Idiocracy” was.
Going on to other news sources.
From the Financial Times, we have an article that criminal hackers are targeting and attacking cyber security professionals IRL. Considering some of the folks I know in that field (cough, cough, Borepatch), that might not be their best course of action.
WaPo is reporting that a “record number of children were killed by guns.” Yes, I use the scare quotes. Why? I give you two quotes from the article. The analysis, which looked at children and adolescents from newborn to age 19, found nearly two-thirds of the deaths among children in 2021 were homicides. (snip) Adolescents between 15 and 19 years old accounted for most of the gun-related deaths. Can anyone say “gang activity”?
Staying with guns, Greg from Active Response Training debunks the oft-repeated idea that the sound of a shotgun being racked will scare off intruders. Yes, I believed this myth many a moon ago.
More guns, an article from NSSF on Philly suing gun retailors. Y’know, instead of locking up violent criminals.
The Atlantic has an article examining dissatisfaction with The Wirecutter in recent years. Particularly since its purchase by the NYT. Admittedly, The Wirecutter is still my go-to site for most things – and I enjoy their coverage of the big sales, so this was kind of a shock to me.
Finally, from Car and Driver is an article on the 2024 Toyota Land Cruiser. I am intrigued. This may be a contender when we need to replace the Ward Wagon in the future. Unless these maintain their prices like the FJ Cruisers do. Forty grand for a ten-year-old car with more than 100K miles? Really?
Monday Links
This is going to be one of those heavy weeks for links.
Let’s start out with probably the biggest media story – the new indictment against Donald Trump. The Dispatch has had the best take on the whole issue thus far.
What may actually be the more important story is Fitch downgrading the US credit rating from AAA to AA+ (Reuters article). Of course, Reason explains why this is a function of our current governmental disfunction.
In that same vein, Reason examines the broken budget process.
Sticking with Reason, here’s a couple of gun-related articles. First, an examination of how New Zealand can’t keep its registry of gun owners private. Second, a law professor advocating officials hiding behind qualified immunity to enforce unconstitutional gun laws.
Keeping in the RKBA vein, John Richardson discusses the latest push to rebrand gun control as “gun responsibility.”
From Ars Technica, an article about Reddit not having to reveal user names who discussed torrenting.
From Vox, an article advocating using “windfall profits” from AI companies to fund a universal basic income. For the entire planet. Let me be clear – when you use the term “windfall profits,” your whole proposal sounds uneducated.
From The Atlantic, an article debunking the common wisdom on learning styles.
From Cato, a fun little game called “The Green Card Game.” Can you navigate the current immigration system?
From Your Observer, a local library is offering teens a course on “Adulting 101.”
Whew! We need some light items.
First, you can now watch the first season of the original TMNT.
Second, T.REX Arms has done a bunch of detail scans to make holsters. They’re offering those scans up for other companies to use.
This last one you just have to watch.
Monday Links – Catch Up Edition
Due to drama in the Ward household, I haven’t posted Monday links for a couple of weeks. So, this is mostly tab-clearing out some articles.
Let’s start with the normal Reason links.
Police keep harassing the wrong David Sosa. He sued and was joined by eleven other David Sosas. This falls into the police need to have more attention to detail and not just take the easy road. Particularly when it comes to detaining the wrong people.
Tennessee student makes Instagram posts poking fun at the principal and gets suspended. The student sues.
Finally, a judge has ruled that the ATF overstepped its authority by saying inert items are “gun parts”.
Going on to other articles.
The civil trial against the coward Scot Peterson continues – and apparently requires a live-fire reenactment. Article from local tv.
The NY Times’ Wirecutter section has an article on what you need for birding. I only add it to the links because the author neglected any dog treats. Which based on his history and his infamous viral moment, you’d think he would include.
From PC Gamer, an article that 87 percent of old games are unplayable without resorting to piracy of some sort. Umm, yeah. Blinks in City of Heroes.
From the Washington Examiner, an article regarding a study that disputes all the claimed benefits of the transition to electric vehicles.
FIRE explains that the current brouhaha over Jason Aldean’s little ditty is an excellent example of the Streisand Effect.
Finally, from The Verge, a new self-transforming Grimlok toy is being released. It looks nifty, but not $1,500 nifty.