Average Glib today
I really shouldn’t mind the cold – I have no particular reason to be put out by it. The dog is in no hurry to get walked, I do not work outside, and I work from home…so no particular problem other than it is getting distinctly boring in its duration.
What is not lengthy? My links. Short and clipped.
- Good news on traffic cameras? Not where I live, but it is a start.
- Oh, yeah, this will work.
- Ok, OK, here is a weather story.
- MSGA?
Comments are open and yours.
I’m sure when I take my second look at the links I’ll have nonsense takes to make on them, but I’ve been wondering how far back in time one would have to go before people would no longer recognize a 1911 as a weapon.
Plate armor and guns coexisted in the late medieval time frame. Prior to that, any firearm would have been an oddity that didn’t resemble a bow or crossbow.
That seems like a starting point for you.
That would be Europe. I assume it would be different in Asia.
Depends on where in the world, I would think — 500 or 600s in Europe I don’t think they even had much knowledge of flintlocks (which I thought were rare but existent in the Far and Middle East). Definitely any time that had any sort of pistol would recognize a modern era pistol for what it is… they’d just be surprised by percussion caps and cartridges. The core concepts are still there, though.
SDF – Gunpowder was invented in the 800s – used first in rockets. The west cannonized it, then miniturised the gonne. Flintlocks were much later, and originated in the west as an improvement off the matchlock which had dominated for centuries.
Huh… I thought gunpowder was invented in the BC timeframe and the Chinese just didn’t exploit it properly. Then it eventually spread along the spice / silk trade with moderate use in the Middle East until Europe went to town on it. :shrug:
I believe you — just apparently had the timeline wrong in my head.
“The west cannonized it.”
St. Saltpeter?
Well, it certainly wasn’t the Brimstone
Hmmm.
As in, just lying there, or being held by an angry person in a threatening manner?
The 1911 or UCS?
🤔
I’d be terrified of anyone strong enough to brandish me in a threatening manner.
STEVE SMITH SMASH!
One of my favorite bits in Farscape is when the US Astronaut wormholed across the universe disarms an opponent, and ND’s it trying to recover it. Fortunately for him, he hadn’t pointed it at anyone, since he didn’t yet know where the business end of the gun actually was.
“Freeze! Or I’ll fill you full of… little yellow bolts of light!”
Well, the brick was developed around 4000BC, so they know what a manufactured rock looks like.
Does that help?
No.
I’m interpreting the question differently from the two replies above me. Hmmm
I thought the question was when did “1911” commonly come to be understood as the name of a weapon.
I need a nap.
And the dog next door has been howling for 4 to 5 hours straight and I am going to soon log off of work, go next door, and strangle the fucking thing.
Sorry, Rhy, I was talking about the object if a time traveller had one with him when touristing in the past.
I think the trigger would give it away to any society that had triggers for crossbows.
The trigger for a crossbow was a long lever because of the amount of force required.
That was not intended to sound like a “nuh uh”, it was meant to further discussion, as the non-guarded triggers on crossbows ran much of the length of the stock to provide a mechanical advantage to actuate the cam.
Crossbows had proper triggers earlier than you thought. Gun triggers ended up being modeled on them. Not all crossbows had the firing lever, the thing was a menace and disposed of ASAP.
Got a date for the introduction of the short trigger?
I’m curious and bouncing between conversations.
By early 16th century, I think. Honestly it may not matter as guns with recognizable triggers would have been around shortly after.
That’s, roughly, the plot to “Frost and Thunder” by Randall Garrett.
Through Monday morning, the National Weather Service has predicted up to 18 inches of snow over New England and at least half an inch of freezing rain in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Ohio/Tennessee Valleys.
I’ve been through worse storms. Storm total here was 16″ though more is falling as I type. I have power. I’ve been through storms that dumped 36″ and lost power for a week.
From what I’ve been moving, less than 10 fell here. It’s still a lot, since the plows moved it all on to my car.
We had some snow (half an inch max… I didn’t measure the stuff) and then freezing rain to give an ice crust over it. But power stayed on, so I didn’t care all that much (like Swiss, I WfH so didn’t have to go anywhere)… road conditions being icy were the main concern… and in the foothills parts of Georgia, icy roads means everyone stays home because we respect the shaded curves of mountain roads and the black ice that lurks there.
Snowpocalypse it wasn’t.
Did you stock up on milk and white bread SDF?
Initial reports were we wouldn’t get anything, but we ended up with 6-8″ here. And now it’s 5 degrees.
Reports were for 8-12” of snow.
We ended up with about 2” and a fuckton of freezing rain. Roads are frozen over. No one should be driving right now.
Nothing close to “rain” here. Going to at or below zero every day this week. 😱
On the topic of traffic cameras – I find them unconscionable. Any company that makes or operates them should be dissolved in acid, and the politicans who approve them for whatever reason should suffer even more painfully.
I am surprised to hear they cause more accidents.
A small price to pay on the way to utopia I guess.
“Wait, I can’t afford a ticket”
*slams on brakes*
*gets hit by next car*
They’ve justified it to themselves as rear-end accidents being less serious than t-bone collisions. That was what they said in Austin after accident rates climbed. Fortunately, the state legislature banned camera enforcement several years ago.
On the French social media ban…the Australian government passed a law late last year – I think it was under 16. The government-enslaved media there is, of course, wildly excited about this new direction in state oppression. Of course, some people over 16 have improperly lost their accounts and the government-enslaved media is aghast that social media companies would do this.
And, of course, everyone involved is VERY excited that other countries are contemplating enacting similar bans as it would make Oz a world leader in something.
A ban on minors requires age verification, which requires identity verification, which ends anonymity, thus opening up avenues for retailiation for anything that irks the authorities.
It’s Jonathan Haidt’s current hobby horse as well.
New York and California have sads.
They are always competing to out-oppress each other.
I’m in favor of keeping kids off social media, but the only real way to do it is to not give them smartphones and to keep them away from the computer.
I’ve said it before, but the counter to kids getting into the bad parts of the internet isn’t some app that blocks access, it’s good parenting. Good parents don’t give their 8 year olds a pocket sized pornucopia.
My soon to be 8 year old dosent know what a video game is outside of the couple of times we have taken him to arcades, the internet is where mom and dad read the news and shop on amazon and Lego.
Most of the platforms are rolling out age verification including a scan front and back of a state ID.
I expect it to be retroactive on old accounts soon.
Flank attack
Nessel may find the way blocked by DOJ again, or maybe not. Maybe she’s on to something. The focus on antitrust law neatly skirts around all the work done by the oil industry and its affiliates to cast doubt on climate science. Antitrust law is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 prohibits activities that restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace. “It outlaws any contract, conspiracy, or combination of business interests in restraint of foreign or interstate trade,” Cornell Law School reminds everyone.
Innovative ambulance chasing. BigEvilOil has engaged in a conspiracy in restraint of trade. Poisoning us was just a fringe benefit.
“The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 prohibits activities that restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace.”
That’s Trump’s job, isn’t it?
These assholes won’t give up until the rest of us are scratching in the dirt (they’ll be OK, of course).
They’ll probably just buy back door access to all the Ring cameras or equivalent and triangulate between them for relative speed. Or some other happy horseshit. The ease of which we’ve become a surveillance society never ceases to annoy me.
The state DOTs do that now. They have cameras that read license plates when you enter states and at weigh stations. They will bust you at a weigh station if they calculate that you have been speeding or if not speeding making a long trip at the speed limit without being over time because they add in a bathroom break.
No teenager has ever circumvented age restrictions in the history of technology. This is known.
I got a flip phone in ’03 when I got my license and a car. (’92 Oldsmobile Achieva, $1800) That made perfect sense. I was dumb to late getting a smart phone, I believe 2012 was my first, which was kinda really dumb cuz I’d been in Korea for two years by then. Meh, forced *me* to figure shit out.
Kids at my schools there would just drop ’em off with our (private academy) principals and they did the same in public school. They picked ’em up when it was time to go. It was obviously better for everyone, other than cheaters. No big fuss nor drama. Kids were kids, but very well-behaved. (Yes, often stone walls of silence.)
Parents gave a shit. Normal schoolwork was important and the extra they paid for our private hagwons made them give *extra* shit. Culture matters. *looks at Useful Idiot lefties training for martyrdom status* Alas.
Pagers were still the thing when I was in high school. A couple of the kids had them, and the school officially banned them in the classroom (because “only drug dealers need a pager”).
An oft said thing by our PE coach: only doctors and drug dealers need a pager and you aint a doctor” he had a bunch of sayings to go along with that.
The only people I knew who had pagers were doctors… 🤔
Not seeing a lie there.
Ambulance chasing attorneys were also big customers.
Before your time UCS when network monitoring used pagers for notification and response.
Not just network, all of IT infrastructure.
I built a pump warning system using pagers way back when. If a pump malfunctioned, my system would page the process controllers so they could fix it before shit got worse. It worked great.
I thought Israel was helping them make an explosive comeback….
In College, we had a network seciruty class where each team would set up a series of servers of varying hackability and the other teams would try to break into them. Also the lower level class was trying to get into them.
One team from the lower level class looked up when our lecture was in assumption that we’d be unable to respond to events during lecture. We did have an alert pager per team, and I had ours when they tried to get into our boxes. We had the originating IP, which was from one of the lab workstations. As these were static, I knew where they were. The guy running the attack was surprised when I showed up behind him not knowing lecture had wrapped early.
Cell phones took over as the alert endpoint before I graduated.
In the mid to late 90’s on-call tech support was given a pager. We programmed automation to also send special codes for major failures. This was before work would pay for a company cell phone, and personal phones were around but not always turned on.
In about 2000 the on-call pager was a 2 way shared one, but the coverage area stopped about half way home from the office. I warned them that it wasn’t useful for me on the weekend, as I wouldn’t get any messages. They would all arrive on the Monday morning commute.
Our outdoor cat thanked us for provided food and shelter during the storm by dropping off a gift at our door.
💩?
I figured that or half a dead rat. Without the train.
Normally that’s something furry.
a sparrow
Good kitteh.
Another story
Among other things, the state accuses the oil companies of slow-walking charger growth at their fueling stations; deliberately delaying their own hybrid and battery technology development that they once helped pioneer; driving “misinformation” campaigns with “thinktanks, blogs, and ideologically sympathetic media outlets” that have undermined EV adoption and spread false narratives about renewable technology.
“But for the conspiracy, EVs would have reached scale years earlier and Michigan and its consumers would have avoided billions of dollars in overcharges on transportation energy,” the lawsuit alleged.
That seems like a slam dunk.
Jaguar Says Report of a Hybrid Pivot Is Greatly Exaggerated
A U.K. Times report claims Jaguar is backpedaling from its EV-only stance with a hybrid, but the automaker says it’s not true.
The important thing is that it’s still ridiculously over the top.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/jaguar-says-report-of-a-hybrid-pivot-is-greatly-exaggerated
The automaker is either lying or has some access to an alternate reality where the subsidies never end.
Sounds like RoaT’s cat left that lawsuit at the door.
End fuel shipments to Michigan for a week.
Problem solved.
Ashlee Babbit got what she deserved. So did Vicki Weaver.
Agreed, all of those people killed at the hand of the State were all placing themselves into situations that exponentially increased the outcome.
When did we start naming winter storms? Seems like a global climate change plot to make them more dramatic. Needs to stop.
At least give them good German or Russian names. Fern is lame.
Because that’s exactly what it is.
Along with using “normal” in place of “average” when it comes to temperatures.
“Today’s high is 78, 7 degrees above normal.”
When the fuck did “normal” become a scientific or mathematical outcome?
Interesting theory that’s floating around on the latest leftiest who got got by ICE. The deceased Pretti was carrying a Sig Sauer P320 AXG which supposedly/reportedly has a history of negligent discharges. Some people are theorizing that the gun may have gone off and prompted the response.
I haven’t bothered to watch the video. There’s a whole host of issues with how the Trump admin has been doing business and some of the shit they’re saying is just ludicrous, but it’s so painfully obvious and pretty much proven at this point that this is a concerted effort to undermine the deportation effort by the Democratic party. These people have been whipped into a frenzy and are out there to be used as pawns to provoke things like this shooting.
Trump should just go ahead and give the Dems the supposed “guardrails” they are demanding to fund ICE. I suspect he’ll dig in for as long as he can, but just go ahead and play along. Let them have their way. Try to appear reasonable and then when they keep up their shit and things keep happening as a result you put them in a spot where you show their followers how toothless the rhetoric is. They aren’t going to defend any government agency let alone one in the DHS. It’s all talk.
I wonder if similarly inside the administration is either a jackass like Steven Miller or a team purple deep state pushing unnecessary aggressive responses to own the libs (Miller) or sabotage any sort of meaningful deportation (team purple). It’s 2020 all over again.
I mean, I’m not sure how unnecessary it really is given the state of things. These blue sanctuary cities have basically made it clear that they will not work with a Republican admin let alone Trump on immigration policies. That the courts have allowed that is pretty ridiculous to me and wouldn’t fly with pretty much any other federal law, but that’s another argument.
There’s two aspects to this. I think the Trump admin intentionally wanted to dramatize what they were doing to appeal to the base. The raw numbers of deportations are kind of a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the problem and the only way to get them even THAT high is through escalation as we are seeing. If they were just deporting the easy ones in even fewer numbers, people would do what they did in the first term and claim Trump is all talk.
But the theatrical nature of the ICE operations we’ve seen helped the left push the fascism narrative to the extreme. Masked federal agents taking over blue cities to remove people out of the population is a pretty easy thing to paint as an inherent evil (and the operation itself isn’t exactly run by the cream of the crop here from the top to the bottom – to even get the number of agents needed for this ICE had to basically just rush the hires and training).
In a hypothetical alternative universe where this was a Dem who for some reason wanted to mass deport law breakers who came here illegally and blue cities cooperated, what Trump has done wouldn’t be necessary at all.
You don’t see what’s going on in Minneapolis in Florida for instance because, you know, the state of Florida is more willing to cooperate with Trump on this.
It’s easy to trash the many flaws to the tactics employed by ICE and Trump with all this. They are real and glaring, but to even come close to fixing this problem there really isn’t any great alternative. He has to act fast which inherently means cutting corners here to get around the lack of ‘infrastructure’ needed to even do this in the first place. And even then they’re left in a situation where they simply don’t have the resources in ICE alone to even come close to tackling the problem when so many “sanctuaries” exist where the state and local governments refuse to cooperate in anyway.
It boils down to whether you think illegal immigration is a problem so large that you are willing to accept the blowback that was inevitable from the attempt to fix it. This is something that has been festering and growing for half a century as both parties allowed it. The chamber of commerce R’s because it helped out their donor class financially and the Dems because of the same to go along with the potential to change the electorate.
Long story short – even if the people running this operation were competent, and they don’t appear to be from my seat on the couch, this would be one hell of a task and broken eggs to make the omelette here.
The people impacted the most by runaway illegal immigration – people priced out of work, out of a home, dealing with the extra crime – are not even a glimmer of a thought to any Democrat or to any “establishment” Republicans. Those people voted in 2024 but until they get another chance to express their wishes on this issue again they can conveniently be ignored while the elites party on as if nothing has changed.
I don’t bother with the details of the latest shooting either. Both sides are going full spin within minutes, but the truth takes longer to come out. All the camera angles and second-by-second analysis is exhausting.
I know – Something awful happened that wouldn’t have happened if only […] or if only […] or if only […].
It does not change the calculus on my opinions.
I get a laugh out of reading the accounts of the video posted on “news” sites with no link to the video.
I also recall how these same assholes described the Rittenhouse situation and more recently the shooting of the Minnesota Karen. Like, she quite clearly hits the ICE agent with her fucking car. We can quibble over many things about the situation, but if you hit any law enforcement with your car you are very, very likely to get shot and the stupid claims that the agents positioned themselves and everything just seem ridiculous to me at a glance.
These protestors are at best misguided retards. At worse they are delusional fucking tools of the Democratic party. The Democrats guiding all this want dead bodies. We can talk about Trojan horses in the Trump admin and ICE tactics all day, but you have politicians on the other side who are looking on in glee with each shooting or use of force no matter how legitimate because they can weaponize it against Trump.
The only principle the people whipping them into a frenzy have is their complete and utter conviction that they deserve to be in power.
One of the things that is animating the left right now is that their world view, both here and internationally, has been rejected by large numbers of voters at every turn. And they are losing their power. They are no longer ascendant, and that is horrifying to them.
Sending ICE into Minni in force was the greatest gift Waltz could have received. Now it’s “ICE, ICE, ICE” with the billions in fraud relegated to yesterday’s news.
I wouldn’t disagree. I just don’t know how much that really matters in the big picture of things. Walz goes and then what? Another Dem who is probably even worse takes his place.
In Emporia, Kan., police early Saturday issued a missing person notice for Rebecca Rauber, who had left a local bar on foot without her purse, phone or jacket late Friday.
“
Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life.”Jaguar Says Report of a Hybrid Pivot Is Greatly Exaggerated
There is no residual value to the brand. I believe they said that explicitly.
Some jimmies have been rustled on Airstrip One.
If there’s anything our self-appointed betters hate, it’s the yobs taking the piss.
If the memers haven’t done Amelia + Scottish axe girl yet, I’d be stunned. Now they just need an avatar for the Welsh.
Amelia + Scottish axe girl
Sounds like a job for intrepid Glib commentatorer SDF-7.
Now they just need an avatar for the Welsh.
Sheep-fucking avatars are frowned-upon on many platforms.
I think they have. I have a vague memory of seeing such a meme. A quick poke around the Intertubes turns up nothing. But I think I did see one.
I was pretty sure I saw a waifu-style one yesterday, but can’t locate it now.
This will have to do.
Just in case you were unaware of the banter ban that I’m seeing reported will soon be enforced in bars and pubs.
What could possibly go wrong?
What a bunch of wankers.
That’s nuts, they need to put Starmer and most of the MPs in stocks and throw rotten cabages at them. Worse by far than the internet nonsense which is bad enough.
Fuck those guys.
I am in a foul mood today. After the announcement of an planned ICE Processing Center nearby, my favorite area brewery made a “F*CK ICE” social media post.
At least you have something official.
There is talk of such a detention center near me. The usual suspects are up in arms. There is nothing official yet. A local state rep posted a “leaked document” on twitter which is supposedly a list of potential detention facilities. There is an empty warehouse in the area on the list. I’m considering the source and will continue to be skeptical until I see something official from DHS.
I know I should be more Stoic about such things, but seeing a friend post something like that will ruin my day too.
I’m wondering if this wasn’t the Trump admin fucking with loathsome swamp creature, and now Governatrix, Spanberger, by putting this here.
Stunning and brave.
I hope there is another brewery you can give your business to.
It looks like it is next to the shooting range. The executions will begin immediately …
Comparatively, how did your 2025 go?
Looks about right. I spent it chasing after other people’s problems.
Needs more Yakkety Sax.
About the same, only there weren’t any people running trying to stop the gurney.
Nordberg
https://youtu.be/_I3m7jAmuvc?si=8JGmlS-sNWAWDV6M&t=66
My 2025 Walmart Year was remarkably stable and plenty more, following my PhlebBloodlust Months in ’24. By far the most personally important, other than raising my finances out of the Red, was having a spectacular with 4 and-now 5yo nephew.
His general *being* is remarkably Evanesque and is quick to pick up my little phrases. Unless hurt or something, he picks me as a seat cuz I’m naturally the bestest. Overall, a very special development, especially as I was abroad or otherwise unavailable when his two brothers were his age. (The things we miss.)
I got to be on the ground floor for a lot of this one’s childhood, and my brain is happy to release its Uncle Hormones. Kinda infinitely less powerful than true Daddy-dom, but still potent, an important biological tick for me to partly scratch off. No snark, my Cool Uncle status is well-established with all three boys. Being so different than my bro is a fun role to play/be for several reasons.
This year’s adventure is underway. Still awaiting my rescheduled interview with Lt. Norris.
I wish Jib Jab would still do their year in review.
Oh they still do!
https://youtu.be/h9H5RTO2SiA?si=evsnOn9wEv06Keus
Ya no..that was a fan one..oh well
Some jimmies have been rustled on Airstrip One.
I am pleased to report I don’t have a fucking clue what that is supposed to be or mean.
https://notthebee.com/article/brits-turn-government-propaganda-character-amelia-into-full-blown-patriot-meme
How Do You Solve a Problem like Maria?
When she was on the sailing ship it should have been a U Boat deck.
I last updated EPL relegation tiers after round 19. Now we are thru round 23:
Safe: none
Realistically safe: Arsenal, Manchester City, Aston Villa
Safe for now: Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Fulham, Brentford, Newcastle United, Everton, Sunderland, Brighton, Bournemouth, Tottenham, Crystal Palace
Danger Zone: Leeds United, Nottingham Forest, West Ham United
Toast: Burnley, Wolves
Relegated: none
It will be at least 3 more weeks before anyone could be mathematically safe.
At skim I was thinking some regs I didn’t recognize, but then you worryingly say nothing is safe, but the *arsenal* is “reasonably safe.” Huh. Then I gathered.
Knowing little, I approve of what I’ve heard of the “relegated” teams, kinda dropped down to Triple-A, as it were? Good incentive.
“Drivers in Michigan continue to rely on gasoline not because it is superior or cheaper, but because cleaner alternatives have been restrained,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants’ conspiracy […] denied the State and Michigan consumers meaningful choices, raised switching costs, and eliminated competitive price pressure.”
QED
Why won’t they do what we tell them to?
It’s been a long time since cinemas provided me a meaningful choice. Can I get a class action case going?
Must be nice living in Fantasyland.
Last of our trash is out. Damn. Sitting in this empty house that gave us some awesome years with the boys makes ya think. I couldn’t imagine if it were a generational family home how’d that feel.
Every house that my folks had are gone. Tear downs or abandoned after Mom and Dad sold them. Any memories are still locked in my heart.
I’m convinced that all the pick ups parked at the Log Cabin are there for recharging. Some obviously take longer than others.
So, XY is back living at home waiting for his new job to start. So, since snowpocalypse happened way down in Springfield, he decided it would be profitable to run down there to shovel snow.
On the way, he got pulled over for having his license plate obstructed (by snow), and was promptly let go when he pointed out the trooper’s plates were ALSO obstructed.
Got to Springfield and started shoveling snow. Police rolled up, said he wasn’t a kid and needed a permit. 🙄
Today was my husband’s first day at the IRS. I bailed on my govt transcription gig because the computer was so slow I was barely making $1/hour.
A permit to shovel snow?
OFFS.
They may do something dangerous like clear all the snow out of the street onto the sidewalk … (I don’t miss walking down Crystal Drive in the winter).
Unlicensed businesses might provide services without paying the local mob bosses their tip.
Otherwise he might take away from good union jobs.
I would have lied and said I was doing a community service or helping the elderly, raiding money for pets with cancer.
Trump strikes a positive tone on Tim Walz after phone call with the Minnesota governor
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-positive-tone-tim-walz-phone-minnesota-governor-rcna255967
Trump won.
While I have no love for the protesters in Minnesota, I have to admire their commitment to stick to it through this cold weather.