Caption of the Day

U.S. Soldiers using the Enhanced Portable Inductive Artillery Fuze Setter on an XM1156

And that's after I cut it down to the bare essentials. A giant corporation developed a 'smart' fuze for conventional artillery shells that greatly improves their accuracy. It is not as accurate as purpose designed 'smart' shells, but it doesn't cost as much either. The big advantage is that it can be used with existing 'dumb' artillery shells, and we have a gazillion of those stored away in secret warehouses. Probably next door to the Sinaloa cartel's cocaine warehouses.

Other posts about smart weapons here.

Via Bayou Renaissance Man

Links

• What Assange was indicted for. Good explanation of password cracking. Via Borepatch
• Berlin Wall Escape that was financed by an American News Agency. 1962. My Daily Kona
• How a Few Lucky Civil War Soldiers Started Glowing and Healed Faster. Bio-luminescent bacteria. Knuckle Draggin My Life Away

Blue Oyster Cult - Take Me Away

Blue Oyster Cult - Take Me Away
I pulled up one song by Blue Oyster Cult, and now this shows up. The video is a little clunky, but it is 36 years old, so pretty good for its time. The tune is glorious. A couple of items:

• We've got Men In Black here. I was thinking of the film, but this tune predates the film by more than a decade. Turns out the term goes all the way back to 1947.
• They use propeller driven airplane to abduct the girl. Kind of clunky for a space faring civilization, but then Spielberg started his UFO epic Close Encounters of Third Kind with propeller driven airplanes.
• The pilot's forehead is painted like the characters on the cover of their album Fire of Unknown Origin
• Aldo Nova, of Fantasy fame, wrote the tune and played much of music.

Outrage Industrial Complex

Bogus Time Magazine Cover

It just occurred to me that much of the outrage we see and hear in our digital information world is fueled by advertising. I suspect outrageous headlines get more clicks than clear ones, which means the ads on those pages are going to get more clicks, which means more ad revenue and maybe even more sales. Advertisers want clicks, so they are going to pay more for sites that post outrageous shit. Of course, the more outrageous the claims, the more people are going to be outraged and respond in a similarly outrageous manner, so it becomes a cyclone of outrageousness.

So most of what is being talked about is not what's important, but whatever will generate the most outrage, and that is totally determined by advertising dollars.

Pic of the Day

Locomotive by Bill Peet

Bill Peet was a Disney artist that worked on everything between Snow White and Dumbo. He also made some kid's books. I don't know where this picture fits in all that, but it's pretty great.

Via Just A Car Guy

Pharaoh-noid

ApologetiX "Paranoid - Black Sabbath" PARODY
The world is full of strange and wonderful things.

Via MetaFilter

Quote of the Day

Rashomon Movie Poster

They opened the box on Schrodinger's Probe to reveal the Rashomon Report: It says exactly what everybody thought it was going to say. - View From The Porch