Archive for 2021
June 4, 2021
FASTER, PLEASE: ‘Next big wave’: Radiation drugs track and kill cancer cells.
YES. NEXT QUESTION? Is Russia’s Su-57 the worst stealth fighter on the planet? “It’s not just with stealth and propulsion that the Su-57 continues to lag behind the competition. One of the aircraft’s selling points has also been its sensor suite and advanced avionics — with the Russian government claiming the fighter is capable of full 360-degree sensor coverage much like the flying supercomputer F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. To date, it does not appear that any such system is online in the Su-57, with the Rand Corporation analysis positing that sanctions placed on Russia after its military annexation of Crimean in 2014 have further hindered the system’s development.”
SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Juvenile T. rexes had powerful bite, but much less forceful than elders.
FASTER, PLEASE: The U.S. Military Could Have A Working Hypersonic Missile In Record Time. “Both the Navy’s CPS and the Army’s LRHW programs aim to field a boost-glide hypersonic weapon, a type of hypersonic missile that like intercontinental ballistic missiles, requires a rocket booster to reach altitude, at which point the rocket payload — a glide body — would release and glide down to Earth. Gliding is a bit of a misnomer, however, as hypersonic glide bodies achieve blisteringly high terminal velocities in excess of Mach 5.”
WHEN BLACK LIVES MATTER, AND WHEN THEY DON’T: A Year After George Floyd’s Murder, It’s ‘Open Season’ in Minneapolis: Homicides have more than doubled in a year. Three children have been shot in the past month.
Al Sharpton and civil-rights attorney Benjamin Crump led a march in downtown Minneapolis Sunday in advance of the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death on May 25. Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder last month.
Messrs. Sharpton and Crump didn’t visit North Memorial Health Hospital, where two recent victims of a yearlong explosion of violence in Minneapolis are on life support. On April 30 Ladavionne Garrett Jr. , 10, was riding in a car with his parents when a gunman opened fire. A bullet pierced Ladavionne’s head; doctors put him in a medically induced coma and removed part of his skull to relieve swelling on the brain. On May 15, 9-year-old Trinity Ottoson-Smith was jumping on a trampoline at a friend’s house when bullets fired from a passing car struck her in the head. She is also in critical condition at North Memorial, in the room next to Ladavionne’s.
Nineteen children in Minneapolis have been shot this year, an increase of 171% over the same period in 2020. Their relatives wonder where the protesters are. “Why ain’t nobody mad about a 10-year-old, my grandson, fighting for his life?” asked Sharrie Jennings, Ladavionne’s grandmother, at a May 17 mayoral event. “Because a cop didn’t shoot him, is that why?” Ms. Jennings warned of “a deadly summer” for kids if the mayor and police chief don’t “step up.” Later that day, Aniya Allen, 6, was caught in a shootout between rival gangs while in her mother’s car. Aniya died on May 19.
Minneapolis homicides between Jan. 1 and last week were up 108% compared with the same period in 2020; shootings were up 153%, and carjackings 222%. The crime increase began after Floyd’s death and has never let up. Nor has the assault on law enforcement that began with the arson destruction of the Third Precinct building on May 28, 2020. Officers are routinely punched, kicked and hit with projectiles. There was a near-riot in downtown Minneapolis in the early hours of May 22 following a shootout among club patrons. Two people were killed in that shootout and eight wounded. Responding officers called for backup across the Twin Cities at what the department called an “exceptionally chaotic scene.” The previous weekend, officers were maced, and pelted with rocks and debris while trying to disperse disorderly crowds. . . .
Of the at least 100 homicide victims in Minneapolis since May 25, 2020, only one was killed by a cop. The victim was a suspected gunrunner who had tried to run over officers before shooting at them through his car window, causing them to return fire. There is little evidence that the Minneapolis Police Department systemically violates blacks’ civil rights, but Attorney General Merrick Garland has opened a civil-rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department anyway. If history is any guide, the resulting consent decree will cause crime to increase in the city as officers back off further from proactive policing.
Related: When Black Lives Matter to Democrats — And When They Don’t.
VODKAPUNDIT PRESENTS YOUR DAILY INSANITY WRAP: Sweden Was Right, Lockdowns Were Wrong.
Also:
- ‘Come on, baby, light my fire’ is the new ‘Fill’er up!’
- White House stands by their disgraced man
- A reptilian twist on ‘stand your ground’ laws
So much more at the link, you’d have to be crazy to miss it.
CORRECTION: EMBARRASSMENT REQUIRES A SENSE OF SHAME. Reuters Embarrasses Self, Fact Checks Babylon Bee Satire. “In the Fact Checkers’ defense, the Bee’s satire often hits very close to home. That’s what the best satire does. Still, we’re not seeing similar fact checks for The Onion, the liberal fake news site which offers a similar brand of humor.”
ROUTINE BUT FAR FROM BORING: SpaceX launches new solar arrays to space station, nails rocket landing at sea. “SpaceX launched its 17th rocket of the year today (June 3), sending a robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station before nailing a landing at sea.”
This is only the 22nd week of the year, putting SpaceX on a launch cadence of one every nine days.
SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER: Beloit College creates blacks-only space for students to hang out.
DR. FAUCI ASSURES ME THAT IT’S PROBABLY NOTHING: China Reports First Bird Flu Case in Human, Says Transmission Risk is Low.
MITT ROMNEY WOULD NEVER DO THIS: Sen. Cruz uses Monty Python movie clip to needle Harris on failing to visit the border.
THIS IS CNN: CNN’s Take on the Fauci Emails Is REALLY Disturbing. “While many federal government staffers prefer the phone to email, this correspondence offers a rare glimpse into Fauci’s frantic schedule and polite, to-the-point demeanor during the time he emerged as a rare source of frank honesty within the Trump administration’s Covid-19 task force.”
I REMEMBER WHEN HIGHER EDUCATION WAS JUSTIFIED AS PROMOTING CRITICAL THINKING AND RATIONALITY: University calls for removal of construction equipment some deemed a racist symbol. “An American flag was flown at a Central Connecticut State University construction site from a crane using a steel cable with a loop at the bottom. The university president demanded the flag be removed and promised to send employees to monitor its removal on Saturday.”
Our institutions are controlled by people who are basically crazy.
MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Yale’s move to rig board elections reveals the bankruptcy of US elites. “As the pandemic especially underscored, the people who run our institutions look with disdain at those they are supposed to serve. They think that they’re so much smarter and better than everyone else, which entitles them to have their way, without interference from the unwashed masses. (Yale, apparently, regards even its own graduates as unwashed.)”
You may think this is inside baseball, but as we’ve seen, what happens on campuses spreads to society as a whole.
IT’S A FLOOR WAX AND A DESSERT TOPPING: Meet the Daymak Spiritus, the World’s First EV That Mines Cryptocurrency.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION ADVICE TO JEWS: If you don’t want to be victims of violence, don’t look so Jewish.
FIGHT THE POWER, STICK IT TO THE MAN: Former University of Oklahoma volleyball player sues over exclusion from team because of political views.
IT’S EASY TO TELL WHO’S ON THE PAYROLL, OR AT LEAST ON THE TEAM: Pompeo Confirms Intense Opposition to Wuhan Lab Probe From State Department, Intelligence Bureaucracies.
We need a domestic probe into Chinese influence, but where would we find anyone not Chinese-influenced to run it?