And scattered about… were the Martians – dead! Slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared; slain, after all man’s devices had failed, by the humblest things that God, in his wisdom, has put upon this earth. (HG Wells, 1897) pic.twitter.com/92hphFg4wV
— Alistair Coleman (@alistaircoleman) April 29, 2024
John Wilkes Boothe: vicious cycle as several generations of maltreated peacocks belonging to the Romanovs. Recently ousted as Chairman of Project Veritas. https://t.co/4P5mHQLhDY
— zeddy (@Zeddary) April 30, 2024
In a great bit of NASA oral history, flight director Jay Greene recalls the Shuttle flight that then-congressman Bill Nelson finagled himself onto. Nelson of course is now NASA Administrator. pic.twitter.com/Zbglqvo1Ct
— Pinboard (@Pinboard) April 22, 2024
“Why are these bollard things, anyway?!?”
It’s the ‘gotta get the car rewrapped’ for me. She’s hitting everything all the time. GTA cars go longer without damage. https://t.co/tGC3rherCc
— zeddy (@Zeddary) April 21, 2024
piratedan
while we were passionately getting outraged at each other in the earlier DJT Trial thread, what did happen in court today? About the only event I gleaned was that they proved that Michael Cohen was an asshole while he was employed as Trump’s lawyer and that DJT/Pecker and Cohen went to the trouble of setting up a shell company to handle the money for paying off Ms. Daniels.
Was there anything else significant?
Poe Larity
The least the Martians lasers could have done was have a bbq mode to make us more palatable or at least turn is into bollards.
Also, too, the first thing I think when I hear a crunch and then freeze is to “keep on going.”
Princess
They’re all good but the John Wilkes Booth one is *chef’s kiss*.
Jay
@piratedan:
Minor fines and a suggestion from the The Judge that jail may be an option.
More sleeping and farts from Diaper Don.
Poe Larity
Also also, too, after Sen. Jake Garns shuttle flight, future crews measured their space sickness levels in units of “garns.” It took weeks to clean Discovery.
SpaceUnit
Not sure what this post is actually about, but I think that pic at the top might just be of a charcoal grill.
Jay
@SpaceUnit:
Because of the green, it’s clearly a Martian Spacecraft from the crash at Roswell, NM, (the rust on the landing gear dates it)
Webber Charcoal Grills are always red.
SpaceUnit
@Jay:
But the grass and flora indicate a somewhat less arid climate.
Tis a mystery.
Jay
@SpaceUnit:
Area 51 has sprinklers and landscaping.
It makes the Aliens feel less at home.
opiejeanne
What is a GTA car?
VFX Lurker
Grand Theft Auto, a video game series that rewards players with an “insane stunt bonus” for recklessly driving their cars.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Grand Theft Auto rice rocket type cars.
In the game they take much more abuse with out damage than in the real world.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Oh, to add, a “skin” is a 3 to 5mil plastic covering you can add to a vehicle. It can range from advertising to just a protective colouring coat.
Lease a new car, skin it, ($1500 to $2500).
Lease ends, peel off the skins, return it with a pristine paint. No key marks, no rock chips.
In GTA you can run over 10
hookersIndependent Sex Workers and 5 Pimps, at speed, with out any of them denting your bumpers, hood, breaking your windshield. Even the Pimp’s chains, medallions, belt buckles or wallet chains won’t even scratch your paint.opiejeanne
@VFX Lurker: Thanks. I’m aware of the game and its nature, just haven’t seen it referred to as initials so I was having trouble imagining what kind of car it was. .
opiejeanne
@Jay: I know what a skin is, usually think of it as an advertising skin. I hadn’t thought about the significance of it for a leased car, and in her case I’m not sure it would make a difference if she’s scraping it off on bollards.
I remember the criticisms of the game for allowing players to kill independent sex workers that way.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I read a blurb earlier somewhere about a drunk Idaho man being arrested for kicking a bison in Yellowstone. Too bad he didn’t also dive into a hot spring for a quick boil.
I am embarrassed to say that I was born in Boise. At least the decision wasn’t mine to make.
ETA: The World Bollard Association is one place I miss going to on Shitter. Seeing a BMW up on a bollard is heartwarming. Seeing them rip an oil pan out on the ones that go underground is even better!
Jay
@opiejeanne:
People buy them here for new cars and beaters, cheaper than a real paint job.
I got pulled over in the LML for having a clear skin, (well, it was a pull over, they were looking for anything) on my windshield.
$475 fine.
a) In Court, pointed out it was not illegal, (they claimed it obscured the interior, so I was using it to hide from facial recognition),
pointed out that I lived at the the end of a 27 mile gravel road, which prevented rock chips, which prevented windshield cracks which saved ICBC $600 a year,
b) police use of facial recognition software pre-crime under The Charter, was illegal.
All charges waived, hotel and meals paid, plus 2 days off work.
Also became one of quite a few “whistleblowers” exposing the Cop’s illegal use of facial recognition software.
Anne Laurie
From what I’m seeing on social media, it’s become a way — as Jay says! — of keeping one’s nice new car ‘pristine’.
Or, in the case of cybertrucks, of
disguising one’s shameensuring one is not driving around with steel panels corroding in random & unsightly ways!Rusty
@Anne Laurie: For those of us who are of a certain age, all I can think of is visiting our grand mothers and sitting on the plastic wrapped couch or car seat. That were wrapped in this horrible plastic “to protect them”, so they would be like new. They were uncomfortable, and in the days before air conditioning you stuck to them in any heat. All so when you sold off the car or couch, it would be like new for someone else to actually enjoy sitting on them. What a memory!
Jay
@Rusty:
Acetate. I always thought it was there to contain blood splatter.
Anne Laurie
@Rusty: Here in the Bay State, many small boat owners shrink-wrap their vessels during the winters. We’re not that close to the coast, but there’s a couple of storage sites near freeways we use regularly. So, when I read about ‘wrapping’ cars, I tend to flash on those cocooned-in-alien-spiderweb boats…
JWR
I heard this a little while ago on NPR, and they said that students were stunned at the size of the police vehicle that broke into Hamilton Hall to evict them. I bet the police have been itching for an excuse to take that… thing, out for a ride. It’s huge.
It’s got a freakin’ drawbridge.
CliosFanBoy
I hope that idiot complaining about bollards damaging her car gets roasted on Tik Tok. Self-awareness, how does it work???
MagdaInBlack
It’s people like Ms Clueless and her mysterious yellow posts that keep us body shop folk living indoors. God bless her.
trnc
Thought I was a dork, but I didn’t understand any of that.
Baud
Bollard lady seems fake to me, but I don’t know if social media has moved the culture to the point where people really are like that these days.
There was a time when Republicans realized they were lying, but they’ve done it for so long that younger Republicans think the lies are real.
MagdaInBlack
@Baud: Let me introduce you to some of my customers. 😉
lowtechcyclist
And it’s not even like she was driving one of those monstermobiles where something only two feet tall is way below your line of sight. The bollard took out her door handle, and that’s only a couple inches below the window, so she must have been seriously not watching what she was doing in order to hit it in the first place.
And then to keep on going after the first crunch instead of stopping and seeing what the hell she ran into – man, that’s all on her.
Baud
@MagdaInBlack:
At least she didn’t blame Joe Biden for the bollard.
TBone
@piratedan: this is another description – the defense refused to stipulate to the evidence, so the evidence expert (C-Span Archivist) was flown in and showed how much of the defense is actually just lies
https://digbysblog.net/2024/04/30/hes-soooo-tired/
Another Scott
@MagdaInBlack: I ass-u-me that, given her perfect skin, hair, makeup and production values in the car, that she’s hoping for enough viral play and attention to earn money to pay for the damage.
Just a guess.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
Speaking of those monstermobiles: you know how you need a special license, and get special training, to drive a bus? Maybe that should be a requirement for driving any of those vehicles that put you way up so high that you can’t see a kid walking right in front of your car.
Presumably the training would raise their awareness that they have to pay attention to what’s low down in front of them, so maybe they’d avoid some accidents with pedestrians that would otherwise happen. But it would also be a sort of hurdle that might make them think twice about buying a vehicle like that in the first place – it would be one of those ‘is it worth the hassle’ sorts of things.
3Sice
Transit agencies use wraps for ad campaigns on busses and trains.
Shoulda kept the receipt for the Weber. Lifetime warranty, brah.
Uncle Cosmo
That wouldn’t alter the fact (noted several generations back) that the most dangerous part of a car is the nut behind the wheel. Training can’t account for the no-‘counts touching up their lip gloss or fumbling with their self-fones instead of paying attention to the road.
I’d prefer requiring as standard equipment in all new monstermobiles** an automated collision-avoidance system based on a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) detector that engages the brakes automatically when an object is detected in the road. And mandate that it be active the second the driver leaves their parking place. If it isn’t, and the beast hits anything bigger than a gerbil, the driver is presumed to be at fault and subject to prosecution for reckless driving and civil suits for damages. The latter – hitting them where it really stings, in the pocketbook – oughta wise ’em up right quick.
** Helzbelz, require them on anything heavier than a motor scooter.
Princess
@Baud: Seems fake to me too. There’s nothing showing her with the damaged car. Being an idiot is a great watt to go viral and I assume she monetizes views in some way.
kalakal
@Baud:
Bollards are mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore
Barney
That WorldBollardAssociation twitter account is priceless. Maybe the best for a Brit is
https://twitter.com/WorldBollard/status/1771942785781805425
(SpecSavers opticians advertise with a variety of (fictional) things that have gone wrong because someone was as blind as a bat without proper glasses, with the tagline “should have gone to SpecSavers”. And you can guess whose van was hoisted up on a rising bollard, by a sign saying “caution: automatic bollards in operation – no parking” that the driver had not seen …)
Misterpuff
@Jay: When I saw my first Cybertruck “in the wild” it wasn’t bare stainless steel. Turns out it was skinned with a metallic blue wrap (Didn’t help the esthetics of the vehicle). Thats how I found out there is a thriving trade in car/truck Saran Wrap.
scav
When dullard met bollard.