She can look at me if she wants.
“Journalist Says He Knows What the ‘Mystery Object’ Was the US Military Shot Down Over Alaska”
“An AI-Illustrated Comic Has Lost a Key Copyright Case”
“Mortal Kombat 12 is coming this year, Warner Bros. boss says.”
Friday Afternoon Links
About The Author
Riven
[riv-uhn]
noun
1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd.
2. often aims to misbehave.
3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.*
And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.
Hersh, who said he’s visited the university campus there, said it’s so cold in Fairbanks that there’s no weather station there. So the university uses what Hersh describes as small aerial vehicles that collect weather data that is transmitted back to officials at the university, who can notify pilots flying over the Arctic Circle of any unusual weather activity.
“They are reporters of that information, and that was what was shot down,” Hersh told Brand.
Hanson’s Razor cuts again.
it’s so cold in Fairbanks that there’s no weather station there
I call BS.
https://www.weather.gov/wrh/timeseries?site=PAFA
They have an ASOS/AWOS at the airport. So not sure what they are trying to get at.
Probably some truth to this, as per most maps I saw of the shoot-downs occurred well north of Fairbanks over extremely cold and under populated areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Hit reply too soon. So probably the only way to monitor those areas involves weather balloons.
Further north, yes I agree. The article said Fairbanks did not have a weather station. *tops head with tinfoil* Seems to be a weird article for Hersh who was blowing the dam with his Nord Stream reporting
There is a station at Utqiagvik on the Arctic coast.
Who needs a weather station when you’re controlling it yourself with HAARP?
/sarc
Man, I miss HAARP conspiracy theories
Dude, they set the atmosphere on fire by accident. That’s why there’s global warming.
I worked at BAE Systems (maker of HAARP) when HAARP was still owned by the Air Force. We all had a good laugh at the conspiracy theories, but you have to admit the cover story was pretty weak too.
Now it’s owned/operated by the University of Alaska.
I wonder if the Army still does meteorological research out of Ft Greely?
I did a how cold can you still function research there one January. Lived out of a tent for 3 weeks at ambient temperatures down to -50. I woke up one morning to ice coating the inside of my sleeping bag.
Moon of Alabama was reporting this two days after the second balloon was shot down
We have several bins of Legos we got on sale over the years. My nephews (4 and 5) are into them. I picked them up and I’m working on a pretty substantial castle, with a working drawbridge and portcullis. As discussed here, I prefer to make things up instead of building a kit. I forgot how much fun it is to build.
come on over: can you weld or program a CNC tool?
there are only a couple of things more pleasant than conceiving something, designing it, building it, and watching it run; that’s true for tiny kinematics sets and 100′ tall reactor plants
and watching it blow the target to smithereens with a very satisfying BANG.
Pulsed power FTW!
You forgot really nice cabinets.
Kerbal Space Program 2 dropped into Early Access.
It is fatally flawed – the staging doesn’t respond to my spacebar. It’d bound to that key, but it does nothing. To get it to stage, I have to click the darn button on the interface, and it is scientifically less satisfying to jettisson booster rockets with a mouse click rather than the spacebar.
Well, its early access (I hate that term and the trajectory that game developers are taking).
Still, it’s one of the most basic core features of the game. It was working in KSP1 EA just fine from day 1.
I refuse to pay money to beta test games willingly.
Yeah it does stink but I have to admit I do have one or two in my library.
I don’t begrudge people who do it, it’s not my money nor my time. People are apparently willing to pay for the privilege, so I don’t see it going away either.
/remembers needing to sign up for a chance to beta test
Metoo,
/world of tanks
Anything good to report?
Jeb still works as a Karbonaut along with Bob, Bill, and Valentina.
I didn’t cause a cascade explosion on the launch pad by mis-staging my engines (though that might not be good depending on your point of view). If you’re nostalgic for the KSP1 parts, a bunch of them are there.
I’ve got 40 minutes of playtime so far, so haven’t crashed into the Mun yet.
I’m actually somewhat annoyed that all the parts are unlocked from the wrod go at the moment.
The science system hasn’t been implemented yet. 🙁
I thought that was the Draconis Combine symbol in the featured image.
Hersh, who said he’s visited the university campus there, said it’s so cold in Fairbanks that there’s no weather station there.
There is a weather station at the top of Mt. Washington, NH. Fairbanks is colder on average but not by much.
The Dracs sponsor Mortal Kombat?
Makes sense.
Fairbanks International Airport, Fort Wainwright, and Eielson AFB are in the area. I can assure you all have weather stations.
That song is cool as hell.
I found out what a hurdy gurdy was from Eluveitie.
Not Donovan ?
*ponders the reasonability of paying $40 + $298 to play that game again*
Well, it was a damn good game. I’m assuming this is the first one only.
Well, my wife paid that and more so she could have her own Animal Crossing island.
Well that’s just ridiculous.
I did too. I am also ridiculous. I will say in my defense that my daughter breaks a lot of stuff. I did not want to share a Nintendo with her.
Ridiculously awesome.
To be fair, I have no idea what this actually means.
Burning Man for furries?
I thought it was part of a cross walk.
Regardless of the outcome, AI-generated images draw from a library of work that was non-consensually added to a databank without the knowledge of or permission from the original artists. The scraped images that Midjourney exploited according to Kashtanova’s prompts came up with base average, taking other people’s work and mashing it together according to managerial direction.
Which is exactly what human artists do as well.
It will be interesting to see how this all eventually shakes out. But as of now, I assume that companies that can afford lobbyists and large donations will want to copyright their own AI generated art/IP, and will eventually make it happen.
Been busy all day. Sorry if this has been posted, but legit LOL.
Former Cohasset employee charged with stealing thousands from town to power cryptomine
That was funny. Also, right beneath it was a story on the Cocaine Bear.
I read that with more interest than the watt-stealing pubsec employee.
“Thats a movie I may pay to watch.”
What happens when everybody who wants one has one?
Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid appears to have a demand problem.
The company said during its fourth-quarter earnings report Wednesday that it had “over 28,000” reservations for its Air sedan as of Feb. 21. That was a surprise, given that the company had claimed “over 34,000″ reservations in November and delivered fewer than 2,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter.
Even more surprising: Lucid said it plans to build just 10,000 to 14,000 vehicles in 2023, far fewer than the roughly 27,000 Wall Street analysts had expected — and than the roughly 34,000 vehicles per year that Lucid’s factory is set up to build.
The more you know…
The thing is crazy expensive.
If I don’t care about electric (or depreciation) I’d get an Mercedes S class.
If I need to virtue signal and go fast I’d get a Tesla Model S Performance.
It’s far more luxurious than a Tesla, but I’d take the German ICE if I want a known luxury product.
I’d go either E or S class Mercedes, I think. The last one I drove was a 2008(?) E class. Best car I’ve ever been in, not even close. I’d want to see how they’ve changed since then, though.
Oh. AMG, of course.
Sadly AMG at this point is more a trim and package than the tuner of old.
Still agree if you don’t care about cost, however.
I believe R C said Mrs. Dean would leave him in a ditch for one of these
There are some that are pure trim. And some that still have real engines. The E class still has a real engine, and I believe the S class does as well. The E-class wagon has 600 HP and 3.4 seconds 0 – 60.
Some of their CUV’s though, are just badging and cosmetics.
Rolls Royce or GTFO.
Seriously, Mercedes is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down on the list of great cars.
Sounds like their reporting isn’t very lucid.
And the revolving door continues unchecked in NYC.
Unsuspecting gunman busted at NYC bodega by plainclothes cops: video
An interesting detail for detail’s sake?
Yes, I noticed that. Somebody went to J School.
All the news that fits to print.
This is the Post and not the NYT.
So more like “all the news that fits we print”.
That is why I added the ‘s’.
And then this
I am thinking a human did not write this article at all.
I got my son the Saturn V; it wasn’t $800.
The weekend is finally upon us, I don’t currently have plans this weekend. This means that I’ll be here, hosting the Zoom/Happy Hour/General Mayhem which will kick off at 2000 Eastern.
Feels like an Aviation kinda night. Maybe I should make some ice.
I tried to reply this morning but kept getting errors:
Even with their own brands, the big beer companies are quick to shut them down if they aren’t selling huge volumes. So its no surprise that they are buying out craft for a specific brand and shutting down the smaller ones.
A 1000 bbl/yr beer is literally .001% of Inbev. That isnt worth it to them, even if it is profitable. Much less a 30 bbl, once per year seasonal.
More marketing might help. But clearly, demand for Lucid’s vehicles isn’t materializing as quickly as the company expected, which raises some tough questions for investors.
First, how big is Lucid’s potential market? Any estimate of how much Lucid could grow has to start with an estimate of the “total addressable market,” and it appears the company’s estimates on that front may have been too rosy, given that its factory is set up to produce many more vehicles than it’s building now.
Running an auto factory well below capacity isn’t exactly a route to profitability, as Chief Financial Officer Sherry House conceded during Lucid’s earnings call.
“As we produce vehicles at low volumes on production lines designed for higher volumes, we have and we will continue to experience negative gross profit related to labor and overhead costs,” House said.
Help! Glub glub glub…
They could drop the price a bit? Only so many people are willing to drop six figures on a car.
Quick build of their performance model clocked in at $185K. With taxes, etc., you’re north of $200K delivered.
Our war party’s plan to expand the war.
Pro-western Maia Sandu won the Presidency on absentee ballots (cough *fixed* cough). Now going crying out in pain as they prepare to attack Transnistria (were there are a few Russian troops) from Moldova and the Ukraine.
But does Transnistria identify as a demilitarized zone?
That honestly sounds like a country from a Marx Bros movie. Or 3 Stooges.
Imagine my astonishment when I discovered Belgravia wasn’t fictional.
It will soon be so important that we’ll need to send $billions of dollars over there.
That leads to a second, related question: How long will Lucid have to run its factory at a loss? Or, put another way, how long will it take Lucid to
get to profitabilityrun out of money ?Do they own any desirable designs or processes?
It’s far more luxurious than a Tesla, but I’d take the German ICE if I want a known luxury product.
If you’re into spending money for its own sake, there’s always Bugatti.
i think the annual zero mileage maintenance on that runs $10 to 15K a year.
Yeah, no thanks
I was eyeing this bargain yesterday
https://youtu.be/4ur345a0NNc
Funny enough showed up in my YouTube feed.
Heh, I assumed they were expensive to own. Not shocking they’re money-pits.
I wasn’t serious about buying it, but I would like to drive one
… it does need a service; it’s just an oil service and even from Bentley they’re not that expensive – a few hundred pounds, I think between £600 and £800
Yow.
“The twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter W12 was factory rated at 621 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque”
If I win the big lottery, one of those will probably be in my garage. I’ve never ridden in one, but I can’t believe they aren’t spectacular in every way.
i think the annual zero mileage maintenance on that runs $10 to 15K a year.
Plus shipping to the factory and back?
They come to you!
So if you have a lift in your car collection facilities you are all set. If not I imagine they will borrow one at a nearby Porsche/Audi/VW dealer.
Look, those palms don’t grease themselves.
How NYC’s Second Avenue Subway Became the World’s Most Expensive Line
Decent report that seems to hit most of the points, even if they’re dancing around the word “graft”.
I’ll add another one: for all work now, they deliberately refuse the “cut-and-cover” method that was used for every other subway in the city in favor of digging deep. Probably multiplies the cost by 10 or 20.
Plus it now requires London tube long rides on the escalator out of the station.
Markets
U.S. companies provided 50 percent of Europe’s liquefied natural gas supplies in 2022, along with 12 percent of its oil. Russian oil and gas shipments to the continent have shriveled by half, beset by boycotts, sanctions and an EU price cap. Global oil and gas trade routes have been redrawn and renewable energy development has received a massive financial and political shot in the arm.
The turnabout has put a new spotlight on the United States’ role as the world’s biggest energy producer, whose foothold in Asia has also strengthened in the past year. At the same time, the EU and the Biden administration are working more closely together to develop the next generation of clean energy — one that doesn’t include Russia — a transition that will lean heavily on U.S. fossil fuel in the coming few years.
“Europe’s energy divorce from Russia is nearly complete,” said Andrew Lipow, president of oil industry and market consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates. “We’re seeing a permanent change as far as how Europe gets its energy in the future. One result is the United States and European energy policy are going to be more closely intertwined.”
Europe’s reaction against its largest energy supplier’s attempt to remake the map has sent shockwaves through global markets. These were felt most acutely on the continent, where electricity and natural gas prices surged as much as 15-fold, prompting governments to spend more than $800 billion to ease consumers’ financial burdens.
Once we get them dependent on us, we can use that leverage for good.
Fuck that. Let Europe destroy their own prosperity. Keep their fucking whack jobs the fuck away from our energy policy.
“The energy world has changed,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said last week at an Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on the invasion’s aftermath. “It has changed in the here and now.”
“It’s astonishing what’s happened,” Assistant Energy Secretary Andrew Light said at the same hearing. “This energy struggle will continue. It changes the world.”
U.S. fossil fuel exports, particularly liquefied natural gas, played a huge role in keeping the European alliance together over the past year, said Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global and author of “The New Map,” a book examining the geopolitics of energy. Putin had hoped to use gas as a weapon to shatter European support for Ukraine, he said, a miscalculation that so far hasn’t come to fruition.
“The war in Ukraine has demonstrated that U.S. LNG exports are not only of economic energy importance,” Yergin said in an interview. “They’ve also now taken on a strategic importance. U.S. LNG has become one of the foundations of U.S. and European energy security, part of the replacement for Russian gas and has even become part of the arsenal of NATO.”
We have to keep the wafflers in line.
Europe is fucked. And I mean that in all earnestness.
What is becoming apparent to me is that the real war is between the ECB and the Fed. Russia and China are just trying to escape that action but DC and Brussels need them as a cover story for their impending fiat collapses. War, pandemics, climate change, and other disasters make for good distractions to the real action in the banking system.
If the Fed holds course, it looks like it won’t be the first of the Ponzis to fail, but the question is how long it will last afterwards. Buckle up, things are going to get really interesting.
I listened to a couple podcasts about this. Do you have a good source? I am interested in the ECB vs Fed war but haven’t found a great read on it yet.
Tom Luongo covers it in detail. His prevailing theory is that it is a war between the Fed/NY commercial banks and the ECB/London. Is a battle to see who fails last.
It hasn’t been covered much but we’re coming off LIBOR in June. That’s basically never happened and it severs pricing control from London and separates the European and US financial systems.
To give some scope to that, almost every financial instrument for the past hundred years has been tied to LIBOR. There’s trillions of dollars of contracts out there based on LIBOR. And LIBOR was controlled by London, who had been gaming the system to their advantage.
It’s a phenomenal shift in the financial world.
Gotcha. Tom Luongo is who I listened to on this also. Interesting stuff, makes me wonder what the post-fail plan is. You know they have one and it’s not going to be good for us Plebs.
Who’s to say?
We’re entering a chaotic phase and I think any hard predictions are wholly unsubstantiated. We think we know what certain parties want, but we don’t know how it’s going to play out and who’s going to win what battles.
Who is this “we” who is coming off LIBOR?
I’ve seen it dozens of financial documents and contracts. They will continue to be tied to it unless amended. Going forward, won’t private parties still have the option of using LIBOR as their benchmark? Haven’t they always?
I don’t pretend to understand the significance of this, but it’s not obvious to me that it’s a sea change. What will be replacing it as a financial benchmark?
SOFR
https://www.jpmorgan.com/commercial-banking/insights/the-global-move-away-from-LIBOR
And you’re touching on part of the problem. The existing contract base tied to LIBOR its ginormous.
How it plays out is yet to be seen, but it is the final severance of London control over US financial markets.
And the country using natural gas (and energy in general) as a weapon is not Russia at the moment.
I swear to God that I do not understand how that is not immediately apparent to every retard on the planet.
Pay no attention to those pipelines breaking.
Yeah, what a coincidence.
Yeah, the invasion…well that and the fact that we committed an unprecedented act of industrial sabotage on an ally who, if they weren’t cucked to the point of being a castrati, should by all rights be on the verge of declaring war on us. Scruffy’s right, Europe is fucked and they’ve shown themselves to be America’s bitch fully and completely.
One of the comments:
Good… Orange Man.
Ah yes, a very bright orange man telling me to stop at a cross walk… not sure what to do
Must have been a never Trumper.
Countries in the European Union had planned even before the war to shift away from oil and gas in the long term. But Putin’s decision last year to turn off the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines has convinced European leaders to “supercharge” their move toward manufacturing as much of their own energy as possible, said Maroš Šefčovič, the commission’s vice president.
Of course.
There they were minding their own business……
Back from the dog park. The crust on top of the snow will support Lily’s weight if she’s walking. But when the dogs are chasing each other, it’s extraordinarily loud, and the takedowns have sound effects.
Sounds cute. Wet and messy, but cute.
I toured four apartment complexes today; a lot of dog walkers! The apartments complexes here are all very pet friendly. I enjoyed seeing the little (and not so little) guys out enjoying the grounds. Some apartment complexes even have adjoining dog parks!
In a sign of impending financial storms, I noticed today that Adobe dropped their subscription price for their tools by almost 30% if you agreed to an annual contract instead of monthly. I’ve never seen them do anything like that before.
OT
Mrs. Patzer is out of surgery and in recovery with her brand new hip, all went well according to the surgeon. I’ll be able to see her tomorrow, and we should be home by Sunday (maybe tomorrow if PT goes well). Breathing easier now, thanks to all of you for kind words of encouragement.
Thanks for the update. I’m glad all went well. Here’s to a speedy recovery!
Molto bene! Glad things went well.
Speedy healing to the mrs.
Did she get the bionic one? 👍
😃👍
This is excellent.
Excellent!
Excellent news!
I just finished The Secret of Monkey Island. It was pretty good. Not as in depth as the other ones. Also not as irritating with damn near unsolvable puzzles.
The 1990 game?
It is a classic.
There is a brand new one released this month. That is what I just finished.
Apologies. It’s “Return to Monkey Island.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nKub-41C0BE