I'm in a bitchy mood and probably shouldn't be blogging, but it's all good... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts...now...
• noPhone! Well, shoot. Guess I'm saving my money and not buying a new iPhone 18 Pro Max after all. Turns out the only thing I give a crap about, the new variable aperture, is a non-starter because the photo sensor on the iPhone is so small that the aperture doesn't really have much of an effect when it comes to depth of field...
And so... maybe next year. Because right now the camera on the 18 Pro is not enough for me to switch just as the 17 Pro wasn't before it.
• Eyesight! On Friday I had to run to the Big City for work. While I was there, I dropped by Costco. Where I spent way too much money. I bought new silverware because my old stainless steel stuff (which I love) is starting to get messed up... I bought new reading glasses, because it's time I bumped up from -1.5 to -2.0, alas... and I also bought a 2-pound tub of Rojo's Street Corn Dip, which I will end up eating in less than a week...
Because it's just that insanely delicious.
• The Great Beyond! After Costco, I ran by Fred Meyer to pick up five packages of Beyond Stack Burgers. But before I picked up my online order, I went inside and picked up an additional five packages because they were on sale for a crazy good price. Thank heavens I bought that small freezer for my garage!
So now I have 80 burgers ready to go. Since I eat them morning, noon, and night, I figure they might last me until mid-November sometime. Hopefully they will go on sale by then, because they're way expensive when they're not on sale. Of course, I'd rather pay full price than have them discontinued by Fred Meyer, since they are the only store in the entire valley which has them.
• Reach for the Sky! The latest season of Reacher was incredible. I was very sad it was over and I'm having to wait months or years for new episodes. However... we did get a new series to help lessen the blow, a Neagley spin-off!
The show is amazing, as expected. And, talk about lessening the blow, Amazon Prime may have given us Neagley... but they canceled Ride or Die, which pisses me the fuck off. The show was highly regarded, highly rated, and had great promise for a second season. How the hell do they decide where to spend their money?
• Rarity! Now this is fucking cool as all getout...
Isn't stuff like this incredible? Doesn't it just blow your mind that a substance like this can exist?
• Interplanet Janet! Alrighty... we're going from cool shit dug out from the earth to cool shit we're doing in space! This is an incredible video. And the visualizations they're using are some of the best I've seen. Well worth your valuable time to watch...
We are capable of some truly great things as we reach for the stars. Sadly, we would apparently rather spend our time fighting in the dirt. What a waste.
• The Incredible Shrinking Food! Thanks to idiotic fucking tariffs plus out-of-control fuel costs thanks to an idiotic fucking war, the price of food is insanely expensive now. And once again food companies are trying to camouflage it with shrinkflation. My hummus was advertised as having a lower price... BUT THE CONTAINER WAS NOTICEABLE SMALLER...
And don't even ask me what the fuck this is. According to the company who makes these chips, this is a full bag. Seriously, I haven't touched a single chip yet!
It's all so fucking insane. We're paying record prices for "LOWER GROCERIES ON DAY ONE" yet getting fuck-all for it.
And now back to being even more bitchy than what I can blog about.
I've stated repeatedly that mRNA vaccines are a gift from God via science.
It's a stunning technology which gives your body instructions on how to do something... like fight off COVID more efficiently.
And now, apparently, fight off cancer.
Moderna and Merck created a personalized mRNA treatment which can prevent skin cancer from recurring or spreading, as proven by a late-stage clinical trial.
The current method of fighting off cancer involves trying to kill off all the cancer cells without killing too many other cells... or the patient. Whether by radiation or chemotherapy, it's a seriously invasive and destructive way to cure somebody. But now, thanks to mRNA technology, they are able to create a specific instruction set to teach your body how to attack the mutated cancer cells directly and specifically.
They're working on all kinds of mRNA cancer treatments, but this one happens to be skin cancer. Treating melanomas which kill between 8,000 and 9,000 people a year is a small start, but a good one. And means the world to the people it helps.
I'm hoping that soon they can design mRNA to help fight heinous diseases like Ebola, which is exploding again.
It may be the only thing that can.
At least it sure seems that way given the miracles that mRNA are performing.
As a serious insomniac for decades, I am not used to being so exhausted that I can't keep my eyes open. I'm pretty sure it's my brain trying to adapt to my vision catastrophe going on in my right eye. I'm constantly having floating black spots that my brain has to filter out as not being bugs or flies... and blurry spots in motion where my brain is having to fill in the blanks... and hazy spots on the edges my brain is trying to see through. Not ideal. But don't you worry about the bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts...now...
• Licenses for Luddites! Just a reminder that the Washington State government is regressive as fuck when it comes to digital driver's licenses... but is very quick to tout us as a bastion of technology around election time. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell blow through tax dollars like Kleenex for everything else... why not help us keep up with (checks notes) West Virginia and Arkansas on stuff like this. It's fucking embarrassing, and we're tired of having to carry a license around when our phones are already with us. We're nearly half-way through the states who have them. Will Washington get in before #25 hits? Let's take a look at where we're at, shall we?
Spoiler Alert: Not. Fucking. Likely. If they haven't pulled the trigger by now, they've likely got zero plans. They've got Big Pharma checks to cash, and that takes priority over everything.
• Politics in America! Tell me this isn't how politics work here...
You can't. Because this is exactly how politics work here. No bill is passed "clean" any more... there's always some horrific bullshit tacked onto it.
• Narrative! Nobody takes the minutes to verify crap like this before sharing it with the world, and nobody who follows them cares if it's true or not... they believe it because they want to believe it.
Yes. Mamdani went to the ruins of the church... AND DEMOLISHED IT WITH HIS OWN TWO HANDS!! That's how much he hates Christians! Jesus Christ. Do these assholes EVER research this bullshit they shovel? There are people who read this crap AND BELIEVE IT!! And they vote. But not in New York... a place THEY HAVE LIKELY NEVER EVEN BEEN.
• Cake! "No one’s gotten a cake for me before. I bought my own cake in the middle of the night and blew out my own candles alone." (Here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...
@copic_pereira Last year, I could only get Connor a cake but his reaction was priceless ❤️ We had just started sharing our lives here and we had planned a small party at our place for our close friends. During the party, we went Live on here, and you guys noticed that I had vanished for a good while. That’s when Connor found me in the bathroom in excruciating pain, trying to not ruin his party. Turns out I had gallstones, and I spent almost a week in the hospital. So, we never got to properly celebrate his birthday and we changed that this year. Thank you so much for all of you that follows us!!! It was only possible because of you ❤️❤️❤️ #fyp #birthday #mlm #marriedlife #couplegoals ♬ Married Life (From "Up") - Sergy el Som
It hurts my heart that there are people so cruel that they would want a fellow human be alone for the rest of their life because of who they love. This man found his person and his community. He's hurting nobody by existing. Let him pursue his happiness, celebrate his birthday with people who care about him, and live in peace. For God's sake... just be kind.
• "You didn't mention the donkey!" Given the abhorrent state of the world today, I often find myself scouring YouTube for something funny to distract me. And few things are as hilariously distracting as Would I Lie To You...
If you want more, there's a channel right here.
• Witchcraft! I love videos which explain science in a way you can understand it without having a science background. This one had me captivated from the start...
Wild stuff. And very cool.
Since it's been a full two hours since my last nap, I guess it's time.
As I type this, Artemis II is about half-way to the moon. Except they're not landing on the moon this time, they're going to orbit it and head back home. Which is still a phenomenal achievement, because few people have an idea just how astoundingly far away the moon is.
When I was a kid I read that if earth was the size of a tennis ball, the moon would be a sphere one-fourth the size of the tennis ball... and it would be over 20 feet away.
I looked for a YouTube video to explain this, and found this one...
Then I found this...
But in order for these to suitably shock you, you really need to have a grasp of how huge the earth is. Try walking around it some time to get an idea.
And speaking of walking AROUND the earth...
Because the Artemis II mission is popping up in social media everywhere all the time, OF COURSE you've got dipshit flerfers (flat earthers) "debunking" the photos of a globe earth taken by the astronauts. In case you haven't seen some, here you go...
And of course you get the same stupid shit that you get from all the satellite photos and the moon-landing photos all over again. The most popular being "WHERE ARE THE STARS? NO STARS IN THESE PHOTOS?!? FAKE!!! FAKE FAKE FAKE!!! NASA LIES!
As if NASA made a boo-boo and "forgot" to paint the stars in thousands of times and somehow "forgot" to paint them in yet again.
Jesus. Google is free. There's literally dozens... maybe hundreds... of videos explaining why.
But nope! A massive conspiracy involving tens of thousands of people around the globe has been yet again foiled because NASA forgot to add stars!
I am on the brink of exhaustion, but that's not going to stop the bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Legotype! I never cease to be amazed at what people are able to build out of LEGO. This blows my mind...
It makes me want to get my LEGOs out of the garage and see what I can dream up. Ezcept I know that's going to do nothing but set me up for disappointment because I will never do anything as cool as create a fully-functional LEGO typewriter.
• He's a Wonder! I have mixed feelings on Wonder Man, the latest Marvel Studios series on Disney+. The concept is good and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley are sublime. But it also drags badly as it attempts to deconstruct the mindset of somebody with super-powers wanting to be normal who's striving for an acting career. Had they split the runtime between psychoanalysis and action, this could have been a home-run. But this is a Wonder Man series without any actual Wonder Man, and it's a problem...
They even cheaped out on the psychoanalysis by bringing up obstacles with a former girlfriend and a brother which just... fizzle (though the brother is a character from the comics who may make for an interesting second season character). One minute it's a huge worry (and even a cliffhanger!) and the next minute there's just a wet fart of a resolution which means nothing and earns nothing. Nobody learns anything. The conflict was artificial and banal. But, hey, the performances are a master-class and that's not nothing.
• Divorce! Instagram has been really pissing me off, because I'll copy a link... post it... then have Instagram show people a completely different video. So who the fuck knows what you're going to see below. Hopefully something funny, as I intended...
• A Toast! And if Instagram is feeling like showing you this video as intended, you'll see a skit set in Australia. But it really could be the USA, and I'm rather proud about that...
• It's the GOAT! Of all the rabbit holes to fall down... I fell down a baby goat hole...
@karyna5600 #Duo avec @alexisrubykeller #babygoat ♬ Monkeyshine-JP - Lt FitzGibbons Men
Why are baby animals always so darn adorable? Are there any ugly baby animals? There's plenty of ugly babies, so I'm guessing there must be. Somewhere. But I'll bet they're so ugly they circle back around to being cute again.
• Truthiness! This is so infinitely relatable as to be frightening...
@mkiwi980 Facts! #whoselineisitanyway #jonathanmangum #facts #news #this ♬ original sound - MKiwi
Or rather... more frightening than the state of the world already is.
• So Cold! Bobby Broccoli's Cold Fusion video series has been compiled into a single video. It's absolutely fascinating (as all his videos are). As a science geek, I remember very well when the Pons/Fleischmann experiment blew up... and ultimately collapsed. But I never really knew much past the headlines. Is this video 3 hours? Yes. But the time flies by, because it's got it all...
The very end of the video has snippets of an interview with Pons/Fleischmann that makes me really, really despise them. They are scummy "scientists" who betrayed scientific principles, lied to the scientific community, and wasted millions of dollars... but they were the victims? Lord. — Cold Fusion is a holy grail of science because the implications are so far-reaching for all humanity on this planet. I don't know if I want to live to see it... or if I'll be better off dead when it happens.
And now? Time for a nap.
It's gotten to the point where I seriously wonder if modern science deniers think that things like satellite television and mobile phones are powered by magic. At the rate they want to completely dismiss all scientific evidence when it comes to keeping humanity in good health, why wouldn't they think that Jesus allows them to make calls and access the internet from the smart phone in their pocket?
Thankfully, there's still pro-science advocates out there doing The Lord's work...
This is what we need more of. Though the odds of it getting through to people who have been brainwashed seems unlikely. But if the bullshit is not confronted early and often, it just makes it spread even further.
Insomnia got you down like it's got me down? Maybe reading something boring will help you to fall asleep. You're lucky I have the perfect solution... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Ophelia! Taylor Swift released the video for The Fate of Ophelia (one of my favorite tracks off of The Life of a Showgirl), and it's beautiful. And probably very, very expensive...
What's remarkable is that Taylor both wrote and directed it. Which is to say she might have the chops to do that if she ever gets tired of making music.
• What Are You Doing Here?! In a day and age where every moment brings new horrors... I love moments like this (language NSFW)...
I have so many friends around the globe. I'd love to drop in and surprise them like this.
• Rollercoaster! And now I want a rollercoaster in my back yard too...
I wonder if my HOA would allow it?
• Great American Cities! My list... which includes my priorities of art, culture, American public consciousness, world consciousness, and food: #1 is New York. #2 is Los Angelas. #3 is Chicago. #4 is Boston. #5 is San Francisco. #6 is New Orleans. #7 is Seattle. #8 is Atlanta. #9 is Miami. #10 is Las Vegas.
Now, this list is always going to be subjective, but the fact that New Orleans wasn't even considered at any metric feels insane to me. It's my favorite American city, so maybe I'm biased, but WTF? And, my God, Las Vegas wasn't considered? To many people in the world, it is the metric from which American excess is pinpointed. The omission that I'm going to catch heat for is Washington D.C., which would have made my list easy... except the art and culture is being gutted now, so I'd prefer to leave that option to the past. Hopefully it can return one day. There's other cities which seem somehow wrong to omit from my list. Minneapolis. Honolulu. San Diego. Nashville. Memphis. Philadelphia. San Antonio. Santa Fe. Portland (both of them). St. Louis. Savannah. The list goes on and on. There's a lot to love about so many American cities which could make them contenders when you consider the metric which makes them special.
• Drone... um... Strike? A drone show goes terribly, terribly wrong in China...
I can't for the life of me figure out what happened here. If I had to guess, the combination of a drone show with a fireworks show wasn't timed properly the fireworks took out the drones? This is awful.
• Science, Bitch! A critical video that everybody needs to watch. Especially if you're buying into the anti-science bullshit that's fucking us over and killing people...
I am beginning to think that humans going extinct out of fucking stupidity is the best-case scenario for the planet.
• Follow the Money! Sooooo... states that put more dollars into the government than out are getting their funding cut? This is repugnant. I can't recall any other administration so intent on fucking over people who didn't vote for them like this. Presidents Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, etc. tried to be a president to everybody, even people who didn't support them. They were presidents for the entire country instead of just the Americans they like...
Maybe these states should start withholding their money from the fucking government and let everybody else sort out their own shit. This is beyond fucked up. Especially since that $8 billion is probably going to all his wealthy owners and in his own pocket.
And now I'm going to bed early. Though I don't know why because I can never seem to sleep.
I've been rewatching Silicon Valley.
I always seem to find myself rewatching "comfort shows" when times are stressful, and times have been pretty stressful as of late. I've also been doing the ultimate stress-reliever that actually makes stress worse: Buying things I can't afford. Like picture frames to hang up all the souvenir stuff that's been sitting in boxes in my garage.
But anyway, back to Silicon Valley...
I finally made it to the episode with the guys debating over whether to let Blaine die over a miscalculation (or not!) by weighing the pros and cons...
Writing this clever would die on the page if you didn't have a cast capable of pulling it off. Between Martin Starr and Kumail Ali Nanjiani, it's already an embarrassment of riches when it comes to talent. But then you add in Dustin Milligan's hilariously subtle douchebaggery playing Blaine... and... well... now you know why I'm rewatching Silicon Valley. Again.
Now here's where things get interesting.
There's an article on Medium by Rhett Allain called The Physics of Blaine’s Car Stunt from HBO’s Silicon Valley written in 2023 (the original show aired in 2015). Now, it's behind a paywall, which is fine because I'm not a big physics lover who can appreciate it if I read it anyway... but I find it fascinating that the article exists in the first place.
Because I always find it interesting when there's math and science commentary on fictional television series which are actually trying to get the math and science right. Futurama is legendary for this. And that's a cartoon! I can't tell you how many articles I've read about the science on The Expanse. And what about the movie Primer with its mind-bending time travel antics? Or, good heavens, what about Christopher Nolan's movies like Interstellar, Tenet, and Inception?
It's a huge achievement to make entertaining fictional TV series and films while also attempting to add an entirely new level of math, physics, or science accuracy to it. Because odds are that only a handful of people will ever be able to appreciate it.
But even when I don't, it makes me happy to know it's there.
Professor Dave has created an in-depth video addressing RFK's horrific, life-destroying misinformation campaign. Of particular note is how the head of the Department of Health & Human Services profits from his bullshit.
No matter what side of the fence you're on, I'd urge you to watch this entire video... if, for no other reason, to listen to the debunked lies that are easily verifiable by looking up the misrepresented citations RFK presents as "facts in evidence" to know the truth. So even if you don't take action for your own self, at the very least you're not propagating misinformation which convinces others to risk their health and lives (or, more tragically, the health and lives of their children)...
You know what refutes science? Better science. Not whatever the fuck RFK's stupid shit and lies are supposed to be.
I'm in the middle of cleaning my filthy house, but rushing through a few things I saw this week seems inevitable... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• New Old! The Old Guard (on Netflix) is one of the best comic book adaptations of all time. I was thrilled we were getting a sequel. Though I was really hoping to get back-to-back sequels, darnit...
Now if only we could get a sequel to Atomic Blonde.
• 97%! Has anybody seen the 2023 Hulu movie BlackBerry? It's insane. It's just insane! I knew quite a bit about the rise and fall of BlackBerry, but seeing it told like this is nuts. This movie has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97%... NINETY-SEVEN-PERCENT... and I've never even heard of it!
First of all, Glenn Howerton is remarkable. Frickin' DENNIS from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is remarkable. I had no idea he was even capable of this kind of performance. Just watch it and marvel at a good story told exceptionally well.
• Shoot the Moon! I recently saw this image of the true distance from earth to the moon, as taken by the OSIRIS-REx probe at around 3,181,420 miles away from Earth...
This is very cool, because most people think that the moon is quite close to the earth. Good thing for us it isn't, or we'd be in a serious gravity-related nightmare.
• First Love! Wait. I've watched this video for a song I love by Father Tiger dozens of times. And I am just now noticing... IS THAT NOAH CENTINEO?!? (not in the thumbnail, in the video). Pretty sure it is...
I remain pissed that The Recruit was canceled. Centineo was exceptional in it.
• Money! If the government was actually interested in saving American taxpayer dollars instead of padding the wallet of its biggest doner...
@nytopinion Part 1 of 4: Within days of taking office, President Trump fired 16 inspectors general from across the federal government. We spoke to seven of them about the abuses they uncovered, what they really think about DOGE and what all this means for the future of American democracy. Tap the playlist in our profile to view all four parts. #nytopinion ♬ original sound - New York Times Opinion
We keep being told about all the billions of dollars that's being saved. So where is it? Where has that money gone? Anyone? Anyone?
• Science! Just in case, you know, the God-given miracle of mRNA vaccines is not yet understood, here you go.
• Renaissance! The only season of The White Lotus that I enjoyed was the first one. Everything since has just been a boring slog that doesn't have a worthwhile payoff. That being said, the opening credits and theme song are pretty great. This rendition of Renaissance is pretty great...
That vocalist just went for it, and it was a joy to watch.
Back to cleaning my home. Dangit.
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