godzilla_lives

Alt text: an image of a large silhouetted military aircraft directly overhead, sideways to the camera. The background is a blue sky covered in wispy clouds. The sun is causing a lens flare effect, which is in turn causing the edges of the clouds to appear multi-colored.

I FINALLY GOT IT. Since I got back into photography a few months ago, I've been trying to get a good picture of this sonuvabitch, but I always miss it. They don't usually track military test flights, but for some reason this one was, and I just happened to catch it before it landed for the day. After this shot, it flew out of sight and ended its test flight, but I got it!

Military industrial complex go brrrrrrr, but this is also used for more pleasant things, like FEMA drops and such.

Shot with a Canon Rebel T7, 300mm lens focused at 135mm, ISO 100, exposure 1/250 sec.

Thought this was a fun article to read, wanted to share. I think it's interesting that as societal and political views at large shift in the 2020s, it's good to go back and reevaluate how narratives are portrayed even as recently as 2015.

FTA:

The crucible of how the game treats its profundity is in the relation between its white Founders faction, which is in power, and its rebellious Vox Populi, who are attempting to liberate the oppressed racial and political classes of Columbia. The player stands between these two forces, doing tasks for each in turn, eventually learning that both are insufficient in creating a good reality. As Chris Franklin highlighted in a recent video, this is a common refrain in projects that Levine has worked on: putting the player in the position of a mediating force between two extremes. The player can feel pulled, and compelled, toward different directions while ultimately being forced down a particular path. Playing as a character who is terminally in the middle of the road allows us to point fingers at any insufficiencies we see in the world around us — as King put it, “gamers like to feel smart,” and seeing the gaps of logic in the various worldviews on display can make us feel like clever social analysts. A player uses magic in their left hand while holding a gun in their right hand in a screenshot from BioShock Infinite.

From the vantage of 2024, it seems that one of the key problems of Infinite’s view from nowhere is infinity itself. No matter your viewpoint, Infinite seems to present you with some ideas that might align with your vision of the world and others that might challenge you. This is probably an admirable goal — art can give us perspectives on the world that we don’t yet understand, and that’s one of the many ways that creative expression can change us.

If there’s an issue here that generates the endless debates about whether Infinite is good, it’s that the game does not provoke us with a particular person’s, group’s, or ideology’s perspective. Instead, it just confronts us with the idea that many different ways of existing in the world are real, and any of them taken to their logical extreme will exclude all others. What produces the “both sides” problems of Infinite is a problem of imagination. Infinite is a universe of plural worlds, and if any of them takes over fully, everything goes bad.

Full disclosure, I was disappointed in the majority of the replies this got when I first posted it, and as a knee-jerk reaction I took it down. But I encourage you to at least read the quotes.

Alt text: an image of an Embraer jet airliner banking as it comes in for a landing overhead. It is at an angle with a background of blue sky with wispy white clouds. The American Eagle livery is visible with the red white and blue tail shown.

Man I love living under a landing pattern! Took this last month, and I'm pretty stoked at how it came out.

Canon Rebel T7, 300mm, f/16, ISO 100, 1/250 exposure.

Winn was charged with shooting at an aircraft, criminal mischief damage over $1,000, and discharging a firearm in public or residential property.

Business Insider notes that the FAA doesn't distinguish between a drone and a passenger jet when it comes to attempts to sabotage a commercial aircraft. It means that shooting a drone is classed as a felony and could see perpetrators fined and sent to prison for up to 20 years.

Walmart says it has completed more than 20,000 safe drone deliveries over the last two years, and that it is expanding its drone delivery program for up to 75% of the Dallas-Fort Worth population, covering an additional 1.8 million homes.

In other recent drone news, more police forces are considering using the UAVs in first responder (DFR) programs, in which they are sent to 911 calls ahead of officers to assess a situation. Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that while this may sound good in practice, the programs can be used for privacy-invading surveillance and over-policing.

My favorite part is that the legal consequences for shooting at a passenger airplane and a fucking Walmart drone could potentially be the same.

Relevant portion of interview here.

“I think it’s a legitimate question to say, is this an episode or is this a condition? When people ask that question, it’s completely legitimate — of both candidates.”

Of course she's quick to "both-sides" the night, but that's politics for you. If she's saying this during an interview, I can only speculate on what's going on behind closed doors. The wagons are not closing around the Biden campaign.

During fucking Pride month no less. Fuck Tractor Supply and fuck conservatives, Jesus fucking Christ.

Alejandro Otero, owner of the Naples, Florida, home struck by the debris, was not home when part of a battery pack from the International Space Station crashed through his home on March 8. His son Daniel, 19, was home but escaped injury. NASA has confirmed the 1.6-pound object, made of the metal alloy Inconel, was part of a battery pack jettisoned from the space station in 2021.

An attorney for the Otero family, Mica Nguyen Worthy, told Ars that she has asked NASA for "in excess of $80,000" for non-insured property damage loss, business interruption damages, emotional and mental anguish damages, and the costs for assistance from third parties.

"We intentionally kept it very reasonable because we did not want it to appear to NASA that my clients are seeking a windfall," Worthy said.

Seems reasonable to me. If I accidentally caused damages to someone's home, I'd certainly be held liable. But, I'm just some guy.

Alt text: a macro shot of a bee diving headfirst into a flower as it searches for pollen. Its wings are blurred as they beat rapidly. The flower is a faded pink color. The background is out of focus.

Took this on my evening walk, figured I'd share with the Internet \o/ Wife pointed it out, "There it is, get it get it!" I'm lucky to have such an awesome spotter by my side :)

Canon Rebel T7, 300mm, ISO 160, 1/125 exposure

Alt text: An image of our moon against a black starless sky. It is in the waxing gibbous phase, and you are able to see about fifty-five percent of the celestial body.

Think I'm getting the hang of this thing! Shot with my Canon Rebel T7 and a 300mm lens, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/125 shutter speed.