Well this is interesting

It’s just like the swept-wing, transonic DC-3 project. People thought there was a better use for their time.

2 Likes

… And it looks like the FAA delegated investigating the safety of the MCAS system back to Boeing.

And that Boeing lied to the FAA about how strongly the system works respond when activated.

This is quickly moving out of “criminal negligence” territory, and staying to look like “reckless homicide.”

7 Likes

sounds like software and computing in general.

3 Likes

When a machine is controlled by software . . .

4 Likes
5 Likes
2 Likes

Not only is this an audio format I never heard of before, but the “Muppet” bit at the end was very educational.

5 Likes

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-19/how-an-extra-man-in-cockpit-saved-a-737-max-that-later-crashed

As the Lion Air crew fought to control their diving Boeing Co. 737 Max 8, they got help from an unexpected source: an off-duty pilot who happened to be riding in the cockpit. That extra pilot, who was seated in the cockpit jumpseat, correctly diagnosed the problem and told the crew how to disable a malfunctioning flight-control system and save the plane, according to two people familiar with Indonesia’s investigation.

10 Likes

Ethiopian philosopher Zera Yacob came up with philosophy that prefigured Enlightenment thinkers Hume, Descartes, Locke, Kant, and the US Founding Fathers! [unh…] Once lost to history, now his ideas about God and ethics can be celebrated and learned!

8 Likes

Found this while looking for info on Fedor Podtelkov and his political orientation:

5 Likes
4 Likes
4 Likes

So, I was reading a bit of Sweet Thursday, and I come across a section regarding the Los Angeles PD trying to trace a source of discount Marijuana which contains this sentence:

“The border was sealed, and it is well known that muggles does not grow in the Pacific Ocean.”

Muggles? Excuse me? I had to look into this. And, yeah, “muggles” has a history predating Harry Potter.

Wait a minute. Harry Pot ter? How’s your aunt Mary Jane, hmmm?

9 Likes

He didn’t have an aunt Mary Jane, although now that you mention it, both his mother and aunt were named for plants (Lily and Petunia).

10 Likes

Coinky-dink? I think not…

9 Likes

Analyzing the first Iron Man film as a piece of American military propaganda:

6 Likes

The MCU films that don’t use cooperation with the military are much more honest about military-industrial matters, colonization, and slavery. Ragnarok, Guardians, for two examples. The Earthbound stuff always has to talk about things by not talking about things, the way Civil War talks around real issues but doesn’t get down to it because it’s all in the context of magic honkies doing rockemsockem superheroism rather than just being the kind of superheroes-only-in-their-own-minds that we’re so used to in real-world billionaires.

4 Likes

I think Winter Soldier did a pretty good job.

The framing of Project Insight is that it’s a massive overreach by SHIELD and a violation of civil liberties, and that’s before it’s revealed that Hydra is going to use it to target its own enemies.

It’s a pretty scathing indictment of mass surveillance and extrajudicial assassination by a government agency that bears a striking resemblance to the American national security apparatus.

I was shocked that they brought that film out so soon in the wake of the Snowden revelations, even if they filed off the numbers on that story.

5 Likes

Yup. Even more scathing in that a WWII superhero is the one being most vocal about its issues.

8 Likes
6 Likes