Memes to Help Face a Monday!

Automotif DLXXXIII...

Here's an attractive little 1964½ Ford Mustang convertible. There wasn't yet a 2-barrel version of the 289 cubic inch "Challenger" small-block, so the base V-8 in the very first Mustangs was the 260-cube version of the same motor, with two tiers of 4-barrel 289 in the option list.

This Rangoon Red ragtop has the 260 and a 3-speed Cruise-O-Matic slushbox.

It was photographed with a Canon EOS R and an RF 24-105mm f/4-7.1 IS zoom lens.

Holy Memes!

Soulless Drones

From an interview with techbro Patrick Collison, co-founder of Stripe:

What the hell? "I don't want to have to spend the time to [watch the show/read the book/listen to the opera], just tell me what happens." Like life is a book report to be cheated on by reading the Cliffs Notes.

"I don't want to actually eat the steak dinner, it takes too long and feels like just a waste of time, so I take two vitamin pills and ask my Agentic AI for a summary of what wagyu tastes like."

What a bunch of shallow, plastic, soulless goons these guys are.

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Demon Core Memes!

(For those who don't know: The demon core.)

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Tab Clearing...

• PHLster Holsters has a new newsletter...and a new newsletter editor.


• The Devil and Sergeant Danny Applewhite


• Deputy Cletus has left the building.

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Memes for Your Friday!

"...then his INDOPACOM started crying."

We're gonna pivot to Asia any day now... any day...

This essay has a good historical analogy...

"CENTCOM remains the operational and institutional center of gravity for the U.S. military, absorbing high-demand assets, dictating deployment rhythms, and monopolizing policy bandwidth. ... Thus, it is a bureaucratic and strategic vortex that resists de-prioritization, even as its theater becomes less strategically vital."

The Global War on a Noun apparently came with a hell of an institutional hangover.

Meme Dump!

Sporty!

I was driving back north to Broad Ripple from our sole remaining camera store, Roberts downtown location (they closed their Carmel store a few years back) and noticed that the little Datsun Sports 1600 that I'd passed on the way down was still parked there on the side of Central Avenue.

So I pulled over and shot some photos of it. You can see more of them here.

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Memes for the Midweek!

Meme Dump!

"Forever", "Four hours", whichever...

Last night:

“I think the ceasefire is unlimited. It’s going to go forever," Trump said in a phone interview.

Asked whether the war was completely over, Trump said: “Yes. I don’t believe they will ever be shooting at each other again.”

Within a matter of hours, Israel claimed that Iran had launched missiles at it, Iran denied it, Iraq reported that somebody had attacked its army bases with drones, and Israel was launching air strikes against central Tehran.

Trump was livid and demanded Netanyahu turn those planes around, do a "friendly plane wave" to Iran, and not drop the bombs.

The Israelis bombed a radar site north of Tehran anyway.

This is quite a charlie foxtrot of a ceasefire so far.

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Predictable...

I mean, there are certain movie franchises that are fairly predictable: James Bond, most MCU flicks, Mission Impossible... They have certain tropes and themes that occur in every movie.

The one that really gets me though is how they can keep doing Jurassic Park flicks, because literally the same thing happens every time. It'd be like going to see Titanic 4: MORE ICEBERGS!

But I guess if the special effects are good enough, it's worth a few bucks.

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Monday Meme Dump!

Deterrence?

Tucker Carlson was against getting involved in Iran, as is Marjorie Taylor Greene, Steve Bannon, and indeed 53% of Republicans in a recent poll. Of course Rep. Massie and Sen. Paul have been breaking out in full libertarian dudgeon.

We'll see if they all toe the line now.

Hegseth repeatedly talked about deterrence in his briefing this morning, but as I've said before on a more personal defense scale, the other guy gets to decide how deterred he feels.

I hope that it is indeed a limited strike that incentivizes Iran to concessions, and doesn't provoke any retaliation, but that's not how I'd bet my lunch money.

PS: Oh, and don't forget that we've just RIF'ed whole swathes of our intel apparatus.

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Meme Dump!

Ugh.

Yesterday's high temp here in Indianapolis was 91°F, with a dew point of 74 degrees, which translates to a heat index of 101. Thing is, with the dew point that high, sweat doesn't evaporate. This is New Orleans or Houston weather (fortunately air conditioners are more common in Indy than salt trucks and snowplows on the bayou.)

Today they're calling for 94 degrees with a similar dew point to yesterday's, so it's gonna be like the devil's armpit out there. By comparison, it's only supposed to get up to 88 in Miami, a daily high we won't see again until Saturday if the weather gnomes are to be believed.

I say again, ugh.

The people I really feel for are the folks who are still without power from the storms last Wednesday. Apparently there are 600-some-odd AES customers still without electricity scattered around Indianapolis.

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Tab Clearing...

• Droughts affecting global food prices.


• U.S. big tech firms losing business in the EU.


• Photographer Dave Jenkins waxes eloquent about his trusty Canon EOS 5D. I love the EOS 5D Mark II so much that when I sold mine to help fund the purchase of a 5DS, I wound up going back and purchasing another 5D Mark II to serve as backup for the megapixel monster. (h/t to Jim Grey)

5D Mark II photos:

Weekend Meme Dump!

The Longest Day...

...is not actually June 6th, but today. Also, summer does not start on Memorial Day weekend, but tonight at ten something o'clock.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Almost like Mother Nature can read a calendar or something, it's supposed to be hotter than Satan's stovetop here tomorrow, and through most of the next week, too.

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Meme Dump!

QotD: Ghost In The Machine Edition...

On the predilection some people seem to have for getting driven bonkers by extended use of LLMs...

“What does a human slowly going insane look like to a corporation?” Mr. Yudkowsky asked in an interview. “It looks like an additional monthly user.”

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That sucked.

The storm that blew through yesterday afternoon knocked out the power here at Roseholme Cottage at about 5PM and it didn’t come back on until a bit after four in the morning.

Lotta branches down in the neighborhood, but no trees that I saw.

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Monday Memeishness!

Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #256...

Wrapping up the review of the KelTec PR57. This is going to be one of the most complex reviews I've ever written.

Meme Dump!

Other writing...

• Roadmaster!


• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!


• Reload!

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Meme Dump!