Psst! Kid! Want a unique game console?

Further proof that if something has a CPU and a screen, someone's rigged it to play Doom...

The code that runs Redbox DVD rental machines has been dumped online, and, in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy, a community of tinkerers and reverse engineers are probing the operating system to learn how it works. Naturally, one of the first things people did was make one of the machines run Doom.

As has been detailed in several great articles elsewhere, the end of Redbox has been a clusterfuck, with pharmacies, grocery stores, and other retailers stuck with very large, heavy, abandoned DVD rental kiosks.

In case you think I'm kidding, here's a dude playing Doom on an old Kodak point & shoot camera.

Unusual Hue

A video about one dude's obsession with a hyper-rare factory Porsche color, Moonstone, only sold in the 1979-1980 model years. Disco, baby!

Unhorsed

Everyone's familiar with the phenomenon of "de-branding", where they remove or obscure product logos to avoid handing out free advertising for another company, like covering up or editing out the Apple logos on laptops seen on TV, right? Well I just stumbled across the most extreme example I've ever seen.

So there’s a prescription drug commercial currently on TV where this lady is driving around in an orange 64-65 Mustang convertible. It’s impossible to guess the year because they’ve used CGI to turn it into a rolling bar of soap.

No badges, all the styling lines on the side gone, nothing. The pony in the grille and the gas cap between the taillights are wiped away.

The first time I saw the commercial out of the corner of my eye, I thought it was a Jensen-Healey.

Check it out...

Pull the other one, it's got bells on it...

"It can babysit your kids, walk your dog..." says frequent Dad of the Year candidate, Elon Musk.

Yeah, let's pick two activities that are more complicated and require more attention and interaction than driving a car: Interacting with a live critter or a small human.

Given how low Elon’s bar is for adequate involvement with a child, I cannot imagine what he thinks is sufficient dog walking capability. I can just see C3P0’s idiot cousin taking the family cocker spaniel for a drag around the block.

Oh, also, that windowless death box with no windows or internal controls and seating for twenty, the "Robovan"? Have you heard how he pronounces it?

"Ruh-BOE-vahn". 

Christ, what a dork.

Edited to add BONUS CONTENT!

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I'd forgotten about that dude...

Jay J. Armes has left the building.

I remember seeing this dude on daytime talk shows in the early Seventies. One of the kids in my neighborhood had the J.J. Armes action figure, even, and we all thought he was cool. Supposedly J.J. even knew kung fu and had a pistol built into one of his hands.

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Calm Your Tits...

Punch Buggy

Commercials are some of the best movies out there these days. Also, the ID. Buzz is adorable as dammit.

AttackBot

A robotic scout dog that cops can use to knock the various "Internet of Things" devices in your house offline in preparation for a SWAT raid sounds like something out of a Terminator sequel, but here we are.

“NEO can enter a potentially dangerous environment to provide video and audio feedback to the officers before entry and allow them to communicate with those in that environment,” Huffman said, according to the transcript. “NEO carries an onboard computer and antenna array that will allow officers the ability to create a ‘denial-of-service’ (DDoS) event to disable ‘Internet of Things’ devices that could potentially cause harm while entry is made.”

DDoS attacks are a type of cyber attack where a website, server, or network is overloaded with traffic until it is knocked offline. Huffman did not provide any specifics about how a DDoS attack like this would work. But he said DHS wanted to develop this capability after a 2021 incident in which a man suspected of child sexual abuse crimes in Florida used his doorbell camera to see that he was being raided by the FBI and began shooting at them, killing two FBI agents and injuring three others.

At FLETC they even have a training house set up with various web-enabled devices like crib monitors and "nanny cams" so the Feds can practice working in that environment for entries, which makes sense, I guess. Wonder if they have a practice claymore roomba?

The DDoS scoutbot dog is based on this model:

Okay, this is cool...

The original cast of The Avengers assembled again... to dub their lines in the Lakota language.

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Does not work that way!

The nice man on the TV news said “Paris may have the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, and the Arc de Triomphe, but the most unique spot in France might be on the Normandy coast...”

I yelled at the TV “There aren’t degrees of uniqueness! That’s literally what it means!”

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Testing my sympathies.

Some guy in Indy got shot by the cops, and when the video of the incident was released, it's pretty clear why they popped him.

Look, if you point a gun at the po-po, especially if they're already pointing guns at you... let alone if you actually start shooting at them ...I have a real hard time mustering up a ton of sympathy, if only from a sort of Darwin Awards standpoint.

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Automotif DXV...

A successor to the original pre-war designed Fiat 500 "Topolino", the 1957 Fiat 500 was the car that put Italy on wheels... well, four wheels. Designed for maximum economy of materials and with an eye toward efficient packaging of internals, the rear-engined 500 had twice the passenger capacity of its two-seat predecessor.

The one in the photos here is a late-production 500F, distinguishable by its normal front-hinged doors.

"You're not here for the hunting, are you?"

So a teenager here in Indy got busted for ordering seven machine gun conversion devices (six Glock switches and a DIAS) from Hong Kong.

For bonus points, at the time of his arrest he was currently on probation... for illegally possessing a machine gun.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess homie wasn't a MENSA member.

Increasingly Unhinged

I know this looks like a store-brand knockoff of OANN, but this guy's actually on Russian state-owned TV spouting this stuff.

Generally, though, I prefer the Russian political talk show format where they stand in a circle and yell at each other about blowing up the world. It’s like Meet the Press and professional wrestling had a baby and dropped it on its head.

Anyway, he's ranting like this because Armenia is basically fed up with Russia's shit and is leaving the Russian-dominated CSTO.

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It's like a whole 'nother country over there.

Forgetting that you have a gun or ammo in your purse or briefcase at the local courthouse can be embarrassing.

Forgetting that you have a gun or ammo in your purse or briefcase at the TSA checkpoint at the airport can get you jammed up legally.

Forgetting that you have a gun or ammo in your purse or briefcase in Boston or NYC will almost certainly get you jammed up. You go through the checkpoint at Freedom Tower or the 9/11 Memorial or some other tourist attraction with your out-of-state toters permit, and it's gonna be a bad day.

And as for traveling overseas? That could be really bad.

"An Oklahoma man faces up to 12 years in prison on a Caribbean island after customs officials found ammunition in his luggage.

Ryan Watson traveled to Turks and Caicos with his wife, Valerie, to celebrate his 40th birthday on April 7. They went with two friends who had also turned 40.

The vacation came to an abrupt end when airport staff members found a zip-close bag containing bullets in the couple's carry-on luggage. Watson said it was hunting ammunition he had accidentally brought with him — but under a strict law in Turks and Caicos, a court may still impose a mandatory 12-year sentence.

"They were hunting ammunition rounds that I use for whitetail deer," Watson told NBC Boston in an interview conducted last week that aired after their first court appearance Tuesday."

There's a reason I keep the bags that I use for carry-ons at the airport "sterile". I don't take them to ranges if I can help it. If I have to while on the road, I keep them as far from the line as possible and painstakingly go through them in the hotel room that night.

People throw the phrase "responsible gun owner" around a lot. This is just part of that.

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And so it goes...

Mojo Nixon is with the King now.

Pew, Improved

The ability to swap mags from subsonics to supers and have, essentially, an MP5SD in the sheets and a Krink in the streets is a big improvement in utility.

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Neat Blaster!

Ian's got a video with the story behind a very historically significant Smith & Wesson Chiefs Special, from back when S&W had cool names for their wheelguns instead of boring numbers.

Interesting Analysis

Big if true, as they say.

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Rocket the Kasbah

So, last month I wondered...

...whether the west is going to keep shooting down $20k RPVs from Ali's House of Discount Drones with multi-million dollar SM-2 and Sea Viper missiles, or are we going to try a strike using carrier aircraft and cruise missiles to knock out Houthi launch sites and storage facilities.

Well, we have the answer to that question, as yesterday saw airstrikes by Navy Super Hornets and RAF Typhoons, as well as a barrage of sub-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles on Houthi launch and weapons storage facilities in Yemen.

The Houthis, of course, immediately protested and resorted to argumentum ad Israelium.

"A Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdul Salam, said on social media that the group would remain by Gaza’s side. He said there was no justification for the strikes on Yemen because its actions do not threaten international shipping, and vowed that the group would continue to target Israeli ships and those heading to Israel."

Which seems like a weird thing to say when you've been launching drones and missiles at random ships which have nothing to do with the Israelis, but the Houthis don't exactly strike me as a very organized bunch.  Also, "I blame the Jooooos!" focus groups well, especially in that corner of the world, so I guess it's worth a try.

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