View From The Porch

Sunday, September 27, 2026

Saturday, September 26, 2026

There wasn't an earth-shattering kaboom.

Happy Stanislav Petrov Day, everyone. He passed in 2017. As Encyclopedia Britannica puts it, “He is survived by his two children, two grandchildren, and the entire human race.”

Streisand Effect?

"The studio releasing Alex Gibney’s new Elon Musk documentary Musk is finding itself unable to buy an ad on the biggest social platforms.

YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram and Facebook owner Meta are all declining to run the trailer for Musk, along with X itself, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

That last one is perhaps understandable, given its owner. But the rejection by the other platforms has taken distributor Bleecker Street by surprise, and it is internally scrambling to understand why the ad has been rejected, according to a person familiar with the company’s processes who is not authorized to talk about them publicly."

Dude makes a documentary that essentially states "unhinged, unaccountable billionaires have way too much power in our society".

Then he tries to buy ads for it on social media sites that are... surprise! ...run by unhinged, unaccountable billionaires who all post to the same group chats as the dude the documentary is about, but they won't sell him the ad space, which kinda proves his point.

Meme Dump!

Friday, September 25, 2026

Memes For Friday!

Thursday, September 24, 2026

Well that's just great.

"The Chinese government has taken possession of potentially sensitive F-35 stealth aircraft parts that were inexplicably diverted to Hong Kong while being sent to the US from Australia, people briefed on the incident said."

Of course, the administration just approved the sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia, who'll send China a whole one as soon as they can.

Meme Dump!

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Like Flipping a Switch

Yesterday was the autumnal equinox, making today the official first full day of fall.

Coincidentally, this week also featured a cold front that had been stalled north of us for some time finally sinking south through Indianapolis.

We were having daily highs in the low nineties for most of last week and Saturday and Sunday saw 87℉ and 85℉, respectively, and then... bam! Monday's high was only 65 and today we'll only see 63.

They had the garage doors open at Fat Dan's on Monday and I was actually a little chilly for the first time in months.

We've probably got one good week of Indian Summer ahead of us somewhere so I'm not yet ready to rotate the short-sleeve tees and cotton socks for the long-sleeve shirts and wool socks, but I did pull one of the heavier weight gun burkhas I use from October through March out a little early.

They're saying that the "super el Nino" means a milder-than-normal winter, and I wouldn't mind that at all.

Hump Day Meme Dump!

Tuesday, September 22, 2026

This is pretty good!

I've been on a deep dive on the topic for a while now and I'm kinda amazed I missed Chris's video when it came out.

There's a lot of good info in here and it largely jibes with everything I've learned (or lived through.)

Meme Dump!

Monday, September 21, 2026

Automotif DCXXXVII...

Spotted my first Fiat Topolino in the wild the other day. (They only went on sale in the US in July.) With a 47 mile range and a 25 mph top speed, it's a glorified golf cart, but it's cute as a button.

While the regular one with doors makes a more sensible little urban runabout, the doorless "Dolce Vita" model with the rollback roof would be more enjoyable in nice weather.

Like the Smart ForTwo, they're so short they can park nose-in to the curb where other cars would have to parallel park.