Stainless Steel Rats

“We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment...”

― Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat

The latest version of the MapQuest App has a layer that will show the locations of various smart surveillance cameras. It's good to see the occasional tech company remember Silicon Valley's old subversive roots. (The latest version finally supports Android Auto, too.)

Meme Dump!

Meme Dump!

AI Tab Clearing...

• An AI-powered recognition tool called Raven lets the cops pick an address from interior photos found on AirBnB and Zillow.


• AI-powered robots roam the aisles in LA grocery stores, scanning the shelves and automating inventory. Employees are worried. What do you want to bet that within a year or two the 'bots will also be loaded with facial recognition patterns of "known shoplifters"?


• AI researchers taking up smoking to virtue signal to each other their belief that AI will come up with the cure for cancer soon.

.

TGIF Meme Dump!

Meme Dump!

Tab Clearing...

• Consumer price index continued its steady climb in September.


• Blue check? Nah, AI deepfake.


• Using your data to charge you more.

.

Memes for the Middle of the Week!

Verklempt.

I realized I hadn't seen the smiling happy couple in their little Citroën 2CV all year. The last time I think I got a photo of them tooling by was sometime last summer (obviously the car being probably garaged for the winters, here north of the Ohio river in the land of road salt.)

One of my internet car friends who lives in the Netherlands commented on the front license plate and so I googled it on a whim and... Oh, my heart. Truly this man is the Final Boss of Wife Guys.

.

Meme Dump!

Monday Meme Dump!

Escalating.

"Knock knock."

"Who's there?"

"Houthis."

"Houthis who?"

"Houthis got your range."

King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh has been tagged again, a day after a Houthi missile strike killed thirteen people and injured a bunch more after striking one of the terminals.

With the GOP facing a potential shellacking in the midterms, suddenly Trump isn't feeling very warlike, since it polls terribly with the voters, so the Saudis are probably on their own until early November.

.

Chibi Warthog

Because everything old is new again, sixty years ago the USAF was looking for modern attack planes suitable for the counter-insurgency mission and developed one from a trainer. The result was the Cessna A-37 Dragonfly, developed from the T-37 Tweet. 

I always loved the "Angry Tweet". The cutest thing about it was the 7.62mm Minigun in the nose. A friend who, being an infantryman, had a professional interest in ground support aircraft once said "They should have made it a Vulcan" which, of course, they couldn't because a 20mm Vulcan and its ammo drum would be nearly as big as the fuselage. (Well, that's a slight exaggeration, but still...)

.

Meme Dump!

Meme Dump!

End-Of-Week Memes!

Gratuitous Gun Pr0n #267...

I've been low-key chasing one of these for some time.

The full-size five-inch Smith & Wesson Model 1026 is one of the rarer 10mm Third Gen autos, with a little over 3,100 pistols manufactured over a two year run. Only the DAO Model 1046 and Model 1086 are less common.

Over two thirds of those went to the Virginia State Police. This one's got the "CAUTION: Capable of Firing With Magazine Removed" legend on the slide, so it was likely sold to an LE agency. 

It also has the punch mark on the bottom of the grip showing it has the upgraded grips that won't break when dropped like the early Xenoy units, as well as the two punch marks under the decocker lever showing it had been back to Springfield for the upgraded lockwork.

.

Well...

The baseball season is over for both the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves. 

On the upside, the Yankees are out, too, and in extra special humiliating fashion.

Meme Dump!

Jumping Hot Flash, It's a Gas, Gas, Gas!

It was pretty cool to get a bit of the barrel-cylinder gap flash on this shot, especially because I wasn't shooting in burst mode. I had the Canon EOS R5 & RF 70-200mm f/4L IS in single shot mode and was just pressing the shutter release when the vibes felt right.

This dude could really run that Ruger GP100.

.