Steaming Turd

I just read this article which notes that the US Army has forbidden soldiers from wearing non-issued body armor, including the Dragon Skin armor which Homis has blogged about in the past.

What’s interesting is that the Army says that the non-issued armor types haven’t been certified against particular small-arms threats. Not surprisingly, Pinnacle (the developers of the famed Dragon Skin armor) claims that this directive is mired in the political controversy which surrounded the shortfall in issuance of body armor some time back.

And the plot thicks: the article notes that the Army has requested thirty sets of full Dragon Skin armor for independent testing, yet Pinnacle claims the armor samples won’t be ready until May. What’s the holdup? The US Army is the big kahuna, the motherlode, the whole enchilada: if Pinnacle’s armor really is da bomb, they should be falling over themselves trying to get this independent testing done ASAP so they can start raking in the cash. But the Army notes that in the limited testing they were able to accomplish using small sections of Dragon Skin, the results were “disappointing”.

In Responsum: mcb’s blog

Professor Farnsworth: We still have one problem, though. This robot will never meet emission standards.
Mom: Crap spackle! *slap* We’ll just call it a sport utility robot and classify it as a light truck.

I just perused this article which discussed upcoming rule changes which would apparently tighten the mileage requirements for SUVs between now and 2011. The change would increase the average mileage over cars sold (some obtuse formula, I’m sure) from 21.6 mpg today to 24.1 mpg in 2011, and what’s more, the rule would expand to include SUVs in the 4- to 5-ton range in 2011. (Large pickups would still be exempt from the rule.) For passenger cars, the rule specifies an average of 27.5 mpg already.

What I’m not sure about is whether this is really a significant change or not. I’ve thought for years that small-car-drivers like me wouldn’t have to deal with SUVs on every corner blocking our view if they had been covered by the same mileage requirements as cars instead of light trucks, and any movement toward that standard is a good thing. But is this rule change really meaningful, or is it meant simply to mollify critics of Bush’s energy policy?

I had this really nice post about West Virginia’s performance in the regional semifinals of the NCAA basketball tournament, and then an unfortunate trip to an MSNBC-related site crashed my browser before I could publish it.

Long story short, WVU almost had it into overtime, tying it up with 5 seconds to go, but their hopes were dashed when Texas put up a 3 with less than a second on the clock. This was probably the team’s last chance to play in the tournament for a while, as the team will be gutted by graduations this year, and most of the remaining roster is still very green. It’s really a shame, as they had some real talent from 3-point range that you just don’t see much in college ball.

Watch for Mike Gansey and Kevin Pittsnogle in the NBA draft this year. Maybe they’ll be able to bring some of that 3-point action into the pros, where it’s otherwise just a big slam dunking unit size contest.

I just saw, via Slashdot, a video of someone beating the main quest in The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind in seven minutes and thirty seconds.

Considering that I spent well over a hundred hours playing that game back in the day, and besides that, the game’s developers have said that there are probably three hundred hours worth of content in the game if you do absolutely everything, I’m impressed

On a side note, TES: Oblivion comes out tomorrow. I’ve had it on pre-order for well over six months, so needless to say, I’m jonesing a bit

I know the food sucks there, but jeez.

Edit: WTF?!

Another edit: OMGWTFBBQ??!!!!11oneone

I guess the Whammy catches up with us all eventually.

I’ve just read that Claudia Black will become a series regular (rather than just a guest star) on Stargate SG-1 for season ten.

{insert maniacal laughter here}

Some of you may have read my post about Crash and subsequently become uncomfortable at its content. Fear not, as I’ll be a lot shorter and less provocative this time. I just wanted to let people know that there’s a miniseries on FX called “Black. White.” in which a white family and a black family put on makeup to look like the other family’s race, and they go into social situations to try to learn more about how life treats people of the race they “become”.

The first episode was on last night, and it was interesting. The show is sort of a cross between a sociology experiment and a reality TV show. The makeup is professionally done, so the people almost look like members of the race they’re trying to pass themselves off as. I suppose if you were one of the random people they met while they were wearing the makeup rather than a viewer at home watching the TV show, you might not realize what’s going on.

I think I took a couple things from it. One is that racism today is subtle (like it was in Crash), and thus white people tend not to see it where it exists, while black people tend to see it where it doesn’t exist. Another is that the younger generation* doesn’t see racism the way their parents do - it’s been a long time since the civil rights movement, and time is eroding the anger that came from past oppression.

The one other thing about the show is that it made me feel very anxious. I worried for the people involved that at some point their identity would be revealed in an uncomfortable situation. They were all very likeable people, the sorts of people you’d enjoy meeting, and I couldn’t help but be concerned that someone would find them out and become horribly offended and angered, even though they were doing this experiment to help themselves (and the TV viewer) understand race relations in America better. As a result, my stomach was in a knot for an hour after watching the show.

Anyway, I wanted to recommend this show to any of my paltry few readers who have an interest in race relations. For that matter, I’d recommend it to those who don’t, too, as it’s reality TV that’s actually socially significant. The last reality show of that nature was Cops, and it’s been around for seventeen years.

* I’m making myself feel old now. I’m using “younger generation” to refer to people who are a generation younger than me. Ugh!