Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

First time I‘ve turned on my computer in about a week. So, that means I‘m feeling better, then.

Like I told a fellow old-guy last week: “I ain‘t dead yet … I‘m pretty sure anyway….”

Was it the 2-year-old‘s 3rd birthday party that did me in? After he arrived, I walked out of my room to say "howdy" and he commenced to attempt to beat me to death with a helium-balloon, laughing like a maniac the whole time. Apparently advancing age isn‘t going to mellow him out. Later we spent a good hour pulling down the balloons from the ceiling by their long ribbons, collecting them all together, then letting them go (after a quick run or three through the house with them in tow, of course).

Later on I spent more time playing "hit-the-balloon at me" with a fellow about 5- or 6-years-old. I hear that later that week he got ill too, so maybe there was something going around.

Yesterday I actually got in my car and drove around a bit. Felt very strange after being down-with-the-crud for a while. Or was it day-before-yesterday?

Anyway, I finished re-reading all of the Harry Potter books again. Nothing like a good story to distract when ill. They hold up very well, too.

And this weekend, the family took itself to a scout camp for some camping, leaving me and the cat home alone (I don‘t camp, sorry). The cat does not like being alone, and apparently it was my fault, because I got spoken to about it frequently and at length. And since I don‘t let her sleep with me because she sleeps a while and then wakes up and demands to be petted. And bites if ignored. Well, she sat outside my door and really gave me the what-for. If you‘ve never been cussed-out in catish, you … are fortunate!

I didn‘t even know what most of those words meant.

I have a lot of work to write down just what it is I do so the Smith family can have something to show to potential applicants for my job here at this little magazine. Jobs I should say. Just what do I do? Well … ya see … it‘s like this ….

 

But now for the news. Mostly good news, hopeful news, or news of how things might change. And flying cars, of course:

Cool Flying Car That Also Drives On Roads To Be Mass-Produced In 2024, by Mikelle Leow

China‘s New eVTOL Can Also Double as a Luxury Car, by Ameya Paleja

It‘s Official. Japan Granted a Safety Certificate to a Flying Car, for the First Time, by Chris Young

This drone-like ‘flying car’ has just taken a step toward commercialization, by Trevor Mogg

Australia Just Hosted the World’s First Drag Race Between Two Flying Cars, by Chris Young

Well of course they did!

Not flying cars, but close. Close!:

Watch Jetson ONE, A Personal Electric Quad-Copter That Lets Anyone Take To The Friendly Skies, by Keith May.

This Personal eVTOL Comes in a DIY Kit with a Flight Speed of 63 Mph, by Ameya Paleja.

This Electric Aircraft Is A VTOL You Build Yourself Then Fly Without A License If That Sounds Like A Good Idea To You, by Mercedes Streeter

Buyable XTurismo hoverbike will make you forget about flying cars, by Bharat Bhushan

A Personal Flying Vehicle Prototype Can Fly You at 160 MPH, by Derya Ozdemir

 

There are other important things in life, of course, such as:

Why We Must Lay A New Foundation

I highly recommend reading this article. Back during the “Enlightenmen” and “Age of Reason”, philosophers tried to establish a rational philosophy, but did so while scorning Aristotle (his philosophy had become associated with the church). Aristotle made many mistakes, but his theory of knowledge was pretty solid, while the alternate theory of knowledge invented by Locke and others made a serious mistake. The results of this mistake lead directly to Hume and Kant, who “proved” therefrom that (in effect) there was no such thing as “reality” or “knowledge” or “truth”. Just a billowing cloud of uncertainty and illusion. Nor could they explain how we seem to get along okay anyway; at least until all the implications were worked out, leaving us in the current psychotic mess that we have today.

So, the author of this essay explains part of the problem, but doesn‘t seem to know about how it has already been solved, for which see Mortimer J. Adler‘s The Conditions of Philosophy (out of print) or his Ten Philosophical Mistakes. Alas, Adler‘s work is an extension of the thought of Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, both still scorned by current “official intellectuals.” So our current psychotic mess will likely continue for a while, until it all falls down. After that, who knows?

For example:

Poll: Most Americans say ‘truth’ is subjective, no absolute right or wrong, by Sean Salai.

I‘ll bet those folks are absolutely sure of that, too!

I think I‘ll make one of these one of these days:

This ingenious wall could harness enough wind power to cover your electric bill, by Elissaveta M. Brandon.

This is a traditional vaccine apparently rejected becasue it‘s not all high-tek or something:

It’s cheap, easy to make and in demand overseas. So why can’t this Texas-born COVID-19 vaccine break into the U.S. market?, by Karen Brooks Harper

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University Allegedly Attempting To Fire Professor For Saying Hurt Feelings Are ‘No Big Deal’, by Laurel Duggan.

Woke claim that ‘rational thinking’ is a white male thing is both insulting and absurd, by Rich Lowry.

No, ya just can‘t make that kind of stuff up.

Inventors of unbreakable glass with high image quality for devices say it may change vision of the future, by Holly Chik.

The US Government Wants Signal’s Private User Data That It Simply Doesn‘t Have, by Zak Killian.

ANALYSIS: Liberals Increasingly Concerned That Women, Minorities Can’t Be Trusted, by Andrew Stiles (satire, or is it?)

We now know the big bang theory is (probably) not how the universe began, by Ethan Siegel. (for Cosmology fans)

Leftists believe that all our earnings, like our children, belong to the government, by Robert Knight.

Super-efficient linear compressor could vastly reduce air con power use, by Loz Blain.

Supporting life beyond Earth could be possible thanks to graphene innovation by University of Manchester.

Media Admits The AR-15 Might Not Be Evil, by Larry Keane. (That must have hurt!)

Swarms Of Autonomous Kamikaze Robots Are Coming To A Warzone Near You, by Owen Bellwood.

For an idea of what autonomous swarming robots/drones might be like, see Kill Decision, Daemon, and Freedom™, all by Daniel Suarez (at Amazon.com) Scary. Seriously scary. Also seriously entertaining and engaging books.

Engraved on a tombstone almost 2000 years ago, this is music’s oldest surviving composition, by Sophia Alexandra Hall.

And it is late, no time for funny pictures. Well, maybe one:

 

 

Stay Deplorable, my friends!