tracker7 | Entries tagged with news

UPS and FedEx and some others grounded their MD-11 fleets after the crash last week. I've driven by SDF a few times in the last couple of days and seen five or six of the planes parked on the apron in front of the big UPS hangar. I wonder if their days are numbered now.

So, what happened was, the left engine fell off during the takeoff roll. There are a hojillion videos of the takeoff and crash and the immediate aftermath. It's cold comfort to the survivors of the 14 folks who died, but this could have been so much worse.

A UPS air freighter crashed during takeoff this afternoon. I had just swapped a company car for mine at the East Broadway site when I saw the cloud of smoke and noticed some ash on my car. Called Dad and Housemate, drove home with the windows down for a while and probably breathed in some things I shouldn't have. Shelter-in-place orders were issued and just now reduced.

It was a MD-11, loaded for a nonstop to Honolulu. About 40,000 gallons of fuel sprayed along a quarter-mile or so, hitting a petroleum recycling business and an auto salvage yard. The aircrew is dead, 11 injuries reported so far.

I'm a little shaken. I pass by the airport several times a week, and drove through a couple of the access roads to avoid a traffic jam today. This hits home, much more than the commuter jet crash in Lexington several years ago.

After far, far too long, I got myself out to a baseball game Thursday evening. The Bats are not doing well this season (again), so I wasn't expecting much beyond just having a good night at the park. Low expectations paid off, I guess, because I had an absolute blast. Norfolk put up four runs pretty quickly - four solo homers in the first two innings; the Bats fought back, tying the game, but lost 5-6. Disappointing, a little, but the experience was good for the soul. Slugger Field is a great park, the small crowd was enthused, and the hot dogs were delicious. I gotta do this more often.

In other Louisville baseball news, the UofL Cardinals are going to the College World Series! They won the Super Regional this afternoon against Miami, getting hot when it mattered most. They ended the regular season badly and were knocked out of the ACC tournament in the first round. Swept the Regional, beating host and top-seed Vanderbilt, got the host slot for the Super, and went 2-1 over Miami.

Things aren't all sunshine and rainbows. Protests against ICE's bullshit out in LA have been declared "unrest" by that orange bastard and federalized National Guard troops were deployed early this morning. LAPD and LCSD declined to escort ICE operatives out of their raid in Paramount and that caused some drama - but, really, if LAPD is declining the opportunity to beat up on people, things are definitely off.

And at the moment, I'm watching the last few episodes of The Handmaid's Tale, so, yeah.

Short workweeks are always appreciated. I like them better when the day off is a Friday - when the week ends sooner rather than starting later - but I'm not going to complain. This one was busy, with the normal 150-mile drive on Thursday, so at least it didn't seem to drag on. So, here I am on a Sunday afternoon, watching the Colts-Texans game and doing laundry. Getting in some reading, too.

Today is the third anniversary of Mom's death. The pain is gone, and has been for a while, if I'm being honest. It's an emptiness now. An empty space. I miss her.

Friday was Dad's birthday, and I took him to lunch yesterday to celebrate. Heck of a good meal and Copper & Oak in Danville. We had a little other business to take care of, and that was handled easily enough. He's singing with his gospel group this afternoon, and that will hopefully keep him from dwelling on the date too much. They're singing about thirty miles south of Indy next weekend, and I may go up there and see about going early enough to go up to Patachou for one of their fantastic omelets.

I'm diving back into Eclipse Phase, prepping for a SYR game in a couple of weeks. I remember the broad strokes of the game, but so many details are coming back to me on the reread.

Some real glamour shots of Lucas Oil Stadium and Indianapolis in general during the game. I was just there five weeks ago, and I find myself missing it already. My GenCon family isn't what it used to be, but they do still mean something to me.

Some jerk decided to shoot up I-75 yesterday afternoon. Dude bought an AR of some stripe and 2000 rounds for it yesterday morning, then found a spot on an overpass and ... just started shooting. Still at large as of this afternoon.

I feel like a glutton. Came home and made so much spaghetti. Two batches, one with meat sauce, one with meatballs. Ate way too much, and now I'm heavily settled into the recliner. Just huge. Many meals of leftovers to come.

Cardinal football beat Notre Dame Saturday night. Record home crowd, beat a Top 10 ranked team, pretty exciting. ABC's commentators turned into apologists in the fourth quarter, trying to excuse Notre Dame with "oh they had midterms" and "oh it's a night game" and all that. Well, guess who else was playing a night game after midterm week, you chumps? The University of Louisville - the team that just manhandled their opponent.

Just not enough fight in the Irish.

Hamas launched a sizable assault on Israel over the weekend - huge rocket and artillery barrages and paramilitary operations attacking military and civilian targets inside Israeli borders. Most US media is describing it as "terrorist attacks," and I can't wholly disagree - Hamas has taken dozens of hostages and one of the targets was an open-air music festival, killing 260 or so people. The US is promising help to Israel, of course, but since the House of Representatives is recessed because there's no Speaker, and a college football coach that Alabama sent to the Senate is blocking US military promotions, and we have no ambassador to Israel because of Rand Fucking Paul ... well, this'll be a mess. More than usual.

Housemate gave me a lift to pick up my rental truck - another big ol' Ford chassis with a box on it - and while starting to load it, we got some news.

A 25-year-old man walked into Old National Bank at Main & Preston, went into a boardroom, and started shooting. Killed four people, shot four or five more, one of whom died a couple of days later. LMPD responded about three minutes after the first call came in - one of the first officers on the scene was shot, but if I'm reading things right, his partner killed the shooter with some stellar fucking marksmanship.

This stupid culture, the fetishization, the lack of mental health care. All of it. Dammit, five people dead, others injured.

I don't often have good words for LMPD, as an organization. I've dealt with some good officers in my time there, and had to put up with some absolute jackasses. The department is in need of a thorough overhaul. But Monday morning, some officers did work. And I'm heartbroken over the officer who was shot. He was new to the force - very new. Graduated from the academy on March 31. Ten days later, he's responding to a nightmare scenario, and doing what he's trained to - what he's supposed to - and he takes a 5.56mm round to the head. He's alive, but I can't imagine he'll ever see anything like a recovery. 26 years old, had been a firefighter, looks like a family history of public service.

I don't pray, but if I did, Officer Nickolas Wilt would be getting all I could send.

I gave Cowboy Bebop three episodes and gave up on it. Was going to watch something on Disney+ tonight, but when I launched YouTube while making dinner, Gunship's "Woken Furies" was the second song to play, and that was as good a sign as any to watch Altered Carbon instead. So, here I am, going back through the first season before finally getting around to the second.

I finished reading American Injustice before bed last night. Stellar read, but frustrating and often infuriating. So many cases of railroaded suspects, indifferent (at best) investigators, and victims denied anything like justice. Again, the United States doesn't have a justice system, it has a legal system. And there is no equality, even acknowledging that.

Moving on, I'm starting Roadside Picnic tonight, filling in one of the gaps in my SF reading. I want to get back to the Appendix N Book Club reading list soon - the new illustrated Elric of Melnibone editions look so good.

After a week of missteps, Russia seems to have had some success in its invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops have entered and held part of Khersen. Russia's paying for it, though - near-universal economic and social sanctions, supply problems, and growing dissent among the Russian population. Ukraine is winning the propaganda war coming and going. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy - a former comedian - has turned into some kind of rallying figure, responding to an offer of transit out of the country with "I don't need a ride, I need bullets." Greek Orthodox inspired artwork of Mary Magdalene holding an anti-tank missile tube has become Saint Javelin of Ukraine. Smartphone videos of citizens driving alongside Russian military vehicles and lobbing Molotov cocktails. An old woman telling a Russian soldier to put sunflower seeds in his pockets so that something good will come when he dies on Ukrainian soil. It's amazing.

Despite the initial blunders, though, I can't see Russia not eventually taking Ukraine. Holding it, though - another story. There is going to be an insurgency like no other.

The Rams won the Super Bowl, 23-20. Cincy's offensive line was porous, allowing at least nine sacks. The Bengals had a good chance at a late-game score; the Rams broke up a pass and took possession to run out the clock.

Wasn't impressed with the halftime show. Lots of talent and a nice-looking stage, but it just didn't work for me.

I may have set a high bar for entertainment with my pre-game viewing. Wasn't expecting a Willem Defoe noir/proto-cyberpunk double feature, but Streets of Fire and To Live and Die in L.A. delivered.

There was an assassination attempt in Louisville today. Single shooter, walked into Greg Greenberg's office and started firing. One shot grazed Greenberg and the shooter was arrested outside the office. Plenty of rumors - shooter is an unmedicated schizophrenic; antisemitic violence; right-wing crazy. Whichever, it's a bad thing, and another point in favor of finding somewhere else to live.

Dad's maybe coming up tomorrow. I'm not planning to do anything to celebrate my birthday, but if my father wants to come see me and for us to spend some time together, I'm not telling him no. It looks like a nice day, weatherwise, so we can find something to get up to.

Friday's planned 2v2 X-Wing match became a 2v2v1 1500-point duke-a-roo when Pastor Scott made an appearance. I think we last saw him in the Before Time, and it was a great pleasant surprise to see him. Trash was talked, lots and lots of dice-rolling, and a good evening of play. And my team won, so, even better.

After my sixth Thunder Over Louisville, I'm just about over Thunder. The Derby Festival was determined to have some kind of event this year, and instead of one huge riverfront event with 600,000 people, there were to be five smaller airshows and fireworks displays visible from most of the city, and these locations were to be kept secret until just before the events. Didn't happen that way, of course. Some clever person looked into the city's fireworks permits and found the planned sites. So, two shows were cancelled because of concerns of large gatherings. One remaining show was at Bowman Field, pretty much in my backyard, so for a couple of hours Saturday night, my neighborhood and its small streets were packed with people, including one twit and her spawn who decided to park in my driveway. I showed my ass, I guess, but they moved.

The cop who killed George Floyd was found guilty on all three charges this afternoon - second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. I expected the manslaughter charge to stick, if anything, but the prosecution made a heck of a case. Barring a heck of an appeal, a murderer is going away for a long time.

A few days ago, a 1300-foot container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal. As of this evening, it remains stuck, completely blocking the canal about 10 kilometers north of the canal's southern terminus. Something like 12 percent of international shipping goes through the Suez, so this incident is just wrecking global trade. There's a photo going around of an excavator on the bank of the canal digging away trying to free this monster vessel, showing just how unprepared a system is for this kind of disruption. The picture has been made into memes, of course, and most aren't worth the time to look for or at. One good joke, though, is since the ship is obstructing huge amounts of good and necessary things, it should be named McConnell instead of Ever Given.

There are lessons here on the fragility of things. One ship, and trade is wildly disrupted. Ships that were transiting the canal when Ever Given ran aground can't just back their way out or turn around, and shipping has started diverting around the Cape of Good Hope. This adds time and expenses, of course, and means denser shipping along Africa's east coast and that's causing concern about increased pirate actions in those waters. Shipping companies have contacted the US Navy's Fifth Fleet about providing protection.

Clearly, this points out the need for the resumption of letters of marque and reprisal, and that's the sort of thing that I should write a Spycraft mission or four around.

Probable tornado in Larue County Thursday night. We had a severe thunderstorm warning and tornado watch here that night, but nothing too exciting happened. Wind and rain hit about the time I went to bed, and those sounds just put me right to sleep.

MLB season starts in a few days. I'm probably going to sign back up for MLB.tv, since they've gone back to a civilized pricing structure.

Inauguration Day came and went without incident. There was some massive heartbreak and disappointment among the Qbits. Lady Gaga gave a stellar rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." Instead of a huge crowd, the National Mall was filled with flags and lights - another result of the COVID pandemic.

Great night of X-Wing last night. Standard match saw the game end with one HP of ship left on the board, my crippled First Order TIE Interceptor. Just a great match. The centerpiece of the night was an Epic match against my most-constant Epic opponent and fellow enthusiast. 500 points per side, one huge ship each. Over 40% of my points were tied up in my CR90, and that turned out to be a big mistake. Too many interactions and triggers for me to keep track of, and the corvette's energy budget kept me from using some of the upgrades. Luke Not-a-Skywalker took out two of the three shuttles I was trying to defend, and my corvette suffered a death of a thousand paper cuts. My initial setup wasn't good, and I couldn't overcome that. And Luke just flat-out had a better-designed force. Gods, though, it was good to get one of the big ships out for an evening.

Finished reading the latest Black Company novel, Port of Shadows. It's sure enough a Black Company story, done exceedingly well with a bitter ending. Started on L. Sprague de Camp's The Mathematics of Magic today, and it's plenty enjoyable thus far.

Still dealing with some GM indifference. I'm going to finish up the Fading Suns game, and then take a break from running anything for a while. I think I'd rather put the energy into something else, like model trains.

I have a nice quiet evening stretching out ahead of me. Looks like an old monster movie on Svengoolie, then Star Trek and Buck Rogers before bedtime. I think I'm going to make time to bake a cake during all of this excitement, even.

More arrests, investigations, and fallout. A lot of the insurrectionists are looking at real charges and hopefully real consequences.

Good minis gaming Friday evening. Alan's M&M game wrapped up Saturday afternoon - fun, but anticlimactic. No Fading Suns tonight, and I'm finding it hard to care right now. My GM burnout is coming in faster cycles now, and I can see myself writing off the hobby for a while.

Lamar Jackson suffered a concussion during the game against Buffalo Saturday; Buffalo beat the Ravens. A Bills fan club has, as of about an hour ago, donated almost $300K to Jackson's charity of choice. I'm starting to think that I should see if there's room on that bandwagon.

The Internet makes you stupid, and sometimes that's fortunate.

A whole lot of the terrorists who attacked the Capitol building took photos and video of their actions, using cell phones, of course. As these images made their way online, people started digging and finding the attackers' identities. It wasn't hard in some cases - one of these specimens posed for a photo with his employee ID badge clearly visible. The FBI seems to be taking this seriously, thank goodness. Over a hundred arrests so far, and there are more to come.

This afternoon, the House of Representatives impeached Trump for a second time, making him the subject of half of the Presidential impeachments in the history of the nation. The Senate is recessed until at least January 19, so this isn't quite over. I don't know what's going to happen when the article of impeachment is delivered to the Senate, but I do expect that there will be a trial, and given that the makeup of the Senate is somewhat different and Mitch McConnell no longer has any use for the orange bastard, I halfway expect a conviction this time.

These next few days are going to be tense. Biden's inauguration is a week from today, and there has been noise about "demonstrations" at every state capitol between now and then. Something like 10,000 National Guard troops are going to be deployed in DC on the 20th, and the inaugural events are going to be very much subdued, partially due to COVID-19 as well as the threat of violence.

I'm more angry than scared now. I want these fuckers to suffer.

Well, this has sure been a day.

We started off with good news - Raphael Warnock had beaten Kelly Loeffler in one of Georgia's runoff elections, and Jon Ossoff had a steadily growing lead over David Perdue. Sure, a 50-50 split in the Senate, but VP Harris is there to break ties. Today looked good - Congress had the ceremonial duty of counting and certifying the electoral college votes and declaring Biden the next President of these United States.

But Trump and his redcaps weren't having it. Several thousand of them in DC, wearing their hats and waving their stupid fucking flags. As Congress was starting their count, a bunch of these fuckers stormed the Capitol, breaking through the police lines (and maybe allowed to do so) and eventually breaking into Congressional offices and the chambers themselves. A siege of the Capitol building. A straight-up insurrection. Looting and vandalism. And as of right now, none of these terrorists are in custody.

After evacuating and sheltering, Congress has reconvened and continued the vote count. Some Republican chucklefucks are keeping up their bullshit challenges, and that's just delaying the inevitable, and fuck 'em.

Christmas Day, RV bomb in Nashville. Last night, a RV was parked in downtown Lexington by a vacationing family - the vehicle wouldn't fit in their hotel garage, surprise surprise - and that caused, well, a police response and evacuation and all that. This afternoon, guess what. Some fool parks his rented RV on 5th Street in front of the Humana building and he and his family skip off to the Kentucky Science Center. Streets closed, buildings evacuated, all manner of hell raised. Stupid fucker.

Gods, I hate people sometimes.

In better news, there's a seven-pound ham in the oven and I have NOTHING to do tonight since both game stores are closed for the holiday and we're not playing anything. It's just now 6PM and I'm about seven seconds away from saying to heck with it all and getting into pajamas for the evening.

I mean, why the hell not? CBS All Access is misbehaving when I want to watch Discovery but Pluto has a The Next Generation channel going, so I'm getting a fix of hopeful and optimistic science fiction before dinner. And probably during and after, too.

Come to think of it, I don't have any demands on my time at all this weekend, except for Alan's M&M game tomorrow afternoon. This sounds really damned good tonight. Sleeping in tomorrow? A lot of reading? A legitimate couple of days to recharge? Good heavens yes gimme.

It's the last few days of 2020, a pretty momentous year. A lot of the people that have returned to work are taking the week off, and more power to 'em.

The Nashville suicide bombing looks like just that - no ideology, nothing. A guy who had resources and knowledge and wanted some kind of fame took himself out. He hit some of the cliched markers - loner, no significant relationships, et cetera. Commented to a neighbor a few days before the blast that he was "going to be so famous Nashville will never forget [him]." If such a thing can be said, I guess this way is better than him being some kind of ideologue or self-chosen martyr. Just a guy who, um, went out with a bang.

I'm reading the last of the Android novels I bought a few months ago. I've enjoyed spending some time in that setting, and still think I can add something to it. Tonight's plan is to read another 50 pages or so of the novel, and then write a few hundred words of the adventure and source material. Gonna develop Mars a little bit more.

Mom&Dad went to Logan County after I left their home Sunday morning. Dad wasn't too excited about going, but today's conversations with the two of them sounded good. Mom seems to be coming to grips with the fact that her sister isn't really there anymore - fucking Alzheimer's, man - and that's a step I didn't really expect to see her take. Dad said that Kaiser traveled well, but was very happy to be home, jumping out of the Yukon and running around the yard for a while before going inside and lying down for a nap. Goofy-ass wonderful dog.

Squadrons is a very pretty game and I am terrible at it and I do not care. The ships feel and fly like I would have expected - good lord, I do love the X-Wing. It's good stuff.

I'm having a heck of a good time in Alan K's M&M game. For way too long, I've had the idea of Harry Walsh escaping the destruction of his world and finding a new life (and fight) in a more supers-populated one, and now it's happening and it is a blast. His new friends don't know if he's actually from another world or if he's just bugnuts crazy or some mix of the two. Whichever, he's sure that he's in Freedom City to keep fighting evil and stake vampires and learn everything he can. I don't know how long Alan's going to keep this going, but I'm in it for the duration.

I'm reading Nelson DeMille's The General's Daughter. Never saw the movie, and probably will a while after finishing the read. It's damned good writing, and I'm enjoying both the procedural side and the very good character drama.

Yesterday, the FBI arrested a bunch of militia jerks up in Michigan for plotting to kidnap the state's governor, put her on trial for ... something, very probably execute her, then overthrow the state government and establish a new one, based on some very questionable reading of the US Constitution. Good thing they were all white people - otherwise, we might have a terrorism case here.

News broke this morning that the current President and his wife have tested for COVID-19. I guess, given his response to the disease, that this is the Platinum Collector's Edition of Karma is a Stone-Cold Bitch.

There's an E-6 doing laps over the Atlantic near DC and another one off the West Coast, almost certainly as a show of vigilance against anyone thinking about taking advantage of the increased confusion in the White House. E-6s are the current "Looking Glass" planes - they provide command and control over the national nuclear arsenal in case ground control is, well, you know, out of commission.

Look, I have next to nothing positive to say about this administration, but, to steal from Adam Scott Glancy, I'm not about to do a line of cocaine off of a nice set of tits. They're going to get the best possible medical care possible, and they'll be okay. But, hey, thoughts and prayers and other useless things because fuck that guy.

Star Wars Squadrons drops today. I halfway expect my DG players to opt for some multiplayer spaceship video games instead of continuing the brief side trip to 1880s Oklahoma. I'm mostly okay with this idea.

A little more Saberhagen today, finishing the first book in the series. Damned enjoyable, and once I'm through with this, I'm adding the Books of Swords to the reading stack.

Having a to-read stack again is pretty great. I still haven't gotten back to my pre-Masters level of reading for pleasure, and may never see it again, and ... well, whatever. It's good to just be able to read.

One of the grand jurors in the Breonna Taylor case has filed suit against the state Attorney General, essentially saying that the AG didn't do a proper job in presenting the case, that he's using the grand jury proceedings as a shield for his chicanery, and that the juror has the right to talk about the proceedings as long as the juror talks about things that the AG didn't bring up during the presentation and deliberations. This is going to be a heck of a thing.

Learned an inexpensive but important lesson tonight. Spend the slightly-more money and buy real inkjet cartridges instead of cheap-ass remanufactured ones. Had to install three on the little all-in-one this afternoon, and while the color cartridges aren't bad, the black one is just awful. Extremely faint, just barely there.

Curfew was extended until tonight. Downtown saw some action - the Unitarian church on 4th street declared itself a sanctuary, so LMPD set up shop outside to arrest anyone daring to leave the site, even if they were going home, allowed under the curfew order. One of those arrested and charged with a 4th-degree felony was a state representative, Attica Scott. Her star is definitely ascending, and if there isn't heavy fallout over this arrest, I will be more than a little bit surprised.

Got my new First Order Xi-class shuttle from TLGS on Friday. Some supply issues, according to Clay, but I got my ship and that's what matters. Colin was at the shop when I stopped by; he was at the church when LMPD started showing up, and he had enough warning to hop on his bike and GTFO before the siege began. There's no telling when I'll get to break in this little ship - I flew it in playtesting, but with a proxy model, of course. I have several pilots from the card pack to work through, and the entirety of the Republic ships I've bought so far. Whatever. There's something like time.

An old GenCon and Spycraft buddy had an opening in his online (of course) Mutants & Masterminds game, and I got to play! Built a sorcerer, at Alan's request, and it was a heck of a lot of fun. It's going to be a weekly game, so that's got my RPG time sorted out. We're past the halfway point with Delta Green, including the side trek this week and next, and one of my players is already interested in taking over GM duties, so holy cow I may be spending more time as a player than a GM for a while.

I started reading Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East series last week. I've never read Saberhagen, and so far, that's my loss. It's a fantasy tale in a way-the-hell-post-apocalyptic Earth, and already I'm seeing the influences this had on D&D.

Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Never Crossed My Mind

Sweet Dreams and Flying Machines in Pieces on the Ground

Wichita Lineman

Violet

Listen to the Sky

The Wind Cries Mary

More Pressure

And For Where I Just Don't Know

Lava's a Many-Splendored Thing

Fractures

Man Made Monster

People of Earth

San Andreas

The Loss

Deja Vu

Strange Flesh

Flesh and Blood

Here Comes the Rain Again

Chains of Love

So Lonely

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January 2026

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