World’s Worst Photographer:
Runner-Up:
Pics borrowed / stolen from Knuckledragger, thankee Kenny. (Yeah I know, he himself borrowed / stole them from SOTI; don’t care.)
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Nazzo Fast, Guido
Look, nobody knows better than I that the essence of marketing is to expand demand for a proven product. But then I see this:
Springfield Armory has refreshed the popular TRP line of professional-level 1911s. The TRP is based on the Springfield Armory Professional 1911, which was originally chosen for use by the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, and now the line has been refreshed to offer six new .45 ACP models with a wide range of new features.
The TRP platforms are specifically designed and built for demanding 1911 enthusiasts. Each pistol begins with a forged frame and slide for strength and durability. Each pair is the hand-selected for slide-to-frame fit and numbered to marry them with their matching components throughout the build process. The result is a premium fit, with refined blending and rock-solid performance.
Providing an additional touch of custom detail, all TRP pistols feature sighting plane serrations along the top of the slide. The result is an attractive touch that offers the shooter an enhanced sight picture and maximum light diffusion. Also on top of the slide is a tritium three-dot sight system for a clear sight picture under any lighting environment.
Springfield Armory chose VZ Grips and their combat-ready Hydra series of grips for the new TRP pistols. The deep relief channels provide aggressive purchase without being overly sharp, while exposing the layers and patterns of the G-10 material. In addition, all TRP pistols feature 20 lines per inch (LPI) checkering on the frame for an enhanced grip with either wet or gloved hands.
And then the kicker:
TRP Classic 5 inch and TRP Classic 4.25 inch have an MSRP of $1,899.
The TRP Rail 5 inch Black, 5 inch Coyote Brown and TRP CC 4.25 inch Black and TRP CC 4.25 inch Coyote Brown have an MSRP of $1,999.
So basically, it’s a budget Nighthawk, except in that baby-shit Coyote Brown — the gunny equivalent of the putty-colored automobile.
I’m sure the Government alphabet-agencies are just going to love them, because WTF they have the budget to afford these things. So will all those wannabe “operators” because they’re always up for the Latest Thing that all the cool kids have to have.
Me?
Clearly, I’m not in the target market for the TRP. And that’s fine by me.
Crazes
I remember back from my earliest schooldays that we kids had what our parents called “crazes” — fads that became “must-haves” among the schoolkids — and it seemed like every three weeks or so one would appear: yo-yos, poker dice, marbles and so on all became the standard stuff in our pockets. And woe betide you if you were “behind” the craze; you were an outsider, and we all know how injurious that is to the tender susceptibilities of a child.
Needless to say, just when you’d finally prevailed upon your parents to get you a yo-yo — and it had to be the right kind/brand, of course — the trend would change, yo-yos became yesterday’s news (until next year, maybe), and some new damn thing would put you, the hapless kid, straight back into the outsider camp.
Of course, that tendency to follow crazes — what’s politely called “fashion” but is really just some desperate need to fit in with the “cool kids” — manifests itself in the adult world as well, whether it’s shoes (Michael Jordan Air, Manolo Blahnik), clothing (Versace, North Face), sunglasses (Ray-Ban, Oakley) and gawd help us, colors (coyote brown, putty, cement). I’d add that even guns (Glock, SIG) aren’t immune to this nonsense, but no doubt some people will get offended. And don’t even get me started on “smart” water, as though that Perrier bullshit wasn’t bad enough.
And now we have Stanley insulated mugs and flasks. Seriously? Overpriced sippycups to keep one’s coffee hot or “energy drinks” (another stupid fucking craze) cold, and among all the Cool Kidz, they’re a gotta-have.
The problem with adult crazes is that unlike marbles or yo-yos, they’re really expensive (see: Ferrari, Range Rover, Michael Kors and Gucci).
The fun part is that whereas the nonconformists used to just suffer the opprobrium heaped on outsiders, nowadays there’s occasional pushback:
Stanley cups have become the ultimate “it” item for Gen Z, with hundreds desperate to get their hands on the £45 ‘adult sippy cup’. The tumblers recently launched in the UK to much fanfare, taking many people to take to Twitter to joke about the ‘millennial version’
‘These were my Stanley cup’ one person wrote, a picture of coloured Coca-Cola glasses that came free with McDonald’s meals throughout the noughties.
Yeah, whatever. (And then there’s this, sent to me by Reader Mike L.)
I have to admit that I’ve never understood the appeal of crazes, and (certainly as a youngin) this has generally made me a permanent outsider for most of my life.
I also resent like hell the fact that crazes, by and large, are created by brand- and product manufacturers’ marketing departments (e.g. perfumes, where the marketing and container costs constitute about 90% of the retail price — and I can’t help thinking that the same is true for most trendy bullshit).
As far as I’m concerned, if I wear a shirt with a brand on it (don’t hold your breath), the brand should pay me for carrying their advertising, instead of me having to pay a (massive) premium for the privilege of wearing a stupid Adidas or (even worse) Dallas Cowboys t-shirt. Yeah, I know: the franchises need the additional revenue to help pay their spokesmodels’ outrageous endorsement fees — yet another topic that could engender a 20,000-word rant from Yours Truly.
It’s all marketing: a specious (albeit regrettably-effective) attempt to boost sales of some product or other, or some brand which is almost identical to another in the product line.
Fach.
I think I’ll just have another sip of coffee from my insulated container, compared with its premium (and not really better) craze competitor.
The coffee isn’t that awful Starbucks shit, just ordinary ol’ Dunkin Donuts Regular.
(Actually, I think those Coca-Cola plastic glasses are pretty cool, just not that kind of cool…)
Update: literally two minutes after this was posted, I got one of these spams in my Inbox.
Coincidence? I report, you decide.
However: if it’s not coincidence and someone got busy with my data, let’s acknowledge that their little AI data-scraping bot isn’t that good — because on countless occasions, I’ve heaped scorn and invective on the horrible sponsor. In fact, I’d rather inject boiling bleach into my scrotum than give Dick’s a single dollar. Wonder if they’ll pick that up?
Privacy? What’s That?
Very few things get under my skin as much as bullshit like this:
A recent study from Consumer Reports engaged 709 volunteers who provided archives of their Facebook user data. Astonishingly, Consumer Reports discovered that 186,892 different companies transmitted data about these users to Facebook. On average, data from each participant was shared by 2,230 companies, with some users’ data being shared by over 7,000 companies.
Think you’re outside this little net? Think again, Winston Smith:
This examination highlighted a lesser-known form of tracking known as server-to-server tracking, where personal data is transferred directly from a company’s servers to Meta’s servers, alongside the more visible method involving Meta tracking pixels on company websites.
A surprising finding was the pervasive presence of LiveRamp, a data broker, appearing in the data of 96 percent of study participants. The list of companies sharing data with Facebook extends beyond obscure data brokers to include well-known retailers like Home Depot, Macy’s, Walmart, and others, such as Experian and TransUnion’s Neustar, Amazon, Etsy, and PayPal. Notably, LiveRamp did not respond to a request for comment on this matter.
The study’s data came from two main collection types: “events” and “custom audiences.” The latter involves advertisers uploading customer lists to Meta, including email addresses and mobile advertising IDs, to target ads on Meta’s platforms. ‘Events’ describe real-world interactions, like website visits or store purchases, facilitated by Meta’s software in apps, tracking pixels on websites, and server-to-server tracking.
I’ll sum up all this in a simple sentence: if you’ve bought anything online in the past three years, your personal data is everywhere.
Of course, there are the weasels:
Emil Vazquez, a spokesperson for Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, defended the company’s data practices, stating: “We offer a number of transparency tools to help people understand the information that businesses choose to share with us, and manage how it’s used.”
Oh sure. Forgive me for being skeptical about the motives of said weasels, and the companies they work for:
However, Consumer Reports identified issues with these tools, including unclear data provider identities and companies that service advertisers often disregarding user opt-out requests.
I don’t even know what to do about all this — nothing can be done, seems to me.
But the best part of all this — and the reason for my hopelessness — is that of you think that Government isn’t getting their snouts into this data trough, I have a fucking bridge to sell you.
Corporations, no matter how big, always fall straight to their knees every time some government department demands a blowjob. And this circumstance is no different.
Violent Reaction
Sure, it’s okay if they do it:
Left-wing protesters in Germany called for supporters of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to be killed during a rally against political extremism.
Amid nationwide protests over the weekend, in which organisers claimed over a million people rallied against the right-wing AfD party, it was ironically the left which seemingly exposed itself as harbouring extremists.
A report from the left-liberal Aachener Zeitung newspaper on Sunday hailed the local demonstration in the North Rhine-Westphalian city of Aachen against the AfD, which it claimed saw around 10,000 people attend.
The celebratory article, headlined: “Aachen mobilises against right-wing hate” featured a lead image of the report showed protesters holding a banner reading “Afdler Toten”, which has been translated to “Kill AfD supporters”. The image also showed masked protesters dressed in the familiar black bloc uniform waving the flag of the radical leftist Antifa group.
The article was quietly amended, however, after observers noted the potentially criminal calls to violence by the left-wing protesters, with the image being changed to a less extreme picture, which also did not feature any Antifa-style radicals.
Yeah, you bastards.
Where have we heard that kind of rhetoric before? Oh yeah, I remember: it was a popular slogan among Hitler’s Brownshirts back in the 1930s — albeit aimed at Communists, the current Left’s ideological forebears.
Also used by Lenin, against people (kulaks, nobles etc.) who were resistant to Communist Party policy in Soviet Russia. And also by Lefty heartthrob Che Guevara: “To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail.”
My, how that Great Circle Of Life does go round and round.
The great irony of all this, of course, is that while conservatives (like me) would like to see a Glorious Day when Leftist filth are led to the walls and execution pits not to mention the Hanging Tree, the plain fact is that it will never happen (unless I become World Emperor, that is).
More’s the pity.
Asking For A Friend
So here’s the plan:
The question: when they say “every” voice, does that include White people? If so, can White people join in the singing?
Follow-up question: does this “black nation” exist only in the U.S., or in other countries as well?