Joe Trela
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alert74.bsky.social
Joe Trela
@alert74.bsky.social
410 followers 610 following 2.9K posts
That guy who was on that show. Learned League trivia ronin sasquatch, amateur numismatist, flagrant vexillologist, occasional blue hair w/pronouns. Sanguis in auribus, stultusque in speculo.
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alert74.bsky.social
(reluctantly nods, then hurriedly changes the subject to Kessler syndrome or something)
A map from Wikipedia showing most of the large pieces of space debris surrounding the Earth. Although there's a scattering of dots in all directions, the highest concentrations are a ring at the level of geosynchronous orbit (about 22,300 miles/35800 km), and a thick layer surrounding the Earth in low orbit (under 1200 miles/2000 km). Kessler syndrome (aka collisional cascade) is a catastrophic scenario proposed by NASA scientists Donald J. Kessler and Burton G. Cour-Palais in 1978 where the density of uncontrolled or derelict objects becomes high enough to cause a chain reaction (much like those found in nuclear physics) that renders the near-Earth environment unusable for long (decades or even centuries) periods of time.
November 16, 2025 at 11:39 PM
alert74.bsky.social
OMW to a showing of one of the classic Star Trek movies with William Shatner as a guest. Can you guess which one?
A rather plump torso with a T-shirt showing the navigation reference armillary for a Constitution-class starship that uses that classic Tektronix font. NAV 247 TAC 285 COM 260
November 16, 2025 at 3:02 AM
alert74.bsky.social
"Mister President, we MUST not aLLLLLLLOW...a Darien Gap!"
George C. Scott as General Buck Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove, making some sort of point, or perhaps in the throes of Bell's palsy.
November 14, 2025 at 3:51 AM
alert74.bsky.social
Let's split the difference.
A macuahuitl, a Mesoamerican weapon made of solid wood with multiple prismatic shards of obsidian attached to the sides (usually by bitumen). Although the blades did not last long, they could be honed sharper than steel (one record from the Spanish conquest reports one warrior actually decapitated a conquistador's horse)
November 14, 2025 at 12:03 AM
alert74.bsky.social
Not to mention the first images of the Galilean moons as something other than dots.
A 4x4 array of images of the Galilean moons - Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto - taken by Pioneer 10. At the bottom are illustrations showing the solar illumination of each moon when it was imaged. The images are much lower resolution than the ones produced by later spacecraft, but some large features (such as the dark region on Ganymede later known as Galileo Regio) are visible, hinting at later discoveries.
November 13, 2025 at 8:06 AM
alert74.bsky.social
No wonder I'm feeling so arch at nights.
Two afternoon med sets I forgot to take.
November 12, 2025 at 4:36 PM
alert74.bsky.social
Can confirm - back in the day I asked Dr. Science* from Duck's Breath Mystery Theater on a radio call-in show what the grey stuff you see inside a cartoon character when they're cut in half was. Turns out it's their life force.

* Motto: "He knows more than you do!"
A smiling cartoon man who's been cut in half at the waist. Instead of bones, organs, etc. his insides are a nondescript, featureless gray...something. Probably best not to think about it.
November 9, 2025 at 4:55 PM
alert74.bsky.social
They don't want to get sued by the Dutch.
The official flag of the city of Amsterdam - a red-black-red horizontal tricolor, with three thick white Xs across the middle black bar.
November 9, 2025 at 2:07 AM
alert74.bsky.social
It's actually a Yugo with the spare tire missing.
The interior of a vintage 1980s Yugo compact car's engine bay. A spare tire is jammed inside next to the battery. According to the car's designer this was a deliberate choice in order to provide extra protection to the driver.
November 8, 2025 at 1:49 AM
alert74.bsky.social
To be good at posting you really need to be a stick in the mud.
A fence post.
November 7, 2025 at 4:17 PM
alert74.bsky.social
If he was truly interested in defending them he would have shut up and invested in one of these babies.
A miniature catapult, suitable for deployment upon one's desk.
November 6, 2025 at 4:20 PM
alert74.bsky.social
🎶You wish you were nice and...SHIIIINY🎵
The climax of "Shiny" in Moana where Tamatoa the giant hermit crab is about to chomp down on Maui (spoiler: he doesn't).
November 5, 2025 at 10:04 PM
alert74.bsky.social
(pours out some tej for the aunties)
Two flasks of tej - golden-colored Ethiopian honey wine. They are, in fact, the bomb.
November 5, 2025 at 7:36 PM
alert74.bsky.social
Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders has just endorsed Andrew Cuomo
Lolth, the Demon Queen of Spiders and chief deity of the drow elf pantheon (aka the Dark Seldarine). From the waist up she appears as a lavender-skinned drow with multiple arms; from below she's a gigantic spider that would make Shelob look like a little jumping spood.
November 4, 2025 at 4:13 AM
alert74.bsky.social
(sends ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review to Thaumaturge Magazine Online)
November 3, 2025 at 5:52 AM
alert74.bsky.social
Of course not.

(initiates Operation Trenta)
A cup for a Starbucks "Trenta" - the next size up from the Venti. Just as "venti" means "20" in Italian, "trenta" means "30" - as in 30 liquid ounces (just shy of a quart) or 916 ml.
November 2, 2025 at 4:29 PM
alert74.bsky.social
Frisbee stealth planes!
The "F-19", a model plane design released by Testors in 1986* that was based on educated conjectures about how the still-secret "stealth fighter" would look. In contrast to the F-117 Nighthawk's stubby, faceted design, the F-19 has rounded sorta-delta wings with two canards up front. *Supposedly it was their best selling model plane ever. I had one, and I wasn't particularly into building models at the time.
November 2, 2025 at 1:01 AM
alert74.bsky.social
(gives a respectful rrrrruf)
Stinson the Great Pyrenees with his front legs crossed as he lies on a red mattress cover.
November 1, 2025 at 9:35 PM
alert74.bsky.social
@kevinmkruse.bsky.social - not sure if this is you
not sure if real?
November 1, 2025 at 6:40 PM
alert74.bsky.social
Doing his b̶e̶s̶t̶ worst Sans fight imitation.

(Sans - heck, Papyrus would make a better Speaker. Flowey would be on par.)
Sans, a cheerful little skeleton dude from the indy video game Undertale. He's in what appears to be a typical JRPG turn-based battle screen, and below him is the status message "You feel like you're going to have a bad time". (SPOILERS) . . . . . . . . . He begins the game as an ally (and can certainly stay that way), but if you continuously and ruthlessly slay monsters as you progress through the game (aka "the genocide route") you will have to fight him. After a long and punishingly hard battle sequence, Sans will unleash his "special attack" which is...to do nothing. He refuses to act on his turn, and since it's a turn-based fight you can't do anything either. A stalemate ensues... (Ultimately you are able to beat him by bending the rules of the fight sequence. I'm not sure whether I or the SOTH want to know how that would play out in the real world.)
October 31, 2025 at 2:05 PM
alert74.bsky.social
If you see this, post a vampire that isn't Dracula.
A de Havilland DH100 Vampire, the second jet fighter (after the Gloster Meteor) fielded by the United Kingdom. It first flew in September 1943, but it didn't reach operational status until 1946.
October 30, 2025 at 10:58 PM
alert74.bsky.social
It was a Pyr-ic victory.
Stinson the Great Pyrenees, unwilling to tolerate my nonsense.
October 30, 2025 at 2:02 PM
alert74.bsky.social
The "I guess we doin (X) now" meme, with X being Project Pluto, and a conveyor belt producing copies of that dark and terrible Cold War fever dream.
October 30, 2025 at 2:42 AM
alert74.bsky.social
YOU WILL REGRET THIS!
The transit advisor from SimCity, judging you harshly for all your malfeasance and megaprojects.
October 28, 2025 at 1:59 AM
alert74.bsky.social
Just to (roughly) point out Rogan's birthday on that chart - August 11th, 1967.
A chart showing the case rate and death rate of measles from 1919-2024. Both the case rate and death rate start extremely high. The death rate has alternating peaks and valleys (with a definite downward trend) until it flattens out after 1940 and is essentially zero after 1950. The case rate goes up and down wildly before also diving to near-zero in the late 60s (right around Rogan's birthday of August 11th, 1967).
October 27, 2025 at 4:43 PM