RFS Moskva

Apropos of nothing...nothing at all, I feel the sudden urge to leave this here.


RFS Moskva is the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. This class was intended as a mass produced compliment to the much larger and more expensive Kirov class ships. In the end the production run was cut short due to the fall of the U.S.S.R.
Moskva is one of only three ships of her type in Russian service. Next to  RFS Peter the Great, these 3 ships are the most powerful surface combatants in the Russian navy, sporting 16 supersonic antiship cruise missiles with thousand pound warheads. This means that this very visible, expensive and powerful unit is a politically significant asset. Sending her to command the Eastern Mediterranean squadron in Tartus is not done lightly and is a signal of considerable national resolve.

Russia has two interests in Syria. The naval base in Tartus is one of their last overseas bases and is exceedingly important to them strategically. Furthermore the Al-Qaeda affiliated rebels are closely allied with the extremists who have been killing Russian civilians throughout the Caucuses in great numbers. If Syria's nerve gas and other weapons fall into rebel hands those materials can be expected to be killing Russian citizens in short order.

So the Russians have some quite compelling reasons to be there.

So...a bunch of US and Russian Navy ships in close proxmity and at cross puropses, with the Americas firing missiles over the Russians; Former Senator Fred Thompson has thoughts on that scenario....

UPDATE: Pete Zatciev points out in the comments that Russia has abandoned the Tartus Base. In my defense the Wikipedia page says the Russians are denying this....(and they may well be) but it does look like the base was largely abandoned back in June and the Russian Federation navy is just patrolling outside it.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:48 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 309 words, total size 3 kb.

Did I Just Hear That?

more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:00 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 414 words, total size 4 kb.

SWAHSDCC3 #9

In my review of episode 8, I said the following...

I expect that the NEXT episode will be the nadir (emotionally...dramatically it might be quite compelling)

more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:37 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 153 words, total size 3 kb.

Hakkei Rossiyajin

Pete Zaitcev has been in Japan for a bit. Amongst other things, he's been driving through Hokkaido and exploring Tachikawa via glider!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 24 words, total size 1 kb.

RWBY Goes to a Dark Place

more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 166 words, total size 4 kb.

Yeah. Looks Legit.

GASP!



Here's the thing.
I had like 14 tabs open and was looking for info on cycler times between Earth and the main belt so I have NO idea what site this pop-up spam scam was lurking on...but I gather that they're preying on space geeks.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:52 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 49 words, total size 1 kb.

The Ad for the Final Yamato 2199 Film

Spoilers and tears await those who click on this.

Woah.

They've still got 4 episodes to utterly screw this up but from that preview I remain cautiously hopeful that they will not.

The discs are to be released October 25, which means most of us will get them in early November.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:00 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 59 words, total size 1 kb.

An Actual Quote From a Friend Over Dinner

"I've started watching Attack on Titan again. Watching a giant bite the head off somebody, then pull them apart and eat them is so much less disturbing than watching that poor girl in Watamote humiliate herself. "

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 79 words, total size 1 kb.

Enough Current Events

..as events currently suck.

Instead here are two of the Yuru Yuri girls and an air guitar.

If you are upset that they're awful quiet to be so lively, you can remedy that by clicking here.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 39 words, total size 1 kb.

False Flag?

Steven Den Beste has thoughts on the Syria problem. I urge you to read the whole thing.  He makes some very good points about how acting fecklessly has made things worse in the past.

Some of his commentors ask a perfectly logical question. 'Who gassed the civilians?' It is widely assumed that Assad did it and indeed he may have. His motivation for doing it on the anniversary of the 'Red Line Speech' would be to show himself to be powerful enough to stand up to the US and gaining the 'badass cred' so important in that part of the world.

However, Al-Quaeda has a more straightforward motivation. They want Assad bombed and his airforce neutralized. We know from painful experience in Iraq that Al-Quaeda is quite capable of using Sarin gas shells to kill (Iraqi nerve gas shells were used as ICWDs). We know that the rebels have overrun some Syrian arms caches. The attack, while horrific was rather small considering the risk. It was not a tide turning attack but an attack on a small group of noncombatants..mostly women and children. This is unlikely to hurt the rebels materially and can only serve to strengthen their resolve and gain them international support. It also could bring about an attack on the Assad regime by the US....which seems to be happening.

The circumstances of the attack are unclear, but it appears to have been confined to a small area in a refugee camp. This is the sort of gas attack the rebels might be able to pull off.

I dunno who did it, but such ambiguity might be used by the President to not end up being Al-Quaeda's air-force in Syria.

UPDATE: Well....Derp.

Have at it in the comments.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:38 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 292 words, total size 2 kb.

Hopefully the Final Nidal Hassan Post

Ace links to and comments upon a report that describes how Hassan's violent tendencies were well known and ignored. This is well known...the news here is that it's being covered by Mother Jones. I urge you to read both Ace's post which adds a good bit of context and the full Mother Jones article, which indicates that the dereliction of duty was even worse than was previously known.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:07 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 74 words, total size 1 kb.

Some Justice

Major Nidal Hassan has just received the death penalty for perpetrating the Fort Hood massacre.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.

The Flattopped Weasels

Wonderduck has mentioned these curiosities before, but via the Blogfather, there is a neat, photo-rich thread on the Great Lakes paddlewheeled training aircraft carriers of World War 2 here.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 34 words, total size 1 kb.

Apologies

...to all the people I butt-called...the new Blackberry holster was apparently not designed for my model.

Here is some cake as compensatio....

...
...
There was cake.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:28 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

Varioius Links

I'm not going to work today because of my sprained ankle.
I REALLY should have adjusted the alarm clock to take that into account.
Now that I'm up here are various links I found interesting.

First up, Moe Lane has some important safety thoughts involving this video.

more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:23 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 244 words, total size 3 kb.

On the Path of Ones's Life, Obstacles Can Occur

My Monday was one of those...
more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 956 words, total size 6 kb.

So...What's a TOWINC3 Anyway?

This polysyllabically titled show airs on Crunchyroll a week late, so despite my judicious attempt at avoiding spoilers I'd heard considerable chatter about this episode being just wretched and 'worse than the last one'.

Given that the last episode was about our poorly socialized protagonist getting tunnel vision and missing the point of her hobby, I fully expected this episode to be a bit of a downer with Yura's Ahab complex causing issues.

Boy howdy.

One of the overriding themes of this show is sportsmanship. This episode also focuses on the importance of not becoming what one despises and how easy it is to fall into that trap, especially if one feels strongly that one's cause is noble.

The other major point of the show is that the raison d'etre' of a hobby is to enjoy oneself. This is not to say that winning is not important, but the enjoyment is the goal. If lives are not at stake and what you are doing  is unpleasant and wearying without an enjoyable payoff...then one needs to stop doing it or start collecting a paycheck for it.

  As expected, Yura drives her team hard to the point of misery, at one point disregarding a fairly severe leg injury incurred by Kirishima. The kicker is that at the last minute Yura fires the winning shot....a split second after being hit.
By the rules this means Yuras winning shot was illegal but it's undetected by anyone except her opponent, the malevolent Haruna.....who smiles knowingly, informs Yura that she now respects her because she'll do anything to win and walks away.

The episode ends a tad ambiguously. Yura has the opportunity to make this right, but she's feeling a profound obligation to her teammates who she ran into the ground to get this victory....what does she do? Well we'll know for sure next week.

Of course most people reading this know that there is only one correct answer, but Yura doesn't. Her backstory is that she's never had friends. She hasn't learned about sportsmanship and she's carrying the shock of the earlier lesson about fighting to the end...for which she is seriously overcompensating.

I expect that the NEXT episode will be the nadir (emotionally...dramatically it might be quite compelling)



This is the antithesis of a shonen manga. Japanese society puts a VERY high value on giving your all and going all out whatever the cost. Shonen manga and sports manga tend to do the same with the former focusing on crushing the villain utterly.

This show, is about remembering to step back, breathe, and keep things in perspective...and how easy it is to fail to do that.

Yura is not an idiot, she's young and ignorant. She's learning, like we all do, as she goes and she's making mistakes. There is actual character development here. I'm still liking this show quite a bit though I think I may actually be the only one now.


So...for those of you who've been watching...any bets on whether or not she just flat out shaves her head this time?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:56 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 326 words, total size 3 kb.

Just in Case You Were Wondering

...what happens when you drop a nuke near a blimp.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 224 words, total size 2 kb.

But No 'Splodies Were Had That Day

I've been trying to get various things resolved at ODU over the last few days and while I accomplished a great deal, many of my efforts were to no avail. Several people I needed to talk to won't be on campus until classes start tomorrow and I don't have a good E-mail address for an instructor I NEED to get a hold of.

Then there was the little matter yesterday of the 'ODU SAFETY ALERT' which chimed in on my library workstation as I was trying to print out syllabi. ODU sends these to student's campus E-mail accounts. However ODU's G-mail system doesn't allow its E-mails to be forwarded to mobile devices so one has to physically log in to ones Student account to recieve E-mails. While I was logged on yesterday, I received the following E-mail:

 

A gas main has been broken during construction in Lot 19/20 behind the Batten Arts and Letters Building. ODU Police and the Norfolk Fire Department are on scene and restricting access to the area.  The Fire Department has confirmed no buildings need to be evacuated at this time.  Access to Perry Library is restricted to the 43nd  street entrance. The area should be avoided until police and fire units clear the area. 

20 minutes later the fire alarm went off and the library was evacuated.  This would have been a good to receive on my Blackberry, or the many more fashionable phones out there, but alas, ODU wants students to actually log onto their email accounts so...no.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 261 words, total size 2 kb.

Gatchaman Crowds

 Science Ninja Team Gatchaman was one of the most important and influential shows in the history of anime. It looks dated today but in 1972 it had the best art and animation that had appeared on weekly Japanese TV and it was not equaled for almost a decade in that regard (Mazinger Z aired at the same time). The show was a remarkable break from the norm. Tatsuo Yoshida cherry picked elements not just from Japanese Sci-Fi films, but also Marvel Comics, Johnny Quest, '60s spy movies and the chaotic and terrifying headlines of the day. I've heard the show described as cliched..but Gatchaman MADE those cliches. The idea of the sentai team largely originated with Gatchaman,: June the exceptional strong heroine is in the finest Xia brothers tradition, Joe, the somewhat mysterious and dark second in command, occasionally complex villains, crazy malevolent transvestites....OK that last one didn't really take off but a HUGE number of anime tropes originated with Gatchaman.

I mention all this to put into perspective the epic nerd rage that seems to have gripped a number of my fellow old farts at Gatchaman Crowds, a show that is by today's standards poorly drawn, poorly animated and seems at first blush to have nigh-on nothing to do with with it's epic and beloved namesake other than the name and trademarked logo. So if you encounter one of these people just understand that this was not at all what they had hoped for and they are feeling quite depressed and alienated by "these kids today". Thus the best thing to do is quietly get off their lawn and give them a bit of space while they write their angry screeds in their APAs.

While they do so I recommend that you go to Crunchyroll and catch up on Gatchaman Crowds which is not particularly well animated and has a strange art style but makes excellent use of color and is exceedingly interesting.

This show is whacked.

Meet Hajime Ichinose.   Some people march to their own drummer. She disassembled the drum to make a lampshade, a dream catcher and a flower pot because she's quite happy to skip instead.

How this girl got through Japanese school being such an elevated nail without being bullied to suicide is explained by the fact that she is possessed of a tragic affliction... preternatural perkiness. She is completely offbeat in her outlook and hobbies, one of which is collecting notebooks. When a strange 7 foot tall grey skinned man with 30mm fangs appears before her and offers her a notebook after ripping it from her very being...she gleefully adds it to her collection without reservation or concern.

She soon learns that she has been inducted into Gatchaman, a team of 3  aliens and 3 earthlings assembled by the aforementioned grey guy who all have unique abilities and are charged with defending Earth against malevolent Rubick's Cubes.

...and then the show gets strange.

I'm not entirely sure what this show is about, as it keeps changing its mind, but as it wanders down the circuitous path that is its plot I find myself enjoying the journey.

This show is clever in a lot of ways, not the least how gently and quietly it puts to rest the misconception that it has nothing to do with the old show. (It was about the third time I heard a particular word that I realized..."Hey!" ) Most of the homages and re-imaginings will be lost on today's generation, but it's obvious that the writers are all fans of the old show.

Gatchaman Crowds is quite odd and a lot of people will just break morale over the fact that Hajime is a Genki Girl cranked up to 11. I find her to be a delightful loon but your mileage may vary. The very straight laced nominal leaders of the team  (one of whom is NOT a Panda) are horrified by her nonlinear habits. The rest of the team is pretty laid back about her though.  Interestingly, Hajime may come off as a whackadooldle but she displays a certain uncommon sense that is sorely lacking from a lot of shows....and a lot of people.

Despite being a show about a desperate struggle against a bloodthirsty peril from beyond the stars, this show has managed to become remarkably upbeat and enjoyable and that's just part of this shows peculiar charm.

UPDATE: Don, who is liking the show too, makes a good point about the notebooks I had not caught, but which seems obvious in retrospect. He also has a lot of screen-caps.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:21 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 772 words, total size 5 kb.