A Catastrophic Spelling Mishap

Not long ago I was reading thread on a naval history forum that discussed a proposal by the German Navy to use their Biber midget submarines in the Mediterranean Sea as well as for local defense. Attacks were contemplated on Alexandria as well as some other North African harbors.

Unfortunately the thread initiator made an error which rather derailed the thread....

...and caused this to happen.
more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 70 words, total size 1 kb.

Attack on Nendroid

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:52 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 3 words, total size 1 kb.

Well This Was Surprising

Surprises:
Attack on Titan has lots of them,. Gargantia on the Verduous Planet has surprises too, but they are usually of an entirely different sort....
more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:06 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 1295 words, total size 10 kb.

Attack on Titan (Updated)

One day, long ago, the world ended.
Huge giants just showed up and started...eating people. This seems to have coincided with a near complete technological collapse as society is now sporting renaissance era tech.

Society, furthermore now consists of a walled area of Europe that looks to be a bit smaller than Andorra. The walls, over 150 feet high seem impervious to the giants. As a hedge, there have been built two secondary walls protecting progressively smaller areas. For 100 years there have been no breaches and humanity has developed a sort of pleasant if neurotic normalcy within its' prison.

Within this womb of denial reside these three young misfits. Left to right we have...

  Armin, a bookish nerd who dreams of seeing the outside world.This heretical notion as well as his socially unacceptable belief that humanity is becoming too complacent about its tenuous hold on existence gets him beat up a lot. Fortunately for his longevity he is friends with...
  Erun, an athletic young man, who excels at fisticuffs and hangs out with the wrong sort of people (see above). As a result of this antisocial influence he has read the forbidden geography book Armin has squirreled away and dreams of seeing the ocean. When he gets old enough, he wants to join the Reconnaissance forces and explore the outside world. His parents do not approve, as the recon forces have a horriffic attrition rate. He's something of a hothead with a bit more idealism than sense. fortunately this is often tempered by his close proximity to...
  Mikasa, an orphan who is his adopted sister. Her parents were refugees from some mysterious, far away land called "Asia" so naturally, this being anime, she is cool as a cucumber and good at everything.  Having suffered through great loss, she does NOT want to loose her adoptive family and she strives to assist in extricating Erun from his many self-inflicted challenges with a fervor that borders on co-dependency.

Well, as you can see from the expressions on our protagonists faces, in the course of the first episode things go downright pear shaped. 


OK,  the end of episode 1 and most of episode 2 involve a particularly large giant 3-5 times as big as any others showing up and kicking in the gate to the walled territory. The smaller giants then swarm into the city where they begin devouring the populace. Meanwhile, the military, who would find this situation tough in the best of times, is very nearly useless due to having become complacent and confident behind their walls.  The soldiers are routed and most that are not devoured flee. A few take the time to to assist the civilians  like Hannes here.



We first saw him in episode 1 drunk at his post and generally not displaying a good military bearing.  In episode 2 he runs in to engage a giant, takes one look at it, realizes he is drunk, unfit to fight and heads for the hills. However, he somewhat redeems himself when he returns  to save the kids, wrenching them from their mother as they attempt to extricate her from the rubble of their house. He pulls them out kicking and screaming as the giant he did not engage devours their mother in front of them*.  (I'll spare you the screen cap).

As mentioned before there are 3 walls. They are called Rose, Maria and Sina...in the course of episodes 1&2 the territory between Rose and Maria is overrun. The gates of Wall Maria have to be closed to save those inside and 1/3 of the human population is lost.


^{* We see Hannes later in episode 4. He's still the same friendly guy, but he's gotten his act together and has become the very demanding captain of the gate guard for Wall Maria. Hannes is determined to never repeat his mistakes and ensure others don't either. An interesting theme of redemption from a frequently dystopic show.} 

 Attack on Titan actually has had quite a bit to say about the dangers of complacency,  the utter contempt ruling elites can develop for those in the hinterlands, the necessity of freedom in healthy human development and the cancerous rot that results from its absence...and it often says them in the most graphically unsettling ways possible.

This show has has some extraordinarily disturbing visuals. If it were a live action film it might get an NC-17 rating. There is just something nightmarish on a primal level about people being eaten by big, naked, implacable giants that look like otaku.
Actually, nightmarish doesn't begin to describe it.

This is a gut wrenching show and difficult to watch but it is actually pretty interesting.
With a  structure, that evolves into something very much like a war story, it successfully captures the horror and dread of going into combat in a way that few shows have. The show is full of surprises and there's already been some decent character development. I do like the fact that Erun, while very much a shonen lead arch-type is NOT possessed of some awesome power and is not really the best at anything...getting by instead on his wits and tenacity. 

Episode three has a 5 year time skip. There is a brief flashback revealing that due to most of the croplands being between Maria and Rose there was a famine. This was alleviated by the straightforward method of organizing the adult males fom the overrun portion into a militia and sending them out with a small military force and some engineers to retake the occupied territories...and then locking the gate.
Other than that 3 and 4 are boot camp stories. Our heroes have enlisted and the cast triples in size as they deal with basic training and exposition on the shows signature martial art, a complex ballet involving swords and swinging through the air on wires. The other takeaway is that while one can apply for any position one wants.  only the top 10 percent can get into the military police, only those with the best academic scores can get into the gate guards (it involves engineering) and the lowest performing  end up in either the scouts or the regular guard force. This, as Erun points out is in fact ass backwards as everyone is striving to hone their giant killing skills to get as far as possible away from the giants in the interior compound. The front-line troops are set up to fail.

Erun, to the astonishment of everyone (except Mikasa and Arun, who know he's a loon) signs up for the Recon forces he strove so long to join. When questioned on the sanity of this he gives an impassioned speech that inspires several others to do so as well. Graduation day comes and the cadets are running about their duties on the wall in anticipation of their new assignments, when a 60 meter giant just...sort of...teleports in and kicks down the gate to Wall Maria.

And then things get bad....
 

Be advised that Attack on Titan does not shirk from showing women perishing in combat with all the same gruesomeness as the men.  However, the series has several likeable and strong female characters, including Potato Girl here.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:12 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 363 words, total size 14 kb.

Tankery in the US

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 90 words, total size 1 kb.

Tankery in the UK

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:08 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 4 words, total size 1 kb.

Did I Think That, or Did I Post That?

Due to the unanticipated cram session, aside from a brief nap in the car, I got no sleep from Sunday morning until Tuesday. Tuesday night my attempt at sleep was thwarted by the vast quantities of espressos and other caffeine delivery methods I'd partaken of over the previous days. Wednesday, I had to work late, had niece duty and caught up on current events...which, along with lingering caffeine had me staring at the ceiling in dread after I went to bed. Thursday, I took all manner of caffeine to keep from falling asleep on the way to work which kept me up most of that night as well. By yesterday I was punchy and stupid but too wired to sleep. Various chores and errands as well as an ill-conceived desire to celebrate my matriculation kept me up till a bit after 11pm by which time I think I'd had less than 5 hours of sleep all week.

I woke up today at quarter to noon.
Ahhhhh....Sleeep.
Everything looks more colorful now.
I felt so much better as I drank my coffee and pondered my day...except for this silly nagging fear that....(checks SENT folder) .
..oh %$#!
...oh dear.
..Yes indeed.

Oh well....

I'll just crawl under the bed and die.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 227 words, total size 2 kb.

Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen died Tuesday in London aged 92. He was a genius who really helped to perfect the stop motion techniques pioneered by his mentor Willis O'Brien.

In 1953 he did an expanded adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story "The Foghorn" which became The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. That film spawned the whole giant atomic monster genre of the 1950's including a Japanes film that was in some ways a re-imagining of the Harryhausen film...I seem to recall it began with a "G".

Harryhausen brought much magic to the screen in a series of modestly budgeted but exquisitely produced films in the the 50's and '60s, and was still doing effects work into the early '80s.

He did a tremendous amount to popularize fantasy films. His creations were top flight effects in their day and even now can be remarkably effective. 

He also had a reputation for being a perfect gentleman at conventions. Another of the greats has left us. He will be missed.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 172 words, total size 1 kb.

Ahem.

Just because something was published in 1957 does not actually make it "work-safe".

The word(s) work-safe means something.

I'm pretty sure that it's definition does NOT encompass burlesque .gifs in the old movie .gif thread.

The amazing thing was that this did not appear to just be a troll. This actually started a "conversation" where the poster seemed to think that "If it's from 1957 it CAN'T be pr0n"...."DUDE, it's Black and White!".

Ahem...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 75 words, total size 1 kb.

Update

I got home from work, cut the grass, checked my grades online and discovered that I had gotten a C+ in Japanese...despite my many zeroes.

Whew!

I then went to make myself some raisin toast but....upon reflection, I decided I didn't need any bread after all.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:28 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 47 words, total size 1 kb.

Old Meets New

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 3 words, total size 1 kb.

Meanwhile, Down at the Viking Burger...

I dunno either but the unrelated picture is rather more pleasant than the banality that lurks below the fold.
more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:48 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 409 words, total size 3 kb.

All that Time in Hospitals, Beds and on Painkillers has not Actually Helped my Depth of Knowledge At ALL

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 19 words, total size 1 kb.

The Hoyt Principle

Sarah Hoyt has explained College Faculties (and I’m sad to say a lot of College Republicans) big "L” libertarians, the sad state of both Anime and American Comic Books, the Air Force, Climate Gate, Young Earth Creationism, Birthers, Truthers, Todd Akin, The View and quite possibly New Coke.

Go read the whole thing

This shall be called the Hoyt Principle and I strongly urge everyone to learn from it, for to fail to do so is the first step on the path to perdition and madness.

more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:05 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 195 words, total size 1 kb.

Space X Grashopper on a Quite Breezy Day

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:53 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 119 words, total size 1 kb.

20% Mortality?

China is confirming that the H7N9 strain of Bird Flu has jumped to people.  They are reporting 108 cases of which 22 have been fatalities. A 20% mortality rate is alarming as it equals or exceeds the the lethality of the 1918 pandemic.

There is more on this here.

The official line in China is that there is no direct evidence of Human-Human transmission. However, the CDC website indicates that a number of the patients have had no contact with poultry or livestock. The Wikipedia page says that this is true for over 50% of patients, but provides no sourcing for that figure.

Note that even if it is a P2P bug the 20% mortality figure may be inflated if, for instance,  the only people diagnosed thus far are those who were already exceptionally ill.

Bird flu is always worrying but we get a scare like this every year or so and it should be remembered that the awful flu we got this winter hit with no warning. So just take this as a reminder that things can go pear shaped at any time and it's good to have ones disaster season supplies in order.

It's even better not to dispair.

So cheer up.

With that in mind, here is some cheer brought to you by the color pink.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 234 words, total size 2 kb.

The Great Twitter Hack Scam of 2013

So by now most people have heard that a fake tweet from the Associated Press said that there were explosions at the White House.

Well, Zero Hedge has tracked activity in the stock Market during that brief moment of confusion....wow! Looks like someone just happened to be ready to pounce and made out like a bandit in those three minutes. All the people who'd set their accounts to dump in the event of a crash...well they got hosed.

 ZH has another short article on this here where they look at the implications for just how fragile the current rally is.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 110 words, total size 1 kb.

Do So Very Much Want

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:33 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 72 words, total size 1 kb.

Wonders of the Internet

While perusing the comments at Chisumatic, I recently discovered that this internet thing is even more awesome than I was previously aware.

You see, Pete Zaitcev and others have compiled a surprisingly comprehensive meganekko database.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:26 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 61 words, total size 1 kb.

Starblazers 2199

Via Crunchyroll and Anime News Network comes word that XEBEC has announced that Yamato 2199 is about to be aggressively marketed internationally.


The title of the international version will be Starblazers 2199.

Oh Fabrijous DAY!

This is interesting as Star Blazers was the release name of the show in the US and Canada. Several of the name changes in the US version like renaming the ship itself ARGO were actually done by the Japanese creators. I 've gushed excessively about the old show and the remake several times before but it really is good.

Yamato 2199 has managed to remain quite faithful to the original while adding quite a few surprises for those familiar with the show. 

 The premise of the show is straightforward enough.

Earth discovers that it is not alone in the universe...8 years later the aggressive interstellar empire Earth encountered has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. The planets surface is rendered uninhabitable by a combination of constant bombardment, radiation and invasive alien plants that have absorbed most of the oceans...and still the aliens attack. At this dark hour, the earth is contacted by another alien race which offers them a device that can restore their planet. Unfortunately, it won't fit on the blockade runner and apparently can't be made from local materials, so instead the aliens sent plans for an FTL drive so the humans can come get the physical device. The humans install the FTL in the hull of a sublight starship ship they were constructing to carry a few survivors off planet. To conceal it's construction, the ship was being built within and below the hulk of the old battleship Yamato which accounts for it's appearance. Now, this jury rigged ship with an FTL drive that the crew barely understands must break through the blockade of the solar system, travel 168,000 light years to the greater Magellanic cloud...and back,...and do it in a year if they are to have any hope of saving Earth....and the aliens will fight them every step of the way.




With such a large cast and sweeping story it might seem unlikely that the show would have much character development, but the writers really have managed the ensemble well thus far.  In contrast to the single female crew member in the old show, several women have been added to or re-imagined into the old cast.  This has actually added a good deal of depth as they are, for the most part interesting and well written. Yamamoto, for instance is one of the best realized female military officers since Van Dread's Meia Gisbourne from over a decade ago. Several of the enemy characters are quite interesting as well.

  While it is not hard sci-fi by any means, the show also throws a good deal of actual science into several stories.  The exact physics of their FTL is handwaved (by the fact that the crew really doesn't understand how it works), they work in bits of recent astronomy news and make a real effort to keep their non-FTL techno-babble grounded in actual physics, biology and IT speak.

Despite it's bleak premise, '2199 thus far, has managed to be remarkably optimistic and even inspiring. It has been quite intelligent as well, much more so than most sci-fi TV. Additionally, the show has done a far above average job of conveying a sense of service professionalism and even the ethics of command and leadership.

About halfway in, Yamato 2199 has been superb, I'm crossing my fingers that they don't muck it up in the end.

Assuming they don't, I'm  genuinely looking forward to seeing what the US version is going to be like.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 612 words, total size 5 kb.