April 13, 2012
This is one of those times.
Squid Girl has thoughts...

It's not reel it's not reel..It's all a load of pollacks!
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April 07, 2012
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April 05, 2012
A few quick observations:
There is a new trailer out for Ridley Scott's Prometheus. This looks cool too!
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This coincided with plumbing issues.
I just got my first shower in 4 days.
I am happy now.
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Now with Marion Barry's new idea involving... well I'll let him tell it...
"We've got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses -- those dirty shops," Barry said Tuesday night. "They ought to go. I'll just say that right now, you know. But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too."
Anyway, it looks like a good time to post those pics.
DC has two Chinatowns....official Chinatown and Actual Chinatown. You see, some years ago DC noticed that it HAD a Chinatown and it was shrinking, so they passed a bunch of strict ordinances to maintain the asian aesthetic, sponsored a big sports and entertainment center ( Now the Verizon Center) which made it a happening place. The appearance ordinances were a burden on small businesses, the influx of capital around the new entertainment complex raised rents and the small businesses run by Chinese-Americans had to leave. Note that those ordinances are still in place so Official Chinatown is now...this...




Aside from a few justifiably expensive restaurants Chinatown proper begins about half a block down.


We dined at the Chinatown Express, near the corner of 6th and H. It had two things visible that tend to bode well. WindowDucks* and a gentleman hand making noodles.

We noted upon entering that they had WindowPigs and WindowCuttlefish too. This looked exceedingly promising and we were not disappointed. About the only issue we encountered was that we both ordered rather too much...and ate rather too much...but this is not a reflection upon the establishment. The food was top notch! Even the fried rice was better than average. The noodle dishes were astounding.

In any event DC's ChinaTowns are only about two blocks square each. In Actual Chinatown there is a lot more to see, there are groceries, gift shops little drugstores and basically anything that isn't a gas station. Regrettably,we did not stay long nor peruse widely as our main business was elsewhere.
*Windowducks are utterly distinct from Wonderducks and the two should NEVER be conflated.
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April 03, 2012
UPDATE: Steven Den Beste has posted a damned scary pic of a hailstone from here.
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April 02, 2012


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April 01, 2012

Siergen, this one's for you.

Also, I finally figured out how to use fancy Kanji fonts in Paintbrush.
For the sake of posterity the original post is below the fold.
For legal purposes this was all Wonderduck's fault.*
I hope April is good to you all.
*That is my story and I am sticking to it.
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March 28, 2012
Sometimes The Sun is a
loving mother bringing life to the surface of the earth Sometimes
it is a strict father bringing terrible trials. These trials, which have
occurred many times since the creation of the earth have come once
again. The land is dry, the oceans barren, what little life survives is
on the verge of extinction, clinging to the thin atmosphere that
remains. But some still live on in the dry seas of sand....
Thus begins Ozuma (Ozma?) a series set in a post apocalyptic future that has generated some buzz because it's a resurrection of a canceled early-80s Leiji Matsumoto project. Although the beginning narration doesn't sound fun AT ALL, this show is rather more upbeat than its grim premise would suggest.
This show has a decidedly retro feel.. It's not just Matsumoto's distinctive art style, which is evident both in the characters and the very retro-futuristic mechanical designs, the story is a a throwback in a lot of ways with the dystopic 'future in a desert' so prevalent in the 80's.
In other ways the times have caught up to Matsumoto. He has generally had strong women to compliment his male leads and this series is no exception. Despite the grim backdrop, the characters are pretty likable, even admirable. The show has a somewhat whimsical, occasionally upbeat feel to it as well.
OZUMA also has a decent, somewhat catchy, theme song....
...In English.
The OP sounds like...my God it sounds like it was translated from Japanese to English to fit the rhythm...(Like several US dubs in the 80's). I feel I should be watching this on a UHF channel in the late afternoon or at, like, six in the morning.
This is actually kind of brilliant!
Two episodes in, things are proceeding at a very decent pace. The story is actually engaging and seems to have a bit of depth to it. I'm really liking it thus far.
A quick collection of spoilers from episode 1 are below the fold.
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March 27, 2012
The gun is important to U.S. history because it served to deter attacks on the Lewis and Clarke expedition (they demonstrated it to the tribes they met...and implied that they had quite a few more than they did). It also reportedly took down a Grizzly bear at one point, though its unclear how many shots this took.
I had known vaguely about the Austrian use of repeating air guns, but I had not realized just how impressive their performance was.

This is seriously impressive performance for 1790. Something like this would be a really cool survival gun today.
More here and info on the whole family of weapons can be found here here. The second link is particularly thorough and has this interesting tidbit as well.
Made in the 1940s during WW2, this gun doesn't look like a Girandoni, but examination shows that it clearly was built by someone familiar with the Girandoni repeating airgun system. Purchased in Europe, the story is that this gun was built somewhere in occupied Europe by a partisan bicycle maker during the Nazi occupation in WW2

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March 26, 2012

This interesting plot has been intertwined with a slowly but logically building story of interstellar intrigue that has gradually built into a tale that looked to be nothing short of epic.
Which brings us to episode 12 which saw the suspense build to a crescendo as events converge upon the crew of the BentenMaru and their passenger. Everything has led up to this point. This episode in particular was brilliantly paced, so much so that 16 minutes in I was literally on the edge of my seat as...

I'm gonna keep watching, it's been a really good show...but damn...episode 12 makes me feel like I've been mugged.
Hopefully some more satisfactory explanation of the WTFs will be forthcoming next episode.
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March 24, 2012
Amateur astronomers are puzzling over a seemingly anomalous cloud that has shown up on images of Mars taken over the past few days. Is it really a cloud, or a trick of the eye? Does it really extend 150 miles up from the surface, as some of the observers suggest? And what churned up all that stuff, anyway?

The chances of anything living on Mars are a million to one he said.

"Uuu-Laaa!"
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Seriously...
Not JUST politics, State and local politics, the most appalling politics of all.
So as a courtesy to our readers we've hidden it bellow the fold.
Click to be appalled...
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March 17, 2012
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March 14, 2012
Endgame assessment: Big night for Rick. Bad night for Mitt. The Honey Badger don’t care (nsfw).
This primary thing might work better if we just got them all to put on masks have a 4 way Mexican wrestling match. It'd be over quicker and there'd be at least some surprise when the mask was removed from the winner.

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March 12, 2012
Also the fact that they are putting out to have Bang Zoom do dubs for both is a vote of some confidence in there being a future.
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