As in all things, context is important.
Though in this case, it doesn't help all that much...

^{He was comin' right at me...and I think he was hopped up on Cheetos!}

Via The Firearms Blog.
Note that I disagree with his very negative assessment regards the effectiveness of the weapon being used.
7.62 Tokarev is very high powered for a pistol round. A hail of these from a submachine gun, especially if they are hollow points ought to do in a charging tiger.
This drill is for security guards and the .30 Tokarev is going to be the round they are equipped with, so its better that they train for that rather than some hypothetical howdah pistol that would need to be gotten from the armory.

..but none of that is important now, for this Tigger has bounced his last bounce. 

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Pixy, the proprietor of Mee.Nu (the fine establishment that hosts this blog) has some impressive goodies on the way. Look here and here.
Wow!
I'd known several of these were on the way, but the extent of the upgrade is quite surprising.

^{The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of IT Babes seem enthusiastic.}

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Via Transterrestrial Musings comes an interesting story on the differences between languages expression of colors. One thing that interested me, the old story I'd been told about Japanese stoplights (that they were red and blue prior to 1945) is probably false.

...But in Japanese, vegetables are ao-mono, literally blue things. Green apples? They’re blue too. As are the first leaves of spring, if you go by their Japanese name. In English, the term green is sometimes used to describe a novice, someone inexperienced. In Japanese, they’re ao-kusai, literally they ‘smell of blue’...

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  Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is an uneven film that alternates between the best and worst Hollywood has to offer. Blessed with superb production values and some very interesting concepts, the film suffers from a lack of focus, a lack of believability, and most unfortunately for a horror film, a lack of actual suspense.

The film follows a pair of archeologists who have become convinced that life on Earth was seeded by aliens. They convince the CEO of an exceedingly wealthy conglomerate to finance an expedition to a distant star they believe is the home of the aliens who engineered life on earth. They find out that they might be right, but in the process discover unspeakable ancient horrors.

 Ridley Scott’s films tend to be visually striking and this one is no exception. The shipboard sets are futuristic in the extreme, yet they appear quite functional. The lighting and subdued color in certain exterior shots give a genuinely unearthly feel to the alien world. The set designs of alien passageways achieve a particularly interesting effect, giving at once impressions of the grandeur and massive scale of the structure while also conveying a sense of profound claustrophobia. When alien life is encountered, it does indeed look quite alien except in once case where the familiarity in appearance is the point. Even handheld tools loot futuristic but practical. A combination computer notepad/ flashlight/ sample collection kit is particularly well designed. The spacesuits are based on some of the latest work by NASA and MIT. Yet they have subtle touches that harkens back to ‘50s sci-fi in a brilliant blending of retro and futuristic design elements. On the other hand  the flamethrowers look really toy-like and also lead to a believability question: "Why are they bringing FLAMETHROWERS of all things?”

That failure to suspend the audience’s disbelief is one of the major problems of the film, the flamethrowers being the least egregious example. A few others include:

A woman, who gives herself a cesarean and spends the rest of the film doing action heroine physical antics.

A group of scientists on an alien world who just take off their helmets when they discover the atmosphere is breathable (alien germs be damned).

The film is billed as a horror movie. However, there is little in the way of actual suspense. Two scientists behaving quite stupidly, die horribly and very predictably. There is betrayal aboard the ship which the audience most likely saw coming a mile away. The scares all have a very perfunctory feeling to them and the only real surprise is the shocking and quite disturbing visual of the aforementioned cesarean operation. This bloody endeavor removes not a child, but a quite hideous and very active tentacle monster.  This is no doubt supposed to be the jaw dropping moment of the film much like the famous chest-burster scene in Alien. It is quite graphic, but in the theater, the audience was giggling at that point.

   The movie is not a direct prequel to Alien, but it does establish what is going on in that universe. It also has some interesting concepts but they are only slightly explored.

    Michael Fassbender plays David, a rather sinister android and he does a superb job of conveying his nonhuman perspective. It's implied that he has developed a rigid code of ethics...just not human ones. He seems to have aspirations as well. This is something the rest of the characters tend to miss and it is a neat transhumanist twist. Fassbender gives a deadpan performance with subtle tics that convey a palpable sense of frustration and yearning without expressing any actual emotion. However, this is never explored to any depth.

There is a fatalistic and  yet inspiring message about heroism. One plot point revolves around a character sacrificing himself in such a way no one will ever know that he saved all of humanity. The main plot with its Lovecraftian overtones has tremendous potential as well, but this is never fully realized.

Instead the film wastes all its good effects, visuals and quirky ideas on a disjointed story that has a decidedly paint by numbers feel to it. The films excuse for suspense is a collection of haunted house and slasher film tropes.

 Prometheus is an intriguing, gorgeous but ultimately quite disappointing film. I had high hopes for it but they were largely unfulfilled. 

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Just a quick status update.
For those understandably uninterested in such matters, it's discretely beneath the fold.

^{Unamused young lady is the indefatigable Homura Akemi from Madoka Magica.}  

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There were a couple of interesting holiday related posts yesterday that are worth mentioning if you haven't seen them.

Volokh had a nifty annotation of the Declaration of Independence as well as a reprinting of Fredrick Douglass's speech on the matter. (Chris Rock take note).

Cdr Salamander had an important PSA on the Valor IT initiative. (Read the whole thing.)

PJM listed The 7 Most Badass Founding Fathers.

Neo had a particularly thoughtful 4th of July post on the non-inevitability of history.

Benjamin Netanyahu sent 4th of July greetings

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236 years ago today the 13 southernmost of England's North American colonies had sent representatives to Philadelphia to discuss what to do about the various political disputes they had had with London...disputes that had been festering for a decade.

One of these representatives, Benjamin Franklin, had spent 11 years in London trying to resolve these disputes. He had attempted to, amongst other things:

*set up a process for the colonists to elect MPs.

*represent their interests in policy discussions

*relay the London perspective back to the colonies.

While he was in England, he was increasingly treated not as a representative, but an ambassador from a hostile nation. Finally, in 1775, he was brought before a crown representative and was called everything but a child of God. He was told his people were nothing more than subjects and were not entitled to representation of any sort. He was summarily dismissed.

One of the most respected Britons of his age had gone to bring the nation closer together and returned convinced it was not possible.

The various delegates conferred and decided on a course of action. They published their conclusion and the reasons they reached it. It bears remembering that they did not come to their agonizing conclusion lightly.

Their statement is below.

Today is the day we celebrate their difficult, but demonstrably fortuitous decision.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The Signatures.....

Georgia:
   Button Gwinnett
   Lyman Hall
   George Walton

North Carolina:
   William Hooper
   Joseph Hewes
   John Penn

South Carolina:
   Edward Rutledge
   Thomas Heyward, Jr.
   Thomas Lynch, Jr.
   Arthur Middleton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock

Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Pennsylvania:
   Robert Morris
   Benjamin Rush
   Benjamin Franklin
   John Morton
   George Clymer
   James Smith
   George Taylor
   James Wilson
   George Ross

Delaware:
   Caesar Rodney
   George Read
   Thomas McKean

New York:
   William Floyd
   Philip Livingston
   Francis Lewis
   Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
   Richard Stockton
   John Witherspoon
   Francis Hopkinson
   John Hart
   Abraham Clark

^{The flag of the 13 United States of America after July 4th}

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Well, an awesome space battle, a spectacular boarding action and a bit of exposition wrapped up one of the most enjoyable and interesting series that I've seen in a long time. 

^{I demand a spinoff!}

Did she....STEAL it.?...Did she BUY it? Has she got a letter of Marque? If so from whom?

A note regards speculation as to what she thought she might have been able to do had she arrived in time:
The Odette 2 was revealed to have an impressive EW suite in the early episodes.  Given that the battle plan relied on Electronic Warfare, she might have been useful as an addition.

UPDATE: Also, from the comments at Chizumatic,  it might have been intended that the Odette 2 act as an unarmed neutral to pick up any survivors if things went badly.

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The live blogings of today's SCOTUS follies are below the fold.

To cleanse the palate, here's something much more pleasant.
 

^{Cute 8 year old science prodigy being cute is "Professor" from Nichijou.}

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UPDATE: Pixy has upgraded mee&u to allow post from mobile browsers! Heretofore, onl the post title field was accessible. There is NO html it seems, so no hyperlinks or images for now, but I'm posting this from my Blackberry! Way to go Pixy! ALSO: storm seems to be petering out. Some minor wind damage and flooding. Temps dropped to 70s.

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Good grief. I've NEVER seen a track like this.

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All papers are turned in.
Now onto Exams.
Apologies for the light posting. Short summer courses are quite vexing.

In other news Ubu is also experiencing some vexation, but of a different sort.

I may have found his problem.

^{Source unknown...but is likely someone familiar with Apple's quirks.}

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Today I went to my Literature professor and asked him for a replacement syllabus. He gave me a lecture on the importance of attendance (I'd missed class yesterday due to fallout from my grandmothers death). His response to my reason was not one of excessive empathy.  In any event he handed me the syllabus, I stormed out of class and went to lunch.

After lunch I grabbed my binder out of the car , went to the library to study, pulled out the "syllabus"and noted that it was, in fact, tomorrows test.

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...'cause next Saturday you're going to want to have a half hour free, and popcorn on hand.

^{Not pictured: (1) The context  (2) Her brass balls.}

It looks like there are only 3 more episodes of Bodacious Space Pirates. I'm really going to miss this show.

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All stop:

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She was born near Raleigh North Carolina to a fairly well to do dairy farmer. Despite this, and to the astonishment of all, she married one of the field hands...a scrappy but utterly impoverished young man from the streets of Newport News who had moved south in search of work. She followed him  to the coast where he built houses and rented them. She bore him a son, then saw him off to war and waited 4 years until he returned in traction. She nursed him back to health, bore him another son, stood by and supported him as he built a business from nothing, built a boat, and became one of the most sought after charter boat captains on the Crystal Coast. A decade ago she buried him, and tonight, just after dinner she joined him.

  Despite her age, it was a bit of a shock. She had actually been improving by leaps and bounds over the last few months and had regained the ability to walk. Nevertheless,  my grandmother, who was born in an utterly different world, passed quite suddenly this evening a little after 6.

  The things she'd seen, the change she'd experienced...it truly boggles the mind.

  She was born before women could vote. For a third of her life there was a polio season. For the first decade of her life there was no electricity in her house. She saw the great depression, a world war the cold war, Jim Crow, integration, all six moon landings, and the Berlin Wall go up and come down. She saw the introduction of radio, then television and then the internet.  She saw all the other things that transpired over nearly a century.

Now, in the blink of an eye, all that perspective has left us.

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After the success of the Transformers and Twister franchises, Hasbro and Universal looked around for some other Hasbro property to monetize. They inexplicably skipped over the cubist masterpiece that could have been Connect 4 The Motion Picture and went with Battleship.

Although the concept is dubious in the extreme, this film is surprisingly entertaining.  Imagine what would happen if Irwin Allen and Ishiro Honda had collaborated and had Jerry Bruckheimers special effects staff. THIS! Seriously, it's a late '50s Toho epic with a disaster movies plot structure.

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