July 25, 2019
A Sobering Realization
Ilhan Omar was only 10 years old when she got here.
She went to school here.
She's had 26 years here.
She bore 3 kids here.
Any hate for us she brought with her she did not unlearn in our schools.
The rest of her hatred was not imported but learned here, in our schools.
I don't say this to defend or excuse her execrable views, but to point out that she is even more an indictment of our increasingly degenerate education system than our broken immigration policies.
Keeping out barbarians is all well and good, but it is a futile gesture if we make them domestically.
She went to school here.
She's had 26 years here.
She bore 3 kids here.
Any hate for us she brought with her she did not unlearn in our schools.
The rest of her hatred was not imported but learned here, in our schools.
I don't say this to defend or excuse her execrable views, but to point out that she is even more an indictment of our increasingly degenerate education system than our broken immigration policies.
Keeping out barbarians is all well and good, but it is a futile gesture if we make them domestically.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
05:48 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 110 words, total size 1 kb.
July 24, 2019
Meanwhile, There's This Story, That Will Probably Never Ammount to Anything.
Well this is fun.
John McAfee has reportedly disappeared.
There are rumors that he's been picked up by the CIA.
Keep in mind, this is John McAfee, so rumors and drama are part of the source code.
However, there is the little matter of that huge stash of blackmail material on the worlds most powerful people which he claims to have collected during his years as the founder and CEO of an IT security firm that he has arranged to release if arrested.
Popcorn is popping.
Keep in mind though that this IS after all John McAfee, who is a certifiable loon. He's running for president despite being on the lamb for tax evasion in the U.S. and when he's not on a heavily armed yacht crewed by mercenaries he is living in...Cuba.
Sketchy doesn't begin to cover this guy.
He is smart though and given how he made his millions he did potentially have access to EVERYTHING. OTOH this is only being reported right now by Bitcoin sites so...who knows?
John McAfee has reportedly disappeared.
There are rumors that he's been picked up by the CIA.
Keep in mind, this is John McAfee, so rumors and drama are part of the source code.
However, there is the little matter of that huge stash of blackmail material on the worlds most powerful people which he claims to have collected during his years as the founder and CEO of an IT security firm that he has arranged to release if arrested.
Popcorn is popping.
Keep in mind though that this IS after all John McAfee, who is a certifiable loon. He's running for president despite being on the lamb for tax evasion in the U.S. and when he's not on a heavily armed yacht crewed by mercenaries he is living in...Cuba.
Sketchy doesn't begin to cover this guy.
He is smart though and given how he made his millions he did potentially have access to EVERYTHING. OTOH this is only being reported right now by Bitcoin sites so...who knows?
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
02:37 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 182 words, total size 2 kb.
July 23, 2019
Here's Something Neat That You Don't see Everyday
Here we have a false color image of...something.
Guess what the 'greenish-yellow' stuff is.
Is it :
A: Impact related lava flows in Lunar Craters?
B: Sand dunes in windswept craters on Mars?
C: Stromatolite colonies in brine pools in Australia?
more...
Guess what the 'greenish-yellow' stuff is.
A: Impact related lava flows in Lunar Craters?
B: Sand dunes in windswept craters on Mars?
C: Stromatolite colonies in brine pools in Australia?
more...
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
09:46 PM
| Comments (10)
| Add Comment
Post contains 772 words, total size 7 kb.
While The Nutbars Keep Focusing on the Jews...
...the REAL conspiracy reveals itself to be a plot by orange(?) loudmouth New Yorkers with strange hair to take over world leadership positions.
Everything is crazy.
I'm rather more OK with this crazy than most.
Everything is crazy.
I'm rather more OK with this crazy than most.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
10:09 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 43 words, total size 1 kb.
Oh Yes Please.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
12:23 AM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 3 words, total size 1 kb.
July 21, 2019
Something is Strange:
Despite being done by the STD people, this doesn't actually look like it must inevitably suck. This looks really interesting.
I want to know more.
I want to know more.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
11:15 AM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.
July 20, 2019
50 Years
It's been 50 years since Neil Armstrong became the first person from this planet to set foot on the moon. A mere 7 years prior, an American president set this most epic of endeavors as a national goal, in the same year the first American Orbited the Earth. it should be noted that U.S. rockets were not particularly reliable at the time...
...yet in less than 7 years our civilization overcame immense technical hurdles to put 2 men on our nearest satellite. 10 more would follow.
In 7 years, we had figured out how to do it reliably 6 out of 7 times and the reason for the one failure was quickly figured out and corrected for the subsequent missions.
Oh and we saved that crew too.
Now with the hard part done and over and a sevenfold increase in the time it took to do the hard part, one might expect that we could now vacation at 6 Flags on the Moon.
Instead, 50 years later the moon is adorned with...6 flags (one of which fell over).
50 years.
We have not been able, as a society to do what we did then.
Keep in mind that then we were fighting a land war in Asia, staring down the most implacable evil of the 20th century (which at the time had over 20,000 nuclear warheads aimed at us and defined peace as an absence of opposition to communism) and we were engaging in the final heavy lifting in expanding the American dream to all races. We were skeet shooting, chewing gum, talking, and horse-diving at the same time.
And yet, here we are.
Looking at old movies, of when we were young and free and full of hope.
Who robbed us of our future and how were we so foolish as to let them?
At least today we can look to Musk and others to pick up the dusty, forlorn baton...
...50 years late.
It's been 50 years since Neil Armstrong became the first person from this planet to set foot on the moon. A mere 7 years prior, an American president set this most epic of endeavors as a national goal, in the same year the first American Orbited the Earth. it should be noted that U.S. rockets were not particularly reliable at the time...
...yet in less than 7 years our civilization overcame immense technical hurdles to put 2 men on our nearest satellite. 10 more would follow.
In 7 years, we had figured out how to do it reliably 6 out of 7 times and the reason for the one failure was quickly figured out and corrected for the subsequent missions.
Oh and we saved that crew too.
Now with the hard part done and over and a sevenfold increase in the time it took to do the hard part, one might expect that we could now vacation at 6 Flags on the Moon.
Instead, 50 years later the moon is adorned with...6 flags (one of which fell over).
50 years.
We have not been able, as a society to do what we did then.
Keep in mind that then we were fighting a land war in Asia, staring down the most implacable evil of the 20th century (which at the time had over 20,000 nuclear warheads aimed at us and defined peace as an absence of opposition to communism) and we were engaging in the final heavy lifting in expanding the American dream to all races. We were skeet shooting, chewing gum, talking, and horse-diving at the same time.
And yet, here we are.
Looking at old movies, of when we were young and free and full of hope.
Who robbed us of our future and how were we so foolish as to let them?
At least today we can look to Musk and others to pick up the dusty, forlorn baton...
...50 years late.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
11:58 PM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 327 words, total size 2 kb.
When I Looked in on Razorfist Tonight, This Was NOT The Video I Expected to Watch
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
11:00 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.
Turbo-Encabulators Are GO!!!
Tesla Coils are at Maximum Pneumatic Pressure!
Hydrophone Arrays are emitting in the infrared!
Magic smoke containment fields are polarized!
The vampires have been provided with their offerings!
The flywheels are engaged and our datalink is now interfacing with the planetary tube network!
Hydrophone Arrays are emitting in the infrared!
Magic smoke containment fields are polarized!
The vampires have been provided with their offerings!
The flywheels are engaged and our datalink is now interfacing with the planetary tube network!
"It's more technically accurate to just say we're back up and running.".
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
04:34 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 58 words, total size 1 kb.
July 16, 2019
Dumbfounding (Updated)
more...
For those who do not want to be perplexed by the perplexities of my Walter Mitty lifestyle, here is another view of a girl in Penang by Feigiap.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
08:13 PM
| Comments (8)
| Add Comment
Post contains 682 words, total size 5 kb.
July 14, 2019
A Pretty Decent OP Cover
Original OP here.
As for the show itself, I found Rising of the Shield Hero to be quite good overall. Despite its grimdark opening and recurring cynicism, the show manages (somehow) to be enjoyable.
It is both amusing and annoying that despite the rage directed at this series for its being "problematic toxic male wish fulfillment ", it is, if looked at rationally, almost the opposite of what it is being criticized for.
That is, the show is a pointed disquisition on the difference between being a bad-ass glory hound and being a gentleman. Nayofumi , despite his PTSD is the adult in the room. He consistently uses his wits to solve his problems and weighs the consequences of his actions. This is in stark contrast tho those whose messes he cleans up and whose fires he puts out. This is a nuanced but firm critique of the sort of thing that might be legitimately termed "toxic masculinity". However, as its being contrasted with virtuous masculinity it apparently doesn't count.
Raphtalia is a genuine heroine and in a sane world would be considered pretty damned empowering. For instance: She's not the shield bearer. He is. Nah, Redoubtable Raccoon Girl eventually becomes the sword wielder, monster ventilator and dispenser of ass-kicking. She has a genuine (and all too rare) 'journey of the heroine' arc where she comes from less than nothing to achieve true and completely earned greatness.
But she doesn't count because she suffered, overcame, learned and grew as opposed to being a Godlike Mary Sue with nothing to learn.
My biggest complaint is that the show doesn't so much end as come to a reasonably acceptable pause point (The story is based on a series of light moves and is not close to being finished). However, it still has a satisfying finale and over the course of 25 episodes the two main characters grow, change and develop in realistic and interesting ways.
The series is not particularly well animated and the plot does suffer from occasional verbal tsunamis of exposition, which, in fairness, is consistent with the fact that our two main protagonists know nothing about the world they're in. Those criticisms, however, pale in comparison to the far above average character development and genuinely interesting story.
I recommend this one highly and sincerely hope we see more of this show.
UPDATE: Yes. Trying to bang out a post in 5 minutes at the library does not lend itself to quality. I think all the typozes have been fixed now.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
07:55 AM
| Comments (3)
| Add Comment
Post contains 427 words, total size 4 kb.
July 10, 2019
Some Correct Scale
Here is an excellent study of the interior of the Stanford Torus space habitat by Rick Guidice.
It's particularly notable as one of the few renditions to get the scale of the actual final design right.
The Stanford Torus was the final in a series of designs intended as minimum sized test beds for a self sustaining space habitat. The Stanford Torus's habitation tube was "only" 430 feet wide. That's still almost half again wider than a football field is long, and it would have been 3 and a half miles (5.6K) long, which is pretty impressive.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
07:24 PM
| Comments (1)
| Add Comment
Post contains 100 words, total size 1 kb.
Quick Status Update
As I type this, I'm in the University Library working on a research paper.
more...
Below the fold is a quick status update. For those justifiably not interested in such banality, here is evidence that Hollywood doesn't value diversity so much as they hate the Irish.
Source Unknown
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
07:19 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 150 words, total size 1 kb.
July 09, 2019
So THAT'S How It Works
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
07:16 PM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 5 words, total size 1 kb.
July 07, 2019
More on D-Live
A few months ago we embedded a video concerning the YouTube alternative D-Live, which emerged in the wake of the YouTube-purge before-last as a free speech platform based on blockchain technology.
The video took the position that D-Live was not just a new and untested platform, it was a scam. Since then there has been some walkback around the web including by the fellow who made that video.
In the wake of his retraction and apology, SFO recently conducted an interview with Allen Chan, one of the founders(and current Director of Growth) of D-Live.
In the course of the interview, which was conducted by Direct Message, SFO established that D-Live is not at all the scam people initially feared it was.
It's far worse.
In the interest of data redundancy, the full conversation is screen capped here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
SPECULATION:
D-Live is a Chinese company and given the situation with the Orwellian TOS's of China affiliated (and China curious) companies, I suspect that in addition to the issues noted in the video, D-Live is a sort of honey-pot phishing scheme. The company's marketing appeals to people with eclectic views who seek to avoid walking on eggshells and risking demonetization/deplatforming. All the while D-Live is Hoovering up all their critical data (identities, credit card and routing numbers) of a self selected cross section of the sorts of people that want to maintain anonymity and have views that are likely to get them banned, brigaded, and demonetized, and that data, collated in one place is a commodity in and of itself, being of the greatest value to the worst people.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
10:57 PM
| Comments (5)
| Add Comment
Post contains 278 words, total size 4 kb.
A Small Bit of Encouragement
Just click here.
"Our fears of impending Molotov cocktails may be overblown."
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
10:02 AM
| Comments (2)
| Add Comment
Post contains 17 words, total size 1 kb.
July 06, 2019
Given My Current Lack of a Computer...
It makes sense that I ought to look into automatic content generation.
My contribution in bold...
The re-entry capsule was shaking like a paint mixer as Christine punched impotently at the now black touch screen. The blood droplets that had hung in the air were now red rivulets running off her facemask. Callahan's corpse was pressed against the floor with his lifeless leg now draped across her torso, 3 times as heavy as it should be. Christine took a moment to note that there seemed to be far more blood in the capsule than ought to have been accounted for by such a little man, when a loud pop shook her from her contemplation and all that blood began to foam and boil. Her heart nearly broke but didn't at first. It took a minute later. "Christ, do you hear that?" the other woman cried. The smell of dead animal was overpowering at that rate. Christine nodded. The liquid of her life was dripping down her body to the floor, pouring right and left. "We can keep moving forward if you please, Christine," Callahan replied. It dawned on Christine that maybe he couldn't hear her when she was calling him names. "I do not think you're listening," he told her. "But if you hear me," she repeated, trying to drown out the pounding in her chest and head, "I'm getting off your back; get out of here. Please, you are not listening to me, callah
Hmmm....not quite as genre savvy as I'd like.
(H/T Don)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
12:47 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 267 words, total size 2 kb.
Oh Wow. That's a Take.
Full disclosure.
It appears that the staff of the Extra Credits YouTube channel have gone mad.
Jeremy over at The Quartering has an analysis of what may be the dumbest take in quite a while on video game skins.
We've linked to Extra Credits previously.
We are sorry.
Note that back then, StargazerA5 did warn us in the comments that the Channel in question was exhibiting the initial signs of madness.
Watching a movie where the bad guys win does not make you cheer real life criminals. The reason is very simple, those things are not real life. Real life is people like Andy Ngo being beat up by a bunch of masked thugs. The mainstream media and left wing activist cheering these cowards on, that will turn people into Nazis long before any video game.
I'm no longer linking directly to the video in question, it's embedded in the last link if you must see it.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
12:02 PM
| Comments (6)
| Add Comment
Post contains 168 words, total size 2 kb.
"I Don't Need to Worry. I Use a VPN."
Oh.
According to Computer weekly, it seems that a third of VPNs are owned by the Chi-Coms.
But wait. There's more:
For example, seven of the top VPN services are owned by Gaditek, based in Pakistan. This means the Pakistani government can legally access any data without a warrant and data can also be freely handed over to foreign institutions, according to VPNpro.
I don't know why this surprised me in the least, since any service offering internet anonymity is the obvious thing for a surveillance state to get involved in infiltrating.
So. Do any of the tech savy readers here have any specific recommendations for Virtual Private Networks they know are solid?
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
11:00 AM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 122 words, total size 1 kb.
July 04, 2019
NEAT! (Maybe)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
09:14 PM
| No Comments
| Add Comment
Post contains 2 words, total size 1 kb.
90kb generated in CPU 0.14, elapsed 0.4007 seconds.
76 queries taking 0.2961 seconds, 371 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
76 queries taking 0.2961 seconds, 371 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.
