August 04, 2015
A Dispatch From the Department of Derp
Dustbury has discovered yet another reason to be wary of Windows 10 beyond the concerns about its security or the worries that it permanently "upgrades" your computer to telescreen mode.
The Windows 10 error screen...
"Well, that's...helpful"
Compounding these problems is the fact that Microsoft can't count. This is either the thirteenth or the seventeenth edition of Windows depending on how one counts. Neither of those numbers is equal to 10.
It get's worse. As we all remember, following the new numbering system adopted after Vista, the last edition was Eight which means that in REALITY, we're discussing...
All of Microsoft's desperate obfuscations cannot save them from mockery by anonymous Touhou fans.
Nineball was unavailable for comment.
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August 03, 2015
Meanwhile, In Remnant
Pyrrha Nikos by Iesupo
In other news, Rooster Teeth has hired You Tuber Dillon Gu as an animator on RWBY, a show about which there have been precious few announcements since the one regarding the resumption of production. Obviously, Project Monty is on the back burner now, but it is still an ongoing endeavor.
Completely unconfirmed scuttlebut sourced to people who have claimed they talked to Rooster Teeth employees is that the third volume of RWBY will NOT premiere at RTX this year but that it is tentatively scheduled for late fall or early winter.
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A Few Things That Make One Just Throw Up Ones Hands And Go Watch Cartoons
It is part of a general pattern of deterioration of India/ Pakistan relations..
For many, the major concern regarding the high octane nightmare fuel that is Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is loose nukes getting into the hands of one of the many Islamist organizations that operate in the country with and without official sanction. For instance:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan—Six leading figures of the Pakistani Taliban pledged allegiance to the terror group ISIS, one of them claimed in an audio message released Tuesday.
(There is no word on their position regarding Lion hunting.)
However, the possibility of Pakistan straight up using their atomic weapons in a war is nontrivial. A lethal 12 hour long gunfight in an Indian border town has thrown tinder on the hot-plate that is India and Pakistan's relationship. This despite the fact that no lions were harmed during the incident.
It is part of a general pattern of deterioration of India/ Pakistan relations..
Conditions are ripe for a crisis in this strained environment, even more so if a terrorist attack on Indian soil—such as Monday’s—is traced back to extremist groups supported by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). These rising tensions make crisis management more difficult and increase the risk of a conflict with nuclear dimensions.
Pakistan and India have been to war several times and Pakistan's statement that they consider battlefield nuclear weapons to be legitimate equalizers should certainly give one pause since once nukes start popping off all in a conflict where both sides have them, all sorts of nastiness is likely to ensue.
Here is an estimate of the soot cloud that would be generated by 100 nuclear weapons of 15 kiloton yield going off over cities.
The scale on the bottom measures reduction in watts per square meter.
These estimates tend to lean towards the pessimistic, however, this study assumes blast yields somewhere between approximately one half and one quarter those of the underground tests the countries have conducted and since both countries had stockpiles of around 100 weapons in 2011 (and have been building them up since) the number of blasts modeled is perhaps half what one would see in a real war. It concludes that growing seasons would be reduced between 10 days and a month in many parts of the world.
Smoke emissions of 100 lowyield urban explosions in a regional nuclear conflict would generate substantial globalscale climate anomalies, although not as large as in previous "nuclear winterâ€scenarios for a full-scale war (11, 12). However, indirect effects on surface land temperatures, precipitation rates, and growing season lengths (see figure, page1225) would be likely to degrade agricultural productivity to an extent that historically has led to famines in Africa, India, and Japan after the 1783 1784 Laki eruption (13) or in the northeastern United States and Europe after the Tambora eruption of 1815
This does not include estimates of ozone layer depletion which might persist for as much as 5 years. These models should be taken with a grain of salt of course, but it is apparent that if India and Pakistan go at it full on it would cause problems worldwide.
There has been little coverage of the deteriorating situation between the two nations in the U.S. media which is remarkable given that many of the hypothetically targeted cities in the studies contain zoos, which in turn might contain....lions.
***********
Fortunately, no negative impact upon any lions is considered imminent, hence the lack of interest by the media.
Ukranian 'rebels' are reportedly building a dirty bomb, ie: a conventional explosive laced with radioactive substances to increase its lethality, or at least fear inducing effect. Like everything coming out of the confused region this should be treated with some skepticism, especially since the media has determined that it does not merit extensive coverage despite the fact that, if true it would be an obvious threat to the proud people eating lions of Kiev.
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Puerto Rico is defaulting on its debts. This is the U.S. Greece, fortunately no lions seem to have been harmed.
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China's stocks fell 29% in July. This is having some ripple effects, but may, in the short term, lower the number of Chinese businessmen able to pay for safaris to hunt lions.
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Poaching lions is a thing worthy of notice, but when the Jews start to flee a nation, it is warning sign of dreadful ugliness in the works .
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A hitchiking robot has been mauled beyond repair in the city of brotherly love. No lions have been implicated at this time.
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August 02, 2015
That Comment Problem
I've been informed that people not logged into Mee.nu have been getting the following message when they attempt to comment:
COMMENT REJECTED BY AKISMET
I inquired to Pixy as to why my commentors were being harassed by what appeared to be an obscure Egyptian god.
Pixy informed me that he was able to acquire the services of the Egyptian god of what translates very loosely as spam busting for a remarkably reasonable rate.
Unfortunately, this had unforeseen consequences as the contract required that all mee.nu users be registered as "Members of the Temple" and those who are not member be registered as "Unaffiliated". Fortunately, none of our commentors were sent to Duat before the issue was discovered (except for Wonderduck...He got better).
Pixy has made arrangements so that non-menuvians can comment by presenting offerings of hieroglyphics via captcha. Note that since Egyptian gods have not been in the deity business since the abdication of Nectanebo the second, and in any event, as this is "payment" for admission to a secular web service, it is not actually considered apostay.
Anyway...The comments should be fixed and we have captcha now.
Art by Abusoru, who, to the best of our knowledge, has at no point denied this is a representation of Akismet...and that's good enough for us.
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July 31, 2015
The Battle of Italica
In the last episode of GATE our heroes were sent on a short mission to reconnoiter and hopefully open trading relations with the town of Italica, a heavily fortified crossroads town at the juncture of two caravan routes and a river. Also in the last episode Princess Penã of "the empire" who has been sent with her order of knights to do a reconnaissance of the invaders (our heroes) offhandedly mentioned that she intended to stop off in the town of Italica.
In this episode, things went to worms just as expected.
But they did so in a way that was rather unexpected.
This remains an exceedingly smart show. We get a little bit of background on the princess, who is, it turns out, is quite interesting.
Oh..as an aside...In case there was any doubt...
Roary Mercury serves the DARK god Emloy.
Itami doesn't know what cards he has in his deck...which is a much better situation than having an empty deck. GATE remains a really intelligent and entertaining show, with this episode in particular maintaining a remarkably high tension level throughout and left me quite upset that I have to wait 167 hours to see more of this.
That is a sign of quality programing.
UPDATE: Over at Steven's place Avatar has a well thought out comment on Princess Pinã's motivations and rationale behind her (and Lt. Itami's) tactical decisions towards the end.
Also: Yes. Her full name does appear to be Pinã Col Ada. We will speak no more of this particular matter.
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FIELD TRIP!
...they are off!
The latest episode of School Live is mostly a series of flashbacks, apparently to the events that led to Miki joining the School Live Club. It appears that SCL is going on a field trip. The club's first official, school sanctioned field trip is going to be to...a local mall.
Baby...steps.
One amusing bit was the fact that the other girls (who are not particularly sanguine about the endeavor) have Yuki fill out all the proper paperwork and send her through the slow bureaucratic grind of getting the field trip approved in the hopes of killing the project. To their astonishment and chagrin the "field trip" is approved with unusual alacrity by their club sponsor who expedites the process, having decided, in her somewhat daft way, that there are actually very good reasons for the club members (who are normally forbidden to leave the school) to go on this outing. None of this explains why they did not tie up Yuki and leave her in the school to avoid potential inevitable embarrassment.
After arranging transportation...
...they are off!
This remains a very interesting show though there are a couple of things that strain credulity. Our erstwhile main character, should probably not be taken on field trips for one thing. They did this in the second episode as well, "Cute Girls Go to Library on First Floor of School".
This is also the second episode in a row that has involved an extensive flashback to the improbable chain of events that led to the club being founded, albeit from a different person's perspective (Miki's). The events happening in the background of both these episodes are particularly effective in setting the mood. I do wonder if we are going to see any further exploration of the events that took place last week in "Cute Girls Deal With Power Failure". Next week seems to be a continuation of this one.
This is a REALLY neat show and If you are not already watching it I strongly urge you to do so. However, I implore you to watch it from episode 1.
If this doesn't look like your cup of tea, then this is probably the show for you!
For a CGDCT series this is full of all SORTS of surprises, so I ask that everyone avail themselves of spoiler tags which can be typed in the comments as follows...
I'll start:
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July 29, 2015
Meanwhile, In Outer Space
One of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes brings us news from the International Space Station, where...
...Huh.
OK. She seems busy at the moment.
Note that they mean the outside of the windows...on the Space Station.
It seems that the organisms are terrestrial marine plankton. though how they got up there is unclear. My initial guess would be cross contamination from 0-G plankton experiments, but the C-Net article suggests air currents or the possibility that the plankton originated from Florida where much of the station was launched from (though that would mean the plankton had survived a rather long time).
Of course all of this is dancing around the fact that there is living greenery on the outside of the space station and we all KNOW what that means.
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July 28, 2015
Exactly What it Says on the Tin
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Improbability Drive?
One of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes explains to us this news of researchers independently confirming the viability of the EM Drive, a revolutionary propellant-less drive...
OK.
Well...ummm...golly.
Here is a news article on the discovery which is cause for skepticism as it seems to a few things wrong in the title. For instance this (whatever it is...IF it is) is certainly not a rocket....and the moon in four hours seems HIGHLY unlikely given that the thing is giving thrust like an arc jet or ion thruster.
Here is a post with lots of links to papers and articles that indicate that this device (and other similar widgets) certainly appear to be producing tiny amounts of thrust.
...somehow...
This is still interesting however, as the engine requires no reaction mass so if it really works it could keep accelerating as long as it has power, which given a nuclear power-plant could be for an awfully long time. A notational 950 day Saturn mission with 180 day stays at both Titan and Enceladus is included to give some idea of what that means.Even tiny acceleration adds up over time and this device is estimated to have seven times the thrust per kilowat of a hall thruster...without the need for propellant.
The problem is that no one seems to have any idea how it works. The inventors claims to but their theories are based on...not physics.
This could be big, It could be a breakthrough. It could be bunk.
Time will tell, but this story is certainly tantalizing.
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HAH!
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July 27, 2015
We Sincerely Hope
...that the fact that the last transmission from Don was on the 22nd and concerned an approaching tornado is merely indicative of a vibrant and rewarding social life.
May everything on his end be going well.
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Wait...Is This A Game?
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July 26, 2015
"Have You Ever Seen The Blue Sky?"
This is a disturbing hour and a half that went viral and gained two hundred million views in less than a week before being banned by the Chinese Government.
It even attracted praise from the newly-installed environment minister, Chen Jining, for its contribution to the national debate on public health – but that was before it was abruptly scrubbed from the internet on Friday, ordered offline by the Communist Party's central propaganda department.
The segment that begins around 1:00 is disturbing in an entirely different way..as it highlights just how precarious the Chinese industrial economy actually is.
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July 25, 2015
DRAT...
...DRAT!
A THOUSAND TIMES DRAT!
Those weren't accessorized ears.
It was just a damned HAT!
From episode 4 of GATE!, which, in a completely unexpected development, manages to work in an onsen scene. This, however, is not one of THOSE shows as this remarkably non-gratuitous interlude makes clear. This brief scene moved the plot forward in a number of ways, provided significant character development and remained Comics Code Compliant throughout. The above scene of Leili (left) and Mercury (Right) washing the orphan's hair is as risque as it got.
After the events of last episode, 2nd Lt Itami took his recon force and the refugees back to the main Japanese base much to the dismay of his immediate superiors who are appalled that he has brought all these orphans for them to take care of. The general in charge of the operation however, is impressed both with Itami's initiative and humanity and puts our hero's unit in charge of getting the refugees situated.
...and our hero in charge of filling out the requisite paperwork tsunami.
The aforementioned bathouse scene is actually part of a montage of the refugees (and Mercury who is examining the Japanese of her own volition) reacting to such wonders as backhoes, prefab housing, field kitchens, and canned food....
Along the way, we do learn that Leili has a knack for languages. She can speak Elvish and is picking up Japanese very quickly...rather more quickly than the Japanese are picking up the local tongue. She is exceedingly smart as befits a mage and we learn a little about her past. It seems Leili grew up amongst nomads before she arrived in the imperial village, so this is not her first experience with a huge technological and cultural shock.
Or learning to use new kit.
Chika, the Elf, is still traumatized by the recent loss of her entire town, which, even amongst the elves was a somewhat insular tribe with an obscure dialect. She is in mourning for her father and seems to be taking double rations to make offerings to his memory. Having lost everything she owns she is also concerned that she and the other female refugees will be forced to sell themselves in order to repay the kindness they have received...or, barring that, simply to survive in the world.
Meanwhile, Itami is tasked with taking his unit to reconnoiter a nearby town called Italica, but that won't happen 'till next week.
No action to speak of, and our heroes didn't go anywhere, but this episode moved the story forward quite a bit.
This remains a very entertaining and intelligent show. it is just full of win right now, you should definitely be watching it.
UPDATE: There is an extensive discussion of this episode regarding combat engineering over at Chizumatic.
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July 24, 2015
Gentle Readers
...I urge you to watch this.
I do so mostly because I am a very bad man, but also because watching this will kill sufficient brain cells that it might distract one from any pain one might be experiencing.
Warning: May also cause psoriasis.
Via Moe Lane, who's write up, while technically accurate, did not prepare me for the epic dreadfulness of this thing.
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July 22, 2015
Double Shifts Plus
I'm pulling near Christmas hours at work this week.
Of course, I find myself wondering why there are no fairy-sized doors anywhere in this cityscape.
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July 20, 2015
46 Years Ago
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Gatchaman Crowds :INSIGHT
Gatchaman Crowds was a strange but enjoyable series from two years ago. Perky quirky and completely unpredictable, it ended up being well above average through sheer charm and cleverness. The show closed with a definite hook for a sequel, and this summer, that much anticipated sequel is here!
Gatchaman Crowds: INSIGHT continues the franchises habit of surprising its audience by producing a perfunctory painting by numbers pastiche of periphrastic prattle.
Actually of all those "P" words the most applicable one is probably likely perfunctory.
We are introduced to two new characters one of which seems to be an audience surrogate (there was nothing like that before as the cast was just so....odd)
It is possible that this jumbled mess is going to coalesce into something entertaining, but this was such a muddled, talky episode that confidence is not high. The pilot just gave the impression of trying to emulate the series by being weird...but to no purpose other than to fill a time slot. There are actually two more episodes available, but I'm going to take a break for now.
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July 19, 2015
Something Retro and Japanese
Here is Yamada 2, a Japanese blimp from 1911.
Don has discovered something else in this ridiculously broad category...proto J-Pop.
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This is REALLY Getting My Hopes Up
Shamelessly nicked from J.Greely
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