November 22, 2014
While We Await Actual Content
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November 20, 2014
There is Only ONE Story Tonight
Something, something, Presidential amnesty, something.
Not that I'm not appalled, but when everyone is looking at only one thing, it is often prudent to look around.
There may only be one story tonight, but there are other things that might be worth paying attention to.
First, some good news on the Ebola front, where it seems that the rate of new cases in Liberia and Guinea is no longer rising. While not lowering it is the first encouraging news out of those ountries since this calamity began.
Good news on the domestic Ebola front: there was some alarm regards a woman in New York who arrived from Guinea and was being monitored for the disease when she suddenly collapsed, bleeding from the eyes and nose and subsequently died. To everyones relief, the cause of death has been determined to be a heart attack.
Ebola Tan says"My new favorite verb is Grubering!"
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Russian Bombers are now circling Guam from time to time.
Russia seems to be poking Scandinavia and the Baltic nations as well.
Meanwhile, Kasparov goes Godwin on Putin in the Washington Post.
With regard to Russia, this article at the Economist proposes that the Russian economy is much more fragile than is generally supposed (and it's not widely considered to exactly be robust). This does not necessarily mean a reduction of risk...a wounded bear wandering into ones yard is potentially a more dangerous thing than a healthy one.
******
China, it seems, does not like this years crop of Hollywood films either...
Actually, the image of Los Angeles being nuked is from one of several articles touting the atomic mayhem potential of the People's Liberation Army posted in China's Global Times last year that are mentioned in this Defense News piece on China's rapidly modernizing nuclear arsenal. One interesting tidbit...
The article notes that the survival probability for people outdoors in a 746 to 870 mile radius was zero. "Based on the actual level of China’s one million tons TNT equivalent small nuclear warhead technology, the 12 JL–2 nuclear missiles carried by one JIN nuclear submarine could cause the destruction of five million to 12 million people, forming a very clear deterrent effect.†[/quote]
This seems to imply that the MIRVs in the JL-2 submarine launched ballistic missile have a 1 megaton yield...6-50 times what is reported. This is not beyond the realm of possibility as the old W-56 warhead of the Minuteman had a yield of 1.2 megatons with a weight of 600-680 pounds depending on variant. The JL-2 is broadly comparable in size to the Trident, which can carry up to 10 of the heavier (but much less destructive) W-88 warheads. The difference in 'splody to weight ratio between America's 60's era warheads and the ones developed in the 80's may have to do with a decision to make the bombs as "clean" as possible to reduce global fallout. This seems to involve using a lead as opposed to enriched uranium casing in the bomb. The latter can double or even triple yield at the cost of a much greater amount of radioactive fallout (at least that is the impression given by open source info on the subject). If China is going all in for maximum yield, maximum fallout, their weapons would be more destructive than the US, UK and French weapons by 2-3 times for a given weight. This is probably less important than the contamination of the target country that is implied.
Xi Jinping says that he is going to crush the democracy protests in Hong Kong soon.
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There are 36 million slaves in the world.
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Finally, on a much happier note, it looks like rice yields will soon be boosted by 30% or more.
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November 18, 2014
Unexpectedly
Christmas booped in early.
With November volume at UPS in full swing, surgeries and vacations in our building have left us short of people qualified to do certain tasks. It looks like I'm going to be working double shifts this season.
Blogging will be intermittent.
Fortunately, no leg-breaking has yet occurred.
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November 16, 2014
So....What's Happening?
First off, one of the 'Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes' has some thoughts on science reportage....
Of course the 'Science Babes' are just the imaginary braniac waifus of a lonely male blogger who has a sick fetish for smart girls, so it is likely that their supposed views on such microagressions are no different than any member of the macho women haters club....
Indeed, the maladroit neckbeard known as Suburbanbanshee has presumed to express thoughts on this as has noted woman hater Elizabeth Scalia. Misogynistic troglodyte Amy Alkon mansplains the situation and, of course the vaginaphobic Pope of patriarchal privilege, Sarah Hoyt, unleashes a glorious TL;DR of hateorade.
Also, there was something about a comet.
In other, obviously less important news:
The Russians, always eager to remind us that we are loved, have decided to regularly send nuclear capable bombers to patrol the Gulf of Mexico.
In unrelated news PRAVDA is running the headline Russia prepares nuclear surprise for NATO. It should be noted that the use of the words "nuclear" and "surprise" next to each other is generally frowned upon. However, there are always translation issues and the Muscovites probably have a different style guide. In any event, given the relative parity in acknowledged warheads the Russians are unlikely to do anything really stupid unless they think our deterrent is seriously unreliable for some reason.
In even less related news, soon we'll have 3 wrenches.
Concluding our chain of nonsequiters, Canada's National Post has an analysis of what Russia's goals actually might be.
With regard to China, a navy analyst who stated earlier this year that China was preparing for a "Short, Sharp, War" was rather publicly reassigned on the eve of the recent conference with China.
"If you talk about it openly, you cross the line and unnecessarily antagonize," Greenert said at a forum in Newport, Rhode Island. "You probably have a sense about how much we trade with that country. It's astounding. "
In all seriousness the old Golf class boat is almost certainly not a cause for concern so it should not affect ones real-estate purchases in any way. However there are all sorts of other issues that might persuade one to overcome ones dread of dealing with a condo association in order to move into more secure environs. (Like they say....)
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Wonderduck Takes One For the Team
Between his F-1 coverage, military history discussion and pointers to shows we might want to watch, Wonderduck has been watching a show called Ben-To...so we don't have to.
He has finally finished it and his overviews can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, not here, here, here, here and here. Yes. He watched the whole thing...to keep us safe from it. His posts on this subject are a bit surreal, but are estimated to be 77% less damaging to ones psyche than watching the actual show.
Words cannot express my gratitude to him for enduring this on our behalf. Thus I can only offer him this as thanks.
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RWBY Second Season Ends
After the spectacular home run that was episode 11, the Finale of RWBY season 2 fell rather flat. The animation was off, and despite a several moments of awesomeness there was a rather perfunctory feel to the big climactic fight, which seemed disjointed and not entirely consistent. Basically everyone got a moment to shine though there was very little of the spectacular Monty Oum choreography that had been so impressive in previous fights and in fact the fight was so by the numbers and below the standards of the rest of the season that I suspect they ran out of money, time or both in this episode. On the non-technical side, there were some things that just didn't quite work.
Of course the other problem had to do with a general lack of answers, though this is not nearly as egregious as it would normally be, since it's pointed out by Ruby herself while our heroines recover from the day.
"Wait.We helped arrest a bunch of very bad people but we didn't really solve anything!"
Like the fist season finale, this one did not feel like a climax at all, but rather seemed to be just another episode, steadily moving the plot along, with the rather sedate last half of the episode being in a lot of ways better than the nonstop action of the first half.
It's not a bad episode, but is also not up to the high standards the show had set for itself.
That being said though, this season overall has been quite enjoyable. While the first season of RWBY amused me quite a bit. The second season has (overall) been even better.
This is despite the fact that, in sharp contrast to the carefree whimsy of the season opener, the overall tone of RWBY season 2 is quite a bit darker than the first. Fortunately, the show avoids descending into something grimm depressing, thanks in part to its oddball, upbeat quirkiness.
Also: The super heroines get a corgi
While it is still obviously a very low budget show, the animation, art, pacing and voice-work are all much improved over season one. I've heard griping about what at first seemed to be an awkward subplot (involving side characters) that suddenly metastasized out of nowhere. However, unlike a similar digression in the first season, its resolution was both unexpected and satisfying. Plus, it ended up advancing the larger plot quite nicely.
The protagonists remain likable and have gained a bit more depth. Crucially, teams RWBY and JNPR consist of people that one actually enjoys rooting for. They are flawed human beings, sometimes wrestling with dark secrets, despair and self doubt, but they are not anti-heroes or cynics. These are an idealistic bunch who want to make the world a better place, want to do the right thing and are willing to pick themselves up and struggle on even if they get knocked down…hard. This is important because our heroes are punching well above their weight…rather more than they seem to realize.
The villains really came into their own in this season and are actually a pretty interesting lot…. Exactly WHAT their ultimate goal is remains unclear, but they are not incompetent and can think on their feet. They are, overall, quite worthy and occasionally terrifying antagonists.
These 12 short episodes were 144 minutes of my time that I do not regret. Despite the non-finale that was #12, I find that I’m eagerly looking forward to the third season.
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November 14, 2014
November 14: The Day IT Support Came into Its Own
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November 13, 2014
I Thought
...that this was surely satire, but I followed the hyperlinks and....
"It burns."
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A Suspicious Silence
We were curious as to Don's take on the 4.8 earthquake that hit Wichita yesterday, but seems that the temblor it made no impression on him.
As this is obviously suspicious, it has been surmised that Don, who is something of a volcano otaku, had commenced building a volcano in his back yard.
Since this would open up a vast potential for awesomeness in the fields of both geothermal energy and mayhem, we've asked one of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes to to explain how the miracle of SCIENCE! allows this to be possible.
Ummm....It don't 'cause it ain't.
Well then.
Using Occam's Swiffer, the only remaining logical explanation is that one of these rusted through...which could represent a nontrivial product safety issue moving forward.
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November 12, 2014
A Duck Now Has a Hat...In Spaaaaace!
Rosetta-Tan and Philae-Tan by Dei Shirou
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November 11, 2014
11/11
Cdr. Salamander has some thoughts on the day. You should read them.
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November 10, 2014
I Find Myself Numb From Relief
Banality lurks below the fold.
As compensation, here is some eye candy courtesy of Tobusa.
more...
I confess that I have no idea what this has to do with soccer.
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November 09, 2014
Craig Ferguson Has Got it Figured Out
Forget the Jonas Brothers. This is why he got passed over for Colbert.
Now get off my lawn.
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November 08, 2014
My Week: Summed Up
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November 05, 2014
Aftermath
I've been down hard with a relapse of the flu or flu-like thing that I was beset with over the weekend. I noticed while perusing the aftermath of the election that the Republicans did rather well.
Then I heard that they won the governorship in Illinois.
Now having read that, I should have woken up immediately, but I didn't, and I can't.
I appear to be trapped in a coma or something and experiencing a bizarre hallucination...I'm kind of afraid.
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November 04, 2014
Election Day
The radio this morning had caller after caller going on about the issues in Virginia Beach, where the touch screen machines have apparently become self aware...and decided that they are Democrats.
Fortunately, here in Portsmouth, we use paper ballots and thus do our bit to keep Skynet at bay.
However, this morning at my polling place there were only three other voters present and I spent less time ther than I would have if I'd stopped for gas.
Elections are decided by those who bother to vote.
If I can't persuade you of the importance of doing your civic duty, perhaps this young lady can.
Gai Rei Zero's Isayama Yomi was rendered sans text by Zhen Lin
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November 02, 2014
This Years Flu Shot
Either it is useless, or it has saved my life.
In any event, I've got nothing, so here is something to ponder...
...just in case you've been doing it wrong.
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October 31, 2014
Boo!
RWBY in costume by Elf-Jy
more...
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October 30, 2014
An Epiphany
This afternoon, It suddenly occurred to me who the proprietor of Zoopraxiscope is.
The guy is obviously a genius since he can find gems like this.
Thus, he probably has a PHD.
That he's musically inclined is obvious.
The final giveaway though was that, his name is Don. He probably didn't count on someone having spent their childhood playing with plastic toys that had names like Iguanadon, Trachodon and Deniedon..but I did and so I know!
BEHOLD!
My first go at doxxing....
more...
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October 29, 2014
Not Really Effective, but Surprisingly Good
matching their 14.5mm anti-tank rifles against captured German tanks.
First is a "heavy tank". I have no idea what it is, aside from that it's German. Here are the results with a 14.5 mm AT rifle:
While looking for info on the Ukranian situation I blundered into this,
It's an interesting post on penetration tests that the Soviets did matching their 14.5mm anti-tank rifles against captured German tanks.
- Lower front plate (45 mm at 10 degrees): does not penetrate
- Turret rear (28-30 mm at 10 degrees): penetrates at 200 meters, 100 meters at a 30 degree angle
- Turret platform side (28-30 mm): penetrates at over 300 meters, 100 meters at a 30 degree angle
- Lower hull side (28-30 mm): penetrates at over 400 meters, 100 meters at a 30 degree angle
This is a bit better than I would have thought.
The performance against what are described as medium and light tanks is correspondingly better. I would not want to face these in a Panzer2 or even some modern APCs, and certainly not in a Humvee.
The"rifles" are beasts of course, with the lighter, single shot version weighing nearly 41 pounds and being 79 inches long. I suppose if one put a bayonet on one it would be a serviceable pike. These were obsolescent later in the war, but it is apparent that they were still quite effective weapons if used well. I knew these guns were still in use around the world as antimaterial rifles, but the linked post gives a much greater appreciation of how fearsome they can be.
"That just ain't right!".
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