"Jet liners returning to their spawning ground to breed"
So that's why Boeing originally built its factory in the Pacific Northwest...
Posted by: Siergen at Mon Jul 7 19:45:13 2014 (8/vFI)
3
I realized immediately what had occurred, but only because a recent issue of Trains magazine
had an article on odd rail cargo... submarine reactor vessels, blades
for windmills, other trains, buildings, 737 fuselages, that sort of
thing.
It's hardly a "fiasco," it's an unfortunate derailment at a bad spot for it. Insurance, either Boeing's or the railcarrier's, will cover replacement costs.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon Jul 7 19:58:02 2014 (wd10W)
4
And only losing three fusilages like this is going to affect their shipment schedules, but not by damned much.
7
"Loggers in Montana are shown harvesting 737 Fuselages. These three will soon be floated down the river to the mill...."
Yeah, we joked a bit about this at work.
That's barely a day's production at the Renton plant. They send 43 737's a month out the door, and that's still not enough. They're working on pumping it up to 47.
All without the morale-busting levels of mandatory overtime we have to deal with on my line.
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Jul 8 04:24:20 2014 (TJ7ih)
8
Actually, this IS a big enough concern, it could disrupt production for about three days.
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Jul 9 03:24:10 2014 (TJ7ih)
Hell in a Handbasket...no this is not about current events, and in fact is a happy post!
James R. Rummel's excellent Hell in a Handbasket is back. WEell, it has been for a while it seems, but this is pleasant news to me.
You see, some time ago he had posted to the effect that he was giving up on blogging, but it appears that he changed his mind.
IRL, he teaches a pro-bono firearms safety class for people of limited means who have been the victims of violent crime. Mr. Rummel blogs primarily on self defense with a focus on personal protection issues facing the elderly, handicapped, weak and poor. though he does occasionally opine on history, pets, and the junction between gun safety and art criticism.
1
I've recently seen some "pretty-girl-with-big-gun" pictures (both real-person photographs and manga-style drawings) where the people involved actually seem to understand the basics of firearms safety, i.e. the pretty girl keeps her finger off the trigger. That makes a refreshing change of pace in the world of cheesy, exploitative imagery.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Mon Jul 7 21:02:27 2014 (2eP1J)
2
Now if only she were holding it correctly. the butt goes against one's shoulder, not the crook of one's elbow. She's gonna hurt herself if she sets it off like that.
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Jul 12 15:29:55 2014 (TJ7ih)
1
I see robot-girl returns. I wonder if we'll learn more about her manufacture back-story...
Posted by: Siergen at Sat Jul 5 13:57:03 2014 (8/vFI)
2
I'm pretty sure we will. She and her team are seen briefly in the OP.
(...and she does not look to be happy to be there).
I note that it looks like Pyrrha is going toe to toe with one of the big three baddies. Yangs new uniform looks very Matsumoto-ie.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Jul 5 14:43:49 2014 (DnAJl)
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
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett William Whipple
Massachusetts: Samuel Adams John Adams Robert Treat Paine Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman Samuel Huntington William Williams Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire: Matthew Thornton
11 years later, after over 5 years of war and 6 years of learning how not to run a government, a different Continental Congress gathered to hammer out a constitution.
When Ben Franklin left the Pennsylvania State House afterwards, a woman is said to have asked him, "What sort of government have you given us, a republic, or a democracy?" to which Franklin is said to have replied..."A Republic Madam, if you can keep it."
Posted by: DougO at Fri Jul 4 14:29:42 2014 (8qU9I)
9
Well, based on that effects reel, he used the actual faces from other footage, so it would naturally look right. Although to me there were a few issues matching angles/focal length, especially the shot with Clara.
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Jul 4 16:19:22 2014 (TJ7ih)
10
My first thought was "wow, Clara's eyes got even bigger; she's almost an anime girl now".
A Quick Status Update
For those uninterested in the banal life of your humble blogger, here is everyones favorite half-Kappa. ( to the extent that anyone has given the matter of half-kappa rankings any thought)
This is the latest map. It is indeed looking to be a hurricane and while it will graze us, it will be well placed to push a lot of water into the bay. A lot will depend on what time it passers by. On top of that ,the weather weasels are saying this is going to be a very wet storm. While we most likely won't see hurricane force winds, Friday could still be quite interesting due to flooding
A few individual apes seem to have originally developed a rudimentary technique of rather poor efficiency, but the group gradually improved it through experimentation and observation over the last few months. They are now able to create and maintain a fire, which they have been using mostly to scare off predators and cook some of their food. Some individuals in particular among the group, seem to have rapidly grown a taste for cooked foodstuffs, especially flying squirrels.
That's really COOL!
On the other hand....yeah.....we're doomed.
UPDATE: Doomed I say.
Even Updatier:
In the comments Edward M makes some claims that seem to revolve around the indefensible theory that nicking a story from Ace'ssidebar before rushing off to work with none of the regular second source checking is somehow not a blogging best practice.
As"evidence" for this unsupported and scientifically dubious notion, he calls into question the veracity of other news stories on the site linked above.
Given the obvious presence of the word NEWS in the url this means that Edward M is arguing against authority...worse, given that out of a focus group of two blogs, the story has been treated credulously by 100% of the sample, HE'S ARGUING AGAINST CONSENSUS which as we all know is a form of denialism (not to be confused with Denaliism,...the worship of Mount McKinley...which this blog does not have an official position on)
1
"Get your hands off me you damned d... hey, is that fried squirrel?"
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Jul 1 05:36:59 2014 (TJ7ih)
2
This will open a whole new chapter in the ongoing Fire Good/Fire Bad debates.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Tue Jul 1 09:55:07 2014 (2eP1J)
3
IIRC they were actually bonobos, not chimps. Which means hippie love-ins around the resulting fires instead of the cannibalistic cookouts that chimps would probably use fire for, if they had it.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Tue Jul 1 09:55:19 2014 (jwKxK)
4
Hate to say this, but I've looked at some of the other stories on that site, and it may not be a totally reliable source of news.
Posted by: EdwardM at Tue Jul 1 22:55:42 2014 (SlugR)
7
I'm sorry for using profanity in someone else's blog. That's what I get for posting at 4 in the morning. But please stop hinting and being coy and just tell me.
100 Years Ago Today: The Beginning of The End
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary. He had initially been third in line for the throne and as such had, in his early years, led a somewhat dilettante lifestyle. After a suicide and then typhoid fever placed him in the position of heir he frequently came to violent disagreements with his father(the Emperor Franz Joseph) over what he perceived as needed reforms. While Franz Ferdinand was a bit of an autocrat and a staunch royalist who wanted to consolidate executive power on the throne, he also wanted to establish a basically federal system granting considerable autonomy to the various regions. He also wanted to ensure all ethnicities had equal standing, which was very unpopular in some quarters, particularly the Hungarian half of the empire, which had its own legislature. In essence he wanted to extend in some ways the privileges the Hungarians enjoyed to all regions while simultaneously unifying the country on strictly national matters. Furthermore he wanted to organize a third ceremonial kingdom out of the slavic states with equal prestige as Austria and Hungary to drive home the idea that the Slavs were full citizens. Franz Ferdinand was also one of the few voices in government advocating that the Empire should cultivate good relations with its neighbors and in particular, not poke Serbia any further.
His wife Sophie was a commoner and was not permitted any royal courtesies by imperial decree (another reason there was grief between Archduke and Emperor). However she was accorded the courtesies and privileges due the wife of a general in the imperial army if he was engaged in official military business. Thus, when he went to Sarajevo to inspect a local garrison she accompanied him.
While there they made some goodwill appearances and visited the Sarajevo town hall....
Moments after that picture was taken both were assassinated by the leader of a local chapter of a Serbian secret society called the Black Hands...which despite his melodramatic title was an an angry young loser of a man who lived with his mother.
The assassination removed one of the last voices for conciliation with the Serbs and threw the Emperor into a grief stricken rage.
Russia stepped up to defend their Serbian allies which obliged Germany to step in and honor their treaty with Austria-Hungary, whereupon the Kaiser signed off on a unfortunate plan to preemptively take out France "quickly", lest they decided to open up a second front...which brought the British Empire into the fight. These and other decisions formed a cascade failure of strategic miscalculations amongst the governments of Europe cumulating in a disaster of unimaginable proportions from which the world has still not fully recovered.
The entrance of the Ottoman Empire into the fray and its subsequent collapse precipitated the mess we now call the Middle East. The toll the war took on Russia begat the Soviet Union, international communism and the hundred or more millions that died from that ideology in Russian, China and elsewhere. Germany, broken and humiliated by the conflict rose up under the leadership of a fiend to lash out once more against a world still reeling, not only from the loss of a generation of young men, but from the fact that this unspeakable, and stupid orgy of carnage broke the spirit of the west.
The progress that civilization has made in the last hundred years seems impressive, but it pales between the vast leap that took place between the end of one great war in 1814 and the events of 1914. From the cold war, to the middle east, we've spent the better part of a century putting out fires started or fanned by the First World War...and still they smolder.
We hardly think of this conflict today but its ramifications are still with us. Let us hope the lessons are as well, because while history, as they say, does not exactly repeat, it does rhyme.
The analogies at the link, while worrisome, can be taken too literally. There is of course, little significance to the century mark beyond superstition baed on numerology. If we were using hexadecimal this year it wouldn't even have that, but the artificial significance of a hundred years passing should be taken to reflect upon not only the carnage, but the miscalculations that led to it.
1...an angry young loser of a man who lived with his mother.
At the risk of sounding flippant, I'll point out that that one phrase neatly describes most of the members of the now-moribund Occupy movement.
On a more serious note, the parallels between then and now frighten me. If anything, things are worse now. Now, we have more nations bumbling around the world stage, acting just as foolishly and with just as much belligerency, and armed with weapons that make even the deadliest weapons of WWI look like toys. Also consider the various Islamist terror groups, who are playing a similar role to the Black Hands, except that (a) they have proven themselves to be more motivated, better organized, and much more brutal, and (b) they have (or have improvised) weapons that are far more devastating than the crude bombs and pocket pistols the Serbian radicals had, and may yet gain access to weapons that are even more destructive. (As a small aside, also consider that many Western nations, the United States included, have bred their own potential Black Hands; the above-mentioned Occupy movement, The Traitor Formerly Known As Bradley Manning, and recent British and Australian volunteers for international jihad are the bellwethers of this.)
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Sat Jun 28 23:50:19 2014 (2eP1J)
There are ways in which things are far better now. For one thing, we don't have the row-of-dominoes alliances set up which led to a diplomatic cascading failure.
3
This is the first I've heard of the Archduke's policies. It sounds like if he had survived, things would be even better than we imagine things would be simply if the war hadn't happened.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Jun 29 01:18:20 2014 (TJ7ih)
4
Nuclear weapons really did change everything. In World War 1, the main fear of countries was that they would delay mobilization, their enemies would mobilize, and they would lose the war before they could properly form up their levies; this is essentially what happened in the latter wars of the 1800s, where Prussia won several decisive encounters through superior organization. Alsace-Lorraine was obtained that way in the first place, right?
Nowadays, the need to have your civilians drafted and mobilized is next to nil, and the rewards to be run through a devastating first strike are quite a bit smaller. No civilian militia or freshly-drafted troops could stand against a professional Western army (and, to be blunt, none of the other professional Western armies dare stand against the US; even the Brits and the French would be little but speed bumps). On the other hand, having experienced WW1, the Western countries are very hesitant to be the first one to pull the trigger. Even Hitler didn't resort to invading countries outright, without a buildup of public opinion and well-crafted justifications. (Of course Pete would probably say "I can think of one example!" ;p)
The biggest issue regarding world peace is that there was previously a system where the powerful Western countries demanded that the leadership of other countries take responsibility for the actions of their countrymen, and happily decapitated those who did not; the idea that a country would be considered "sovereign" but not fully under control of all its territory was silly. Now we've got a series of countries who can claim sovereignty within their borders without actually having control of the population within those borders; the penalty for toleration of such shamelessness has not been fully paid.
That said, the REALLY scary parallel isn't with the start of WW1, but the US's chosen tactics in WW2. We have previously denounced entire areas of warfare, such as the bombardment of cities or the use of unrestricted submarine warfare, as barbaric and completely incompatible with the behavior of a modern society; yet, when pressed, we embraced those strategies thoroughly and to the massive detriment of our foes. Should the new asymmetrical strategy of the employment of non-governmental combatants prove to be a true threat to the US, we would likely embrace that strategy as well. And how well would we do, with our acceptance of military necessity, our widespread gun culture and gun ownership, our legions of youth trained from a young age in advanced squad tactics, and our vast wealth coupled with our technology advantages?
(Basically, were it not illegal, could I see the same folks who play Counterstrike or League every night piloting remote killing-drones through the streets of Medina for the glory and lols? Oh yes, oh yes indeed.)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sun Jun 29 04:57:38 2014 (ZeBdf)
He sure came down hard, though not hard enough to seriously damage the airframe, I guess.
My bet is that he was running out of water. Harriers only carry enough water to run in hover mode for 90 seconds, and it looks like he was pushing the limit.
But your point is well taken, too. That thing is a deliberate design and standard deck equipment? Yikes!
2
It would also be handy in case of combat damage. For conventional warplanes, they erect crash barriers on the runway if they don't think they can land and stop normally. For Harriers, they have "landing stools"...
Posted by: Siergen at Fri Jun 27 16:59:39 2014 (8/vFI)
3
The stands are used for maintenance on the plane when it is required that the forward landing gear needs to not touch the deck.
There are similar mounts for replacing the other landing gear too.
It / they are just fancy jack stands.
Posted by: jon spencer at Fri Jun 27 19:24:23 2014 (JSYPT)
4Harriers only carry enough water to run in hover mode for 90 seconds...
Wait, what? Can you explain, Steven?
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Jun 27 23:49:10 2014 (DiS7r)
When they are hovering, there are gizmos that vector thrust from the engine straight down. But the engines don't produce enough thrust normally to hold the jet up. So they overdrive the engines by injecting water.
It's the same principle as water injection in WWII piston engine fighters. The water cools the air flow, which permits more air and more fuel to pass through the jet engine, producing more thrust. But they have to use a lot of water to get that effect, and they don't carry all that much because water is heavy.
It turns out that they carry enough for 90 seconds of hover. (And too bad for Arnold in True Lies.)
The maximum take-off thrust available from the Pegasus engine is limited, particularly at the higher ambient temperatures, by the turbine blade temperature. As this temperature cannot reliably be measured, the operating limits are determined by jet pipe temperature. To enable the engine speed and hence thrust to be increased for take-off, water is sprayed into the combustion chamber and turbine to keep the blade temperature down to an acceptable level.
Water for the injection system is contained in a tank located between the bifurcated section of the rear (hot) exhaust duct. The tank contains up to 500lb (227kg, 50 imperial gallons) of distilled water. Water flow rate for the required turbine temperature reduction is approximately 35gpm (imperial gallons per minute) for a maximum duration of approximately 90 seconds. The quantity of water carried is sufficient for and appropriate to the particular operational role of the aircraft.
8
I've seen Harriers hover at airshows for longer than 90 seconds, so I suspect that limitation is for when the aircraft is fully loaded with ordnance and fuel.
Posted by: Siergen at Sat Jun 28 08:57:30 2014 (8/vFI)
9
Did you actually time it? Subjective evaluations of duration of extraordinary and noteworthy events are notoriously imprecise and tend to be on the high side. (I think the principle was called "All eclipses last five minutes" because subjectively it seems that way even if totality was actually shorter than that.)
10
The numbers seem slightly off, given "A Pint's a Pound the whole world 'round." A Gallon of water is typically 8 lbs. (and a Gallon of Gasoline is typically around 6. Not sure about Diesel/Jet A).
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Jun 29 01:21:08 2014 (TJ7ih)
11
A pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter. :p
Except in the US, Liberia, and February.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Jun 29 04:24:52 2014 (PiXy!)
12
Pixy, we can't help that the Imperial standards were diddled by Parliamentary souses determined to squeeze four extra fluid ounces into their beer measures, can we? The old measures continued as they ever were, here in the rebelled provinces.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Mon Jun 30 15:36:29 2014 (jwKxK)
13
According to The Blaze, a previous attempt to land on a stack of mattresses did not end quite well, after which the stool was constructed.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Jun 30 20:26:06 2014 (RqRa5)
14
Hah! Thanks for that Pete. I'm surprised it didn't result in a Blaze.
Yes, yes I think the Leathernecks are right and the stool is superior.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Jun 30 21:19:53 2014 (DnAJl)
It's Not Just Mee.NuAOL got hit too. My College G-mail account was similarly stuffed. Now, some of this is not messing with E-mail for three days but a good deal of it was pulled pork shoulder.
To add to my annoyance the University G-mail account also threw a couple of important E-mails into the spam folder.
If anybody tried to get hold of me via E-mail and has not gotten a reply, I have deleted your correspondence by mistake and am unaware of it.
There don't seem to be a lot of phishing schemes in any of these and spam, especially comment spam can't have a high return, so I'm wondering if some of this Hawaiian bacon festival is actually a sort of 'chaff' to cover something up.
The Duck is Dark
For those who might be wondering, I have received word via text that the reason that Wonderduck has gone silent is that he has has been without internet service for over three days. There is no indication of when it might be back as his provider is, apparently, up to no good.
An actual photo of Wonderduck's internet provider.
1
I might be back. I might not be. To call the state of my current internet connection "sporadic" would be much too generous. But even that's better than "completely down."
Not much, but better.
I'm not going to ask how you got that photo of my internet provider. If it's not them, it's a startlingly good likeness.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Tue Jun 24 23:44:03 2014 (4JrvP)
Tablet Questions
I find myself in the market for a tablet/pad/Hand Computer and thus am seeking recommendations from my readership.
Difficulty: Although I am a Mac user I would prefer that said pad bot have a lower case "i" in front of it, though I am not strictly ruling such a possibility out.
On a completely unrelated note, here is Rin Tezuka, on a Llama.
1
Just buy something reputable and don't buy junk. Otherwise, you need to understand what works for you, and nobody can suggest it for you.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Jun 24 16:32:51 2014 (RqRa5)
2
Depends on what you want to use it for.
For reading, checking email, and playing games, you can't do better than the 2013 Nexus 7. But it's a bit small for browsing web sites, and definitely too small for reading comics.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wed Jun 25 02:01:07 2014 (PiXy!)
3
Yeah, that's the kind of thing I'm trying to find out. I have no experience with tablets.
A tablet was recommended for the upcoming kanji class and I'm curious about things like actual as opposed to advertised battery life and how big the screen really ought to be. It'll be used as a reader so finding out that ones like the Nexus 7 are a bit to small helps. Thanks!
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Jun 25 09:17:01 2014 (DnAJl)
4
Kanji class? Then you'll definitely want a high-DPI device, especially if there will be any furigana. For reference, I have a bunch of books from Amazon Japan on my Kindle Paperwhite, and while I need mild reading glasses to make out the furigana at the standard text size, its 212dpi renders everything clearly (and of course zoom is your friend). Fortunately, Apple isn't the only tablet maker that's shipping high-DPI displays.
Several of my friends are happy with recent models in the Samsung Galaxy Tab/Note line, and since Amazon lists a brand new model as "released tomorrow", you could either get a decent discount on the previous model or get The Latest Thing, depending on your budget.
(of course, my own tablet of choice is the Microsoft Surface Pro 2, which is more capable, but also heavier and considerably more expensive)
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Wed Jun 25 11:24:18 2014 (1CisS)
5
I've been using an Acer Iconia A3. As a computing device it's fairly powerful, or seems that way. The 10" screen works well as a reader, but the higher weight and bigger size can make holding it in one hand uncomfortable.
Also, having worked with several tablets over the last several years, I strongly recommend you budget for a sturdy cover. I have seen several tablets suffer damage to the screen because they were held between thumb and fingers on the left or right edge. A good book-style cover will give you something else to hold on to.
Posted by: Ben at Wed Jun 25 11:34:02 2014 (S4UJw)
6
The new Samsung Galaxy Tab S (that J mentions) looks awesome. The smaller model weighs the same as the Nexus 7, but has an 8.4" screen instead of 7", so 44% more screen area. The Galaxy Tab Pro is also very nice and is on sale now that the Tab S is out.
Tab Pro is currently $329/$399 on Amazon for 8.4/10.1 inches; the Tab S is $399/$499. All have "retina" class 2560x1600 displays, fast processors, plenty of RAM, and a rather poky 16GB of storage. (There's supposedly a 32GB option on the Tab S, but I haven't seen it.) But they do support microSD cards. The Tab Pro has a high-quality IPS LCD; the Tab S has an OLED screen, which can use less power and potentially better colour reproduction.
Also, the Nexus 7 now seems to be out of stock in many places, suggesting there's a new model on the way. An announcement was expected at Google I/O yesterday, but so far, nothing.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thu Jun 26 04:07:59 2014 (PiXy!)
Stuff and Things
Apropos the previous post. My utter contempt for the people involved exceeded the scope of my Thesaurus. I don't think I've ever dropped 'f bombs' in a post before and I certainly do not intend to make a habit of it.
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Frequent commentor Ralph Lauren Polo Shirts makes an interesting observation...
Send cause concoction towards large zip major naff plastic bag. Increase sirloin to successfully tote
Well, it might be an observation.
Of course, given that this faithful commentor has helpfully provide similar insights twenty times this weekend, my first impulse is to violate the promise made in the first paragraph. It occurs to me however, that perhaps what I need is not a bigger thesaurus, but a cypher. It could be that this is a coded message and all that stands between me and a great adventure is deciphering this! What if all of these comments, together form a sort of Rosetta Stone that has the potential to unlock the secrets of the Voynich Manuscript? Solving such a puzzle would have the potential to unlock wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. Formidable enemies would seek to suppress that disruptive information, but the potential to bring about a golden age of enlightenment would surely be worth the risk!
Heck, cute girls might talk to me!
If only...I hadn't deleted all those comments....
Once again I have sabotaged myself.
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I may have to check out this show. Not only is this barista into military history, I hear tell she has good trigger discipline too!
3
No, the spelling errors are proof that the sender has not been replaced by an enemy agent (assuming the errors are in the correct position).
Posted by: Siergen at Mon Jun 23 17:22:07 2014 (8/vFI)
4
Honestly, I'm a touch torn. Rize is pretty good in that show. That said, everything without her is -amazingly- saccharine, and she's just not in enough of it to counter the cloying sweetness.
The studio's previous show, Kin-iro Mosaic, had much the same tone, but under some of the cuteness lay some real edged wit (being a show about Japanese/English exchange students, they were perfectly happy to point and say "look, Japan, we are ridiculous here" or "hey gaijin, what is up with this thing you do?") I liked it a good bit better, so you'd think "same basic recipe plus a military kid" would be a winner, but I just don't think it came through.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Mon Jun 23 19:49:32 2014 (zJsIy)
5
Indeed, GochiUsa is much too overdone with the sweetness. It's not just Rize, but just about everyone. The only bearable character is Aoyama.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Jun 24 00:12:02 2014 (RqRa5)
6
Don't worry about having deleted them, they will soon provide you with revised and improved instructions for wealth beyond the dreams of Avarice. And I've met Avarice, he can dream BIG.
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Jun 24 06:06:35 2014 (TJ7ih)
One Hopes That There is a Special Concierge Service in Hell To Give These People the Extra Attention They DeserveSuburban Banshee has an extensive, link-heavy post on the utter monstrousness of Marion Zimmer Bradley, child molester and protector of her child molester husband.
Go read the while thing.
I mentioned this to my friend BOB! last night and he said that he'd heard about a lot of this years ago and had written off the author for that reason. Another friend mentioned yesterday that she'd known about enough of this for years that she had long ago burned Bradley's books.
I, on the other hand, had muddled trough life blissfully ignorant of this.
It's a squalid, foetid affair that involves a couple of truly evil people. That word "evil" gets bandied about a lot, but this is the real deal.
But the reason I'm most angered by this is that the story is actually far worse than the depredations of 2 fiends.
What is REALLY disturbing about this is the fact that elements in the Sci-Fi community had been covering this up since 1963. Oh, they had banned Breen (Bradley's eventual husband) from a con, but no one bothered to call the cops.
This passage from the letter is particularly disturbing...After laying out the fact that Walter Breen is a CHILD MOLESTER, he suggests that Breen be...get this...banned from a con.
I came to this conclusion most reluctantly. I have no axe to grind. And quite apart from my emotional reluctance, I expect some of my friends to get mad at me if I do anything about Walter. Others will be "disappointed" in me because of my "persecution" of Walter, poor innocent Walter who loves and understands children. Also I rather expect some damage in my race for TAFF in 1965.[/quote]
You know, I have something to say to the author of this letter....
Hal 9000, Skynet, and the Krell mind machine, combining their processing power and crunching numbers for a decade could not calculate all the fucks I do not give about your fanboy electioneering. You have, with that paragraph, proven yourself to be a soulless, malignant waste of skin that could be put to vastly better use by burn victims. You know of a child molester and you do not report it to police because you are afraid it will harm your popularity? If ratting out a pederast will endanger ones social standing, then I suggest that it is time to get another peer group. You have no axe to grind? ARE YOU HUMAN?
This was 1963. How many children were raped because no one on this mailing list had the spine to call the cops? (ed: at least 22) Why in the hell didn't SOMEONE call the authorities? Is it because as a member of fandom you'd been bullied and didn't want to cast judgements? If so you deserved every wedgie you got and more...far more. This was not being a beatnik, or some other alternate lifestyle, this was children, and this was a hell of a lot more children who suffered agony and terror because not ONE person in this circle of fen had sufficient ethical grounding to call the police.
The Kitty Genovese story was utter bunk, but this is as real as it gets.
You know what's almost as disturbing than that?
This.
No news here, just a couple of glowing testimonials...well, the only people covering this are the French and the Italians.
The tiny Mk 4 reentry vehicle containing the tinier W-76 warhead weighs only 368 pounds allowing up to 14 to be carried on a Trident missile, though treaty restrictions limit them to considerably less than that. The joint U.S./UK W-76 is the most common warhead in the American and British nuclear stockpiles and one of the two oldest in the US arsenal. Rather than replacing these elderly warheads, the rather questionable decision has been made to refurbish them. This is the warhead that caused the stir some years ago when it was belatedly discovered that the U.S. had lost the knowledge of how to produce a crucial component of the bomb.
While 368 pounds is a bit too heavy for a backpack or suitcase nuke, the impressively small size of this terrible weapon, along with its comparatively moderate weight, mean that a weapon comparable to this (far from state of the art) device could fit into any number of vehicles, steamer trunks or porta-johns.
Fortunately nothing could get past our border security, so rest easy and enjoy the summer!
Battered but unbowed, SY Seascape sits quietly at a local shipyard's marina awaiting repairs. Mom and Dad are exhausted but in good spirits. Their sometimes harrowing trip covered 5000 nautical miles via the intercostal waterway, Atlantic ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and a grove of cattails in the Great Dismal Swamp.
They were vey pleased with the performance of the boat, though, they did note one quirk that initially caused them some dismay. The boat is not what Americans generally think of as a motorsailer. That is, when being operated bare pole in a heavy sea, she will roll almost onto her beam ends with great enthusiasm. Once they got the whole "sailing" thing down this was no longer an issue. It is an exceptionally strong boat and withstood being driven aground by the waterspout with hardly a scratch. Most of the mechanical issues were of the sort one encounters on any shakedown, though as anticipated, the engine repairs (replacing the head gasket) will be a shipyard job. I'll help him haul the boat next week.
Hurricane season starts next week, so any further attempts will have to wait until November at least.
1
Well, it looks like motor sailer, anyway, with that cabin house.
Is it the extreme round chines that lets it roll like that?
It looks like it would ride well in a following sea.
I'm glad they are safe and sound.
Posted by: topmaker at Wed Jun 18 19:05:58 2014 (2yZsg)
2
According to Dad, with the sails deployed it's super steady. Running bare pole though, the topweight from the masts, without the steadying effect of the sails causes it to roll a lot, though the boat was never in danger of sinking. I imagine you are right regards the round chine contributing to this. The hull really is optimized for sailing as opposed to a lot of American motor sailers, that are do both equally bad. It goy two 70 year old people safely through 19 foot seas so I'm impressed.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Jun 18 20:22:38 2014 (DnAJl)
3It is an exceptionally strong boat and withstood being driven aground by the waterspout with hardly a scratch.
If I were in your shoes, I would have curled up into a ball and started whimpering when your parents dropped that bit of information.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Wed Jun 18 20:38:34 2014 (2eP1J)
4
I can't help noticing the water exhaust. Is it necessary to run a sump pump on a boat of this kind at all times? There's not water-tight boat-building technology?
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Jun 19 17:49:32 2014 (RqRa5)
5
The water visibly leaving the boat in the picture is from the air conditioner and icebox. They have the bilge pump turned off because of the oil in the engine compartment so they don't generate a 10,000 dollar sheen.
However, boats nearly always have some minor leakage around the stuffing box where the propellor shaft penetrates the hull. (It's hard to get a rotating watertight seal). There are also various through hulls (penetrations for sonars, the bow thruster and the sanitation system). The amount of leakage from these is so small as to generally be negligible unless the boat is flexing in a VERY heavy sea.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Jun 20 16:59:22 2014 (DnAJl)
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!
...no this is not about current events, and in fact is a happy post!
AOL got hit too. My College G-mail account was similarly stuffed. Now, some of this is not messing with E-mail for three days but a good deal of it was pulled pork shoulder.
