Time is Fleeting
Many however, don't want to believe this.
For them we provide a comforting lie: "That asshsat that Buzz Aldrin punched didn't know the HALF of it!"
Madness Takes it's Toll
Steven Den Beste may appear to finally have succumbed to his crippling affliction....engineers disease.
If giraffe's could speak, it would be something of a challenge, don't you think? *
Note though that he has not allowed his handicap to hold him back. Instead, he has leveraged it into a way to further motivate himself to pursue his dream....which I was quite surprised to learn is to become a LUMBERJACK! )
In these trying times it is truly inspiring to see someone who continues to pursue their ambition.
1
I recognized at once that this was not the originally-aired rendition. Instead, they restaged the skit outside the studio. I don't know if my Monty Python recognition skill is something to be proud of...
Posted by: Siergen at Tue Oct 22 17:02:16 2013 (c2+vA)
2
That's from the movie "And now for something completely different", which is entirely made up of restagements of classic sketches from the TV series.
The Root Cause of Our ProblemThe Anchoresshas found something deeply worrisome. It is all the more
so because, as someone who spends a fair amount of time on a college
campus, I find bonecrushing historical ignorance unnervingly unsurprising....and yet...
... even by the abysmal standards set by today's low expectations, a couple of the answers here are genuinely mortifying.
Questioner: What was the Holocaust?
American College Student: Um…I’m on the spot.
Questioner: Which country was Adolf Hitler the leader of?
American College Student: I think it’s Amsterdam?
Questioner: What was Auschwitz?
American College Student: I don’t know.
Questioner: What were the Nuremburg Trials?
American College Student: I don’t know.
Questioner: How many Jews were killed?
American College Student: Hundreds of thousands.
Q: What other groups were targeted besides Jewish people?
ACS: The African Americans? Here in the United States they used to discriminate because of skin color…
Q: Where is Normandy?
ACS: It’s over near like England and Germany and all that jazz. It’s not a peninsula, but…
Q: Where is Normandy?
ACS: It’s over by Germany. At least compared to the United States, it’s over by Germany.
Q: Who was Winston Churchill?
ACS: "He was a general, right?â€
Q: What is genocide?
ACS: I don’t know.
Q: Is genocide taking place anywhere, today?
ACS: Not that I’m aware.
...For instance, while it would normally be somewhat heartening to hear a College Freshman know the name Franz Ferdinand, the context in which the name was invoked is rather dismaying.
I didn't watch it; I just read your transcript. I'm guessing they knew there was a famous dude because of the band named after him?
Posted by: Mikeski at Sun Oct 20 00:56:12 2013 (Zlc1W)
2
Some twenty years ago I was having a conversation with a friend of mine and the topic of WWII came up. At one point, in all bright-eyed innocence, his 19-year-old boarder asked us, "Who's Auschwitz?"
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Oct 20 03:15:45 2013 (TJ7ih)
3
Students today don't learn about WWII because America was the good guys in that war. They are only taught about events that make America look bad.
4
My high school had a pretty good review of WW2 in my American history class...
...because I taught it. ;p
It's not entirely because teachers are all thralls of a liberal conspiracy. A lot of it is because the way history curricula in the US are usually structured.
Usually US history is taught as a pair of courses, split up more or less at the Civil War. This means that the start of the second course is generally going to cover Reconstruction, and then industrialization and the rise of pretty much all of the civil rights and labor movements. The curriculum is packed full of stuff here (and a lot of it has a pretty heavy lean to the left, to be sure - labor good, companies bad; women's suffrage; evil capitalism causing world depression; New Deal saves the nation...)
By the time teachers are coming up to WW2, they've burned up too much time, it's already April, and they're looking for things to cut. Can't cut the civil rights movement. Can't cut Vietnam (in the sense that you want to talk about the draft...) So a lot of them shave WW2 down to the bare essentials. No projects, no papers, just "here's the box score" and talking a little about the home front.
I get that WW2 is an awkward fit between the distinction between US history and world history (and most world history courses don't make it anywhere near WW2). Realistically, what needs to happen is a re-evaluation of the history curriculum - either it needs to be split into three lobes, colonial-Civil War-modern, or we need to spend a lot less time talking about early-century social movements and more time talking about any event since 1970. (And the former is more unlikely to happen, unless someone in Texas decides to do it, because all the schoolbooks are written with a two-section split in mind...)
Of course, having the time to address it doesn't mean they'll actually get a good education. Had a history professor in college assert that the US nuked Hiroshima purely to intimidate the Russians and that we knew from crypto intercepts that the Japanese wanted peace... (sigh)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sun Oct 20 14:17:49 2013 (GJQTS)
5
I've been trying for years to get one of the Duck U history professors to let me lecture on the Battle of Midway. He's expressed interest, but doesn't have time during the traditional school year (too much to cover), and his summer "World War II" class spends most of the six week session on Europe.
This makes me sad.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Oct 20 21:22:42 2013 (GE6XS)
1
I only got around to watching it last year, after having the DVD box set sitting on my shelf for about a decade. The special effects have certainly aged, but it's a great series.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sat Oct 19 07:32:32 2013 (PiXy!)
An Important Message From the Creators of Kill la Kill
In the preview for next weeks episode the voice over is something along the lines of..
' If you're up this late watching anime you're going to have issues getting up in the morning, so don't stick around for the previews, go to bed! '
I gather then, that this is a late night show.
Who'd've thunk it?
I found it difficult to choose a screencap that adequately conveys the exuberant depravity of Kill la Kill...that I don't feel ashamed to post...so I'll just pander to a key demographic.
There's context...but it doesn't help.
Similarly, after watching this weeks episode, I find myself at a loss for words. Don is not so handicapped.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Fri Oct 18 12:20:55 2013 (PiXy!)
3
You won't find many bunyip warning signs, by the way. The bunyips eat them. In fact, a key indicator of bunyip presence is the absence of warning signs.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Fri Oct 18 12:26:11 2013 (PiXy!)
"You can Control POLES?!"
...and yet Poland has not been enslaved because Pyrrha is a good person...
...or perhaps Ruby has erred.
Pretty decent 5 minutes. We find out a couple of things...
Jaune got his untenable position somewhat mitigated...due to a fortuitous bear attack. It was further
established that he has a great deal of potential...which he doesn't quite grok. However he again demonstrated considerable bravery and integrity.
Additionally, both Pyrrha and Ruby
were explicitly stated to have superpowers. Rub'ys flash-step is apparently not a skill as such but a power akin to Weiss's runes. Pyrrha reveals hers to be "polarity".
I
liked how Pyrrha used her magnetism ability with great deft and subtly
giving Jaune that 18 inch shift that kept him from being decapitated
before he got in his death-blow.
I thought that was handled pretty nicely, Jaune does not lack
strength or guts but his defense is an established weakness, OTOH, he
really demonstrated that despite his problems he's both principled and
brave. The bit at the end was cute with the expression on Pyrrha's face
being sublime.
It really does seem to be a blending of American and Japanese tropes.
Explicitly stating that Ruby's speed is a power of some sort makes this
something of a superhero show (with strong anime and sentai overtones) A
very good case could also be made for the Chinese super-kung-fu category too.
Also: There was an ad for the RWBY DVD at the end. We're only 2 episodes away from the end of this season which gives the writers about 20 minutes to turn everything to worms.
1
Bah, it's no different from USSR really. Everything is prohibited, but enforcing is selective. If they don't find out or if your uncle is a police commissioner or a high-ranked Democrat, you're fiiiiine. Living in high Sierras or in Stockton lets you get away with anything.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Oct 16 09:58:47 2013 (qDzqR)
2
Forgot to add, my daughter's boyfriend was 1/32 Indian and lived out in Cali boonies. They pretty much spent their days blowing stuff up after school.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Oct 16 09:59:51 2013 (qDzqR)
Rediscovered Dr. Who (Troughton!)9 new Dr. Who Episodes were discovered earlier this year in Nigeria. The remastered versions were screened recently and they will be available for sale this week on iTunes.
Amongst them are Web of Fear
... a well regarded 6 part story which is the first appearance of the Brigadier and is actually the direct prequel to certain recent plot points in the current series.
Also discovered was Enemy of the World.
...which looks quite silly.
Despite their limited budgets, several of the Troughton and early Pertwee episodes used the black and white medium to great effect.
UPDATE!:
In the comments to this post, the Mysterious Mr. Will informed us that I
was sufficiently behind the curve that my "This week" was actually last
week. This means that the recently discovered Dr. Who episodes are on
iTunes now!
1
These were released last Thursday, so I had marathon on Saturday. "Web" is still missing episode #3, which (aside from a shot of his legs in #2) is the first appearance of Col. Lethbridge-Stewart. "Enemy" is being VERY well received. What we couldn't tell from the audio was just how well directed this one was. Oh, and all the Pertwee episodes were made in color. For awhile, only b&w copies survived of some of them, but they've all had their color restored for the DVD releases.
Posted by: Will at Mon Oct 14 19:56:30 2013 (ISbVo)
2
Thanks!
I did not know that.
I always thought that several of the Pertwee eps were B&W to begin with. My VHSs lied to me!
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Oct 14 20:14:44 2013 (DnAJl)
Their statement ends with the conclusion that the website will be operational again "once all self published eBooks have been removed and we are totally sure that there are no offending titles available.†When that will be, they did not say.
This is a gut-punch to the self published E-book industry and hurts a lot of authors. I certainly carry no brief for the subject matter and would not gripe if Amazon instituted a "no incest" policy, but this sweeping action is both lazy and hurtful. If it continues it will kill an emerging industry.
These are big companies, and they have a lot of employees. Some of those employees are going to look at this sort of thing and say "not at my business" and walk. Even people with no actual attachment to it... and you couldn't say they'd be wrong to do so. Would you be happy working for Valve if it turned out they had a Department of Baby Mulching?
And, even more importantly, they've got customers who think along the same lines. I can mentally compartmentalize and say "it's not a problem, buying manga and tchotchkes from a company which is also selling dinosaur porn," but not everyone is going to look at it like that... and, frankly, the amounts of money being spent by the easily-squicked are probably greater than the amounts of money being made by aficionados of dino porn, etc.
I can't even really blame Amazon etc. for what's going on. If you look down and see your pants are on fire, you don't carefully spritz the sections which are burning so you can keep the rest of them dry - you get out of the darn things and douse them thoroughly, even if it means showing your bum a little.
At the end of the day, big respectable companies can't really be all-comers markets with no eye towards what they're peddling.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Mon Oct 14 21:21:19 2013 (pWQz4)
That's a good point and as I said, it wouldn't bug me if they just said "NO! HELL NO!" to certain things.It's a private business. But the sweeping removal of all indie E-Books until they can be vetted strikes me as a bit worrisome.
As to what I'm gonna do? Lets see...probably go eat some chicken and then go play Fallout 3.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Oct 14 21:37:35 2013 (DnAJl)
Sap and the Refusal to Remain One Episode 13 of RWBY is a very brief (5 and a half minute), almost perfunctory bridge to set up what will no doubt be the resolution of the Jeaune Arc arc cour next week.
There are inconveniences, affronts and indignities that some will endure as they strive to achieve their dreams. There are also lines that one encounters on the path of ones life that are not to be crossed, beyond which redemption is impossible or at the very best hollow.
The truest measure of a man is not how behaves when all eyes are upon him, but rather what choices he makes when he is alone, terrified and outmatched, where his doing the right thing will never be known and will result in the shattering of his dreams and public disgrace.
Jaune is a dork...but he's more of a man than most.
It was also nice to see Ruby make an appearance in her own show...
The Freshest of Fresh Hells
Sarah Hoyt posts on how Harlequinesque erotica has been showing up in the darnedest places lately. After some speculation as to why this is, she has some encouraging words for prospective authors by providing an example of....
Rogue Planet
Astronomers have discovered another exo-planet. However, PSO J318.5-22 is a bit different from most....this planet is not orbiting any star. It is an orphan gas giant that was either cast into space or somehow formed alone.
Very much. Sounds like a brown dwarf, a category of object which amounts to "failed star". They form the same way stars do but don't have enough mass to ignite. They radiate infrared, but it's all energy from the formation process.
3
Sounds like it's below the usual size limit for a brown dwarf - brown dwarf stars are large enough to fuse deuterium, but too small to run the main-sequence carbon cycle. The cutoff is about 13x the mass of Jupiter, and this is about 6x.
A recent discovery is that there seems to be rather a lot of rogue planets out there, anything from a trillion to perhaps many quadrillion wandering about the Milky Way.
And it may not be cold at all. Just guessing, but at 6x the mass of Jupiter and only 12 million years old, it's probably still several hundred degrees in your temperature scale of choice.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sat Oct 12 21:01:28 2013 (PiXy!)
4
A universe full of rogue planets might account for the "Missing mass". So much for "Dark Matter".
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Oct 13 02:31:17 2013 (TJ7ih)
5
Well, dark matter is just matter that happens to be dark. If it's rogue planets, though, there has to be a lot of them, and they have to be mostly very very cold; I'm not sure if that fits in with astronomical data.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Oct 13 06:38:23 2013 (PiXy!)
6
Andre Norton said that rogue planets and asteroids drifting in interstellar space are where the smugglers hang out.
Of course, it could just be that somebody's disintegration ray did a very thorough job on the star, or that the planet was the only thing flung out of a black hole that ate its original system, or....
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Oct 13 12:45:46 2013 (cvXSV)
7
If it ain't in orbit around a star, it ain't a planet. Sounds more like a "sub-stellar object". Speaking of which, apparently the Oort Cloud isn't considered to be part of the solar system anymore? Since Voyager isn't even part-way through the Cloud, which pretty much starts at the heliopause?
Posted by: Mitch H. at Mon Oct 14 13:13:01 2013 (jwKxK)
8
There is some discussion on the breaking point between a brown dwarf and a gas giant. The article indicates that this is well below that zone of fuzzieness.
RE: Voagyer leaving the solsar system was actually a discovey. It turns out that the heliopause is on this side of the Oort cloud. The characteristics of interstellar space were thought to be quite different from planetary space. Voyager discovered that was true thus confirming the associated theory and locating the heliopause...at least in the direction Votager is flying.
I guess the Oort cloud orbits the solar system. I suppose given it's origin and the fact that it's influenced the sun's gravity that its considered part of the SS but it is in interstellar space.
I'm guessing that there is much discussion of this in the NASA nomenclature situation room.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Oct 14 14:09:19 2013 (DnAJl)
Banality Blogging: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Just a quick status update.
For those who are understandably disinterested, here is an unrelated image of 4 girls rotating.
1
Does your car insurance not cover towing, or were you out of range of a free tow or something? I have moderately meh insurance from Progressive that I can't wait to swap out but I can get something like a 10-mile tow for free.
Posted by: RickC at Sat Oct 12 14:49:55 2013 (swpgw)
2
You show 4 girls, but only 2 axes of rotation...
Posted by: Siergen at Sat Oct 12 15:19:20 2013 (c2+vA)
3
I was on the wrong side of one of the areas bridge tunnels which complicates things. The shop with my tire was far from the closest one. I was not eager to find out how expensive a complication it would be.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Oct 12 16:41:47 2013 (DnAJl)
4
"Kenneth" can mean "handsome, comely", but it's Scottish Gaelic and not English. (Baby name books tend to lie and misinform, unless they're the onomastics type that only linguists buy!)
It's actually the Anglicized pronunciation of two similar-sounding Scottish names: Cinaed (the name of the famous king of Dal Riada), and Cainnech (which like "Caomhgen" (Kevin) is one of the many Gaelic names using the stem word "handsome," but which actually implies good manners and a non-messy appearance.)
Cinaed, OTOH, has two etymologies and you can pick which one. The first element is probably "ceann" (physical head or leader). The second element is probably "aed" (fire), but it's possible that it's "eidigh" (ugly or armored) like the Kennedy name. (You're probably familiar with all the Aidan fire names.)
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Oct 13 13:18:17 2013 (cvXSV)
5
Oh, and it's often the Anglicized version of a particular Irish saint's name: St. Cainnech of Aghaboe, also known as St. Kenny and St. Canice. He worked in Scotland and Wales, and October 11th is his feastday.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Oct 13 13:44:14 2013 (cvXSV)
6
Oh, and I looked the word up in eDIL (the online version of the serious Irish language citation dictionary), and it turns out that Cainnech can also mean "kindly, charitable" when used in a religious sense. Which was probably why the guy from Aghaboe had the name, as a lot of early Irish saints changed their name to something religious when they became monks.
Kenneth's a good name. Very layered.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Oct 13 13:57:19 2013 (cvXSV)
Kill La Kill Status ReportEpisode 2 takes a very brief break from the manic energy of the first episode for about 4 minutes of useful exposition and a big plate of mealworms, before fully recapturing the supersonic pacing and squalid depravity that so appalled us last week.
As an added bonus the show provides the most unsettling and painful looking magical girl transformation sequence in the history of...ever.
Ouch... Ouch I say...
So...yes...this one's still firing on all cylinders.
Arabs Claim Major Breakthrough in Gaydar TechnologyNo really....
A medical test being developed by
Kuwait will be used to 'detect' homosexuals and prevent them from
entering the country – or any of the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC),
according to a Kuwaiti government official.
Given the glaring lack of any indigenous LGBTWMDs their defense priorities seem dubious as it is unlikely that their Advanced Gaydar Array will provide any early warning or defense capabilities against the mass casualty weapons being developed by the Iranians (who consider them all infidels).
But hey....with gaydar....the slash writes itself.
1
Meh. Odds are good they're just doing it to humiliate the "Gay Mafia", which has been flexing their muscles harassing harmless Pasta companies........
Posted by: Robert Mitchell Jr. at Mon Oct 7 18:44:11 2013 (MNAY3)
2
I don't think they care about the overreach or bullying by the gay left. In fact, I don't think their gaydar will even work.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Oct 7 18:54:52 2013 (DnAJl)
3
I think I remember that there was a claim that the fiendish Israelis (or maybe it was the Americans) had created a gas weapon which converted heterosexual men to homosexuals. Wasn't there something like that?
Bodacious Light NovelsJ. Greely over at Dot Clue is reading the Miniskirt Pirates light novels examining the differences between them and the Bodacious Space Pirates anime as he goes.
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!!
Ouch I say...
