July 05, 2013
...comic book publisher Image Comics announced at its Image Expo convention that it will now sell all of its digital comics as downloadable via its website for both desktop and mobile users, making it the first major U.S. publisher to offer DRM-free digital versions of comics. Readers can even choose the file format they prefer: PDFs, EPUBs, CBRs or CBZs.
There is more on this happy development here.
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It will also get you fired, 'cause it's TOTALLY not safe for work....and as for me? Well, I'm going to that special hell for linking to it.
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That is, I figured that it could not possibly be as reported.
Because it's a story about a third amendment violation.
I mean REALLY. Is there ever going to be an issue with the government quartering troops in peoples houses?
So this had to be a mistake. It was surely going to be debunked and...
Oh...
LAS VEGAS (CN) - Henderson police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors, the family claims in court.
Anthony Mitchell and his parents Michael and Linda Mitchell sued the City of Henderson, its Police Chief Jutta Chambers, Officers Garret Poiner, Ronald Feola, Ramona Walls, Angela Walker, and Christopher Worley, and City of North Las Vegas and its Police Chief Joseph Chronister, in Federal Court.
Henderson, pop. 257,000, is a suburb of Las Vegas.
The Mitchell family's claim includes Third Amendment violations, a rare claim in the United States. The Third Amendment prohibits quartering soldiers in citizens' homes in times of peace without the consent of the owner.
"What is happening to the country?"
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July 04, 2013
235 years ago today the 13
southernmost of England's North American colonies sent representatives
to Philadelphia to discuss what to do about the various political
disputes they had had with London...disputes that had been festering for
a decade.
One of these representatives, Benjamin Franklin, had spent 11 years in London trying to resolve these disputes. He had attempted to, amongst other things:
*set up a process for the colonists to elect MPs.
*represent their interests in policy discussions
*relay the London perspective back to the colonies.
While he was in England, Franklin
was increasingly treated not as a representative, but an ambassador
from a hostile nation. Finally, in 1774, he received an audience with the Solicitor General ostensibly to try to resolve the issue, but in fact for a public humiliation before the Privy council. He was called everything but a
child of God, told his people were nothing more than subjects who were
not entitled to representation of any sort. He was summarily dismissed.
One of the most respected
Britons of his age had gone to bring the nation closer together and
returned convinced it was not possible. He'd seen firsthand how similar policies had ruined Ireland and he was determined not to have that happen to his home.
Things had already deteriorated in the colonies when Franklin got back. The battles of Lexington and Concord had come to pass and Franklin was appointed to join a group of Delegates to discuss what to do about the situation.
The various delegates
conferred and decided on a course of action. On July 4th they announced and published multiple copies of their
conclusion and the reasons they had reached it.
It bears remembering that
they did not come to their very difficult conclusion lightly .
Their statement is below.
Today is the day we celebrate their difficult, but demonstrably fortuitous decision.
It is also a time to
reflect on the fact that Washington imposes a far greater degree of
interference in our day to day lives than Lord North ever contemplated.
However, it
is equally important to remember that the founders provided us with the very
tool Lord North had denied them; the ballot box.
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 Provnce, 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 McKeanNew 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:
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July 03, 2013
Wait...Those aren't cluster-bombs!
The Egyptian people seem to be taking the military takeover rather well. The Military does not seem to be rolling over the civilians with tanks and the Muslim Brotherhood seems to have lost resoundingly.
I expected far worse.
The military has suspended the constitution...which is usually an even bigger warning sign than a coup, but in this case the constitution had been recently imposed by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The military leadership has not established a Junta (yet) but has put the Chief Justice of their Supreme court in charge of a civilian panel that has been tasked with running the country and organizing new elections.
This is interesting:
A senior opposition figure says pro-reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei, the top Muslim cleric of Al-Azhar Mosque and the Coptic pope are meeting the army chief to discuss a political road map for Egypt
So the Copts and the Muslims are working together with the secularists and the military to hold democratic elections after deposing a democratically elected government that turned out to be oppressive and fundamentalist Islamic .
There's a concise overview of how this came to be here.
This is not exactly Kemalist as there are religious leaders at the table, but it at least looks like the military is trying to avoid having to run things themselves, and is handing it over to civilian civic leaders which is very promising.
Zero Hedge has some interesting pictures of the protests that are not making it into most of the news here. They show extreme anger at Obama and the US Ambassador to Egypt for backing the Islamofascistic whackadoodle who just got deposed. This via Instapundit who points out that it's telling that the posters are anti-Obama and not anti-US.
This could still go to worms in a terrible and bloody way, but at this point this is about the least bad outcome one could reasonably expect.
UPDATE: Via Ace, comes video of the celebrations.
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July 02, 2013
The US experience with wind farms has left over 14,000 wind turbines abandoned and slowly decaying,
Let's go to the Brickmuppet's crack team of science babes for commentary.
Windmills are NOT the future. Build...more...nukes.
'Science Babe' is actually Misha, from Katawa Shoujo.
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More here:
At least 150 pre-fabricated skyscrapers from Central Station to Strathfield, conveyor belts shuttling building materials above Ultimo, train lines ripped up for new ones underground, and much of the steel and concrete shipped from China, with an army of international workers assembling it all for a pittance.
The novel project could have been Sydney's had the O'Farrell government been just a bit more expansive in its thinking.
Perhaps instead of 'more expansive' 'less prudent' would be a more appropriate descriptor in that last sentence.
I've noted this tactic from China before, most notably in places like Columbo and their 'string of pearls' , but also in The Canal zone, Bahamas and San Diego.
I'm sure that none of those places will find they have listening devices, basic facilities for naval bases or changes in contract terms at any point in the future. No sirreee.
Full disclosure: That last paragraph is a combination of sarcasm, paranoia and vigilance in uncertain proportions.
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July 01, 2013
Saturday night I made the trek out to Virginia Beach where a friend and I went to Gus and George's, one of that cities few remaining old fashioned steakhouses. The purpose of this journey was to partake of their Romanian Steak...which defies mot attempts to adequately convey its awesomeness. In this our mission was successful and we delighted in our consumption of the marinated flesh of the cowbeast.
Unfortunately, as the night became morning, the brakes on my car began to feel progressively more and more ..."odd". I was able to brake...with effort...but something was wrong. I had brake fluid, it didn't feel like the master cylinder had gone, there was no grinding..so after dropping my friend off at his house and convincing him to watch Gargantia, I headed home...wherapon the brakes became basically useless, so I decided to head towards the repair shop.
At this point I should mention that the sound of a safety brake cable snapping when the lever is pulled up violently is that of a loud chirp and is accompanied by a loss of all resistance in the brake lever. In my limited experience it is also accompanied by profanity, evasive maneuvers and downshifting....which in an automatic involves unpleasant and expensive sounding noises.
Anyway, the car is still in the shop as I type this...which is why i could not find my normal set of keys at 03:30 this morning when I went to work and why I had so much trouble finding where I'd parked.
Now as I ponder the lessons learned today, I look with some satisfaction upon the front door key that now graces my spare set of car keys.
Despite my unforced errors I did get to work.
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Heads are exploding.
Cause or effect?
You be the judge.
While we ponder that, I'll just leave this Miko Miko Dance selection here.
I don't think those two costumes are the regular Touhou skins. Given the detail they are really impressive
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June 30, 2013
More here and here. Reuters is putting the number of protestors above a million people....almost all Muslims, protesting against Islamism.
This is really a big thing,
There's even a slight chance it might overcome the odds and end up a good thing.
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Well, what's there to gripe about?
There's a slight reduction in the animation quality in episode 11 & the first part of 12. There was a scene where one character was way off model and there was that gratuitous moment of yuck in episode 5....
Yeah...I think that sums up all my complaints.... now the good points.
This has been one of the more enjoyable shows in recent years.
It's nicely paced with likeable characters, gorgeous art, and at times, near movie quality production values. It's a substantive show too, touching on themes of ethics, honor, redemption and the extraordinary and irreplaceable value of liberty.
Gargantia goes to some dark places, but it never succumbs to nihilism. It is saved from that by the general decency of most of its characters and the fact that the show never loses its sense of hope.
When not dealing with challanges that range from the silly to the venal to the epic, it focuses on life in one of the most pleasant, visually interesting and from all appearances liveable fantasy/ sci-fi worlds in recent memory; a world that in almost every episode managed to surprise.
Beautifully presented, and well thought out, Gargantia on the Verduous Planet is inspiring, thrilling and ultimately quite pleasant. It also manages to pull off a thoroughly satisfying ending which is a pretty rare thing.
This ones a real gem.
Gen Urobochi is the writer, Kazuya Murata is the director, Koji Tanaka is the art director, Naruko Hannaharu did the character designs and the Music Director is Taro Iwashiro. They all bear watching in the future.
Note that there will be at least one OAV( Released with the BD set)
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The crew of Soyuz 11 docked with the very first space station (Salyut 1) and stayed in orbit for 23 days, setting a space endurance record before they were forced to cut short their mission due to an electrical fire on the station.
During the re-entry of the Soyuz 11 capsule , there was a loss of radio contact, but the spacecraft landed quite normally in Kazakhstan.
Tragically, when the recovery team arrived however, they found that a pressure release valve had opened during reentry and exposed the crew to the vacuum of space. They were not wearing pressure suits. Despite the best efforts of the recovery team to revive them, Georgiy Timofeyevich Dobrovolsky, Viktor Ivanovich Patsayev and Vladislav Nikolayevich Volkov had died on re-entry.
As terrible as this was, it bears remembering that if the boundaries of the future are allowed to be set by the, the timid, or far worse, those who would presume to forbid others from striving for great things...then our future will be a dark age. The human race is fortunate to have people such as these who will step into the breach and attempt great deeds.
They deserve to be remembered.
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June 29, 2013
I'm not able...
What the HELL am I looking at?
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As we head into the climactic episode on Sunday, I have a few random thoughts on this weeks Gargantia installment.
Because there's just a lot to like....
more...
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June 27, 2013
His June has SUCKED.
Good grief. He had a VASTLY worse run-in with Annies theologist than I did. Damn cultists. Fortunately he's alive and recovering, but its looking to be a long road.
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June 25, 2013
Yeah, things are not going well for our would be giant slayers. At the end of last episode, everything pretty much went to worms and this has a sort of cascade effect, so they just cannot seem to get a break.
Nicely paced with an even better than usual score, episode 12 is an enthralling three ring circus and the show seems to be well and truly back on track.
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I gather that "Operation Senkaku" is a new model line.
I note that this kit does not show up on their English language website.
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June 23, 2013
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Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet is not quite the show we thought it was, it's in no way the show we thought it had become in episode 9, and given the amazing (yet perfectly convincing) surprises and misdirections the writer has thrown at us though the whole series, I'm unprepared at this point to predict what kind of show it will turn out to be. However, It is looking really, really good right now. My only quibble with this episode is that is that IGOTTAWAITAWHOLEWEEK4THENEXTONE!
They could still screw it up, but right now It looks like Madoka was no fluke.
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June 19, 2013
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