1Apologies for the content deficit gentle readers.
There's nothing to apologize for--you've got more important things to deal with right now. Keep your chin up, do what you gotta do to get through the next two weeks, and we'll be here waiting for free entertainment in the new year.
Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at Tue Dec 13 22:09:26 2016 (jS1F0)
Sic Itur Ad Astra
War hero, test pilot, senator and the first American to orbit the Earth; John Glenn has passedaway at 95.
95 is a ripe old age and he certainly lived a full life. It is terrible, however, to loose such a storied and august individual.
What is, in some ways, more terrible still, is that, so many years after his pioneering flight, he did not have the option of an off-planet hospice. With Senator Glenn, the last of the Mercury astronauts has passed, and we are rapidly approaching a point where no living person will have walked on the moon; a rather retrograde development.
The animated short in the post below sums up the attitude of much of the United States in the early 1940's. It's not an unreasonable point of view. War is an obscene thing. 24 years earlier the country had entered a "War to End All Wars" which had, in the intervening years provided, as a case study in the wretchedness of war, thousands of men in what should have been the prime of their lives, missing limbs, blind or otherwise maimed by bullets, shrapnel, fire, and gas. The intervening years had seen numerous "police actions" in Central America, each of which had looked an awful lot like a war; ie; that thing those men had been maimed in the hopes of ending for all time.
Most Americans with names not ending in Roosevelt wanted nothing to do with war. And so the pacifists, with help from the German American Bund and the communists (well, until 22 June 1941) all loudly proclaimed the disdain the American people had for war. From the papers to the radio to films as seen below and even the pulpits, the cry of "No More War!" was heard throughout the land.
However, when a sincere desire for peace becomes a nationwide cry from the rooftops it can be misinterpreted. Trotsky's quip, "You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you. " is quite true, and war is especially interested in places where pacifism becomes loud virtue signaling, as it can signal, instead of virtue, cowardice, or at the very least a lack of resolve.
And so, those who looked for such signals interpreted them accordingly. The Americans were not going going to sell them oil because Americans did not want to support those who waged war...because Americans hated war....Americans hated war...so this was the time to strike.
And strike they did, 75 years ago today.
U.S.S. California goes down. Note the sailors in the water.
14inch guns of U.S.S. Pennsylvania silhouetted by the explosion of U.S.S. Shaw.
Battleship Row Burns.
Identifying the bodies pulled from the sunken ships.
Within a few years, those men, and far too many of their subjects discovered to their horror that a disdain for war is not a sign of cowardice, or weakness.
Too loudly proclaiming it however, can cary a terrible price for everyone involved.
1
That was weird and creepy.
Also, they didn't explain the wartime genetic engineering of animals....
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Dec 5 20:39:58 2016 (S0Svy)
2
I though that I might be the last person in the USA who remembers <i>Rock and Rule</i>. I'm glad to learn that I was wrong.
"My Name is Mok", music video: https://youtu.be/Ndfosrud75A
Posted by: Blue Crab at Tue Dec 6 15:47:17 2016 (+156S)
REPORT: Sarah Hoyt Has Been Hospitalized (Possible Heart Attack)
There is no further info at this time. The info comes via my friend Bob's Facebook feed.
Hopefully, this will end up being nothing more than a reset of the blog's Time Since Last Total Fact Check Casualty counter from 5 years and 67 days to zero.
UPDATE:The report is confirmed. Fortunately, it is confirmed by Mrs. Hoyt. It looks like she may need a pacemaker or something.(Thanks to Rick C. in the comments.)
2
She just posted an update on her own blog. Note: I am using the built-in editor's link inserter feature, and not putting in a bare link.https://accordingtohoyt.com/2016/12/02/i-am-alive/
"I feel stupid and guilty for letting my body get out of line and encouraging it in its nonsense. But they’re keeping me under observation till tomorrow, and I can’t even type with this thing on my finger. And I’m worrying my family.
So. That’s where I am. More when I can type."
Worrisome but if she's able to snark she will hopefully be OK.
Posted by: RickC at Fri Dec 2 19:41:11 2016 (ITnFO)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Dec 2 20:01:04 2016 (1zM3A)
4
Also: Rick C., what browser are you using? 'cause...your linkypoo defenestrated itself.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Dec 2 20:06:03 2016 (1zM3A)
5
Chrome 54 on Windows 10. Pixy said there seems to be a problem with the editor with some recent browser versions, and is looking into the issue and to see if there's an update for the editor.
Posted by: RickC at Fri Dec 2 20:24:46 2016 (ITnFO)
6
They've discontinued the editor we're using, but they've released a shiny new one, which I've now purchased and will install soon.
Also went over to Amazon and picked up her Darkship Thieves series. Needed something to read anyway.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sat Dec 3 02:52:04 2016 (PiXy!)
7
Apparently not really a heart attack, but a combination of other factors, including dehydration. From her FB: I'm much better. This seems to have been a synergy of my auto-immune
weirdness and pathologically low blood pressure and heart rate (like
high is in the fifties. Yep, I AM a zombie.)
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Dec 4 02:22:56 2016 (5Ktpu)
1
Ugh. I ordered a computer from Amazon and an SSD from Newegg over the weekend. The computer will supposedly ship on Monday, and arrive Monday-Thursday. The SSD I ordered on the 26th and still hasn't been shipped. So much for 3-day shipping.
Since is the first stuff I've ordered online in months, I don't know if I just got unlucky twice, or if it's really bad this year.
Posted by: Rick C at Thu Dec 1 01:03:55 2016 (ITnFO)
2
So how many more Xmas seasons till you finish school? As I recall, you only have a couple left, though they are infrequently scheduled...
Posted by: Siergen at Thu Dec 1 15:59:23 2016 (fqStN)
"Her claims to be a 'queer Muslim' are probably part of an act designed to fit into as many victim categories as humanly possible," Adams elaborates. "Sometimes I wonder whether LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Thespian. So much drama, so few letters in the alphabet."
Peter Grant notes someone who anticipates a crappy board game.
What would you do if you could change one thing about the past; if you could undo one action (or inaction) that had precipitated a cruelty that's caused heartbreak and torment all the days since then?
Would such a miracle, picking at that central thread of a person's life, unravel the tapestry of events that created who that person is (or was)?
Would it reduce formerly dynamic and driven people to directionless husks of themselves without any of the things that had inspired them to strive and stand out?
Or would it be awesome....with a giant robot fighting for justice...
that one time.
What if the only sane person you regularly interact with is your evil nemesis, the the leader of the magical autism squad?
" I wonder if this is what hell is like?"
What's it like in hell anyway?
Flip Flappers....I've got no idea what this series is about. But, I'm going with this for now...
This show is cute, it's whimsical, it's high-octane nightmare fuel and it is brilliantly put together.
It is also blazing new trails in the fashion and technology of legwear.
It is NOT however, a reliable, peer reviewed source of information on rabbit anatomy.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Nov 29 03:07:14 2016 (PiXy!)
2
I'll have to go check it again, last time I ran into the limits of what CR will show me without money. (And considering how long I go without watching things sometimes, money would be poorly spent.).
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Nov 29 22:37:48 2016 (5Ktpu)
Posted by: Don at Tue Nov 29 23:05:44 2016 (iFXhh)
4
There's even fan art of that kinky villainess from the (third?) episode. I actually found out her name from the Gelboro tags, although I've forgotten it now.
Posted by: Mauser at Thu Dec 1 00:26:58 2016 (5Ktpu)
1
If the Lady was not dressed I'd say it was the scene from Excalibur where Arthur thrusts Excalibur into 'the spine of the dragon'. Hilarious is not Guinevere, but the image fits, no?
Posted by: Thomas at Sun Nov 27 16:18:54 2016 (C3Ma+)
2
I recognized it right away. It's the ending of Carrie, the dream sequence when she reaches up out of the remains of her home to grab the arm of her classmate, Sue.
"The terrible nightmare is coming back" seems to be how Drudge was using it...
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Nov 27 17:21:03 2016 (vZvpB)
3
Oh good grief you're right. How did I miss that?
Your geek fu has bested me this day
So here:
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Nov 27 19:11:10 2016 (KicmI)
4
I was about to say, "Dude, that's from Carrie, when she comes back from allegedly being dead to claim another life."
It has to be significant that even a lot of the Left are shying away from this effort. It's a dead end, originally cooked up as a "ride the wave" fundraising effort for the Green Party. But, Hillary is completely and thoroughly cooked, at this point. At least as an active player in premiere politics. She's not going to prison, even if she's EVER found guilty of anything, and she will still peddle access and influence...but even then, her primary role is granting access to Bill.
That has to steam her up so badly.
Posted by: Ben at Sun Nov 27 22:22:52 2016 (S4UJw)
5
The dirty trick I heard about is this. By starting a recount, especially this late, the results might not be certified in time for the Electoral college, taking the Electors of those three states off the table, getting Trump below 270, and forcing the election to the Congress. This would further delegitimize Trump's presidency.
Posted by: Mauser at Mon Nov 28 00:23:03 2016 (5Ktpu)
(This comes via Ace's sidebar, which caused me to click on it thinking that it was surely some tortured analogy for what was likely a political story. Alas...)
Your Weekly Stupid
President elect Trump has not given the impression that he has any sort of coherent philosophical vision beyond trolling, but he does seem to be interested in reform, if only out of spite. At the happy intersection of spitefulness and reform, he seems to have made the decision to cut the earth observation budget and focus NASA on...get this...space exploration!
I do not immediately despise this plan, especially since this will free up around 10% of NASA's budget to focus on exploration and space operations, combined with the proposed cancelling of SLS and Orion, this could potentially free up 40% of NASA's budget for such things.
This would allow a major increase in efforts to utilize space resources (ie: mining asteroids), and move towards space settlement.
1
He didn't have to insult ponies, but the point is well made. The actual Alt-Right is very small and very loud *right now*, because they hitched their wagon onto a populist endeavor that attached many, many people. However, even Trump is (finally) distancing himself from them. I think it's already fairly obvious to those who wish to see that the "down with the Jews" chants never extend past one or two people. And it's not at all clear if even those people are genuine or not.
Posted by: Ben at Thu Nov 24 12:25:29 2016 (B1bvu)
There Are Those Who Believe...
...that because the menace of monkeys that is portrayed in the previous post's embedded video is, somewhat exaggerated, that it follows that monkeys are harmless.
This is a fallacy.
To wit.
According to residents and local reports, the latest bout of violence erupted between two tribes after an incident in which a monkey that belonged to a shopkeeper from the Gaddadfa tribe attacked a group of schoolgirls who were passing by.
1
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the endgame of "identity politics," wherein there is no concept of "Libyan" worth a damn, but "my tribe" is all-important.
Substitute "American" for "Libyan" and you have their goal.
Posted by: ubu at Mon Nov 21 13:52:20 2016 (SlLGE)
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!!
