August 12, 2015
The Sheer SCALE
of the blasts in Tianjin made clear by the buildings in these videos.
This looks to be at least as bad as Texas City or Black Tom.
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Desperation Can Lead to Poor Choices
Nations that are under stress from within or without have historically been prone to attempt unifying their populations and ameliorating or postponing their economic reckoning by military adventure.
In other news...there is this.
....Russia is within the perfect storm of an economic crisis. So, the Russian economy started stagnating in 2013. It was never really able to recover after the 2008-2009 recession, and in 2013 the economy really started to slow down. It's just grinding to almost a halt outside of energy. And so that was the very start of it. Then we had 2014 happen. The situation between the West and Russia over Ukraine eventually, of course, led to sanctions. And then, at the same time as sanctions against Russia, we had oil prices pretty much fall in half. And so it was multiple items put together, in which you had the Russian economy just take a nosedive over the past year and a half.
To the southeast of Russia, China is devaluing its currency.
The wild couple of days in the currency market compounded the damage already done by July’s stock market crash to the Communist Party and President Xi Jinping’s reputation as competent stewards of the country’s economy. Xi has amassed unprecedented political control and eliminated potential rivals through a massive crackdown on both corruption and political dissent. That might be all fine by Chinese citizens as long as the government continues to provide strong economic growth, but it works less well when the government seems incompetent on economic matters. The "Chinese dream†Xi has promised citizens includes not just national greatness but personal wellbeing.
However, despite this, the Chinese government is still hoarding oil....
More than 80 million barrels of new strategic reserve capacity is scheduled to start operations this year, and China will continue purchases to fill those tanks, according to Chauhan.
...and are saying that they may be the worlds largest oil importer this year.
North Korea has the advantage that its economy is already rock bottom and has nowhere to collapse to. However, the drought is causing problems for a country where forestry is serious business.
Naturally, the hermit kingdom is ramping up its uranium enrichment and mining as well as making noises about another nuclear test in October.
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August 11, 2015
I...Oh Dear.
This has to be one of the most sublime juxtapositions of win and derp, ever.
more...
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More RWBY News
All for the moment! Stay tuned for more RT Animation announcements throughout the RTX2015 weekend!
Ahem.
In other news...
...Volume 3 casting announcements:
- Winter Schnee will be voiced by Elizabeth Maxwell (Major Kusanagi from "Ghost in the Shell: Arise")
- Uncle Qrow will be voiced by Vic Mignogna (Edward Elric from "Fullmetal Alchemist")
- Ren will be voiced by Monty's brother, Neath Oum
There is still no projected release date, but the cast additions certainly indicate that the third season is not vaporware.
more...
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August 10, 2015
The Alien Battle Station We Call Ceres Continues Slowly Charging Its Main Gun
One of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes discusses the continuing mystery of the bright spots on Ceres.
"When I find out who put that damned, irresponsible, Hoaglandesque post title over MY head. I am going to break my foot of in their a.."
Oh dear.
In lieu of expert commentary, we will go with the short, quick version:
No one has a good explanation for the glowy bits.
Note that "pyramid" is a bit dramatic. It appears to be a steep sided mountain...that glows.
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August 09, 2015
Double Shifts
...are in my future, probably until school starts.
Here is a gimmick that falls rather short of actually providing original content: YouTubery.
First, while I have lamented my having to work through my vacation, it is financially fortuitous. Sakuya here provides yet more reasons to be thankful.
The latest MMD upgrade (Version 9.23) looks pretty impressive.
It appears that they've fixed that, umm, bug the older versions sometimes had animating skirts.
It appears that they've fixed that, umm, bug the older versions sometimes had animating skirts.
Given the exuberantly elaborate costumes many of the Touhou characters wear, I was looking forward to seeing how this new upgrade would look animating those outfits.
Alas...
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August 08, 2015
Ringlets
They are called ringlets.
I did not know that.
From episode 6 of GATE, which is educational as well as entertaining.
Also: Don called it.
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A Wacky School Outing
The latest episode of School Live continues last week's flashback to the club's first field trip...to the local mall.
Now, our heroines have a very specific list of things they are supposed to get, (mostly in the hardware dept). Naturally, they hit music stores, clothing stores and try on bathing suits.
Hijinx ensue...
"We did NOT break any of these. That is our story and we are sticking to it!"
The pacing in this episode is a bit off, but it remained thoroughly entertaining (the John Carpenteresque soundtrack was inspired). there are some questions raised though.
As always with this show please avail yourself of the spoiler tags in the comments.
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August 06, 2015
OK This is REALLY Neat!
Here is an animation of the moon crossing the Earth from a million miles away. Note the lack of rabbits on the far side of the moon.
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Vacation DENIED
Yeah, there's been a LOT of perfunctory posting recently.
As "blog" theoretically means Biographical log, for those interested, there is a disquisition on the banal reasons for this extended programming anomaly below the fold.
As compensation, here, courtesy of GATE, (this season's surprisingly enjoyable and intelligent fantasy) is Tuka, Chuka or possibly Tsuka.
However her name is transliterated, the art is by Otono Fei.
more...
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August 05, 2015
OK This is Neat
An old ad for the Seawolf amphibian variant that was aimed at military customers. I'm skeptical about the claim this you tuber made in the title, but I particularly like the boarding operation at 7:00 and "ninja mode" at 8:25.
This would be my dream plane.
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August 04, 2015
Post Title Goes In This Field: Remember, Post Titles Should Be Short, Only Two Or Three Words And Be Humorous If Appropriate And Possible, However, Above All They Should Be Relevant To The Topic Of The Associated Post. For Frack's Sake Don't Write A Whole Friccking Paragraph.AND DON'T FORGET THE POST TITLE! Thank You.Management.
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How Much Will 150 Billion Dollars Buy?
Obviously, production and sales tax issues aside, one could purchase 150 billion of those sketchy Dollar Tree steaks. However, one would not be Iran, which is getting 150 billion in frozen assets freed up as part of the deal to...ummm....slow their acquisition of nukes.
Anyway, it is rumored that they have made some interesting purchases:
150 Chinese J-10 fighters (Guestimated at 5.625 billion)
250 Russian SU-30 Strike fighters (Guestimated at 9.375 billion)
100(!) Russian IL 78 refueling tankers (Guestimated at 3.5 billion)
That is a hell of a lot of planes. It's an especially large number of tankers, though if they are serious about power projection 4 fighters per tanker is not unrealistic...it just means the Iranians have given a lot of thought to logistics and other non-flashy assets an air-force needs.
The cost estimates come from Wikipedia and Global security and are WAGs only that don't take into account associated ordinance purchases, training or fuel costs. However, 18.5 billion leaves a lot of wiggle room for these and other pointy, sharp things before 150 billion is reached and its not like the 150 billion is their budget...it's extra.
A few things about this story.
Iran can't actually take delivery for a few years under the terms of the agreement and it's likely that most of the planes couldn't be built /delivered for some time anyway. However a chunk of the Chinese order (and possibly the Russian one as well) actually appears to be a preexisting order from 2007, which was frozen because of the sanctions, so its possible that some of the planes have been built and also conceivable that the ex-post facto nature of the arrangement could allow delivery sooner than normally allowed. That is unclear, but the deal is so full of unpleasantness that it is not beyond the realm of possibility.
This story itself is thinly sourced. It has popped up in a couple of places, but it seems to always refer back to the DEBKA story or a Wall Street Journal article currently behind a paywall. However, It is well within Iran's financial means and similar numbers of planes were being ordered in 2007 so it is very plausible.
This story also gives some idea of what a windfall Iran has gotten irrespective of the nuclear aspects of the deal by having its assets unfrozen. In adjusted dollars this is a slightly bigger infusion of cash than The Marshall Plan was for Europe.
Oy.
Dennis Prager has a good overview of the situation....
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Giant Minion Causes Chaos on Dublin Road
That's the headline...
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A Dispatch From the Department of Derp
Dustbury has discovered yet another reason to be wary of Windows 10 beyond the concerns about its security or the worries that it permanently "upgrades" your computer to telescreen mode.
The Windows 10 error screen...
"Well, that's...helpful"
Compounding these problems is the fact that Microsoft can't count. This is either the thirteenth or the seventeenth edition of Windows depending on how one counts. Neither of those numbers is equal to 10.
It get's worse. As we all remember, following the new numbering system adopted after Vista, the last edition was Eight which means that in REALITY, we're discussing...
All of Microsoft's desperate obfuscations cannot save them from mockery by anonymous Touhou fans.
Nineball was unavailable for comment.
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August 03, 2015
Meanwhile, In Remnant
Pyrrha Nikos by Iesupo
In other news, Rooster Teeth has hired You Tuber Dillon Gu as an animator on RWBY, a show about which there have been precious few announcements since the one regarding the resumption of production. Obviously, Project Monty is on the back burner now, but it is still an ongoing endeavor.
Completely unconfirmed scuttlebut sourced to people who have claimed they talked to Rooster Teeth employees is that the third volume of RWBY will NOT premiere at RTX this year but that it is tentatively scheduled for late fall or early winter.
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A Few Things That Make One Just Throw Up Ones Hands And Go Watch Cartoons
It is part of a general pattern of deterioration of India/ Pakistan relations..
For many, the major concern regarding the high octane nightmare fuel that is Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is loose nukes getting into the hands of one of the many Islamist organizations that operate in the country with and without official sanction. For instance:
PESHAWAR, Pakistan—Six leading figures of the Pakistani Taliban pledged allegiance to the terror group ISIS, one of them claimed in an audio message released Tuesday.
(There is no word on their position regarding Lion hunting.)
However, the possibility of Pakistan straight up using their atomic weapons in a war is nontrivial. A lethal 12 hour long gunfight in an Indian border town has thrown tinder on the hot-plate that is India and Pakistan's relationship. This despite the fact that no lions were harmed during the incident.
It is part of a general pattern of deterioration of India/ Pakistan relations..
Conditions are ripe for a crisis in this strained environment, even more so if a terrorist attack on Indian soil—such as Monday’s—is traced back to extremist groups supported by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). These rising tensions make crisis management more difficult and increase the risk of a conflict with nuclear dimensions.
Pakistan and India have been to war several times and Pakistan's statement that they consider battlefield nuclear weapons to be legitimate equalizers should certainly give one pause since once nukes start popping off all in a conflict where both sides have them, all sorts of nastiness is likely to ensue.
Here is an estimate of the soot cloud that would be generated by 100 nuclear weapons of 15 kiloton yield going off over cities.
The scale on the bottom measures reduction in watts per square meter.
These estimates tend to lean towards the pessimistic, however, this study assumes blast yields somewhere between approximately one half and one quarter those of the underground tests the countries have conducted and since both countries had stockpiles of around 100 weapons in 2011 (and have been building them up since) the number of blasts modeled is perhaps half what one would see in a real war. It concludes that growing seasons would be reduced between 10 days and a month in many parts of the world.
Smoke emissions of 100 lowyield urban explosions in a regional nuclear conflict would generate substantial globalscale climate anomalies, although not as large as in previous "nuclear winterâ€scenarios for a full-scale war (11, 12). However, indirect effects on surface land temperatures, precipitation rates, and growing season lengths (see figure, page1225) would be likely to degrade agricultural productivity to an extent that historically has led to famines in Africa, India, and Japan after the 1783 1784 Laki eruption (13) or in the northeastern United States and Europe after the Tambora eruption of 1815
This does not include estimates of ozone layer depletion which might persist for as much as 5 years. These models should be taken with a grain of salt of course, but it is apparent that if India and Pakistan go at it full on it would cause problems worldwide.
There has been little coverage of the deteriorating situation between the two nations in the U.S. media which is remarkable given that many of the hypothetically targeted cities in the studies contain zoos, which in turn might contain....lions.
***********
Fortunately, no negative impact upon any lions is considered imminent, hence the lack of interest by the media.
Ukranian 'rebels' are reportedly building a dirty bomb, ie: a conventional explosive laced with radioactive substances to increase its lethality, or at least fear inducing effect. Like everything coming out of the confused region this should be treated with some skepticism, especially since the media has determined that it does not merit extensive coverage despite the fact that, if true it would be an obvious threat to the proud people eating lions of Kiev.
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Puerto Rico is defaulting on its debts. This is the U.S. Greece, fortunately no lions seem to have been harmed.
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China's stocks fell 29% in July. This is having some ripple effects, but may, in the short term, lower the number of Chinese businessmen able to pay for safaris to hunt lions.
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Poaching lions is a thing worthy of notice, but when the Jews start to flee a nation, it is warning sign of dreadful ugliness in the works .
************
A hitchiking robot has been mauled beyond repair in the city of brotherly love. No lions have been implicated at this time.
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August 02, 2015
That Comment Problem
I've been informed that people not logged into Mee.nu have been getting the following message when they attempt to comment:
COMMENT REJECTED BY AKISMET
I inquired to Pixy as to why my commentors were being harassed by what appeared to be an obscure Egyptian god.
Pixy informed me that he was able to acquire the services of the Egyptian god of what translates very loosely as spam busting for a remarkably reasonable rate.
Unfortunately, this had unforeseen consequences as the contract required that all mee.nu users be registered as "Members of the Temple" and those who are not member be registered as "Unaffiliated". Fortunately, none of our commentors were sent to Duat before the issue was discovered (except for Wonderduck...He got better).
Pixy has made arrangements so that non-menuvians can comment by presenting offerings of hieroglyphics via captcha. Note that since Egyptian gods have not been in the deity business since the abdication of Nectanebo the second, and in any event, as this is "payment" for admission to a secular web service, it is not actually considered apostay.
Anyway...The comments should be fixed and we have captcha now.
Art by Abusoru, who, to the best of our knowledge, has at no point denied this is a representation of Akismet...and that's good enough for us.
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July 31, 2015
The Battle of Italica
In the last episode of GATE our heroes were sent on a short mission to reconnoiter and hopefully open trading relations with the town of Italica, a heavily fortified crossroads town at the juncture of two caravan routes and a river. Also in the last episode Princess Penã of "the empire" who has been sent with her order of knights to do a reconnaissance of the invaders (our heroes) offhandedly mentioned that she intended to stop off in the town of Italica.
In this episode, things went to worms just as expected.
But they did so in a way that was rather unexpected.
This remains an exceedingly smart show. We get a little bit of background on the princess, who is, it turns out, is quite interesting.
Oh..as an aside...In case there was any doubt...
Roary Mercury serves the DARK god Emloy.
Itami doesn't know what cards he has in his deck...which is a much better situation than having an empty deck. GATE remains a really intelligent and entertaining show, with this episode in particular maintaining a remarkably high tension level throughout and left me quite upset that I have to wait 167 hours to see more of this.
That is a sign of quality programing.
UPDATE: Over at Steven's place Avatar has a well thought out comment on Princess Pinã's motivations and rationale behind her (and Lt. Itami's) tactical decisions towards the end.
Also: Yes. Her full name does appear to be Pinã Col Ada. We will speak no more of this particular matter.
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FIELD TRIP!
...they are off!
The latest episode of School Live is mostly a series of flashbacks, apparently to the events that led to Miki joining the School Live Club. It appears that SCL is going on a field trip. The club's first official, school sanctioned field trip is going to be to...a local mall.
Baby...steps.
One amusing bit was the fact that the other girls (who are not particularly sanguine about the endeavor) have Yuki fill out all the proper paperwork and send her through the slow bureaucratic grind of getting the field trip approved in the hopes of killing the project. To their astonishment and chagrin the "field trip" is approved with unusual alacrity by their club sponsor who expedites the process, having decided, in her somewhat daft way, that there are actually very good reasons for the club members (who are normally forbidden to leave the school) to go on this outing. None of this explains why they did not tie up Yuki and leave her in the school to avoid potential inevitable embarrassment.
After arranging transportation...
...they are off!
This remains a very interesting show though there are a couple of things that strain credulity. Our erstwhile main character, should probably not be taken on field trips for one thing. They did this in the second episode as well, "Cute Girls Go to Library on First Floor of School".
This is also the second episode in a row that has involved an extensive flashback to the improbable chain of events that led to the club being founded, albeit from a different person's perspective (Miki's). The events happening in the background of both these episodes are particularly effective in setting the mood. I do wonder if we are going to see any further exploration of the events that took place last week in "Cute Girls Deal With Power Failure". Next week seems to be a continuation of this one.
This is a REALLY neat show and If you are not already watching it I strongly urge you to do so. However, I implore you to watch it from episode 1.
If this doesn't look like your cup of tea, then this is probably the show for you!
For a CGDCT series this is full of all SORTS of surprises, so I ask that everyone avail themselves of spoiler tags which can be typed in the comments as follows...
I'll start:
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