Exam Heck
Exams begin Thursday and last into next week. Additionally, it appears that one of my classes was actually in the sociology department and so requires APA style as opposed to Chicago/Turabian. Fortunately, I've been given the option of re-submitting it...
Experimenting, training, testing and retrying. My life is just like this picture, but without the respectability, cute girls, cutting edge tech and prototype karatebot.
What I'm seeing on television now is truly dispiriting. The police seem completely overmatched and the people of the city are helpless before the mob. The mayor's behavior has been bizarre: An hour ago, I watched a fellow show Fox's Leland Vittert where he had been struck with bean bags (after throwing bottles at police). Vittert asked him if he intended to stay out and continue to protest. The fellow said that he intended to but "of course, if they imposed a curfew we'd have to respect that."
At that point I learned that the curfew isn't in effect yet.
Why?
Baltimore was much more important to the history of this nation than is generally appreciated. In addition to being the city that stopped the British advance up the coast in 1812, it is the place where, thanks to Lord Baltimore, religious freedom was first made the law of the land in North America, 366 years ago last Tuesday.
Final Stretch
Next week exams begin. I've got one paper to finish and a few miscellaneous assignments to turn in Monday. In the interim, here is Calbuco...
3
It doesn't seem to have been a hack so much as a spoof. The actual E-mail addy is not mine.
OTOH it was good to be reminded after 12 years that I still had a Yahoo account.
Thanks for the heads up though.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Apr 23 09:22:11 2015 (ohzj1)
4
The important point was that they managed to steal your address book.
1
Damn, 1994 might have been the last year I've read every single book nominated for a Hugo, either that was a damn good year for novels or else I was still in my indiscriminate consumption of SF fandom phase.
Who were the winners that attracted Ellison's ire?
Posted by: Mitch H. at Sat Apr 18 07:24:23 2015 (dc+5f)
2
Suddenly the sheer volume of vitriol and nastiness I've heard directed at Harlan make a great deal more sense.
Posted by: Doug O. at Sat Apr 18 12:43:29 2015 (S+cJ2)
3
Doug, back when Harlan was doing commentaries on the Sci-Fi Channel (and I think this clip is one of them), they announced him once with "If you haven't been insulted by something Harlan Ellison has said yet, you haven't been paying attention"...
Posted by: Siergen at Sat Apr 18 18:50:27 2015 (yQ8B4)
4
Yeah, I was gonna say "this is Harlan Ellison being lovable."
Posted by: Ben at Sat Apr 18 19:00:40 2015 (DRaH+)
5Who were the winners that attracted Ellison's ire?
In the 1994 Hugos, Ellison's "Mefisto in Onyx" was beaten for Best Novella by Harry Turtledove's "Down in the Bottomlands."
The 1994 Nebula awards saw Ellison's "The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore" lose the Short Story category to "Graves" by Joe Haldeman.
Looking at the winners of both awards in 1994, I'm going to guess that his "untalented writer" is Jack Cady, winner of the Nebula Best Novella for "The Night We Buried Road Dog." I only say that because Cady is the only winner that year that I've never heard of... upon looking him up, he was quite accomplished in both the SF and the Horror fields, like Ellison.
Not being an expert on either person, I can't really say. Ellison, being the acerbic sort that he's known to be, makes it just as likely that he believes Kim Stanley Robinson is a no-talent hack, or Turtledove, or Charles Sheffield, or anybody else.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sat Apr 18 22:46:43 2015 (jGQR+)
6
I remember SciFi Buzz, Vaguely. It's kinda like remembering when MTV played videos.
Fortunately, almost all of Prisoners of Gravity is available on YouTube. If you want a TV show about SF literature, Commander Rick is as good a guide as you can find.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Apr 19 01:34:46 2015 (TJ7ih)
7
There was also FTL Newsfeed and the "newscasts" of Dr. Franklin Ruehl. The fact that those shorts amused me was, in retrospect, an early indication of the deep flaws in my character.
Of course the lede here is that in 1994 people had already started gaming the Hugo's system. As Mitch pointed out, this corresponds to the time that the awards began changing from a recommendation to a warning sign. This phenomenon predated by 20 years the antics of certain despondent juvenile canines . It is not the actions of those residents of fandom's metaphorical pound that distresses their critics, but the exposure of how the game has been played.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Apr 19 03:33:15 2015 (ohzj1)
8
Around that time there was reportedly a decision to limit the growth of WorldCon, which conveniently favors the crowd that already goes, and probably enhances their sense of personal ownership of the award.
I wrote up a proposed rules change (It's all the rage lately) and yesterday it got an insane number of hits, since it was on Michael Z. Williamson's facebook page.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Apr 19 06:13:06 2015 (TJ7ih)
9
Jack Cady is apparently a guy who got a fair amount of awards on the literary side of sf and horror, but he doesn't seem to have published much outside of literary stuff. I agree that I've never heard of him, but apparently a lot of literary mainstream folks have.
OTOH, if you're talking about who was likely to have been on the Internet in 1994 and "asking for votes," I'd have to say Kim Stanley Robinson.
But yeah, I don't remember this kerfuffle at all. It would probably be worth it to search rec.arts.sf.written, except that Google's search engine for newsgroups really stinks.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Apr 19 08:43:42 2015 (ZJVQ5)
In the 1980's I dated a woman who was a big-time science fiction fan. She went to a lot of conventions and always went to WorldCon, and I was always a bit amazed at just how seriously she took the Hugo ballot. They really do think they're doing something really important when they vote.
And yet, they'll say, "We're not hard core; THOSE GUYS are hard core." There's a denigrating term, "SMOF" which stands for "Secret Masters of Fandom" used to refer to the especially extreme fans. (Someone started a tongue-in-cheek convention called SMOFCON; I have no idea if it is still running.)
11Jack Cady is apparently a guy... ...I agree that I've never heard of him, but apparently a lot of literary mainstream folks have.
Banshee, that is literally the only reason I assumed he was the target
of Ellison's ire. My assumption was that if I'd heard of them, it seems
unlikely that they'd be considered "no-talent hacks."
It was only after googling him that I discovered that he'd also be a
natural rival of Ellison, seeing how they both wrote the same sort of
thing. As I can't imagine Ol Unka Harlan passing up a chance to take a
shot at someone he'd be competing with, it made him even more likely in
my mind.
However, the number of ways that this logic chain can be incorrect is
staggeringly huge since it rests upon two thin reeds: my knowledge of
someone being a worthwhile predictor of something, and Ellison's thought
patterns.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Apr 19 21:05:42 2015 (jGQR+)
12
Turtledove is the sort of writer who is persona non grata among the awards people, but I've never noticed him online, and definitely not back in 1994. Robinson is exactly the sort of writer who'd I'd expect to game the system - entitled and prone to morally muddled philosophizing. But if he was online in 1994 it was in different circles than where I went... he was a "movement" guy, though. Big noise among the regnant humanist movement of the time, that defeated the cyberpunks in the marathon simian poo-flinging tournaments of fandom in the long Eighties.
Posted by: Mitch H. at Mon Apr 20 08:33:34 2015 (dc+5f)
1
You know what would be cool? If that guy held his doggone camera still for a few seconds so you could get a good visual of the movement!
Posted by: Rick C at Fri Apr 17 15:28:17 2015 (ECH2/)
2
Mother Russia just needs some more breathing space, and all loyal Russians give Mother what Mother wants...
Posted by: Siergen at Fri Apr 17 17:23:58 2015 (Cvfrl)
3
What is actually causing the expansion/movement? It's not red and burning so it isn't lava, it isn't cold and fluffy so it's not an avalanche, it looks too solid and dry to be a mud slide and it looks too slow to be a rock based landslide.
Posted by: Riktol at Wed Apr 22 15:33:24 2015 (zIFOy)
3
I don't think they've said yet, but if we assume the woman in this trailer is Luke's daughter, ~20 years seems a reasonable first guess.
Before Disney nuked the EU, the storyline of the books went out 35-40 years. Luke had a son, and Leia and Han had three children, two of whom died.
Posted by: Rick C at Fri Apr 17 09:10:53 2015 (ECH2/)
4
And yet, the Empire is still flying exactly the same fighters? I can understand the rebellion being stuck with old equipment, but why hasn't the Empire upgraded?
5
The F-16 started flying 40 years ago and they are getting around to build a replacement only now. Aaaand... The replacement is over budget and is slow in coming.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Fri Apr 17 10:01:01 2015 (RqRa5)
Steven, there were other TIE fighters in IV, V and VI. The TIE Advanced x1 was the type used by Darth Vader at the end of A New Hope. In the Extended Universe, with shields, a hyperdrive, and a vastly expanded sensor and electronics suite, it was hideously expensive and thus few were made.
The TIE/Interceptor was seen in Return of the Jedi. Much faster and heavily armed than the standard TIE fighter, it was still unshielded and unarmored. If the TIE was the MiG-17, a TIE/In would be the MiG-25.
The TIE Bomber was seen in The Empire Strikes Back. It was a strike craft, capable of carrying missiles, bombs or torpedoes, all of which were usable against either surface or space targets. If I remember correctly, in the TIE Fighter videogame a single bomb was capable of killing a Rebel Frigate.
Since the X-Wing seen in the trailers is an new version over the ones in the movies (check out how the wings split!), if nothing else I'm willing to bet that its safe to assume the basic TIE design has been upgraded in some way over the years.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Apr 17 11:35:49 2015 (jGQR+)
7
Neither the Empire (if that is what the bad guys still call themselves) or the Republic are flying the same craft. Sure, they're still TIE fighters and X-Wings, but there are differences. Most notably, the TIE fighters now have light colored panels, and the engine nacelles of the X-Wings are angular instead of round. There are other subtle visual differences, all of which can be inferred to represent internal upgrades.
Given that both craft were of relatively recent design (neither existed in the prequels, just a couple of decades before the original trilogy), it makes sense that they would get upgraded rather than replaced in that time frame. Especially if the Republic is spending it's resources fixing things, and the Empire has been isolated from it's main production and R&D facilities.
Posted by: David at Fri Apr 17 11:38:21 2015 (dr1tX)
8
Wonderduck said "There's no single "wow" moment in this trailer that equals the "X-Wing flyby over a lake" shot from the first."
I have to disagree. That shot of the crashed Imperial Star Destroyer on a desert planet was pretty darn amazing. Possibly the first time in the whole series where you get a proper sense of scale on those things.
Posted by: David at Fri Apr 17 11:46:38 2015 (dr1tX)
9
Damnit, people, quit getting my hopes up. I gave up on new Star Wars properties years ago.
Posted by: Ben at Fri Apr 17 14:19:06 2015 (rIQuo)
Nobody said you had to agree with me. People disagree with me all the time. They're all just wrong.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Apr 17 16:51:03 2015 (jGQR+)
11
But would you feel the same if the trailer featured, say, a duck?
Posted by: Siergen at Fri Apr 17 17:26:59 2015 (Cvfrl)
12
Yes. Even a jedi duck. You don't mess with my Star Wars that way.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Apr 17 20:14:39 2015 (jGQR+)
13
And suddenly I have a mental image of Howard the Duck with a lightsaber. Anyone know where I can find the economy sized brain bleach?
Posted by: David at Fri Apr 17 22:26:59 2015 (+TPAa)
14
That's not just a mental image. I remember the old Marvel ads in the old Marvel Star Wars comics, and they did indeed have a picture of Howard the Duck with a lightsaber, and a woman from his comic in Leia's pose from the original movie poster.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Apr 19 08:58:20 2015 (ZJVQ5)
15
David, is this what you were trying to avoid at all costs?
Also: Trigger Warning
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Apr 19 18:32:56 2015 (ohzj1)
The first pictures of Pluto and Charon were really rather disappointing. I eagerly clicked the link, and all I got was a couple of blurry spots.
I suppose it was inevitable, and of course they'll get better as it gets closer, but right now those pictures are little better than ones shot by telescopes.
Those photos were taken on April 9, 71 million miles from Pluto. By May 5, New Horizons will have a better view of Pluto than the Hubble telescope. Closest approach will be on July 14, at just 6200 miles. So we'll get much better pictures over the next three months.
The one limitation is that New Horizons is moving at 30,000 mph, so that close approach will be very brief. Well, that and radio signals take 11 hours to make a round trip, so we can't control the approach in anything like real time.
6 More Days
Tuesday is the last day of classes and I still have about 13 pages to write spread over 4 different research projects. Thus, I'll remain scarce for a bit.
In the meantime, here is some mundane mechatronic móe by Sukabu.
All That and a Bowl of Grits
The first half of theFate Stay Night remake that aired last season started well above average and proceeded to get steadily better. I liked the original immensely, but this is really surpassing it in lots of ways, in no small part because this focused much more on Rin, who is awesome.
Rin is also the feminine form of the word "win".
The original series was based on a visual novel and this is, I am given to understand, following a different story path, however it seems to have diverged quite a bit as several unexpected developments have completely changed the dynamic of the show, though not the premise. There has been a lot of good characterization and the writing has been top notch. The production values are absolutely superb.
Rin is a very well realized heroine. A young mage thrust by birth and circumstances into a deadly contest, she is clever, audacious, knowledgeable and graced with a strong sense of ethics that tends to complicate her situation rather a lot. Shiro,the previous shows lead, seems, to be the duteragonist of the story. Much like in the original, he is much less skilled and powerful character who is thrown into the situation without warning and is far out of his depth. However, he can think on his feet and is principled and idealistic to a fault, and by that I mean he's something of an idiot at times. In comparison to the original 2006 TV show though, Shiro is a much more relatable and rather more likable character.
Both of this seasons episodes have been full of surprises and there has been unexpectedly thoughtful development of the villains as well, some of whom are fascinating in their complexity and some of whom are breathtaking in their depravity.
"OMG! You're bootlegging Sriracha!?"
Be advised that this show goes to dark places occasionally...and this latest episode was not at all as...nuanced...as previous episodes were in that regard.
This is not a show one should watch with the kids but it is a very solid supernatural adventure yarn and 14 episodes in it's looking to be one of the best in the genre and may quite handily surpass the show it's re-imagining.
1
The FSN story paths aren't the normal "go through mostly the same stuff and then get an ending" style. Some things are just plain different between the paths. And yeah, dark, dark, quite dark... though not as dark as the third, as-yet-unanimated path, Heaven's Feel, which makes this look like -Barney- I kid you not.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Apr 14 05:56:06 2015 (zTHWs)
2
Although they still knocked out Rider way early....
On the other hand, they introduced the sorceress much earlier and brought her out into the battle more.
I haven't gotten into the new season yet. The circle I watched the first part from doesn't appear to be doing this part.
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Apr 14 06:30:18 2015 (TJ7ih)
I've a red-bikini Rin just over my computer and a chibi Rin glued to the dash of my truck, so you might say I'm a fan.
The UBW leg of FSN was always the strongest of the three, IMO. Shirou, while too idealistic, is slightly less stupid, and Rin really shines. This adaptation has been very well done so far.
Echoing what Avatar said, the HF route is nothing but high-octane nightmare fuel. I went thru it as fast as possible just to unlock the epilogue.
The 1916 version of Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, once thought lost, is available and in the public domain.
This is a remarkable film. It's the earliest surviving example of underwater motion picture photography (and may be the earliest ever). They couldn't build an underwater camera at the time and so used cameras on boats filming the underwater action via periscopes. I'll cut them a lot of slack on the blackface because, not only did they get Nemo's ethnicity and background largely right, he's a very sympathetic character with lots of melanin...in 1916.
Of course they do diverge a bit from the novel. This film works the sequel (Mysterious Island) into the story and unlike either book, the film is in addition to a sci-fi story, both a period piece and a melodrama.
You'll have to provide your own music, but it's probably worth 111 minutes of your time.
Admiral William Gortney, head of NORAD and Northern Command, said that 'because of the very nature of the way that Cheyenne Mountain's built, it's EMP-hardened.' 'And so, there's a lot of movement to put capability into Cheyenne Mountain and to be able to communicate in there,' Gortney told reporters.
'My primary concern was... are we going to have the space inside the mountain for everybody who wants to move in there, and I'm not at liberty to discuss who's moving in there,' he said.
The facility was mothballed back in 2006, because there was a time when a nuclear attack beyond an isolated terrorist device was considered unlikely.
1
All-out thermonuclear war still seems very unlikely (thankfully!) but an EMP attack is becoming more plausible as more and crazier countries get their hands on the necessary technology. Moving C&C back into Cheyenne Mountain makes sense.
After all, that's where they keep the Stargate.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Apr 12 07:13:26 2015 (PiXy!)
2
Hmm. They filmed the last season of Stargate SG-1 in 2006, the same year Cheyenne Mountain was mothballed. So if Cheyenne Mountain is getting reactivated, does that mean....
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Apr 12 07:16:07 2015 (PiXy!)
Log Horizon Ends
The last two episodes revolve around Shiroe gathering together a scratch force of people who are not comatose, several of whom we have not met before ('cause they are all that's left).
It seems that the communications tower in "Shibuya" is now the source of the narcolepsy-itis that is plaguing everybody. Specifically, it has been taken over by a swarm of sleep moths which take flight every night and spread moth dust, which is the source of the proble. Shiro notes ruefully that as soon as they had determined that the tower might be a key to returning everybody home, this situation pops up, which might well, necessitate them destroying the tower.
It also hints that fate...or someone, is just screwing with them.
Not to fear, Shiroe has a particularly cunning plan...
This exercise in subtlety goes OK for a while, and they almost make it until the sheer weight of numbers and the fact that the group hasn't worked together before
(and giant pigs)
...cause the expedition to fall apart and hole up in a safe corner of the skyscraper. Shiroe finds himself completely nonplussed and contemplates the fact that he's botched it. He's a good strategist and decent tactician but he's not a particularly inspiring in a more visceral sense. Rieze, (acting leader of Crusty's guild in his "absence") is completely fed up and cannot understand why Crusty thought so highly of him.
Well, he does get it together and the group manages to save the day. One reason for his poor performance earlier is the fact that Shiroe is trying to avboid the destruction of the tower, but he decides that can no longer be avoided with only 15 minutes to go. Happily, an opportunity to get the Mothmaster away from the tower presents itself and Shiroe takes it, saving the day.After the fight, Shiroe attempts to get some answers by the straightforward method of activating the transmitter and asking questions to whatever mysterious entity is on the other side. Gradually, they boost the signal enough to get something...someone is indeed responding. All their questions are about to be..
Suddenly, a wandering wackadoodle appears! Yes. It seems that Kanami, Shiroes old mentor who was briefly introduced to us in episode 39 has found a transmitter.She and her band of misfits are still trekking along on their journey to the east.
...and in the course of their long march did a dungeon crawl in a TV station. She's been fiddling with the transmitter because she's just curious. After the obligatory pleasantries, Kanami makes an announcement.
..which was rather unexpected.
"OMG! KANAMI'S A MILF!"
Shiroe swears to find away to send her back, but to everyone's astonishment Kanami says that is not what she wants. Rather she wants to be able to bring her kid to the Elder Tale world, have her fly on a griffon and see the wonders of the world. Shiroe hadn't thought of this third option, and takes it as as quest. Kanami offhandedly mentions that Crusty is with them (!) and that he has an important message for Shiroe...at which point the transmitter blows up.
Back in China, Crusty, (who seems to be carrying Takiyama's arm) wonders who will lead the party to come get him...
(Cut to the palace of Eastal..)
Meanwhile, in Minami, it is strongly suggested by the cooler heads, to the power behind the throne, that a truce be called with Akihabara and Eastal. This is rejected out of hand, but the actual individual on the throne overrules her would be regent, and calls for a temporary truce.
Elsewhere still, Roe2, who has been missing for several episodes, does something cryptically pyrotechnical.
Oblivious to all of that, everyone at the Shibuya TV station decides to go eat breakfast...
And so it ends...
The ending was as satisfying as possible given that they have apparently caught up to the source material, at least to the point that there is not enough for another season right now. The show left off at a perfectly good break point and the end certainly did not smack of Gainax.
As for the series overall, the production values on this show were quite cheap, occasionally to the point of distraction, but the story for the 50 episode run was astoundingly good throughout. The characterizations were excellent and the general tone and direction of the story were uncommonly upbeat despite a grim premise. This is a show about civics; people working together to improve their community and banding together in the face of danger.
One of the more enjoyable aspects of the show was that, in stark contrast to most others in the genre, it truly has an ensemble cast. Shiroe is generally held to be the lead, but the focus frequently cuts to the rest of the cast, whose adventures and quirks are vital to the story. Shiro can't do it by himself, and in fact is not even a major player in nearly half of the episodes. Even when it is clear that he is above average at certain aspects of video gaming he does't come off as a Gary Stu. Indeed, it is in the other characters that some of the best characterizations take place, e.g.Crusty and Lenessia are one of the better anime couples of recent years.
Another amusing bit was that there was actually some borderline "sci-fi" involved in this parade of whimsy..... If one has people that can do fireballs via sorcery, and one has the ability to make an iron pressure vessel and fill it with wate....BOILERS!
OK, so it's actually Spelljammer, but its nice to see that the characters are smart enough to figure this out. I don't think they are going to have too much of a problem getting to the moon.
Given the premise and "setting" the potential for this being a gratuitous fan service fest was quite high. That they refrained from that almost entirely was actually refreshing.
This show has a fractally silly premise that they went a long way towards justifying and despite a visibly low budget, its strengths were such that I enjoyed Log Horizon tremendously, beginning to end.
It is certainly to be hoped that they do another season eventually. With that in mind, we'll give Best Kunoichi the last word.
Well This is Still One to Watch (UPDATED)
The Fate Stay Night remake returns following a three month hiatus. After the unexpected turn the show took in episode 12 and three months of anticipation it was, of course, unlikely that number 13 could live up to....
"Oh. Wow..."
I confess I did not see that coming.
In the last episode (3 months ago) it was revealed that the the heroes current nemesis, Caster, is in fact a spiritual servant who has turned the tables on her master. Kuzuki, Caster's current...er, 'master'... it seems is fine with this.
This unexpected development is possible because she has a special ability with the utterly forthright name of 'Rule Breaker'. Among other things, this allows her (a servant) to summon and control other servants. She can also steal a mage's servant if she can get hold of the servant and impale him or her. This results in ripping the magical nerves from the body of the servant's master.
We learned this at the end of the last season clifhanger as Shiro lost Saber...painfully. Crippled and robbed of most of his magical ability (which is extremely weak in any case) he suffered the further setback of having all those wounds he received in the fight,(but that were healing due to his drawing power from Saber) suddenly stopped healing and opened. Rin sent him to recuperate and forbade him from coming near her on pain of death, because he was, at that point, completely, rather than amusingly useless. Shiro was in no condition to protest and coughed and gurgled in agreement.
In this episode Shiro, crawled out of bed, and found the gem that Rin had used to heal his mild case of disembowelment way back in episode 2. Then, having brought his HP up to full, he resumed his general policy of being an idiot by going back on his word and sneaking into the church, hiding in the pews, and trying to figure out a way to save Saber. Saber, it turns out, was being tortured to gain her compliance (being a heroic spirit, she was resisting the generally nefarious orders of Caster).
Meanwhile, after a bit of planning and introspection, Rin and Archer went to fight Caster (over Archer's vehement objections), confident that the magical aces she has been putting up her sleeve for 10 years would give her a chance. Well, perhaps it would have, Rin is exceedingly skilled and smart, and has demonstrated an ability to punch above her weight, Unfortunately, Archer switched sides in the middle of the fight, knocked her across the room, presented himself to Caster and thereby facilitated having Rin's control seals painfully ripped from her body.
Kuzuki sensei, who had been taking all this in moved to kill Rin, but Shiro, who was still hiding in the pews, then attempted to rescue her,. Alas, while he did physically deflect a killing blown from Caster's boy toy, his not entirely futile attempt to activate his powers resulted in his collapsing in agony. Rin was allowed to drag him to safety only because Archer listed as the single term of his service that Rin be granted free passage out of the church, with the understanding that the truce ends if they interfere in any way.
Later after Shiro regained his footing, the two staggered to a park, and because this was apparently "break your word day" Rin refrained from killing him.
The episode ends with the two crippled mages taking stock of their situation and contemplating how utterly screwed they are. Shiro takes this moment to confess that he's always had a thing for Rin .
Tsundereism ensues...fade to black.
13 was a thoroughly entertaining episode which had a couple of unexpected twists including more character development in 23 minutes than many shows have altogether.
While We All Wait
.... with baited breath, to discover who amongst us will make the next misstep on the constantly shifting tightrope of acceptable discourse and get inducted into the Emmanuelle Goldstein society, we should not ignore the wackiness transpiring elsewhere.
Only six years ago, Norwegian politicians decided that Russia no longer posed a significant threat and that it was time to sell its top secret base called Olavsvern, which was hewn into a mountain and equipped with the most sophisticated electronics available. It’s located near the small town of Ramfjord near Norway’s border with Russia.
That's certainly...awkward.
**********
In other news the negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program has produced some tentative results.
None of Iran’s nuclear facilities — including the Fordow center buried under a mountain — will be closed. Not one of the country’s 19,000 centrifuges will be dismantled. Tehran’s existing stockpile of enriched uranium will be "reduced†but not necessarily shipped out of the country. In effect, Iran’s nuclear infrastructure will remain intact, though some of it will be mothballed for 10 years. When the accord lapses, the Islamic republic will instantly become a threshold nuclear state.
That from the bastion of reactionary rightwingery that is the Washington Post.
Actual footage of our crackerjack negotiating team negotiating.
Next Big Future looks at the numbers and notes that alarmist claims that Iran will be able to make 32 bombs a year are overblown. In fact the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism will only be able to make 25 nuclear bombs a year.
Finally, on a arguably less serious note, the President of Russia's Academy of Geopolitical Problems demonstrates why he does not run the Academy of Geological Problems...
"Geologists believe that the Yellowstone supervolcano could explode at any moment. There are signs of growing activity there. Therefore it suffices to push the relatively small, for example the impact of the munition megaton class to initiate an eruption. The consequences will be catastrophic for the United States - a country just disappears," he said.
Even multi-megaton nukes pale in sheer scale to geological processes. Besides, while the Yellowstone magma chamber is huge, it is currently about 85% solid. Now a 20 megaton nuke ( the largest the Russians have) would leave 800 foot deep crater, so there might be a tiny chance that several of them going off simultaneously might suddenly excavate enough material to relieve enough pressure to cause something to happen (besides a Russia ending retaliatory strike), but it would probably not be a VE-8 eruption. They'd likely be infinitesimally better off targeting Clear Lake, Newberry, Medicine Lakes or Long Valley and would be better served still by not being so silly.
1
"in hindsight it’s clear that selling [Olavsvern] was not a good decision."
Hm. Sounds like some Europeans, at least, are starting to wake up. Good news, hopefully.
Posted by: RickC at Sat Apr 4 13:25:24 2015 (0a7VZ)
2
One thing Obama has done which has a good side: he's finally made clear to the Europeans that they ultimately can't depend on the US to defend them. Since the founding of NATO the Europeans have been free-riding on American defense spending (while sanctimoniously criticizing it, since the fall of the USSR) but now they can't any more.
3
You know... might it not be time to wind up NATO?
It's clearly warping Russia's perceptions - they see this big, expanding military alliance against them and think "man, if we let down our guard it's gonna be 1941 all over again!" (not that we need any lebensraum, thanks, we already got plenty...) And it's causing them to do stuff that we interpret as needlessly hostile and paranoid, which causes us to respond and have them react similarly, etc.
Ultimately Europe's security is going to rest on the same thing that kept the US and the Soviet Union from going at it hammer and tongs - nuclear arsenals that make direct invasion an invitation to mutual annihilation.
Is there really a reason for us to stay in, as it were? Yes, it imposes a peace between the European nations - Germany and Greece aren't going to go at it with anything more than hot rhetoric - but the days where Germany can seriously be a threat against the world are over. It's just too -little-.
And if we can ratchet Russia's tension down, a lot of our other problems get easier to handle too.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sat Apr 4 23:35:25 2015 (zTHWs)
4
Re: Namibia, it would seem that my Nicaragua paranoia wasn't paranoid enough.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sun Apr 5 02:13:55 2015 (ZJVQ5)
5
Yes, and if we can only make Hitler less paranoid, he won't invade any more countries! Honest!
Putin doesn't want the Crimea as a buffer state against NATO or anyone else. He wants Ukraine, and he wants everything that used to be in the USSR, and he wants all the landmass that the USSR never quite managed to grab, like Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. (Although I suspect that would be "without the current inhabitants.")
Truly, this isn't difficult to figure out. It's pretty standard for Russian imperial ambitions. Third Rome, blah blah blah.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Apr 6 16:11:01 2015 (ZJVQ5)
6
Sure. But if we're going to commit to anti-Russian expansion - if they are, once again, The Enemy - then let us not pussyfoot around.
Are we better off where the list of rogue nuclear nations corresponds more or less to the list of Russian client states? If the Russians are happy for us to deal with a nuclear North Korea or a nuclear Iran, then why shouldn't we give them a pack and a half of headaches, nuclear Poland, nuclear South Korea, nuclear Taiwan? Nuclear Latvia and Finland. And that gives us an answer to Russian aggression short of "end the world", no?
The alternative is what? Draw a line in the sand and abandon anything beyond it? Draw an endless succession of red lines which Russia can skip over until they finally find the one that makes us drop the bomb? Or just Cold War II, Internet Boogaloo edition?
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Mon Apr 6 22:15:01 2015 (zJsIy)
7
Right now, nobody in the world believes that we will do anything, or at least, not anything useful or sustained. We have refused to give our allies defensive weapons that we had previously promised to them, and we have reneged on a bunch of other stuff.
Meanwhile, Russia and China have plans which they are carrying out.
We aren't doing anything much, except helping Iran's government. The more we let the situation go on, the more likely that we will have do something aggressive back. The sooner we start helping with mutual defense and providing what we've promised our allies, the more likely that Russia and China will slow down or back off.
(Or there's always the option of letting everybody else get conquered, and then being conquered or becoming a client state. But I don't like that option.)
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Fri Apr 10 15:40:10 2015 (ZJVQ5)
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