The Irish Hydra

They lopped off his head and two grew back.

Because they tried to cut him down, he's now appeared 3 times in the same picture on the cover of the New York Times.

Dave Cullen has won.

As for the article itself, (which discusses a young man's decent into extremist perdition after watching YouTube videos)...well, it's bollocks.

I confess to being a tad skeptical when Pixy noted what the impressionable young man's extremist perdition involved.

I thought Pixy was being a bit facetious.

So I read the whole thing and....Pixy was right.

The fellow's anti-social behavior consisted of debating his lefty friends and...dating a Christian girl. Presumably the most horribleest thing ever.

The world has gone mad.



So today's life lessons are:
1: Strike down Dave Cullen and he will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
2: Pixy is never facetious.
3: Don't be diss'n Christian chicks or you'll end up the sort of looser that the NYT does psychological profiles on. 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 169 words, total size 2 kb.

A Question For The Tech Savvy Viewers

So there's this story on Ars Technica that can be largely summed up in this quote...

Criminals in 2017 managed to get an advanced backdoor preinstalled on Android devices before they left the factories of manufacturers, Google researchers confirmed on Thursday.

Now this sounds remarkably similar in principal a story from last October that resulted in your humble blogger wiping egg from his face and dining upon crow. The vector in this case is software rather than hardware, but it still involves the spyware/malware mechanism being embedded in the products at the factory and being essentially irremovable.

This story is getting coverage on other non-Bloomberg outfits as well and seems to be endemic to the platform.

"While it is known that personal data collection and user tracking is pervasive in the Android app ecosystem as a whole we find that it is also quite prevalent in pre-installed apps."

So the implication is that this is not isolated.

As I said when self-immolating on the Bloomberg story, I happen to think that this sort of thing is quite likely to be happening. I also think that the Bloomberg 'rice grain sized chip embed' story contributed to a "cry wolf effect" problem with the public's understanding of the issue. 

However, I'm NOT particularly tech savvy, This story is akin to 'The Dero are wire-tapping by brain!" and that's always a cause for skepticism, but it does not rule it out*.

So...tech savvy viewers, what do you think about this one?

_{*Heck, Alex Jones is a complete nutter but he was right about something turning the fricking frogs gay (well, trans).} 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 12:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 275 words, total size 3 kb.

Heehee!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:48 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 6 words, total size 1 kb.

Two Good Videos on #VAP

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 5 words, total size 1 kb.

Who Pressed the Traffic Button?

It's 02:30 as I type this. About 11:30 I left to see a friend about 45 minutes distant and I got there around 01:00. OK, it wasn't so bad coming back, but where on earth EARTH did all the cars come from?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 47 words, total size 1 kb.

When a Picture is Worth a Thousand Ampersands

What can we trust?

This sums up a lot of the concerns regarding ChiCom infiltration of our tech industries and its implications, especially in light of the Social Credit System being implemented there.

But we don't need China for this sort of thing, they are just a worrying bonus.


While scraping up links for the last entry, I blundered into this post from 2014, that revolved around Amazon and  iTunes editing the RWBY soundtrack. I urge you to read it in full.

 The post also links to this 2009 story about how Amazon erased copies of...wait for it...Animal Farm and 1984 from the Kindles of the customers who had bought them.
 



In a recent, fairly inconsequential post, mention was made of the loss of my access to the Windows partition on my iMac. It was noted in the comments that the software as a subscription model is intensely worrying.

This model, is, increasingly the standard for most media and the implications for our history and therefore our future are troubling. I lack the technical expertise to begin to conceive of how to cope with this challenge. The sheer volume of data created by the information revolution makes hard copies only practicable for a small percentage of knowledge. Even if we printed all the E-books out on microfiche it would represent an impossible volume and mass. Yet the digital storage, as compact and wondrous as it is can be, is susceptible to something far more insidious than burning. Books can be rewritten to tell the stories the totalitarians want to tell.

Imagine if the great libraries of Alexandria and Nalanda had instead of being burned, been edited to remove all thoughts considered discourteous or problematic to established doctrine and edited to sing the praises of their conquerors. We are richer for the few scraps that we have than we would be inheriting such a castrated  travesty.

We live in a world where Fahrenheit 451 becomes a best case scenario in the event of a real  shift to totalitarianism. At least then knowledge can be hidden from the book burners and preserved.

 
But fear not. Um....

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 367 words, total size 4 kb.

70 Years Ago Today

On June 8, 1949, a visionary science fiction novel was first made available for sale. Now, 7 decades later, our society is finally making that futuristic vision a reality.

Sadly, the book in question is not one of these.

Alas...



Indeed, modern technology has gone one better, allowing today's TruthyMinistries to edit or delete books that citizens already possess. This is just another example of where humanity has exceeded what was even conceived of by our forbears. 

Welcome to the future boys and girls. The world being created is more than just new, so you'd better be brave.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 162 words, total size 2 kb.

And Now a Word From Our Sponsors

Actually, they aren't our sponsors.
They're probably not your sponsors either.
If you want your own sponsors, you should get a SubscribeStar account.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 04:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 30 words, total size 1 kb.

Oh. Well. That Was Embarassing.

In lieu on an explanation, here is a cute wood elf drawn by Houtengeki.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:30 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 25 words, total size 1 kb.

Yesterday's Future TODAY!

Way back in 1994 KSS released an OAV* series called MIGHTY SPACE MINERS. Because the world is suffering, it was cancelled after 2 episodes. I picked up a VHS** copy when it came out, largely because the character designs were, even in 1994 kind of retro looking. 

However, it impressed me at the time as a remarkably hard sci-fi kids show. Despite a few minor inaccuracies like INhaling rather than EXhaling when anticipating depressurization and a kid so annoying and self absorbed he'd realistically have been thrown out an airlock the shows "hardness" rating is arguably higher than even The Expanse. I particularly like that the hardscrabble  asteroid miners don't live in some nightmare man-camp like Outland, but in a very pleasant Stanford Torus built into their asteroid, and the fact that the kids space helmets are the equivalent to a modern day smartphone/personal assistant and pet...because in their culture, a child's earliest lesson is that one must never be without one's helmet. 

Because space will KILL YOU!
Dead.
They don't shy away from that. This show is like a Heinlein juvie. 

A DVD was eventually released but it's long out of print. Used copies can be purchased on Amazon for $103 US. I've been looking for this thing for years and was surprised to find it complete and dubbed on You Tube. The fact that it...ends... is really annoying, but, pig-headed kids show protagonist notwithstanding, it's a damned good 55 minutes until it leaves you hanging. 

* <sup>Original Video Animation. Shows of odd length or of lower quality than films but higher quality than TV  were once released on tape or disc and rented or sold from "video stores". 

**Video Home System an audiovisual storage medium reminiscent of an audio cassette...wait...you've never heard of that either... OK, it's similar in principle to a DVD or Blue Ray or a gaming cartridge(?)... Um... Anyway it uses ferromagnetic material coating plastic tape as a data storage medium that is magnetically programmed and/or read as it is mechanically indexed via two spools in a manner similar to Egyptian scrolls....uh..you had to play the tape end to end to access the AV data and you'd get charged a fine if you didn't rewind them when you returned them to the video store...
Forget it. It was a different world.</sup>

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:45 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 391 words, total size 4 kb.

And Then There's This...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 5 words, total size 1 kb.

75 Years

So much blood spilled to secure liberty. Let it not be in vain.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 03:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.

A Non-Comprehensive List of Those Involved in in the Great Bit-Chute Advertising Campaign

Explanation here.

My Bitchute referral page is here.

List nicked from here.

Banned:

 

YouKipper

The Great Order

Varg

Cultured Thug

Xurious

Mr Allsop History

Patrick Slattery

 

Demonetised:

 

Sandman

The Red Elephants

Know More News

Andy Warski

Deep Fat Fried Podcast

Martin Sellner

James Allsup

Steven Crowder

Red Ice TV

SinatraSays

Jesse Lee Peterson

Iconoclast

Tailed Feature

Ford Fischer

Dan Dicks

Revenge Of The Cis

 

Videos Deleted:

 

E;R

American Renaissance

Ryan Dawson

E Michael Jones

The Higherside Chats

Bre Faucheux

Owen Benjamin

Count Dankula

Angelo John Gage

Gavin McInnes

Milo

Red Ice TV

Black Pigeon Speaks

Drunken Peasants

Press For Truth

J.F Gariepy

You might notice that some of these people are complete assholes. If so, congratulations, you lack not in perception. If you think that it matters, then I fear you are in want of wisdom.

You'd think that it would have been Bitchute rather than a gunblogger who would have done this video explaing how Bitchute is structurally less likely to go all Ministry of Truth on us, but hey, decentralization helps fill in those gaps.

Bitchute's search function is clunky, but has improved greatly since I've been a member and the super-chat-esque function is a little non-intuitive. It's brand new and much of its clunkieness is due to being a decentralized, platform. However, recent events are convincing me that the decentralization is worth it.

This concludes our free advertising for this evening.

Good Night and Good Luck!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:41 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 252 words, total size 6 kb.

Perspective

My friend Bob!1!has been mentioned here before. Several readers know who he is. Well, he is in the hospital. He's been deteriorating for some time. It was initially thought that he had a blood clot, then there was an assumption that he had a lymph infection. Now that he's paralyzed from the waste down it turns out to be due to an auto-immune issue.

However, he's in the hospital now and his condition has been arrested. He seems to be regaining some use of his feet. His treatment is ongoing and everyone is hopeful, though the prognosis is unclear.

I've been over there a bit trying to help out with his comic shop (not as much as I'd like, I live nearly an hour away). Those of you who know Bob!1!, he's Catholic, so thoughts and prayers would not be unappreciated.

He's got a huge hill to climb.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:44 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 149 words, total size 1 kb.

A Less Than Comprehensive Selection of First World Problems...

...lurk below the fold.
For those disinterested in an old fat guy's first world problems here's the exact opposite; a cute girl, walking home from school, carefree in Penang.

.

Anyway: While going through the hurricane box and checking for dates, I noticed that there was DAK ham with an expiration date of 2008. If I've learned anything from wasting time on the internet, it's that expiration dates are meaningless so I figured I'd have it for lunc..... more...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 06:02 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
Post contains 809 words, total size 6 kb.

This Day in History

It's been 30 years .

1989 was an odd year, The U.S.S.R., weakened by its own internal contradictions and with its rot exposed by the Chernobyl disaster of three years prior was undergoing seismic upheavals. There was crazy talk in the west; that the cold War might end without a fight, let alone Armageddon. The faint breeze of hope, long forbidden to those on the other side of the iron curtain was beginning to blow throughout the communist world. Every day, it seemed the news was reporting on how Glasnost was spinning out of control, but in a good way. It's hard to describe the awe, the cautious hope and the elation that 1989 brought us. By the end of the year the Berlin Wall would be rubble, Ceaușescu would be dead and the countries of Eastern Europe would throw off their shackles and begin the long and halting process of rebuilding.

However, in June of that year, the largest of the protests, failed.

In China, one of the largest public spaces in the world was filled with students, packed in like sardines. Emboldened by those heady days when whispers of freedom were spreading like wildfire throughout the communist world, they gathered in Tienanmen Square  to call for reform and civil rights as their ancestors had in 1919 and 1976. For days they marched, they sang, they engaged in hunger strikes. Chinese students around the world joined in. They were overjoyed, and confident. They were going to be free!

And then. It ended. The Chinese Communist Party decided that this could not stand. After a few facsimiles of parlaying, they assessed the situation and came to the conclusion that no negotiation or concessions were necessary.  A billion people is a formidable entity. A billion minds, going in a billion different directions., a billion perspectives, a billion voices, a billion ideas, a billion hopes, a billion dreams, such human capital can create wealth and wonders. However, from the perspective of a leftist, or really any totalitarian, they are cats that must be herded, contradictory views that must be countered, potential disloyalty and a potential threat. The Army was loyal, and with that, even a billion a billion people, if they have been disarmed, are, ultimately little more than a target rich environment.

The CCP decided that thousands in the Square, would no longer be an inspiration, but an example.

The APCs came in that night and were gone by morning, having been routed by thousands with bamboo sticks. 

And so in came the tanks.

...and for a glorious and wondrous moment there was hope.



No one will ever know his name, nor the names of the tank crew who did not follow unlawful orders. But between them these 5 long dead men gave us all a lesson in courage.

It was a brief respite.

Shortly thereafter, less reflective tankers were brought in. The total death toll is unknown but exceeded 10,000. The protestors were shot and bayoneted as they begged for help, then tank treads ground up everyone in the square, living and dead into  a mass of long-pork chitterlings that was hosed into the sewers.  

And so ended the act of defiance.

It has been 30 years.

Obviously things have  changed in that time.
Today we manufacture all our stuff over there to take advantage of slave wages, they have huge influence in our media and the IT technology we've given them makes the CCP's job much easier.
So yeah...progress.

That government is still in place. They are just as ruthless.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 01:08 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 623 words, total size 5 kb.

So...The Babylon Bee Has Had to Issue a Retraction...

It is here.

I'd heard something about this, but I'd thought people were just being snarky.

No.

Snopes actually Fact-Checked the Babylon Bee.

The world is mad.

_{RETRACTION:
In light of the above noted recent events and the silly post below, let me clarify that it is this blogs position that Canada is to the north of the U.S,, Mecico is to its south and Indonesia is exactly where it should be. We apologize to any elementary school children who may have been misled and suffered a drop in class ranking as a result of our irresponsible blogifcications.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 107 words, total size 1 kb.

I Don't Think That's How Geography Works

This headline is not one I would have expected....

The first large group of 116 migrants from AFRICA are caught on video wading across the Rio Grande to illegally enter the U.S.

...'cause I was under the impression that the place on the other side of the Rio Grande was not Africa. Due to my apparent geographical retardation, I was under the impression that if one crossed the Rio Grande from this direction (and I'm on the East Coast) one would be standing in Old Mexico, New Mexico, or Colorado.

None of those places are Africa.

However,

A group of illegals from Angola, Cameroon and Congo waded across the Rio Grande River and into the United States, video from Customs and Border Protection shows.

 Angola, Cameroon and Congo ARE in Africa!

So we border...Africa?
Good grief. If I could be wrong about this...maybe that girl was right and Mt. Fuji IS in Canada.

And if THAT's wrong, WHERE'S CANADA!?



Oh. So Where's Indonesia, Papua and Timor Leste?

Oh forget it.

I obviously can't geography.

Pixy. The next time you take the ferry over to Mt. Fuji, can you pick up one of those Miia Dakimakuras?  (asking for a friend)

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 09:16 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 218 words, total size 2 kb.

A Bleg For Perspective

Twitter, which is banned in China, has suspended a bunch of Chinese dissidents, apparently because the anniversary of Tiananmen Square Protests is coming up.

Again, Twitter is BANNED in the PRC, meaning they are doing this not for some callous reason that might be justified from a purely fiduciary perspective.

Sooo...why would they do this?

I'm genuinely confused. all I can come up with is these...

A: Censorious evil is in their nature, they just can't help themselves.
B: They are fanboys of totalitarianism, and want to show solidarity with anyone who oppresses the plebs.
C: China is so deeply embedded in Western academia as well as media in general and holds particular influence over America's tech weasels that they can influence decisions even when they are nominally against interest.
D: Twitter is attempting to get un-banned in China and is doing this to show that they can boot-lick with the best of Quislings.

And as I look over these possibilities, I note that they either someone operating on the emotional level of a high-school mean-girl, or the shallow, mustache-twirling motivations of a cartoon supervillain.

This bothers me. Even taking into account the obvious snark, the list begins to look like the paranoid rantings of a Bircher.

IN GENERAL, in the political realm, when people advocate for stupid/evil stuff, it's not because their worldview is that of Snidely Whiplash. There's often a flawed rationale, or some logic, based, perhaps in a different worldview. For instance, censors on the left and right wish to ban things that they feel are detrimental to society. This is a deeply flawed motivation because it's an instance where the "slippery slope" is not a fallacy (ie: where do you draw the line?) but there is, at least, an internal logic to this argument, that, while horribly flawed, is at least theoretically well intentioned.

I can't see a flawed but well intentioned argument here. I can see NO REASON, business or otherwise, that Twitter would do this at least not one that's isn't some variation of the uncharitable takes listed.

Either:
1: I'm missing something, or...
2: this happened because one or more selections from A through D is true.

I'm a Z-list blogger so 1 is on no great importance to anyone and is potentially correctable with more information.

2 however, is truly scary.

Absent some very unlikely new information* I'm going to stick by my initial assessment that this action is bad and wrong and actually evil.

However, I'm very interested to see if anyone can come up with a motivation for this action that could be reasonably defended as stupid but well-meaning.

If you have such suggestions, share them in the comments please.



_{*As an example of what might change my mind, if it turned out that all those accounts banned were actually being operated by Schaver's Detrimental Robots as part of a plan to enslave humanity by broadcasting their Ray Machine directly through computer monitors, well, then, it might be defensible. But that is...rather unlikely to be the case.}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 511 words, total size 5 kb.