March 28, 2021

Wizzard Math is Also Different



As is Elf Biology apparently...



From the climax of the current season of Rei: Zero- Starting Life in Another World a show which demonstrates that Isekai does not need to be crap and can instead choose to give us transcendental awesomeness (if not scientific accuracy). This seasons 25 episodes were,  once again, absolutely gut wrenching, but they were also weirdly uplifting and the season moved the plot along immensely.  The characters, even side characters, but especially Subaru and Emilia are developed astonishingly well. 

Many years ago Harlan Ellison wrote a short story called Delusion of a Dragon Slayer, which pretty much invalidates the whole Isekai genre by completely subverting it before it was born. That stories protagonist starts out much like Subaru did 50 episodes ago, a non-entity muddling through life with delusions of adequacy except that Suburu lacked even the delusions, though like the protagonist in that story he thought that he'd be well suited for a life without modern expectations and mores, before getting hit by the buzz-saw that is the realization* that everywhere and everywhen has standards that need to be met if one is going to be of any consequence whatsoever. Both stories present their protagonists with a test.

Suburu is out of his depth but is biggest handicap has been his character failings, leading initially to the narcissistic conclusion that he's the main character ...and the others around him are NPCs and achievements to be unlocked.

As he's realized his own limitations and recognized the humanity and value of those around him, Subaru has looked within himself, found where he's wanting and is striving to make himself worthy of the test. 


Emilia's journey the last several episodes has been at least as impressive. As have the other characters, into who's life these weirdoes fell, bringing chaos.  

This show is awesome.  

When is the next season!? When!!?

Avail yourselves of the spoiler tags and discuss away! 

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March 25, 2021

The More You Know....

Catgirl math is duodecimal.



Art by Saraki1119. Support him on BOOTH!

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March 24, 2021

See, Blogging at Mee.nu Has Genuine Benefits

Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor
Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor
Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor
Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor
Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor
Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor
Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor
Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor
Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor Aimee Challenor


Mr. Hambly on the other hand, is a YouTuber and is now on his 12th attempt at cover a bizarre story at Reddit without getting yeeted. His coverage is almost funny as, on this attempt he covers the story without mentioning ANY of the details by name. I say almost because it is terrifying that this is where we are. 

Short version: The above mentioned individual was expelled from both the UK Green and Liberal Democratic Parties for depravity involving minors and protecting those who do dreadful things to them. Reddit hired her. Reddit installed bots to permanently ban anyone who posted anything that referred to this individual...including links to unrelated news stories that mentioned her in passing. 
Since Reddit did not announce they had begun providing job placement services for M.A.P.s nobody had any idea why subreddit admins and posters were getting perma-banned. 

No one on Reddit can discuss Aimee Challenor or they will be permabanned and this policy seems to at least partially apply to YouTube as well. Several of the channels have gone private and/or are locking down while they try to get some guidance from Reddit as to exactly how they expect people to avoid this minefield when Reddit won't say the words that are not allowed. 

UPDATE: 
Reddit has backed down, removed Aimee Challenor and issued a statement...in which they still do not mention her name. 

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March 23, 2021

So...

The name of the Boulder shooter is Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, who is reported to have ISIS ties.


20 hours ago, the left was beside themselves with glee that a caucasian had murdered 10 people in a grocery store.

Now the left are wailing and gnashing their teeth that it was the wrong kind of honkey while righties are gleeful that we have ISIS operating in Colorado. 

Politics is weird. 

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March 22, 2021

Wonderduck Update

I spoke with the Duck of Wonders yesterday. There were some complications, but he is finally out of the hospital and has moved on to Physical Therapy. 


With any luck he'll be home in a few days or weeks. Prognosis is quite good but I'm sure this is the very definition of aggravating. Please send him some good wishes in the comments over at his site


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This is One of Many Reasons....

...that I shop at O'Reilly. I have a much older vehicle and they carry some of the most obscure auto parts

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March 20, 2021

Perusing Comment's Sections is not a Productive Use of my Time

Over at Instapundit they are discussing the recent decision by Amazon to ban "When Harry Became Sally". 

Ed Driscoll ends the brief excerpt with this...

  "I’m so old I can remember when Jeff Bezos was believed to have been a libertarian."

...which kind have set me off more than mere words should have.

Because, while i used to consider myself a libertarian, or at least libertarian-leaning back in the '90s,. Indeed, I could have typed that sentence with a straight face a few years ago, but now? 

There is nothing un-libertarian about Bezos's decision, (at least not in practice, in THEORY this is an affront to the whole concept).

 Libertarians (at least the Reason-Mag hipster-douche libertarians) seem to be  fine with cancel culture as long as it's the 'squares' being cancelled. 

Back when it was the fringe case of a patassier asking govt. not to force him to participate in a religious ceremony forbidden by his faith, the libertarian mantra was "Bake the damn cake!" Now we hear a lot of "Muh private biddness!"...as long as the view getting defenistrated is not a view approved of by the 'clerisy'. 

They oppose the death penalty and implore us not to execute child-rapists, mass murderers or anyone. This has a very defensible argument behind it, particularly when one remembers how many people have been cleared of their charges after conviction...or if one just ponders the existence of the current Vice President.  However, to libertarians it does not apply to a complete innocent that happens to be conceived inside a woman who finds her inconvenient. 

Libertarians applaud the destruction of monuments and graves that memorialize our tragically misguided ancestors, because no time, context, nor cultural differences nor understanding can excuse the abhorrent practices of that age, but out the other corner of their mouth they lobby hard for 'frictionless' trade with China and every third world hellhole that cuts costs by substituting chains and a whip for paychecks. 

They rail against tariffs with an intensity that would make Fitzhugh proud. When the human cost of the exporting of jobs is brought up, they, after a moment of bewilderment that anyone should care for such inferiors that would not see a job loss as OPPORTUNITY, roll out their Gartmans to explain to us in small condescending words how no one should be asked to subsidize the job of an idiot who can't compete. ( compete against the aforementioned slave labor that is).  Someone's orientation should be respected (I agree!), unless one is a straight male or a lesbian then the libertarian chant of freedom is "Suck the d*** bigot!"consent be damned apparently. (I don't think Ayn Rand would approve.) 

 I used to consider myself a libertarian, considering it to be rooted in the enlightenment and not the style policing of upper-class mean girls. But I was young then and had not encountered the sneering disdain and contempt for...what exactly I'm not sure....perhaps those not high on the foetid air that collects in the mezzanines of law school libraries?  I dunno, in the last few years they've just gone full reta...oh wait we can't say that and it's OK because 'muh private biddness'.   

I think libertarians are right, or at least on solid ground on many issues, but they seem to attract autists who cary every single point to a ludicrous extreme and can't percieve (or care) about the societal costs of some of their policies. This is why I've been solidly conservative for many years, which might surprise some of you but conservatism in the U.S. is what is considered Liberalism in much of the rest of the world. (It's a conservative interpretation of the constitution placing limits on government power rather than a liberal interpretation of the commerce clause allowing the government to any old thing. ) I think that there are arguments for even the more hedonistic proposals of libertarians such as legalizing drugs and prostitution, but the societal costs and other second order effects have to be taken into account and factored in by something other than the market...which will be quite happy to to sell cigarettes to kids and the ultimate end state of legalizing prostitution might well be slavery for the sex-workers. The libertarian response seems to me to be the waving of the free-market totem and a recitation of verses from the book of Hayek. 

Free markets DO efficiently sort goods services and people, and will quickly find a correct price for anything, including your daughter's virginity and her organs. This is why I do not want to live in AnCapiStan. 

I think that Conservatism represents a good middle path between the post-Calvanistic scolds on the American left and the sort of atheistic rapaciousness and hedonism that libertarianism seems to increasingly represent.  (So much so that conservatives might one day corner the Buddhist vote.) 

I don't see Libertarianism in its current form as anything so much as a, destructive, frantic, and ill-advised overcorrection to the idiocies of neo-liberalism. It does, however have the very great advantage of being nigh-infinitely preferable to the attempts by the left to correct the same problems which are actively malign rather than merely oblivious. 

Still, I'll stick with the middle path for now. 


UPDATE: A rather less verbose comment I made at Instapundit was the origin of this post. I was surprised to see it getting upvotes, but when I refreshed the page it had been deleted. 

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March 17, 2021

Country Nearly Destroyed By Internet Troll

...or not. 

Yesterday I received an Email from a friend in Arizona linking to this story, which mentions that an upcoming HBO Max mini-series will name Ron Watkins as Q-Anon himself. 

The link was accompanied by a bit of a flex. "I called it! It was one of these guys into geek culture who turns out to run a ped0 website*. He was also behind GamerGate and KomicsGate! I so CALLED it. This was a huge Troll and nearly brought down our government." 

While I can attest to the fact that my friend had, in fact, "called it" (moths ago in fact) I think their flex is only 80% warranted.

Now, regarding my friend, (who I have not seen since 200 I like him a lot an owe him a debt that cannot be repaid. For reasons that I will not go into here, let me say that I have tremendous respect for this dude. This is not some upper class 'influencer' shrieking incoherently about some made up effrontery. This is a person of the utmost integrity and is talented, principled and morally brave. 

However, The fellow is not without some blind spots. He works in the Video Game industry and detests geek culture with a white hot hatred reminiscent of nothing so much as Principal Snyder's contempt for teenagers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Oh pooh. I've made a useless reference and dated myself again. 

Anywayyy... Weebery gets on his nerves for reasons that are understandable given his experiences. There are, however, a couple of things here that need to be talked about regarding this story. 

Regarding the identifying of Jim Watkins as "Q",  that is not a new story. People have been making that accusation for some time. Count me as credulous but (only slightly) skeptical. People have been trying to nail Watkins to the wall since he refused to take down the bizarre manifesto of the waste of skin that shot up the ChristChurch mosque

Not only do I not condemn Watkins for that decision, I think it was both ethically correct and quite useful. The First Amendment protects speech, even the speech of that murderous degenerate. It also revealed that, while the people-shaped colostomy bag that killed all those worshippers was a member of the effete' male hen-party that is the MGTOW / InCel movement, he was also a radical environmentalist with Malthusian concerns targeting a demographic that he found concerning because of its high birth rate. 

We would never have heard that if 8-Chan had not held out until it was taken down. 

As to whether Watkins is "Q" I don't know. I know that his son implicated him in one of the links above, and I know that Watkins reportedly likes to shitpost and he gave some assistance to having the defenestration of the "OK" signal go viral. This is typical of the sort of performance art he is accused of, leaving something incredibly stupid as bait for SJWs to pick up, run with, and demonstrate their insanity. The big issue with much of this is that we are so far gone into clown world that these stupidities have resulted in the bait being taken but the powers that be not noticing the stupidity and running with it. This is dreadful, but also gives a good demonstration to sane people of just how crazy and/or malevolent our ruling class is. 

I'm not defending the asshole but this brings us to the overly generous assessment of this shitlord by my friend. 

NO.

His shitposting did NOT almost bring down the government. 


This is not a defense of those who follow Q-Anon, which is deeply stupid, only a note that few of the rioters were so motivated.

Q-Anon is idiotic. 


Now we should look at what Q-Anon actually believes. 

There is within the federal government a cadre of dedicated civil servants who are about to arrest and execute thousands of politicians and bureaucrats many of whom look take a blind eye to ped0fi!ia  and human trafficking by people who will line their pockets. That these heroes who are working implacably to capture these fiends will restore the constitution and usher in a golden age...if people just are patient and follow the plan.   

So, yeah. Q-Anon is crazy. 

The government is staffed by people who thwarted Trump at every opportunity and would do basically anything to protect their sweet pension.

Q-Anon is stupid.

However. Q-Anon did not almost bring down our government. 

It did not come close. 

The riot on the 6th was disgusting. I condemn it with the same fervency I condemned those who decided to burn loot and murder in our cities throughout this past summer. It was repellant and embarrassing. 

But like the many other riots by the other side, it does not threaten the U.S. They stormed into the capitol. They went through the windows and when a policeman tasked with protecting the representatives of the people told them to stop a stupid woman walked forward and got shot. 
Babbit gets no tears from me, though it is quite sad that she orphaned her kids. 

As far as I'm concerned these wastes of skin can die in prison. Their juvenile tantrum has massively empowered the progressives to violate our civil rights. 

And yes I get that it's not FAAAAIR that that all year long, riots terrorized and killed innocents who had no responsibility for or capacity to fix the complaints of "Anti"Fa  or BLM and they were bailed out by the current VP or were allowed off scot free in all but the most extreme cases....and the capitol rioters are by contrast being hunted down like the dogs they are. I don't care.**

Life's not fair.
Part of being an ADULT is understanding that. 
Don't go out and riot because a bunch of rich lefties did and got away with it. The REASON they did it is to rub your noses in the fact that they can and you can't. Work towards electing people who will change that....instead of falling into the lefts trap. 

Those of us on the right have to be better, because if we are just another band of barbarian thugs then it won't really matter who wins. 

Q-Anon did not and does not threaten the country. It is a stupid collection of idiocies tied together by a few strands of truth and the indefensibly forlorn hope that anyone in our ruling class is in the corner of the average American. 

What does threaten the republic is that corrosive idea that there are two sets of rules, one for the favored and one for the disliked. The current trends in the country are intolerable and the mind numbingly suss election combined with the refusal to hear the election complaints in court have given an ever increasing number of people the not indefensible opinion that we can't vote our way out of this mess. 

That is what will break the republic and turn the nation into an abattoir. 

If anything the shitpostery that is "Q" held despair in check for some time with its admonitions to not do anything stupid and "trust in the plan". But when the courts refused to hear the election complaints, when EVERYTHING that the left does seems calculated to nurture feelings of powerlessness and rage in the middle class of flyover country, that despair is going to find a release. 

I'm not defending this. It is a fact of human nature. 

I am increasingly convinced that much of what the left is doing is fully intended to radicalize a good portion of the country in the hopes that the less intelligent people on the right will behave as these smoothbrains did on January 6th. 

I further fear that they will be successful, because the left has made the stakes so high and there are only so many indignities that people will tolerate. The left is behaving almost exactly as the left did in Spain in the lead-up to that countries civil war, doing awful things intended to provoke a response, which in turn could be used as an excuse to crack down upon and indeed kill political enemies. In that instance, the left was surprised to find that their cruelty was not as effortless as they had hoped and ultimately were rent and defeated, but the cost was any semblance of normalcy and a dark chapter of human history that persecuted the Spanish people for over 40 years. 

That is what threatens to bring down the government. Not a Shitposter and free speech advocate. 

The annual revenues of the U.S.A. are between 2 and 3 trillion. Our debt is currently 28 trillion and skyrocketing. The blame for this is a completely bipartisan issue, but it is a much greater threat to the republic than some blackpilled LARPers. 

The current unmoored state of our mores is another cause for concern. Perhaps the ONLY thing that "Q"says that has any validity is that that there is a cadre of very powerful people who are into very young children (Epstein was pimping those kids out to somebody of considerable means). The recent craziness involving the de-womanizing of girls sports, the prescriptions of sex changes for children as well as the scandals surrounding the Lincoln Project and Drag Queen Story Hour are such otherworldly levels of degeneracy as to bring to mind Weimar....which should beof concern to anyone who has an IQ above room temperature. 

Well for some it is.

But that brings us to the greatest threat to our civilization. 

See, my friend wrote on his blog a thoughtful, impassioned and emotional missive condemning the awful actions of the 6th of January. It was excellent! However, I won't link to it for this reason. He and I had discussed the riots of last summer, the protests at the Supreme Court last year and he had been equally upset and angry at those. 

But there were no long pieces on his blog denouncing them. Because if there had been, my friend would not have a job. 

My friend is someone who has been through hell, and is both physically and morally brave. But this is a terrifying time and one must choose where one makes one's stand carefully, because it may BE the hill one dies on. 

That is the thing that I fear most. Because when we can't talk, when the conversations end ....that is when the blood is most likely to flow. 



Trump was an obnoxious vulgarian, and I did not initially support him, but beyond the fact that many of his policies were solid, his vulgarity was a thumb in the eye to those who would grind us into dust and that very crudeness allowed him to serve as a sort of arrestor switch for the backlash against the excesses of the left. I fear that the coming backlash will be bereft of such a governor. And that terrifies me. 

None of this is defending the crime against reason that is Q-Anon, but  putting this blinkered bonehead into perspective while pointing out that there are far more immediate concerns than it.   


*One note about 8-chan/Kun being a "pedo site". I frequented  8-chan and have seen 8-Kun. They are not. Both iterations of the site have had the same rules, no calls to violence, no true threats, and no KP EVER....KP does show up (in the boards one would least expect) and is constantly being taken down, by the very small staff. I suspect that the site is being targeted not only by pedos but also those who want to discredit the site. I fully admit I have no proof of that though. 

** OK I actually DO care about the ones who walked in the OTHER door on the other side of the building after it was opened by security and politely ambled through the building oblivious to the awfulness going on in back. They don't need to be treated as terrorists. At all. 

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March 15, 2021

Well, I had INTENDED to get Through this Sinister Day Without Encountering any News

....However.


Today Congressional Territorial Delegate San Nicolas decided to celebrate the Ides of March by ordering the Guam National Guard to march on the offices of Representative Marjorie Tailor Green (Q, GA). It seems that Green, as part of her general policy of saying shameful,  retarded shit, had inquired as to why there were foreign soldiers from someplace called "Guam" in the U.S. Capitol. The Delegate from Guam was justifiably offended...and, being a Democrat, decided to fight ignorance with a horrifying affront to civics and military discipline. 

The Guam National Guard Troops  The Retarded MTG asked about are activated and stationed in the Capitol because Xo Bai Din is returning everything to totes normal. 



And took video of it. 

Watch on Bitchute

A few problems here. 

Congress, whether they be Delegates, Representative or Senators are TOTALLY outside the chain of command. They do not give orders to troops. 

Using the military to intimidate a congressional representative of the opposite party is about as junta-like as one can get.

Participating in a political action in uniform is a major UCMJ violation. When I was in, we could have faced discipline for this...given the added context of following unlawful orders from outside the chain of command might have resulted in a tour of duty at Leavenworth.  

The GNG troops were either ignorant of the rules and basic military civics or did not care to follow either. Whatever the reason, this speaks to frighteningly poor training.

The same goes for the Delegate, who used the troops to make a political statement illegally, though I doubt that ignorance was a factor with him. 

This is terrifying.

    

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BEWARE!!





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March 14, 2021

WhatIfAltist

...who, like me, is basically annoyed by most philosophy, just (kinda') did a philosophy video out of sheer frustration. 


No great breakthroughs here, but it's very well presented. 

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Not a Reassuring Trend

This is "interesting".


So I encountered a story about how the ATF has shut down a website and arrested the owner for the crime of distributing schematics of auto-sears. (Auto-sears are devices one can install into a semi-auto firearm in order to convert it to full auto and perhaps not have it blow up.)  The ATF, for its part is boasting that they did the thing. Oh. Also, anyone who purchased these products from this company is facing 10 years in prison and 250,000 dollar fine. Now, these schematics were printed on sheets of metal  so that one could, if one had access to a machine shop, cut out a piece of metal and, if one folded it properly have an auto sear. Still. It's just schematics, plans, words, and this isn't even under the purview of the thorny problem of ITER regulations. A book on how guns work, is not that different from this, so the implications are worrisome.

But wait.

It gets worse. 

This very same morning, right before I started to write this post, I stopped by Pixy's and found this story about how the CEO of a Canadian company has been indicted first by EU ministries of justice and now by Biden's justice department for having adequate encryption. 

  Last night, the United States Department of Justice announced that they had indicted the CEO of Sky Global, Jean-Francois Eap, and one of his associates, Thomas Herdman, for allegedly violating federal racketeering laws (RICO). Herdman is said to be a former global distributor of Sky Global devices.

"According to the indictment, Sky Global’s devices are specifically designed to prevent law enforcement from actively monitoring the communications between members of transnational criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking and money laundering."
 

Of course they are designed to prevent anybody from actively monitoring one's messages, whether they be ChiCom secret police, Corporate spies, Murderous spouses, Sharia enforcers, child traffickers interested in your kids, Antifa hate mobs, white nationalist thugs, or the Westborro Church. Thwarting 4th amendment violations is really just a happy bonus. 

Note too, that the people indicted are not alleged to have trafficked in drugs or done anything untoward except honor their contract. They are likely to go to jail because someone who was allegedly bad might have used their service (but this is unproven because the messages the Justice Department wants to read to prove they are bad are encrypted.) If it is KNOWN that these are bad people, then the evidence that was obtained independently of reading their mail should be used to prosecute them. 

The 50 cent army and STASSI, are not things we should pattern our law enforcement methods after. Two different stories, on the same day, both involving law enforcement deciding that first and fourth amendment provisions do not apply to the internet, is a troubling trend indeed. 


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This is Why...

...it is important to ensure that one's marketing department has some passing familiarity with one's products. 



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March 13, 2021

Bygone Babbagery

One of The Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes brings us the latest on the oldest.



(Dinosaur looking thing is unrelated.)

Scientists have used X-Rays, a watchmaker, fine manipulation tools, previous reconstructions and a Greek-English dictionary to come up with the latest, most accurate reconstruction of the oldest known mechanical calculator, the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek device that was discovered in 1901 and was vastly more advanced in concept and construction that had been thought possible during that age. One of the big breakthroughs on this latest attempt was the discovery, via X-Ray that there were, inside the device, a much more complete set of instructions on how to use it than had previously been known. 

The paper is here.

The 2 hour presentation by the scientists is here.



A video overview of the matter with slick CGI and dramatic music is here.


(Thanks to Pixy for the initial Nature.com article. )

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Haiku of the Day


What I put my milk

and cereal in was a

strainer not a bowl

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March 07, 2021

Whut

I honestly don't know what Boston Dynamics is going for with regards to customer perceptions of the firm or product messaging. But they may wish to reassess their customer relationship management. 


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From Mojave to Big Sur




...is a heck of a road trip but, to my astonishment not a great deal of trouble with regard to Mac operating systems.

I've judiciously avoided MAC updates after the Catalina fiasco last year, but now, as I try to get my Twitch channel up and running and do video editing,  I find I need the latest OS to run the associated software. 

Despite my trepidation, the update went quite smoothly. I purchased my iMac in August of 2019 and went from Mojave to the new Big Sur with no real problem. 

In stark contrast to the Catalina fiasco, almost everything works. 

There is an intermittent bug with the Apple Mail application not wanting to autoload occasionally. This affects me not at all, as I hardly use that app ever, linking directly into my mail accounts. On the rare occasions that it doesn't load it can be manually started. 

Some older applications no longer work. I'll need to get updates for them no doubt.

The most relevant issue for me is that video files of most types no longer display thumbnails when browsing through finder. VLC works fine, but .WEBMs don't. 

That's it. That's the extent of the bugs so far. 

Internet works fine. 

The new OS is not turning my spreadsheets into pixel salads, or locking my computer up and slowing everything down a crawl. 

The interface changes seem to be an actual improvement as well. 

I'm not seeing any real problems aside from the most minor issues.  The Big Sur upgrade seems to be a throwback those halcyon days of yesteryear when Apple was a hardware company that produced rock solid software for its products rather than a malware company that diffidently produces some widgets. 

It's been a whole week, and I'm honestly still waiting for the hammer to fall. 



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TFW

One makes a overlong comment on another blog, realizes it could be expanded into an actual post. Then does so but forgets to hit "publish".

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March 06, 2021

FALSE FLAG!!

In an apparent attempt to frame the competition, 2 South African one American and a Dutch V-Tuber have disguised themselves as Hololive and are now terrorizing the necromatically impaired...and themselves...and everybody else. 



Those are some really good skins. 

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March 05, 2021

A Trend I've Noticed

Scott Lowther links to a particularly silly hit piece on Elon Musk over at the Atlantic

It ends with this line: 

To laugh at Sagan’s words is to miss the point entirely: There really is only one true home for us—and we’re already here.

Lowther does a good job dismembering Shannon Stirone's twaddle,  finally  using this for an epic finishing move...

There was only one true home for us… the Olduvai Gorge. Until it wasn’t.

Yep. That's a 'fatality', and that should put to bed this particular nonsense. 

Alas. 

This seems to be a big "thing" in academia right now, and has been percolating since Musk began looking like he might actually pull it off. The arguments I've seen have ranged from environmental concern trolling like this. Safety concern trolling like this and others (to my surprise including Kim Stanley Robinson) and the idea put out by Daniel Deudney and Phil Torres that allowing people off earth is itself an existential threat as people living off planet will develop with different priorities, become different cultures and there will therefore be no alternative to war. (I wish I was being silly, but that is their argument).

I'm not a big fan of terraforming for other reasons (I'm in the Gerard O'Neal/Dandridge Cole camp) but Musk and Zubrin make a good case that the benefits of the tenuous atmosphere and myriad other resources make Mars a very attractive place to do one's crawling, standing and baby steps as humanity gets out of its cradle.

I'm pretty sure that is why there is now such a visceral reaction to this amongst upper class academe and those who the idea of the cosmos being sullied by the great unwashed plebians. 

Providence has provided those who would micromanage our lives, via vacuum and hard radiation, a natural barrier to prevent people escaping their attentions that's far more effective than the Berlin Wall.  They do not want an alternative or counterexample to the homogenized, post-discontent society they envision. The U.S. Australia, Canada, and a few others provided such safety valves in times past. To have a similar escape route unexpectedly open, just as these can taste their triumph over the human spirit must be rather disheartening.

So, while I think the more rational course is to move on from Mars to space habitats like the Stanford Torus, or O'Neil's Cylinders I do find myself willing to consider an exception to my skepticism against terraforming in the particular case of Mars. It's technically doable. (Hell, people have worked out the math on terraforming the MOON) It would be quite the scenic vacation spot and would represent a middle finger to the culture of the Handicapper General by the Culture of Excellence and Striving for Greatness and Arete. Baring the existence on Sol4 of something more advanced than a Volvox, it would harm nothing of consequence while creating vast benefits and stand as a profound testimony to the potential of Humanity and a meaningful inspiration to the children of future generations.

I'll take the future of Olaf Stapeldon over that of H.G. Wells any day of the week. Those of the opposite opinion need neither suffer nor trouble themselves about us. They can sit in repose, lords of their cradle, smugly secure in the knowledge that we deplorable fools could not possibly have survived our folly. 

And perhaps many of those who go won't. It is quite true that this is an objectively wild-eyed and potentially tragic endeavor. Space is cold, (when it's not evaporatingly hot), dark, radioactive and has, to be frank, rather poor toilet facilities and ventilation. It is not for the faint of heart or the stupid or the incompetent. It's gonna be a frontier where you have to make you own fricking air. It will take years to make it safe and generations to make it comfortable and pleasant. But it will be something of real, lasting value, and that is worth risking a lot for. 
It is, as they say,  the truly great ones who plant trees for their descendants that they will never walk in the shade of. 

There is nothing WRONG with not wanting to go into deprivation for a noble dream. In fact it's sensible. However, while I don't begrudge anyone who doesn't want to go, I'm alarmed at the surprising putch of articles demanding that this endeavor NOT BE ALLOWED. 

I really fear that these people in academe and positions of societal power will do everything they can to stop this from happening, using every tool in their legislative and cultural quivers. This is a real issue and needs to be addressed.

Don't block the safety exit. 


Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 08:11 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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