July 11, 2022
A Quick Post Before the Blog Crashes Again
more...
Banality is below the fold.
Oh look. A relevant picture.
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Can I Make a Post Without the Blog Vanishing When I Hit Publish?
UPDATE: Well, it appears that is at least theoretically possible to do so.
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July 04, 2022
Happy July 4th!
Things might look grim now, with riots, shootings, shortages of fuel and a looming food shortage. We have a governing cadre that holds us in contempt as it imposes these unpleasantries and further seeks to impose far greater restrictions on our freedom than were even conceived by the British Parliament of the late 1700s.
However, perspective is important. When we hear from people who are convinced, for instance, that civil war is imminent...
I mean..nobody in particular
...remember that they lack the age to fully understand that we've been through this before.
This is not to say they are dumb. A lot of the doomers are just a few years too young to grasp just how bad the things were in living memory. By the late 1970s, we had much the same situation with stagflation and shortages. domestic terrorists planting bombs from coast to coast, and overseas defeats that emboldened our enemies, and we had drugs tearing apart communities and other crime skyrocketing. We ALSO had 22,000 nuclear weapons aimed at us by a nation that claimed it was dedicated to world peace, and defined peace as our enslavement.
A few years later we were rebounding, and we saw a time of peace and prosperity that lasted with minor fuctuations for nearly 40 years and survived the abuse of multiple unenlightened leaders until the various long simmering calamities that came to a head in 2008 began the slide into our current malaise.
The United States is robust. It is so because it is founded on the principles of the enlightenment and the ability of people to both cooperate and say no. We have a federal system that allows all 55 states and territories to set up their own ways of doing things and that also allows cooperation on matters of mutual importance.
This dual dynamic of cooperation and individualism was not codified for some years after our founding, and remains an ongoing experiment.
But today is the day that we remember those flawed and human but extremely wise individuals who 246 years ago signed a document that was not a law or set of governing documents, but an affirmation of principals and a declaration of our independence from those who presumed they had the divine right to rule us...
On this day, 246 years ago a group of delegates set in motion our very imperfect but quite magnificent experiment, that has faced myriad obstacles, some of our own making, but has always bounced back better and stronger than before.
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
The Signatures.....
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton
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July 03, 2022
The Mechanical Man
Last night, besides the gachiest gacha game that ever gachad' and a successful grind session in FF14, the stream presented to our 8 viewers a 1921 Italian techno-thriller.
Only about 26 minutes of this ~80 minute film still exists, and the title cards of the only English version I've found are not particularly helpful.
In fairness, most of what's missing is merely context to the story. The footage we saw last night eschews such boring world building to get down to the important business of screwball chases, cosplay follies, and robot rampages.
So, for the 8 non-robotic viewers that my stream summary says watched the film, here is an overview of of what seems to have been going on, cobbled together from a discussion in film class 10 years ago, Wikipedia, the very sparse English subtitles in the version we watched, and the infinitesimal amount of information I was able to glean via my very atrophied 2 years of Latin from the more extensive Portuguese subtitles.
Spoilers Follow:
This was an interesting and remarkably forward looking film in a lot of ways.
The basic set up is that a city in post WW1 Italy is being beset by rising crime and a string of political assassinations. Meanwhile one Professor D'Ara, a scientist/engineer, has become the talk of Italy by inventing what is essentially an anthropomorphic, remote controlled drone, to which he gives the perfectly straightforward name of Mechanical Man. The device is fantastically durable, being built like a light tank and possesses speed comparable to an automobile. It is hoped that it can be used in mining and dangerous heavy industrial jobs.
A gang of criminals led by a remarkably competent and brazen woman(for a '20s film) named Mado attempts to steal the device but they are thwarted and it is put under close guard. Mado's gang proceeds to kidnap and tourture Dr. D'Ara in an attempt to get the robot blueprints from him. The police, led by a famous detective do locate and overwhelm the mob, arresting most of the leadership including Mado who is badly burned and suffers a heart attack during the raid. D'Ara did not break but the police discover he died from the gangs tender ministrations.
Mado turns out to be as dangerous and creative as The Joker, from Batman. It turns out that she faked her heart attack and her burn. Using her feigned coma to lull the hospital workers into complacency, she sets fire to the hospital, murdering numerous patients in the process, frames Saltarello (Dr. Dara's brother) for arson and murder, swaps a murdered nurse for her body (faking her own death) and escapes Scott free to reunite with the remains of her gang. (This is where the limited surviving footage mostly picks up...with the villain's clever arson and Joker-esqe escape from the hospital)
She the kidnaps Dr. Dara's daughter and forces her to give her the location of the robot blueprints. The detective Ramberti, who arrested Mado suspects that she is not dead but is unable to do anything until he finds Dr. Dara's daughter who has been free'd by The late professor's brother who is on the run from police, having been framed for arson and mass murder. (Whew!)
Meanwhile a series of smash and grab robberies are taking place that generally involve safe's being stolen wholesale or armored cars being broken into. Also a series of murders, with the victims being pulverized transpire over the next few weeks. There is one group of witnesses, a rich socialite reports that a mechanical man tore into her house and stole her jewelry safe while she and her friends were far enough away to not be noticed.
Mado has built her own mechanical man.
Allow a moment of silence for the chap that took refuge in the dresser.
Saltarello meanwhile is still on the run from police and trying to clear his name and avenge his brother. He has a close encounter with the mechanical man as the latter assassinates a politician.
He takes refuge at a costume ball, where, for reasons not entirely clear, he suspects something bad is about to go down. The ball, has apparently been a big looming "thing" for most of the movie, is being attended by a veritable "Who's Who" of Italian Politics, Industry, and old money. He has to flee, but not before he dresses up as Napoleon.
Meanwhile, Mado sics her Mechanical Man on Detective Ramberti and a number of witnesses including the late Dr. Dara's daughter and Dara's engineering assistant . They flee but discover that not only is the Mechanical Man bullet proof, but it can break through walls and iron gates. It also has cutting torches in its fingers that make short work of the iron door they attempt to slow it down with. They escape in a car, but the mechanical man almost overhauls the car until Terminator1921 suffers a short circuit and crashes by the side of the road in flames.
This chase is silly, but surprisingly good.
Ramberti and his party then run into a bunch of bicycle cops with his car, (literally) and he subsequently tries to get help to recover the infernal device.
Meanwhile Mado is able to get a team together to recover the Mechanical Man before Ramberti gets to it.
Saltarello escapes the costume ball, dressed as...uh...Napoleon or something, steals a police motorcycle, and is pursued and confronted by another detective (who is in an 18th century...dress, because he was undercover at the costume ball). The detective explains that Saltarello is no longer under suspicion for murder/arson/jaywalking.
The public is completely unaware of ANY of this so, a few hours later when some cosplayer shows up at the costume ball dressed as the famous 9 foot tall mechanical man, the person is awarded best in show and becomes the toast of all the movers and shakers of Italy, sitting down with them and not saying anything.
"This is not at all sus. Not one bit."
This lasts until, well, he gets right up close to all the most important people in the social register and reveals that his costume...isn't...and begins crushing them, throwing them off balconies, and generally being impervious to bullets.
MEANWHILE: Dr Dara's assistant, who has been trying to get the ORIGINAL mechanical man working again succeeds in getting the wireless remote control to work. He then sends the ORIGINAL Mechanical Man out to fight Mado's Mechanical Man. They engage in a robot slap-fight in the ballroom, destroying it in a most satisfactory manner as they wack away at each other.
Botfight. BOTFIGHT!
Saltarello arrives at Mado's headquarters to find her frantically manipulating the wall sized control panel during the fight which she is observing via a television screen.
(BTW, in 1921 Television won't be invented for 7 more years)
He starts to sneak up on the most dangerous lady in Italy but decides to throw random switches in the hopes of throwing off her control. As a result the control panel shorts out. Mado is electrocuted and dies. The Ersatz mechanical man goes berzerk but is subdued by the original and explodes.
Mado is revealed to be a famous rich socialite with connections in politics and industry (explaining how she had access to the physical plant needed to make a Mechanical man in mere days). She also is the person responsible for having the big costume ball that gathered all the assassinate-able people in one place. The second detective, no longer in his dress, thanks everyone including Saltarello who is still dressed like Napoleon.
Later, Saltarello, in a normal suit, says his goodbyes to everyone and gets in a plane and flies off into the sunset.
*******************
Years ago I was told by a film student, when the discovery of this film caused the topic to come up, that this was one of a series of "great detective" films that was popular in Italy at that time, and that the detective character in this film is a star of numerous other films around the same time. That is, this would be equivalent to Sherlock Holmes meets The Terminator. I don't know if that is true, the detective is a central but supporting character in the extant footage, but I'll put it out there. If there is a "franchise character" in this it's seems more likely to be Salterello, though I can't find any references to such a thing.
There are probably several details that I've got wrong. If anybody speaks Portugese, then please correct me in the comments.
*******************
I was chuffed when I heard that the remnants of this historic film now had English subtitles, but as we discovered during the stream, they were so laconic as to not be particularly helpful. When they are compared to the very lengthy Portuguese subtitles, it's obvious the 'restorers' did not hire a translator.
My onstream commentary was based on my knowledge of the film from reputation, and the little bit of research I'd done, fully expecting that "English Subtitles" meant something.
On the other hand, the DMCA-Free Electro-Swing BGM that I paired with the film on stream was a surprisingly good fit.
In any event, this was an enjoyable watch, being a completely whackaloon little film that had all of its buildup and exposition destroyed allowing one to get right into the important business of fire, explosion, murders, and the first Robot Battle in cinematic history. So I'm calling it a win.
Screenshots for this post are not by me but were knicked from the film's IMDb entry and Tumbler's SciFi .gifs page.
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June 30, 2022
Stream Update (Updated!)
I've just been informed by my employer, that, due to the 4th of July holiday, I'll need to be to work at 01:30 AM EDT this Saturday. For some reason, this will have a negative impact on my digitized alter ego's ability to do a stream from 21:00-03:00 EDT Friday/Saturday night.
There may be a short stream on Friday, but Friday's stream will be essentially moved to Saturday. Saturday streams are not generally firmly scheduled affairs but we'll make an exception this week. Come by and join us at 21:00 EDT / )1:00 UTC for Raid! Shadow Legends, a short Silent Film and continued comically inept grinding through Final Fantasy 14.
See you all there!
"Raaaaiiiidd!"
Update: The short silent film will be The Mechanical Man. Actually it will be the surviving 20 minutes of this film, which is an Italian film from 1923 that contains the first instance of a giant robot battle. (OK, a moderately large robot battle) It's frankly a bad copy but it's goofy as hell and should be a hoot. Come on by and join us in chat for a watch party.
(Like most Silent Films this predates SteamBoat Willy, and so avoids DMCA.)
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Unity.
While there are myriad crticisms that can be made of the Biden administration, it cannot be said that he hasn't met many of his campaign promises. From, supporting BLM, and hamstringing cops, to the obscene rise in the cost of fuel (which has so many knock-on effects for the economy). BIden's voters got exactly what they voted for.
Unremarked though, is that another of Biden's promises has been met. And it's one that he does not get credit for, as he is generally accused of doing quite the opposite.
Biden has united the country!
So let us offer our congratulations to the nations inspirational chief executive, who has shown that age, senility, incompetence and malice are necessarily, obstacles to meeting ones goals!
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Meanwhile, in Canada....
"Baby Woolly Mammoth" sounds like a Japanese cute girl metal band, but it is actually a thing that was just dug out of the ice blasted Hellscape that is Canada.
Here she is with the unsuspecting gold miners that found her.
Not pictured: 30,000 year old plague germs that are wafting out of the corpse.
Canada, for those that don't know, is a nation, long rumored by, hearsay, urban legend, cryptozoologists and Native American lore to exist somewhere between Detroit and Siberia.
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June 28, 2022
Based Bunny is not Paranoid, She's Prescient
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Thought on the Timeline in Which We Reside
We are living in the future...but not the future that I'd hoped for.
Say you wanted to have a company that specialized in Terraforming. That requires a set of expertise that don't exist now, especially in the same organization. However, you could combine through mergers, companies with different skillsets such as heavy machinery air-tools and gas manipulation technologies or "multi disciplinary real estate"`and then you'd have a corporation that could get down to the lucrative business of " Building Better Worlds".
One might think this would have PR issues if a degree of creativity was not taken in renaming the merged companies, but it should be remembered that certain companies are really leaning into this aesthetic.
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June 26, 2022
Stream Schedule
After a week of Streaming off and on I've settled down on a tentative schedule that fits in with my...uh...schedule.
Monday: 18:00 EDT/22:00 UTC
Tuesday: 18:00 EDT/22:00 UTC
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: Occasional streams after 18:00 EDT/22:00 UTC
Friday: 21:00 EDT/01:00 UTC (Longer Stream)
Saturday: Occasional streams after 21:00 EDT/01:00 UTC
Sunday: Occasional streams after 18:00 EDT/22:00 UTC
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday Streams will be necessarily short (2-2.5 hrs) since both I and my internet alter ego have to be to work at 02:00 EDT.
This should hold fairly steady for about a month, though I may be on the road in August. I want to stabilize at 4-5 days a week ultimately. I do reserve the right to start streams early, though I will make every effort to keep to the schedule otherwise.
I expect to get my replacement PS2 in the next few weeks and will then have a wider variety of games than FF14. I'll be doing some silent films as well , though I have not decided which night to do those on yet. Actual day by day programing schedule will follow when all that shakes out.
I'll be doing one of those occasional Sunday streams tonight. It'l be a fairly short stream tonight, partly to test some widgets.
Stop by and say "Hi!"@ twitch.tv/brickmuppet tonight at 18:30 (6:30pm) EDT/ 22:30 UTC. We'll be viewing the 1910 version of Frankenstein (which is VERY short and was only viewed by bots when it aired before) and after that doing a bit of flailing/grinding in FF14.
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June 24, 2022
Streamery Alert
Tonight at or before 9:00PM EDT / 01:00AM UTC my internet alter-ego will be streaming over at twitch.tv/brickmuppet.
(We may be a tad earlier as there are a few widgets I want to test.)
We'll ultimately be streaming Final Fantasy 14 again, but first there will be a brief 'just-chatting' segment and maybe a short silent film. We'll be going at least three hours so if you're hunkered down, stop by and say "Hi!".
As always, any Feedback on audio levels or video streaming quality are greatly appreciated.
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Oh Wow. Get Ready For Mayhem.
The Supreme Court did not knuckle under to the mob and an attempted assassination.
The DHS is warning churches, particularly Catholic Churches, to prepare for terroristic attacks.
This decision dropped on a Friday. A bunch of very angry people have two days off to do what they will.
Whatever you think about abortion, this does not end the medical procedure. It merely puts its regulation back to the states. Even most of the most conservative conservatives are quite vocal about how they believe it's necessarily the woman's choice in cases of rape, incest, or in the case of triage situations involving the mother's life.
So any bloodshed over this we might see this weekend is going a gross overreaction. A correct reaction would involve petitioning state representatives and campaigning for representatives who share your views on this matter.
But that wouldn't provide an opportunity to riot.
Maybe stay home tonight and watch V-tubers or something.
Be careful out there.
UPDATE 12:27: SCOTUSBlog has a huge roundup of links regarding the legalities and ramifications.
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June 20, 2022
Streamery Alert
Tonight my internet alter ego will be streaming again this evening from 18:00PMDST / 10:00PM UTC for about two hours. Plan is to be playing Final Fantasy 14.
Come on by, point and laugh knowingly at the silly noob who's gotten himself completely lost in Eorzean and is developing a shellfish allergy....
Note: After I get a handle on handle on how best to fit streaming into my schedule, which should be by next week, I'll have a schedule up every week a week in advance.
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An Assessment of Putin's Little War
An extremely dry and turgid discussion between eggheads on the Ukraine situation that is, nevertheless, worth watching because these guys actually acknowledge how much we don't know, as well as some surprising assessments regarding what we do.
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To Whom it May Concern
I am flattered and humbled that you like my writing style and are pleased with "much good informations" the blog supplies you with. However, I am not in the market for solar panels, wooden decks, Bangalore whores, or bulk quantities of frozen chicken feet.
Thank you for your viewership.
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June 19, 2022
We. Be. Streamin'.
Tonight my internet alter ego will be streaming from 18:00PMDST / 10:00PM UTC for about two hours.
I streamed it last night and I'm trying to pin down a lag issue that is present in the stream and VOD but not my computer, so feel free to come by and laugh at the silly streamer who is hopelessly lost in Eorzean, and has developed fungiphobia.
Also: feedback regarding AV levels is appreciated.
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Link Dump
I've been super busy and frankly COVID took a LOT out of me. 3 weeks later I'm still dragging. Also dealing with a kidney stone. Nevertheless I worked all sorts of overtime this week.
Anyway, in lieu of original content, here are some links of varying degrees of importance that may be of interest.
A double shot from Tim Pool. Back to back this week, he had on Dennis Prager and then Frei and Barnes.
Note that both vids are 2 hours
I never really thought Dennis Prager would be on Tim Pool. He's every bit as good a guest as one would expect. The lawyers/legal analysists Frei and Barnes are always interesting and informative and they don't disappoint here. Pool generally provides a good, informative show but these two are better than average. Unlike last week, neither of these episodes had a SWATing or bomb threat to add to the tension, but both hold their own and cover a lot of what's going on in the world that's not getting a lot of coverage elsewhere.
When they tell you their plans, LISTEN!
Donald Sensing gives a good overview of the DEF shortage, and why it is likely to be catastrophic.
Normally, when faced with a dangerous communicable disease the government's advice and indeed orders have been to practice social distancing and to quarantine if exposed. They have been quite emphatic on this point.
The Chinese, who claim not to have had anything to do with the virus they released upon the world now claim to have found intelligent aliens.
In between all the cussing, Razorfist has some interesting thoughts on Westerns.
Pipkin Pippa...Laconic Lagomorph is Legit.
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June 13, 2022
On The Fires and Other Mishaps Befalling U.S. Food Processing Plants
In the comments to a previous post, commenter StargazerA5 noted reports of food processing plants that have been blowing up over the past few years.
Here is a list I was able to nail down of 25 that have happened this year. Most really don't look like "enemy action"...but there have been at least 25 this year.
That seems like a large number.
Here they are, with links to news articles. I gleaned this list mainly from the My Patriot Supply newsletter, Tim Pool's channel and loose talk on Discord.
Seven percent of the 80,000-square-foot Van Drunen Farms freeze-drying facility in Momence, Illinois was burned and declared a "total loss.†This MAY be one reason freeze dried 'survival food' has gone up so much in the last few months, though it had been skyroketing before that.
An explosion of unknown origin heavily damaged a feed plant that provides feed for aquaculture, cattle, horses, and poultry.
An explosion destroyed a potato/corn processing plant. Other reports I've seen noted correctly that this plant was responsible for supplying most of the western U.S. However, all omitted the little detail that what this plant supplied the western U.S. with was potato chips and nachos. This is not as big a catastrophe as some might suppose.
A massive fire at a fertilizer plant miraculously resulted in no injuries, despite tons of ammonium nitrate on site. Still, the nation's fertilizer production took a hit.
A fire destroyed a meat packing plant in Wisconsin.
The largest Soy-processing plant in the U.S. caught fire. It appears to be a fire in a filter used to de-dust the air and prevent fuel air explosions, but I'm not sure. The article mentions concerns about this disrupting soy production in the U.S....um....
A fire at a dairy facility.
This one has been widely reported and it was a serious fire that caused injuries. the plant will be down for 18 months. However it made snack chips and cookies....so this is not exactly vital infrastructure.
A fire at the Nutrien Ag Solution facility (fertilizer plant?) in Sunnyside, Washington may have been a near-run-thing since an evacuation order was issued for a half-mile radius of the facility. The fire burned through 1.7 million pounds of sulfur used for fertilizer. No one was injured in the fire, but there's even less fertilizer now.
A large fire (took 24 hours to contain) at a Hot Pocket factory. No one was killed, but the Hot Pockets got hot.
Feb. 23, 28 and March13 there were a series of fires in and around a Dairy in PA. They have all been declared accidental. The cause given in the article is electrical fire.
This was a consequential fire. A 1.2-million-square-foot Walmart grocery distribution center burned for multiple days in Avon, Indiana—350 fire fighters and 30 fire agencies fought the blaze, which consumed massive stocks of food bound for locations all over the country. This has reportedly put a strain on Wal-Mart's supply chain. Note that the BATFE is still investigating the fire’s cause, 3 months later.
A fire a tater-tot factory.
Not a food PRODUCTION facility, but a storage facility for a charity. This is probably not part of any large scale campaign, but is one of these stories that has been widely reported, sans context.
No injuries. But no onions.
This looks to have been quite serious, the loss of more meat-packing capacity is most unwelcome now, though there will likely be plenty to spare by fall. I like how the report mentions that the cattle were "rescued". As they were at an abattoir, I suspect their reprieve will be short.
A plane crashed into a potato processing plant. This is tragic, but did not disrupt the plant in any way. It does not seem suspicious, but this was the incident that seems to have gotten people talking about food plant terrorism last month.
This looks to have been a close call due to the large quantities of anhydrous ammonia on site
Organic food distributor Azure Standard lost its headquarters to a fire on April 19. This was offices, not a production facility and it is unlikely that a serious effort to disrupt food supplies would waste resources on something as niche as organic foods.
However!
The facility has the word "Azure" in its name. This gives the sad lonely weebs who run this blog a dubious but sufficient rationale to post a pic of Zara, from Azure Lane that is appropriate to the season, but not the workplace.
Art by Smoothatin/Sejin
This one is interesting because the were able to go into their file and use a 'stock photo of a Nutient AG Solutions plant burning'. (see photo in article #9 above, this is the second from the same company on this list)
OH MY GOD!1!! Another plane crash! Why are planes kamikazeing in to our food processing plants!?
Actually, a plane crashed near a FPP, on property owned by the plant where plant equipment was stored. The plane was also carrying passengers. The article mentions two passengers killed but does not mention the pilot. Like the other plane crash above, this does not seem to be suspicious, but it's one of the ones that really got people talking about this matter.
A fire at a soy processing facility [political/cultural joke goes here]. As it happens, this is only about a 45 minute drive from Brickmuppetburg. Minimum impact, no one killed. Included for completeness.
Train derailments seem to be up this year, probably due to cascade effects of the supply chain chaos. While it TECHNICALLY involves food infrastructure it's not really evidence of targeting food production. But, hey, it got us to 25.
200,00 chickens killed on an egg farm in a massive fire. Honestly they frequently kill more chickens right now culling for chicken flu (which is very much a thing now). A fire in one of these chicken farms can start because of dust/dander and they are terribly fast when they do. This would not be worth mentioning but for all the rest.
Not much is known about this one, but it seems to have been minor due to the quick response.
25 of these incidents seems like a lot and a few few of the fires are suspicious, but that doesn't indicate a conspiracy.
The two plane crashes that have caused so much worry among some don't appear to have anything to do with any plot to incite famine.
What I suspect is happening (in most instances) is that we are seeing the results of the hysterical COVID response. People are overworked because of personnel issues due to the disease and they are making mistakes. Also, maintenance has been perfunctory at best everywhere for over two years (this is also because of COVID) so I'd guess that contributes to why things are breaking. That certainly sounds plausible in the case of the plant where the dust filters caught fire. Note however that I am not a mechanic, nor an engineer. I have a degree in history so my opining on this phenomenon is just a layman spitballing.
I expect things are going to get worse before they get better.
Be careful out there.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at
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June 11, 2022
7 hours to Go
Still having tech issues which I ascribe to Apple operating systems and architectures, but I'm confident that I'll either have fixes or my current work arounds by 21:00 EDT / 01:00 GMT/UTC.
" At twitch.tv/brickmuppet "
We'll be streaming for a few hours (two or three at least) so feel free to stop by, point and laugh.
UPDATE: It worked! The game wouldn't run right but we showed the 1916 version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and then did a Just Chatting stream. There were a few glitches with OBS but they didn't derail the stream, and they were worked around in a few seconds.
Over 2 and a half hours, we topped out at 6 people in chat, at least two of whom were not 'bots!
Thanks for stopping by Avatar-ExADV!
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I'm Gonna' Have to Post This Now...
...'cause it probably won't be funny or make sense by the end of the year.
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