Kids are going off to college who nothing but the world since this happened. It's as distant to them as Pearl Harbor is to us. And yet 4 years after Pearl Harbor, the issue at hand as well as the issue in Europe was resolved.
Today we continue to play whackamole against this ancient enemy that has dogged our civilization for 1300 years and there is no real end in sight. The only successes of that day, the heroic, but bittersweet ending of Flight 93 and the amazing spontaneous evacuation of lower Manhatten were decentralized actions of a free people's militia....Many today wish to strip from our society both the societal and physical toolkits that make such holistic responses possible. Meanwhile, the kids born that year march off to colleges from which many if not most will emerge as fearsome Janissaries, primed to hate and struggle against their own as China sits on the sidelines patiently sending money to their teachers and entertainers, drugs to our children and patiently wait as we bleed ourselves on enemies foreign and domestic.
Also Donald Trump is president...so....Yeah....'didn't really see any of this coming. I suspect others failed to foresee these developments as well. Perhaps one of many lessons we should take as we reflect upon the last dozen and a half years is just how hard predicting the future is.
I'm not sure Sargon knows whats going on either, but (bear with me here) he IS a citizen of the U.K. and he gives a layman's overview of what he's seeing in this, his most recent video on the subject.
A slightly earlier and much longer video where he interviews a legal analyst on the matter is here.
1
The Fediverse seems to be lean (possibly heavily) left, and Gab isn't. In particular, Gab won't ban "hate speech".
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Sep 9 09:38:53 2019 (Iwkd4)
2
Torba bans a lot of things at GAB. In particular, he hates anime, and went on a ban spree some time in late 2018. Just like Otts, the founder of Minds, the outcry has made him reconsider his ways. So, instead, he bans one by one. Accounts just disappear overnight. And what's interesting, a number of people are in a complete denial about it's happening. Just like my late MIL, born in 1926, used to say: "Stalin's purges? Western propaganda! Nobody in MY family was purged!"
Of course nowadays we have an Anime group, and Torba appears to tolerate it, as long as anime isn't spreading out too much.
A lot of it is envy. A number of old-timers, personalities, and instance admins cannot stand the realization that proprietary, closed-off GAB grew larger than any Fediverse node: even with a suitable discount for bots, GAB is twice as big as Pawoo, the previously largest instance. They are enraged about normies not giving a rat's tail about distribution, censorship resistance, or free speech. And now GAB is in.
In addition, we have the usual crew of SJWs who thought they owned the network. They are the ones leading the fight to ban GAB at app level and through instance blacklists. I just don't think they are even in the majority of GAB-haters.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Sep 9 12:34:35 2019 (LZ7Bg)
3
Interesting. In any event, what I had heard was that Gab was being deplatformed specifically because of what I mentioned. I don't know if that was the whole story, or just a fig leaf, or what.
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Sep 9 20:14:02 2019 (Iwkd4)
4
GAB joining the Fediverse was primarily in response to getting deplatformed in app stores. Now that GAB supports Fediverse protocols, both back-end (ActivityPub) and front-end (Mastodon), a generic application can be used to access it, so it's harder to shut down. Some feared that in the next round Apple and Google would demand the client app writers to include blacklists for GAB by instance name and/or domain names. However, they made no move in yet. Instead, a popular client application, Tusky, banned GAB in the app, apparently on their own, purely thanks to SJWs leading the development team. Other apps declined to do the same. I heard Fedilab is taking the free speech tack. But I do not use apps to access GAB. I have my own instance that federates with GAB and that's how I interact with Mauser, Clayton, et al.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Sep 9 21:51:18 2019 (LZ7Bg)
5
And I don't use GAB all that hard, so I don't really know how to navigate all the instances and such.
As for Torba and Anime, as far as I know, he just has a hate-on for pornographic Loli art, likening it to kiddie porn. That's kinda hard to argue against, especially in a way that convinces a non-fan.
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Sep 10 19:20:29 2019 (Ix1l6)
6
An equally important question, my dear Brickmuppet, is how bad are Australians that in five days, no one here has stepped in to defend them?
Posted by: L. Beau Macaroni at Sat Sep 14 11:19:50 2019 (fieDC)
7
Not really any worse than Gamer-Gaters apparently.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Sep 14 11:29:50 2019 (YUAc9)
UPDATE 9/8: This was posted in the comments thread linked above..
Two of us went to the hospital last night, and I’m afraid the results
are inconclusive. He was sedated, and no family members were there, so
we couldn’t get information about his status. He was lying there in a
neck brace. I think he will not be posting for a while.
I will try to find out more, over the next few days.
This is not looking good.
I'll post any info on crowdfunding or such as I get it.
Christmas Tree is Green.
Storm arriving.
Yard is secured.
Parents are secured.
Extra water has been secured.
Dead branches in trees are secured.
Niece is secured, nephew is secured.
The BBQ grill is secured. If the power goes out, it's grillin' time!
1
How many rolls of duct tape gave their lives to secure the niece and nephew?
Posted by: David at Thu Sep 5 19:38:33 2019 (wXI5i)
2
Charcoal? Lighter fluid? Multi-pack of cigarette lighters? Just because Hurricane Armageddon is coming doesn't mean you can't make it easy to grill out.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu Sep 5 23:54:03 2019 (+qGjD)
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Sep 4 23:23:35 2019 (+qGjD)
2
A pretty good interpretation of Wendy's Twitter account. They tried doing "adult, real-life Wendy" using a variety of models in their advertising for several years. Now they've got a hit purely by accident, at least apparently. The Wendy's Twitter account is snarky, aggressive, acerbic, and smug; very much an anime tsun tsun girl. -tan versions of Wendy have been proliferating for a few years.
Wonderduck; unless the BGS video is actually a re-share or re-upload, Yori Yoshi's video predates it by about a month.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Thu Sep 5 16:09:05 2019 (+qGjD)
4
Ah, good point. That is a very good point. I was watching at work with the music turned waaaaaaaaaay down and honestly didn't notice it was different music.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Sep 6 20:21:01 2019 (+qGjD)
6
Tsundere pizza is positively wholesome compared to some of Dominos' other offerings in Japan. Shrimp, corn, and mayo pizza? Potato with mayo? Crab gratin? Garlic shrimp in butter? Octopus ajillo? Hardboiled egg on egg salad with white sauce and bacon? Some of those are going to go yandere on your stomach.
The garlic garlic garlic garlic garlic garlic pizza is not one I'd order if I planned to speak to anyone in the next week...
7
The crab gratin is delicious, at least the version I had at a seafood restaurant in Portland, Oregon many years ago. I've had shrimp pizza a few different places, and found it forgettable at best.
1
It's sort of like CB if every radio was also a repeater that passed on everything it heard, and the distances involved were much smaller.
Posted by: Rick C at Wed Sep 4 23:06:30 2019 (Iwkd4)
2
Propagation delays are horrible, volunteers supporting mesh nodes come and go, but relying on every peer does not work, vulnerable to disruption by intruder nodes, often jammed solid by congestion. At least in the U.S. every mesh is a stupid, predictable failure, unless it is bankrolled by an organization, but often even then. However, the idea continues to intrigue researchers. In Hong Kong the distances may be smaller and the mesh density greater than in typical American deployment. Also, it's temporary.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Sep 4 23:30:53 2019 (LZ7Bg)
3
If you remember truly decentralized pirac... er... file-sharing network like Gnutella, eDonkey, etc., then you know what to expect from a mesh. BitTorrent crushed all of them because its performance was thousands times better, thanks to trackers. Trackerless torrents are still as bad as the old meshes and even Bram cannot do anything about it.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Sep 4 23:33:00 2019 (LZ7Bg)
A Note to Our Canadian Readers
Those of you in Newfoundland and the Maritimes are probably looking at the wind speeds of a category 1 or 2 Hurricane and thinking "we get Nor'easters as bad as a that, no big deal!"
Well these are much different sorts of cyclones. They are wetter, dropping insane amounts of rain when they hit land, and they have significantly more storm surge than a North Atlantic storm of comparable wind speed. This thing looks like it will be Category 1 or 2 when it hits Canada. If so, it will surprise you.
Unpleasantly.
Please. Take it seriously. If Dorian follows this track, it is going to be a bad time in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland early next week.
On a personal note. A hurricane eye is slated to pass right over my parents house again for the second time in 10 months. They'd JUST finished repairs on the barn.
Hope ?
The extradition treaty is being formally withdrawn by the Hong Kong government.
Note that she refers to the 5 demands as being made by THE PUBLIC rather than something like running dog wreckers and saboteurs. While Mayor Lam nixes one of the demands (which is for what amounts to an internal affairs audit of the HK police) she yields on the Extradition Treaty and offers to parley on the rest. Which is significantly better than a bloodbath.
I'm still not optimistic, but there is now room for rational hope.
1
From what I'm reading, the biggest concern is that the Extradition Treaty is NOT withdrawn, she's only declared her intention to ask the appropriate member of the executive to move that the treaty be withdrawn in October, AFTER some media heavy festivals and AFTER people stop paying attention. And that the committee or board responsible for withdrawing the treaty is extremely unlikely to do so, as they are currently staffed by very pro-PRC members.
It sounds like a bunch of people switched parties and now Brexit is pretty much dead.
We've had this happen in the U.S. on occasion, most recently during Bush 2's term, with one fink in the Senate, but never anything like 21.
My confusion is this.
Because of the Parliamentary system the U.K. has, and the way they form their governments (the Queen is technically the head of state, but the actual governing executive is run by the PM, which is equivalent to our Speaker of the House). this is of much greater import than changing one legislative bodies political balance. This SEEMS to this more akin to what we would have if there were enough disloyal electors in a presidential election...ie: a genuine constitutional crisis.
Am I wrong?
This looks absolutely appalling, but I don't know a lot about the U.K. system so I'm genuinely curious.
1
While the British people were mildly pro-Brexit, Parliament is overwhelmingly Remainiac. This is a last-ditch effort to delay Brexit or block a no-deal one, and is apparently why Johnson was going to prorogue Parliament (close the session) for a longer-than-normal period.
I gather that the MPs that voted to thwart Johnson didn't formally switch parties but will most likely be expelled. This could force an election? I saw an article a couple days ago that suggested Johnson didn't want a vote on Brexit per se, but a vote of no confidence in Parliament forcing an election would probably be a different matter, and, I guess, might have gotten more pro-Brexit people elected.
Posted by: Rick C at Tue Sep 3 22:56:35 2019 (Iwkd4)
2
I'm no expert in Parliamentary systems, but from what I understand this is more like George H. Bush not winning re-election than a constitutional crisis. A big deal politically, but not a constitutional crisis. The thing to remember is that A Prime Minister is not co-equal to the legislative branch, but instead works for them. If you think of the UK government as a company, Parliament is like a Board of Directors, the PM is the Chairman and CEO they hire to run it, and the voters are the shareholders. The BoD has every right to boot the Chairman and CEO anytime they please, but it will create turmoil when it happens. In this case, the BoD has decided they don't like the CEO's strategic plan and are preparing to fire him, while he is potentially fighting it by trying to force an early shareholder's meeting (ie an election) to change the membership of the BoD.
After the shock of the initial, marginal, vote to leave and then surprise rebuke Theresa May's government got in the last early elections, which some Remainers have spun as a change in heart in the electorate, nobody is entirely sure where the British electorate really is on the issue. Not to mention a lot of voter anger about how Theresa May botched the whole thing. A lot of Members of Parliament aren't entirely sure of how their voters will vote if Brexit is the main issue, especially as many MPs are closet Remainers looking to throw monkey wrenches into the process. Throw in the potential for a Scottish and Irish succession over Brexit and you have the makings of a complete political Charlie Foxtrot, but it's still within the realms of what the UK equivalent of our Constitution is supposed to handle.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Wed Sep 4 06:33:46 2019 (jl9eJ)
3
In some parliamentary systems, bucking the party like this would be complete career suicide - you'd get removed from the list of party members, and after the next election you'd be gone. (Sure, theoretically the other side could add you to theirs, but in practice they generally prefer people from inside their own party...) The UK's different in that members run in their own boroughs, but you have to have approval of the party to run as a member of that party, so if the party kicks you out, you can't run as their candidate. You CAN run as an independent if you think your constituents just like you that much. It's not common, but it's been done before; Winston Churchill swapped parties, later was disowned by his new party, spent several years as an effective independent, and didn't really become a Tory again until the war broke out.
Most of these guys are not Churchill caliber.
That said, in situations where the government indicates that a particular bill is a measure of confidence, and that bill fails, it's customary for the prime minister to do one of two things: to turn over government to whoever can put together a working majority, or to call for elections and then see what shakes out of that tree. So let's look at both alternatives.
Say Boris says "no new election - Corbyn, put a government together." On paper, Corbyn could just collect the very-soon-to-be-ex-Tories, his own party, the Lib Dems, and literally every other non-Tory in Parliament and roll with that. Actually DOING that will be... politically touchy! Labour and the Lib Dems are never easy coalition partners, especially if they're relying on votes from the SNP too. They might get together long enough to delay or even temporarily derail Brexit, but it's not a stable long-term governing group.
Or Boris can say "okay, let's have an election". Looking at it from the Tory perspective, it's important to keep in mind that while the party is generally pro-Brexit, there are significant local variations, and the leadership is mostly anti-Brexit (they're from the social class which is not much inconvenienced by EU membership, and whose fortunes are mostly buoyed by it...) This puts Boris in a nasty spot. If he can't deliver Brexit, there's the potential for serious long-term damage to the party; a bunch of Tory voters who want Brexit are going to conclude that there's no chance of achieving it from within the current party, and they're likely to jump (to the appropriately-named "Brexit Party", a sort-of-successor to the UKIP without all the Farage baggage.) So he more or less has to run in favor of Brexit, but he might lose some seats on that issue.
On the other hand, an election's even more dangeous for Labour. Remember that at the last election, Labour did not take an anti-Brexit position; that's because among Labour voters, there are a bunch of pro-Brexit voters as well. It's popular among, well, small-l labor due to their dislike of having to compete with European workers. Labour picked up a lot of seats in that election from being able to get votes both from their own pro-Brexit voters and also the anti-Brexit voters who turned out in response to having lost the referendum. But Labour can't play both sides of that fence now. They've got the potential of losing some of the seats they won last time, as pro-Brexit Labour voters conclude "either we vote Tory or we get no Brexit".
Finally, there's one extremely wild card in this deck - Corbyn himself is pro-Brexit. From a completely different perspective than the rest, of course... he's an unrepentant socialist who wants out because the EU wouldn't permit the kind of sweeping economic changes he'd like to push through, so what he has in mind won't ever come about if the UK stays in. But the rest of the party leadership is rabidly anti-Brexit, so it's not like he can act on that...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Sep 4 12:35:51 2019 (v29Tn)
8
"I still get Monster Musume manga showing up under Self-Help Books."
Hm. Well, it could be seen as self-"help" I guess.
Posted by: Rick C at Wed Sep 4 10:07:00 2019 (Iwkd4)
9
Reminds me of how Ace of Spades, during one of the more amusing ONT threads, listed 'cheerleaders' as being essential emergency supplies alongside food, drinking water, and bullets.
Posted by: cxt217 at Wed Sep 4 12:48:33 2019 (LMsTt)
10
Silk is light, a good insulator, and does not melt under high heat. Packs tightly, too. So of course a good pair of socks is great for camping, possibly with a wool pair as the outer layer for hiking or keeping toes warm in the sleeping bag.
Illustration may vary.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed Sep 4 15:17:40 2019 (sF8WE)
1
I think I know what this is. It's DARPA, so it's a research program, not a practical one.
They want to know how information spreads across the internet (and other mechanisms), to learn, for example, whether it's better to directly respond to Russian disinformation accounts on Twitter, to simply ignore them, to run counter-programs of verified facts, and so on. And beyond that, whether you can pull information out of online posts to spot possible disease outbreaks before they can be identified through the usual channels.
They tried to launch a similar program in 2013, but then the whole Snowden thing happened and government overview of social media became far too hot a potato.
2
Season 3 of Log Horizon would depend on there being enough published volumes of the light novel series to give them the material for a season 3.
For some reason, Mamare Touno's output of the series dropped significantly while he was under house arrest after being convicted of tax evasion charges.
I do wish they produced a season 2 of Tokyo Ravens, which is a great anime adaptation of a light novel series.
Posted by: cxt217 at Tue Sep 3 18:22:09 2019 (LMsTt)
3
Yeah, I understand that he's managed to pay off the debt and the fines and he's working on the series again now.
It's vanishingly unlikely that any show could really live up to this trailer.
Indeed, after that awesome opening scene, the show reveals mediocre production values, a contrived and bizarre situation involving a cosmic space wedgie and unchaperoned teenagers in outer space. In addition to the aforementioned teenagers, there is a ten year old who talks through a hand puppet.
BUT WAIT!
By the end of the first episode , it is beginning to appear that our adolescent heroes predicament is not nearly as random as they thought and from that point the show begins to live up to the promise of that trailer...in a completely different way than expected.
This is a throw back to the old Sci-Fi juvies. While only a 2 or 3 on Moh's scale of Sci-Fi hardness, there are a lot of interesting of sci-fi ideas and they are explored intelligently. The characterizations are solid too and the show manages to develop, maintain and ratchet up a surprising amount of tension as our heroes learn more and more disturbing facts about the pickle they are in. Additionally the series manages to maintain a near perfect balance between being absolutely horrifying and surprisingly upbeat.
I'm really enjoying this show right now.
And boy, howdy that latest episode...
I have no idea where this is going, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the trip.
1
Good to hear that it gets things right even if it doesn't live up to that trailer. I haven't had time to watch anything yet this season but will catch up.... Eventually.
2
Yeah, that reveal at the end of episode 9 just turned all your expectations on their head, didn't it?
Although there's still a hole in Charce's excuse in Episode 7 that nobody noticed.
Posted by: Mauser at Mon Sep 2 14:37:01 2019 (Ix1l6)
3
There
is some thin evidence that Pinky Mc Two Tone might be the only one not a
clone. Certainly her Mom was way more upset than everybody else at the
parents meeting. She doesn't SEEM to have the 'poor little rich
kid' backstory everyone else does. Also, like Charce, she's a transfer
student. So she might have been unlucky and used to fill out
the group (they needed 8 ) or she might be the assassin,
though I'm growing skeptical that there actually is one....it might not
matter though, 'cause that last reveal....Wow.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Sep 2 15:55:57 2019 (YUAc9)
Hobby Space News of the commercial space industry A Babe In The Universe Rather Eclectic Cosmology Encyclopedia Astronautica Superb spacecraft resource The Unwanted Blog Scott Lowther blogs about forgotten aerospace projects and sells amazingly informative articles on the same. Also, there are cats. Transterrestrial Musings Commentary on Infinity...and beyond! Colony WorldsSpace colonization news! The Alternate Energy Blog It's a blog about alternate energy (DUH!) Next Big Future Brian Wang: Tracking our progress to the FUTURE. Nuclear Green Charles Barton, who seems to be either a cool curmudgeon, or a rational hippy, talks about energy policy and the terrible environmental consequences of not going nuclear Energy From Thorium Focuses on the merits of thorium cycle nuclear reactors WizBang Current events commentary...with a wiz and a bang The Gates of Vienna Tenaciously studying a very old war The Anchoress insightful blogging, presumably from the catacombs Murdoc Online"Howling Mad Murdoc" has a millblog...golly! EaglespeakMaritime security matters Commander Salamander Fullbore blackshoe blogging! Belmont Club Richard Fernandez blogs on current events BaldilocksUnderstated and interesting blog on current events The Dissident Frogman French bi-lingual current events blog The "Moderate" VoiceI don't think that word means what they think it does....but this lefty blog is a worthy read nonetheless. Meryl Yourish News, Jews and Meryls' Views Classical Values Eric Scheie blogs about the culture war and its incompatibility with our republic. Jerry Pournell: Chaos ManorOne of Science fictions greats blogs on futurism, current events, technology and wisdom A Distant Soil The website of Colleen Dorans' superb fantasy comic, includes a blog focused on the comic industry, creator issues and human rights. John C. Wright The Sci-Fi/ Fantasy writer muses on a wide range of topics. Now Read This! The founder of the UK Comics Creators Guild blogs on comics past and present. The Rambling Rebuilder Charity, relief work, roleplaying games Rats NestThe Art and rantings of Vince Riley Gorilla Daze Allan Harvey, UK based cartoonist and comics historian has a comicophillic blog! Pulpjunkie Tim Driscoll reviews old movies, silents and talkies, classics and clunkers. Suburban Banshee Just like a suburban Leprechaun....but taller, more dangerous and a certified genius. Satharn's Musings Through TimeThe Crazy Catlady of The Barony of Tir Ysgithr アニ・ノート(Ani-Nouto) Thoughtful, curmudgeonly, otakuism that pulls no punches and suffers no fools. Chizumatic Stephen Den Beste analyzes anime...with a microscope, a slide rule and a tricorder. Wonderduck Anime, Formula One Racing, Sad Girls in Snow...Duck Triumphalism Beta Waffle What will likely be the most thoroughly tested waffle evah! Zoopraxiscope Too In this thrilling sequel to Zoopraxiscope, Don, Middle American Man of Mystery, keeps tabs on anime, orchids, and absurdities. Mahou Meido MeganekkoUbu blogs on Anime, computer games and other non-vital interests Twentysided More geekery than you can shake a stick at Shoplifting in the Marketplace of Ideas Sounds like Plaigarism...but isn't Ambient IronyAll Meenuvians Praise the lathe of the maker! Hail Pixy!!
