December 31, 2017
2017
Damned if this wasn't really the year of the cock. I guess the Chinese zodiac got one right.
A quick perusal through astronomical texts consisting mainly of the paper placemats found in Chinese restaurants reveals that the the incoming year will be that of the dog.
As is usual with astrology and divinations in general this prediction leaves considerable leeway for its deciphering.
While it is looking very likely that 2018 is going to be a real bitch, we here art Brickmuppet Blog are holding out hope for that to end up being less unpleasant than is generally supposed.
Stay warm everybody!
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December 26, 2017
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
When the all male hen party that is the men's rights movement has their most paranoid notions validated by one's art, one is probably doing it wrong.
This is a spectacularly beautiful film, which has several interesting aspects. It even goes as far as asking some hard questions about the nature of valor and when a victory comes at too high a cost. However, all of those are tossed in favor of a Mary Sue fanfic with a budget and a message:
History, culture and wisdom can teach us nothing. Burn all the olds.
A brief synopsis:
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, space was riven asunder by a visually spectacular slap fight between tactically inept emo Space NAZIs and incompetent Red Guards in Space, either of whom could have ended the film two hours early if they'd had a junior high school chess player advising them on tactics.
There is an important Aesop in the film though.
Parking regulations are serious business.
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December 25, 2017
Meanwhile...
In Aleppo...
Pic Via
After enduring unspeakable horrors at the hands of ISIS, this was the first time in 5 years that those in that long suffering city have been able to celebrate Christmas.
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It's Over
My thoughts on this past Christmas season are hard to put into words.
Fortunately, Onsoku Tassha is not so handicapped and nails it. Even more fortunately, Pixy has provided us with these handy dandy tags!
But enough of such things.
May your KFC be fresh, your wine well aged and your cake free of small animals.
Merry Christmas everybody!
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December 23, 2017
Meanwhile, Over Disneyland
As one can imagine this caused some consternation in certain quarters...
"Oh Crap! Not THAT thing!"
Fortunately it was not a giant, ghostly, soul-eating sky whale, but another launch from Space-X, carrying 10 Irridium 4 Satellites.
Here's the video from the launch pad.
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December 21, 2017
Something Happened
It's unclear WHAT happened, and there is little to go on from our vantage point here in Virginia but given that this site is hosted from Niue and Australia, our best guess is that there was a dramatic altercation between a Bunyip and a Yowie that ended up smashing a transformer station, 3 markalites and the Sydney Mee.nu office.
Now that that's resolved, here is a bit of seasonal cheer from Zenn.
UPDATE: Well, it appears that the comments sidebar is busted, but otherwise everything works fine.
UPDATE 2: It appears that the glitch was actually due to 72,867 websites migrating...much like like wildebeests across the Serengeti.
But different.
Update to the Update to the Update: Pixy has a play by play up of what actually happened. No mention is made of Bunyips or Yowies, most likely due to liability issues.
All kidding aside, it appears that there was a perfect convergence of unforeseeable glitches (except for the part where I failed to note that the server migration was announced well in advance).
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December 20, 2017
Don't Call Him Mr. App
Via Instapundit comes word that Uber recently suffered a setback when an EU court for some reason ruled that the taxi service is actually a taxi service and not a social media app.
This is of limited interest to us except for the fact that it provides a tenuous rationale to visually celebrate the season...
...(and in Teto's case, to celebrate spirit gum)
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December 17, 2017
Oh What the HELL Is This?
You know what always makes everything better?
Dinosaurs!
You know what's hard to screw up?
Dinosaurs!
But do you know what year this is?
Yes, it's 2017. So get ready for the inevitable dissappointment that comes from this insidiously tantalizing headline.
New!? I didn't think they were even making dinosaurs anymore!
Oh wait what's this?
Hmmm...I guess they aren't making them any more.
It looks like they just grabbed some random non-dinosaur parts from the reject bin and kitbashed to their hearts content.
I may not be a paleontologist, but I KNOW what dinosaurs looked like 'cause I had a Lewis Marx playset and that thing up there was NOT INNIT!
That ain't no dinosaur!
These here are dinosaurs!
The BEST kind of dinosaurs.
Public domain dinosaurs.
Now get off my lawn!
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Old 'Splodies, Newly Released
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories has released another dump of declassified films of above ground nuclear tests. While none are as visually spectacular as some of the ones in the previous release, they're nevertheless interesting and this batch seems to focus mostly on very small (including sub-kiloton) blasts and some of the big multi-megaton tests at the Pacific test range.
Regarding the latter, I do wonder if the great distances these high yield tests were filmed from in comparison to the first is related to the debacle that was Castle Bravo.
One thing about these films only fully registered with me recently. There are several sequences that attempt to film the actual physics as it is happening, and push the 1950s filmmaking state of the art to the limit. Remember, this was captured with film...there was no such thing as a digital camera then... this is a fission/fusion explosion...just really...sloooooowwwwwww.
Amazing!
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December 09, 2017
Still Surfing the Cardboard Tsunami
So...
A short time ago Amazon, unhappy that they couldn't convince delivery companies to deliver their parcels at a loss, decided that they were never going to use UPS (or that other company) again and they were going to burry the delivery industry with their new delivery service.
As I understand it, Amazon was QUITE emphatic and eloquent in conveying the message to the shipping companies that such services would not be required this year. Thus management adjusted staffing accordingly.
Imagine our shock when Amazon packages started arriving right after Thanksgiving...en masse. It seems that delivering packages is hard and the stress and vexation of this realization is causing Amazon's newly minted employees to meet the challenge...poorly. Some have responded by going mad, or bad, or worse and some have simply cried desperately for help.
Anyway...it's been an exciting couple of weeks (and weekends too, because "OMG!"). I've worked here 25 years, and there have been some rough Christmas seasons, but this one has been a perfect storm of surprises and discoveries such as "Oh...so THAT'S the structural failure point for that type of platform."
But enough childish whining about actually being employed and getting paid lots of sweet overtime, here are some virtual ladies who manage to evoke the spirit of the season in a rather minimalist sort of way, even as they dance to lyrics that...don't.
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December 07, 2017
76 Years On
Soon all who actually remember it will be gone. What future generations know will be second and then third hand. In a decade of so, after the last have passed and their children are too old to relevantly object, "Interesting and insightful interpretations" will, no doubt, become all the rage in history departments to an even greater extent than they are now.
If present trends continue, we may be among the last people to learn anything approaching what happened during those desperate, crucial years and what we, the grandchildren and great grandchildren of those who were there know is distorted by time, wartime secrecy, human fallibility and the fog of war.
Study what you can. Remember it well, and pass it on to those that care.
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December 05, 2017
Oh.
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December 03, 2017
Rwby at Mid-Season
There was a fight four episodes ago.
There are, I believe four episodes left in this series.
It was rather more low key than the series is known for but pretty cool nonetheless.
"Why are YOU here? What's the plan?" "I don't have a plan. I mean I HAD a plan. It was a wonderful, clever and elegant plan. But you weren't part of it! Do you have any ideas?""Oh I HAD an idea and I was executing it, it was cunning and subtle...THEN YOU SHOWED UP!"The subsequent episodes have all been mostly quiet mood pieces focusing on either character development, exposition or an admittedly well-crafted sense of dread.
No. Really.
These most recent stories have mostly ended in cliffhangers, which have all been left hanging from their respective cliffs while our widely separated characters gradually regroup, show how far they have come as people, and learn more about what is actually going on.
I count at this point three separate cliffs being hung upon, two major plot developments that have been strongly hinted at, plus three major subplots, and these are all related to but distinct from the main antagonist.
There are, I believe four episodes left in this series.
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Well!
The recent update of Epic REALLY, REALLY does not like Mee.nu.
Or perhaps it dislikes Minx.
I dunno.
But enough Meta whining.
Now here's something completely unrelated that we hope you really like.
Art by Hiiro Gundan
UPDATE: Aside from the odd formatting issue with the first three lines, most of the problems seem to be fixable via browser permissions.
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