I post this with the usual caveat that this fellow generally isn't my cup of tea. I've had to use that caveat three times now because things are just that crazy and Mr. Hambly does a good job of encapsulating these crazy things.
Turns out he's just as effective at encapsulating scary things.
It seems that some YouTuber who goes by the handle of That Umbrella Guy has incurred the wrath of the Professionally Offended Stormtroopers, who are now posting pictures of his wife and kids, sending him daily updates on the state of his lawn and trying to get him fired from his job.
In what is officially unrelated news, his mailbox was just destroyed.
Hambly has also set up a Go-Fund-Me for the fellow, who has a second kid on the way as his life is being burned down by trolls.
Universal Appeal
In addition to the constantly changing Daily Rankings list, Pixiv has links in the sidebar for the most popular images among male and female users respectively. I looked through both of them this morning, and, as expected, there was almost no overlap. There was some however. In the first 300 images, the following pictures were in both lists. (Below the fold because, some are NSFW.) more...
Make sure to watch episode 1A. I didn't realise the first episode had two parts and jumped right into 1B where the media was very much in res.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Jul 28 21:58:13 2019 (PiXy!)
4
Mauser, it's very good but it is NOT what all the RemArt makes you think it is. There are some ugly, ugly times ahead if you watch. EXCELLENTLY WRITTEN and highly recommended ugly ugly times, but still.
If you think you'll be turned off by Steven's rule of dead girls, don't watch.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon Jul 29 01:25:32 2019 (ssz1E)
5
It all depends on if the Den Beste Rule is broken gratuitously (Muv-Luv Alternative) or misogynisticly (Euphoria), or if there's actually a valid plot point and a story that comes out of it. Personally I'm a total sucker for heroic self-sacrifice (even cheese like Armageddon will get me). Although seeing a female character in that role is very rare.
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Jul 31 01:00:26 2019 (Ix1l6)
6
@ Mauser, I don't think it's a huge spoiler (except maybe for the first ep or 2) that the main male protagonist resets to a save point when he dies. This is taken to it's full, brutal, psychological conclusions. Hobbs gets it very right here. It's very well done, but it will bring you through the emotional ringer.
As for female self-sacrifice, all I'll say is that there are reasons why Rem can win Best Waifu awards even from people who don't normally gravitate to characters that young.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Fri Aug 2 23:10:26 2019 (jl9eJ)
1
Should I be expected to know who either of these people are? The previous post with the panda also went right over my head.
Posted by: David at Sun Jul 28 02:42:43 2019 (7VRIY)
2
Honestly, only a few people are going to get the video. Styxhexxenhammer is a rather loony You-Tuber who falls under the category of crazy new-age anarcho-libertarian hippy. He does short videos where he plays music or rants on wide ranging topics and does the occasional interview He is generally entertaining and very much a throwback to classic You-Tube, but nobody ever really expected him to...you know...interact with girls.
Suddenly...
Anyway...Its obscure but it's a cute story.
Regarding the picture of the Panda Bear sitting next to the rose and crying:
If that went over your head, then congratulations, you are a good person!
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Jul 28 07:31:00 2019 (YUAc9)
1
Huh. A website that the admin said would probably close by 2020 actually closed by 2020.
I'm sure something similar will open soon enough to replace it, but in a way, a bit of history has been lost.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Jul 26 15:35:39 2019 (AHeO2)
2
Nothing lasts forever on the 'net, unfortunately.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Fri Jul 26 15:53:11 2019 (jl9eJ)
3
BTW, only sad panda, which hosted some of the 'less reputable' (i.e. loli and such) hentai is currently gone. e-hentai, which is the 'more reputable' subset of sad panda is still up until "2020"
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Fri Jul 26 16:50:50 2019 (jl9eJ)
4
Article 13. Lots of sites have been planning to go into hibernation since it passed.
Posted by: Ben at Mon Jul 29 10:15:14 2019 (osxtX)
5
It turns out sad panda is not quite so sad any more.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Fri Aug 2 10:42:07 2019 (jl9eJ)
A Sobering Realization
Ilhan Omar was only 10 years old when she got here.
She went to school here.
She's had 26 years here.
She bore 3 kids here.
Any hate for us she brought with her she did not unlearn in our schools.
The rest of her hatred was not imported but learned here, in our schools.
I don't say this to defend or excuse her execrable views, but to point out that she is even more an indictment of our increasingly degenerate education system than our broken immigration policies.
Keeping out barbarians is all well and good, but it is a futile gesture if we make them domestically.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Jul 25 07:48:31 2019 (LZ7Bg)
2
From what I've read, this particular form of radicalization is done at mosques, not schools. From what I've read a lot of the Islamic troublemakers in Europe (before the immigration increases of the last few years) were second- and third-generation people whose parents and grandparents had more or less assimilated.
Posted by: Rick C at Fri Jul 26 09:30:20 2019 (Iwkd4)
Meanwhile, There's This Story, That Will Probably Never Ammount to Anything.
Well this is fun. John McAfee has reportedly disappeared.
There are rumors that he's been picked up by the CIA.
Keep in mind, this is John McAfee, so rumors and drama are part of the source code.
However, there is the little matter of that huge stash of blackmail material on the worlds most powerful people which he claims to have collected during his years as the founder and CEO of an IT security firm that he has arranged to release if arrested.
Popcorn is popping.
Keep in mind though that this IS after all John McAfee, who is a certifiable loon. He's running for president despite being on the lamb for tax evasion in the U.S. and when he's not on a heavily armed yacht crewed by mercenaries he is living in...Cuba.
Sketchy doesn't begin to cover this guy.
He is smart though and given how he made his millions he did potentially have access to EVERYTHING. OTOH this is only being reported right now by Bitcoin sites so...who knows?
Here's Something Neat That You Don't see Everyday
Here we have a false color image of...something.
Guess what the 'greenish-yellow' stuff is.
Is it :
A: Impact related lava flows in Lunar Craters?
B: Sand dunes in windswept craters on Mars?
C: Stromatolite colonies in brine pools in Australia?
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Jul 23 21:48:27 2019 (Ix1l6)
3
??? I thought Mercury wasn't tide-locked? How does this work? Is it constantly evaporating from the sun-facing side and condensing on the night side? According to the internet (grain-o-salt) mercury rotates 3 times for every two orbits about the sun.
Posted by: MadRocketSci at Tue Jul 23 21:56:42 2019 (K+Kza)
4
It was a minor plot point in some sci-fi game in my childhood that Mercurian miners would have to keep their equipment roving across the surface to avoid the sunrise.
Posted by: MadRocketSci at Tue Jul 23 21:58:04 2019 (K+Kza)
5
I guess the deep crater explanation is plausible if they're all above 90 deg latitude.
Posted by: MadRocketSci at Tue Jul 23 22:20:47 2019 (K+Kza)
6
Yeah, Mercury is in a 3:2 resonance, not tide-locked. So these are all at the north pole, where the crater walls are high enough to shield the ice from the Sun.
7
Mercury is surprisingly hard to get to and I don't think anyone has yet landed a probe there. Quite apart from being close to the sun where it's hot, it's got a high speed orbit and no gravity to speak of to assist in a capture, and then once you do establish an orbit, the surface rotation is fast enough to become a serious consideration when you try and figure out a landing. Messenger did something like 9 gravity assists and took several years to get to Mercury.
Posted by: David at Wed Jul 24 01:20:14 2019 (7VRIY)
Indeed. However, once one is there it is easier to get back from than one would assume of something so far down the sun's gravity well. You see, its orbit is so fast that it acts like an additional rocket stage, so theoretically, mass drivers on Mercury could sent a constant stream of metals earthward without too much cost or difficulty once sufficient infrastructure had been built up.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Jul 24 06:14:30 2019 (YUAc9)
While The Nutbars Keep Focusing on the Jews...
...the REAL conspiracy reveals itself to be a plot by orange(?) loudmouth New Yorkers with strange hair to take over world leadership positions.
Everything is crazy.
I'm rather more OK with this crazy than most.
1
Soooo, the plot is that Picard has to protect Ensign Sue?
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Jul 21 14:16:34 2019 (Ix1l6)
2Soooo, the plot is that Picard has to protect Ensign Sue?
Looks like it. Just like Logan did in his eponymous movie. Or maybe Ensign Sue will be a better starship captain than Picard, just like Jedi Sue. Or maybe she'll be a better spy, just like Jamie Bond Sue. Or maybe she'll be a better ghostbuster, or, or, or...
Posted by: jabrwok at Mon Jul 22 07:07:56 2019 (wKZS0)
3
I just can't. I held out one little candle of hope that they would do something new and interesting, even with bring (another) old character back...I mean, you could do all sorts of stuff to make a series about Picard interesting.
And all I see here is: REMEMBER THIS???!!! PICARD!!! CAPTAIN!!! CAPTAIN PICARD!!! THE DATA STORYLINE!!! BORG LADY (works cheap bcause that's all we could afford)!!! ***AND THE BORG!!!***
Are these actually Borg? What ARE the Borg anymore?
Borg and Data in the same storyline and memefied 20+year-old characters. Urgh.
Posted by: Ben at Mon Jul 22 09:22:42 2019 (osxtX)
4
The sad thing is that I just recently read a book about French vineyard owners. And they are tough, clever SOBs (including the women). They grow into the land, and learn from the grapes (and their employees, and each other, and every variant of the soil and water). They love pouring out their wine for the lucky person who has never tasted it before. They are full of joy, not alienated.
I know retired military guys. And they love their retirement jobs and hobbies. Doing things that are all about growing and healing and creating makes them happy and heart-whole.
So why do they have to make Picard discontent? He pretty much enjoyed himself wherever he went, in the show, and it was his genius to pull together a team and a home. Where are the tasters, the vinetenders, and all the other people who live in a vineyard? Where is the village church and the local saint and the war memorials, and the place where the king visited 800 years ago? There's no French in that house and vineyard; it is too hard and new.
If Picard were happy, digging him out to do the necessary would be more of a sacrifice, and watching him do it with grace and uncomplaining chivalry would be very true to the character of someone very senior in judgment.
I am okay with the new crew thing, but they do not all need to worship him. He showed up at the end of their history texts, after all, when they were all anxious to pass and get out.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Jul 23 07:58:38 2019 (sF8WE)
5
Oh, yeah. I forgot the dumb twist about Picard's brother and nephew dying in a vineyard fire. That makes sense of the new house. Gah, felt so angry about that bad fanficky crap back at the time, and so apparently my brain rejected the whole mess.
It still looks like California. Nothing wrong with California, of course. All the old TNG stuff was also filmed in CA, and I think I even know where, after watching some wine videos over the years. But they made it look like future France, and captured more of the feel of a working vineyard.
I hope it does work out. A lot of it does look good, and there is great potential.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Jul 23 08:10:54 2019 (sF8WE)
It's been 50 years since Neil Armstrong became the first person from this planet to set foot on the moon. A mere 7 years prior, an American president set this most epic of endeavors as a national goal, in the same year the first American Orbited the Earth. it should be noted that U.S. rockets were not particularly reliable at the time...
...yet in less than 7 years our civilization overcame immense technical hurdles to put 2 men on our nearest satellite. 10 more would follow.
In 7 years, we had figured out how to do it reliably 6 out of 7 times and the reason for the one failure was quickly figured out and corrected for the subsequent missions.
Now with the hard part done and over and a sevenfold increase in the time it took to do the hard part, one might expect that we could now vacation at 6 Flags on the Moon.
Instead, 50 years later the moon is adorned with...6 flags (one of which fell over).
50 years.
We have not been able, as a society to do what we did then.
Keep in mind that then we were fighting a land war in Asia, staring down the most implacable evil of the 20th century (which at the time had over 20,000 nuclear warheads aimed at us and defined peace as an absence of opposition to communism) and we were engaging in the final heavy lifting in expanding the American dream to all races. We were skeet shooting, chewing gum, talking, and horse-diving at the same time.
And yet, here we are.
Looking at old movies, of when we were young and free and full of hope.
Who robbed us of our future and how were we so foolish as to let them?
At least today we can look to Musk and others to pick up the dusty, forlorn baton...
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sun Jul 21 12:05:25 2019 (LZ7Bg)
2
Stole the future? Sadly, nothing so nefarious or reversible. It's more that we never really understood what the Apollo achievement truly meant. At the end of the day, Apollo and the other rockets were a lab experiment write large rather than a real program to push mankind into space.
I grew up a space nut, wanting to be an astronaut through high school (though for a number of reasons I knew well at the time, it was never really in the cards). As time wore on, I started asking these same questions: Why aren't we in space? Then I started to understand what it really takes to get something from the lab discovery to a consumer product, and how much of the stuff discovered in a lab is really built on decades, or even centuries, of basic materials, physics, and other research. I learned that to be able to build something once is a far different level of skill and knowledge than it takes to build something that is repeatable and affordable enough to do at scale. As an example, much of the semiconductor industry today that can build such fantastically complex CPUs at massive volumes cheaply are building on technologies that trace themselves back to Charles Babbage in the early 1800s and even much earlier for some of the basic materials science used to build the tools in order to build the tools and is the result of many millions, if not a few billion, people working on the problem for the past couple of centuries.
We'll get to space faster by investing in basic materials, power, HVAC, aviation, and even submersible technologies that will eventually make the space-faring technologies low hanging fruit than we will by constantly shoveling into new Apollo style programs that create a lot of single-use equipment where we lose the knowledge gained shortly afterwards due to the lack of an ability to follow it up.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Sun Jul 21 15:40:08 2019 (jl9eJ)
3
Ugh, sorry about the big block of text. I had spaced between paragraphs, but I always forget that the mee.nu sites tend to remove blank lines and that I need to code them in via HTML.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Sun Jul 21 15:42:17 2019 (jl9eJ)
Turbo-Encabulators Are GO!!!
Tesla Coils are at Maximum Pneumatic Pressure!
Hydrophone Arrays are emitting in the infrared!
Magic smoke containment fields are polarized! The vampires have been provided with their offerings!
The flywheels are engaged and our datalink is now interfacing with the planetary tube network!
"It's more technically accurate to just say we're back up and running.".
3
I learned that there's no university policy that cannot accommodate an exception. In fact, all of them even have instructions and procedures about manufacturing these exemptions. But it all comes down to relevant people willing to go the extra mile. Sometimes it's possible to escalate up.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Jul 17 02:39:46 2019 (LZ7Bg)
4
You need to talk to your congressman or local tv station.
This is freaking ridiculous. You have enough credits for three degrees, and exemptions are made for this kind of situation.
St. Catherine of Alexandria! St. John Bosco! St. Anthony! St. Joseph! St. Jude! St. Expeditus, for goodness sake! All you holy helpers of students, please pray for him! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for him! In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, and in the name of the Holy Trinity, I call for some justice and mercy, and at least one fully awarded degree!!!!
And if this person has some hidden enemy or annoying demon, I ask St. Michael to smite said enemy or keep him unable to mess around with our friend. And if you know any tech support angels, feel free to send them along, because he needs some serious help in that department.
O Holy Spirit, comfort our friend and cheer him. Grant him the spirit of wisdom and understanding, and refresh his hope and faith and love. Be his Advocate, I pray, and give some common sense to his poor excuse for a college administration. Because this is getting very old.
I ask this in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Fri Jul 19 14:23:06 2019 (sF8WE)
5
So...Does anybody else see Feigiap's cityscape in the negative?
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Jul 20 21:54:14 2019 (YUAc9)
6
Not sure why you're hanging on it. It is just as impractical and uncomfortable, not to mention unsafe place to live as the flooded city you posted previously. But it's not the point. The artist just wanted a pretty picture with a citiscape that it's out of the ordinary. The UHF antenna is super cute. That building is probably some kind of local maintenance and administrative office (unless a poor as a rat ham radio operator lives there).
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sun Jul 21 07:54:51 2019 (LZ7Bg)
I don't mean does anyone have a negative opinion of the picture, I mean do they SEE it in the negative.
That's how it looks in Pale Moon. It looks normal in everything else.
As far as I can tell, that's the only picture affected.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Jul 21 08:29:11 2019 (YUAc9)
8
Ah.
There IS one other picture that has the same effect, also by Feigiap.
The other two times I've used his pictures (here and here) they are unaffected by the glitch.
Both of the affected pictures are from a specific art set; one of views in modern day Penang.
This effect does not show up on any other browser and did not show up when I posted using Pale Moon on my old iMac with Mountain Lion. I'm wondering if this is a terribly ineffective attempt DRM or just an obscure glitch in an obscure browser.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Jul 21 09:24:15 2019 (YUAc9)
As for the show itself, I found Rising of the Shield Hero to be quite good overall. Despite its grimdark opening and recurring cynicism, the show manages (somehow) to be enjoyable.
It is both amusing and annoying that despite the rage directed at this series for its being "problematic toxic male wish fulfillment ", it is, if looked at rationally, almost the opposite of what it is being criticized for.
That is, the show is a pointed disquisition on the difference between being a bad-ass glory hound and being a gentleman. Nayofumi , despite his PTSD is the adult in the room. He consistently uses his wits to solve his problems and weighs the consequences of his actions. This is in stark contrast tho those whose messes he cleans up and whose fires he puts out. This is a nuanced but firm critique of the sort of thing that might be legitimately termed "toxic masculinity". However, as its being contrasted with virtuous masculinity it apparently doesn't count.
Raphtalia is a genuine heroine and in a sane world would be considered pretty damned empowering. For instance: She's not the shield bearer. He is. Nah, Redoubtable Raccoon Girl eventually becomes the sword wielder, monster ventilator and dispenser of ass-kicking. She has a genuine (and all too rare) 'journey of the heroine' arc where she comes from less than nothing to achieve true and completely earned greatness.
But she doesn't count because she suffered, overcame, learned and grew as opposed to being a Godlike Mary Sue with nothing to learn.
I'll admit that I was put off by her hysterical rejection of manumission early in the series, but it does make sense from a character perspective at that time, not only because of her (completely reasonable)PTSD but because that an unaffiliated beast-woman in a violently human supremacist city is potentially in far greater peril than one who has the legal cover of being valuable property.
My biggest complaint is that the show doesn't so much end as come to a reasonably acceptable pause point (The story is based on a series of light moves and is not close to being finished). However, it still has a satisfying finale and over the course of 25 episodes the two main characters grow, change and develop in realistic and interesting ways.
The series is not particularly well animated and the plot does suffer from occasional verbal tsunamis of exposition, which, in fairness, is consistent with the fact that our two main protagonists know nothing about the world they're in. Those criticisms, however, pale in comparison to the far above average character development and genuinely interesting story.
I recommend this one highly and sincerely hope we see more of this show.
UPDATE:Yes. Trying to bang out a post in 5 minutes at the library does not lend itself to quality. I think all the typozes have been fixed now.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Jul 14 23:23:27 2019 (PiXy!)
2
I'll add to your spoiler there that the other problems are that it is being forced on her, and is part of a plot to take her away from him. She is dedicated to him by then and doesn't want to leave him. As his slave, she can't be compelled to go away from him. It may also unbind her from his advancement and reduce her to a child again (IIRC, it did).
Posted by: Mauser at Mon Jul 15 20:52:16 2019 (Ix1l6)
Here is an excellent study of the interior of the Stanford Torus space habitat by Rick Guidice.
It's particularly notable as one of the few renditions to get the scale of the actual final design right.
The Stanford Torus was the final in a series of designs intended as minimum sized test beds for a self sustaining space habitat. The Stanford Torus's habitation tube was "only" 430 feet wide. That's still almost half again wider than a football field is long, and it would have been 3 and a half miles (5.6K) long, which is pretty impressive.
Quick Status Update
As I type this, I'm in the University Library working on a research paper.
Below the fold is a quick status update. For those justifiably not interested in such banality, here is evidence that Hollywood doesn't value diversity so much as they hate the Irish.
2
Since you "just graduated" you should be eligible for a deferment for 6-9 months, more or less automatically, unless it's changed, which it certainly could have.
Posted by: Rick C at Wed Jul 10 21:30:41 2019 (Iwkd4)
1
1. Jonathan Frakes seems to have developed a, um, thyroid problem.
2. What the hell did I just watch? (Oh, it's basically an ad for a tv show)
3. Useful information to people who didn't know about this already.
Posted by: Rick C at Tue Jul 9 19:25:34 2019 (Iwkd4)
2
I was somewhat amazed that darknet is mostly used to sell milk (including Jersey and goat), beef tongue, pig feet, and such. The media created an image of circulation of drugs for BTC, but apparently it's a minor function of darknet, if it occurs at all.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Jul 10 08:43:21 2019 (LZ7Bg)
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!!