Category: Decline and fall

Something stinks

Iwoto?

Okay, for the sake of a story, I can suspend my disbelief in sentient submarines and ships. I can accept “mental models” of these vessels that look like adolescent girls. I can even believe that stuffed bears eat carrots. But I cannot believe that any military would store vital materials on Iwo Jima . “Sulphur Island” is the tip of a rapidly-inflating volcanic resurgent dome, and it’s rising out of the sea at an average rate of about eight inches a year, rendering any harbor or dock temporary. Soon, geologically speaking, magma is going to meet seawater, catastrophically. The creators of Arpeggio of Blue Steel need to do better research.

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Shin Sekai Yori depicts a future in which adults are frightened of children. We’re already there. (Via Ace.)

Time, crime and princesses

The government finally returned the hour they confiscated from me back in March. Let me offer a small suggestion to whoever is in charge of clocks in this country: how about making daylight “savings” time a local option? DST might make sense in the eastern regions of a time zone. However, I live near the western border of the central time zone, where the clock is already ahead of the sun, and turning the clock forward an hour in spring leaves me sleepy and irritable.

A related, depressing factoid:

Research based on time use surveys found Americans’ schedules are determined by television more than daylight.

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Guess the offense:

The flashing lights of the park ranger vehicle were on, another vehicle as well, and four rangers were there in case I attempted to flee after the dastardly crime of _______.

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Even if I should someday visit Japan, manifold orthopedic problems make it unlikely that I will ever climb Mt. Fuji. Fortunately, Google Maps street view has already done so. (Enter “Mount Fuji, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan” in the Google Maps search box to get there.)

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We need more princesses, not more lawyers.

(Here’s a tune named for the Irish pirate queen: Grace O’Malley.)

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All hail Captain Justice. (Via Dustbury)

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Some good free music I recently found:

Dudeldrum — a low-budget, energetic Russian Corvus Corax.

Los Jekes — something like Chilean gypsy jazz.

Also, if you haven’t yet downloaded the first Diablo Swing Orchestra album, what are you waiting for?

Miscellany

Guys und Panzer:

(Via the Borderline Boy.)

An ornithopter for Miyazaki.

The Sailor Senshi meet the Jetsons. (Via Project Rooftop.)

“I think that when a human engineer lives a good life, he’s reincarnated as a beaver.”

Full disclosure: I am a creature of the sinister right-wing Koch brothers, just like Michael Mann. Both universities I attended, plus the one where I studied and photographed ballet and the one where I took part in the annual Renaissance Faire, have all received money from the Kochtopus.

Don’t expect a Calvin and Hobbes movie.

You probably shouldn’t expect another VEI 8 blast from Yellowstone, either.

I haven’t had a haircut in 20 years. Perhaps that is why I’m still alive despite riding my bike every day on the wild streets of west Wichita.

Notes on growing biochemical weapons.

Pride and Prejudice for academics.

Ikea or black metal?

Today’s musical interlude, lunatic bassist edition:

Word of the day

Nibiruistic.

Nibiruistic (adjective), used to describe postulations, interpretations and opinions on natural phenomenae coloured by a wish for disasters on a Doomsday scale rather than based on scientific merit. The word is derived from Nibiru, the fictional planet invoked as the root cause for the disaster predicted by the Mayan calendar that would end the world on December 21st, 2012. Since the Mayan calendar was very ambiguous, it could be said to be the archetype for a Nibiruistic interpretation. Nibiruism (noun), a statement based on a wish for a disaster on a Doomsday scale rather than on scientific merit.

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Now that we’ve considered what the fox says, what does the moose say? ((“Hey, Rocky.”))

The furry anthem is not the first crime the Norwegian Flight of the Conchords has commmitted. Here are some earlier outrages (N.B.: rough language and worse):

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I abandoned Stella blah blah blah several episodes ago when it ceased to be fun. Ken the Brickmuppet stuck with it, and he has figured out what it all means:

We at Gainax hate you.
Our childhoods were miserable because we were a bunch of geeky, socially inept otaku who grew to hate our hobby (which we blame for all our lost opportunities). Nothing makes us sicker than seeing those who watch and enjoy anime for they remind us of our selves and our many personal failures. We hereby dedicate our lives to making you hate the medium as much as us, for we are transgressive and enlightened hipsters who understand the nihilistic futility of everything…Well…everything except the cruel pleasure we derive from getting you gullible fools to first enjoy something we create and then watch helplessly and despair as we dismember it without anesthesia before you. That is the greatest joy in all creation.That we are paid to do this is icing on the cake. It’s an ephemeral joy though. Your innocence thus defiled, you can bring us little amusement from this point on, but there are always others that follow the likes of you. Now get thee along, Aokigahara beckons you.

Today’s fun fact

Jefferson famously said, “I cannot live without books,” and he lived accordingly. He collected thousands of books at a time when it was extremely expensive to do so. A new edition of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in 1776 cost about as much as an iPad costs today.

You can buy a new paperback edition of Smith’s book for $7.19.

Update — Today’s fun quote:

The book most fibbed about, says the survey, is George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, which seems forgivable in these Orwellian times: apart from some character names, reading the news is almost exactly like reading the book.

Miscellaneous links

It’s taken years, but Miku is at last coming to the Mac.

What can you say about nothing? Quite a bit, actually.

Orwell is not the only writer who comes to mind when I read the news these days.

Iwo Jima, one of the less hospitable places on earth, might not be around much longer. Also, Kyushu is an exceptionally violent place, geologically speaking.

Anthony Weiner and his ilk would do well to consider the example of John Profumo.

Today’s quotes

Anthony Sacramone:

I was taken particularly aback by the first five minutes of the film [Pacific Rim]. It shows very neatly and succinctly how we in the First World do have this knack for turning even the worst catastrophes, the most vicious wars, the most horrific losses of life, into forms of entertainment. Call it our penchant for commercializing everything, or a neat psychological trick for distancing ourselves emotionally and psychologically from the evils of this world, we can turn even global genocide into a game show, a video game, or a set of collectibles.

Michael F. Bishop:

Norman is said to have his eyes on the Tory leadership; like Disraeli before him, he climbs the greasy pole with pen in hand. A product of Eton and Oxford, and a Ph.D. in philosophy, he combines politics and scholarship in a manner more common in Westminster than Washington. Boris Johnson, mayor of London and a rival in the race for Downing Street, dashes off witty works of popular history with ease; the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has authored polished biographies of Pitt and Wilberforce. There is no equivalent in America; books by politicians here are almost invariably bland, ghostwritten policy tracts or memoirs. This impoverishes our politics—historical ignorance and inarticulacy preclude statesmanship. ((But is there any statemanship in England today?))

Ace:

Al Sharpton will interview Rachel Jeantel tonight.
The closed captioning guy just hanged himself. He left this note: “Avenge me.”

Bonus quote — Avatar:

You guys are thinking too small. For that kind of capital, robot catgirl maids could be a reality!

It’s been a tedious week …

… and I could use a little silliness right now.

Sailor Fluttershy

When I read Dusty Sage’s comments on Equestria Girls, it occurred to me that there might be another bipedal variation on the Pony theme extant. And indeed there is. Is there ever.

Continue reading “It’s been a tedious week …”

Notes, musical and otherwise

There is an anime music tournament in the works, and the organizers seek your nominations. The following are what I came up with during breakfast this morning. There’s a lot of Susumu Hirasawa, Masumi Itou, Yuki Kajiura and Yoko Kanno. It’s not by accident.

Haibane Renmei — “Free Bird”
Paprika — “Mediational Field”
Azumanga Daioh — “Soramimi Cake”
Noir — “Salva Nos”
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica — “Sis Puella Magica”
Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita — “Yume no Naka no Watashi no Yume”
Macross Plus — “Voices”
Paranoia Agent — “Yume no Shima Shinen Kouen”
Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto — “Kouya Ruten”
Ghost in the Shell SAC — “Lithium Flower”
Shin Sekai Yori — “Wareta Ringo”
Ghost in the Shell SAC — “Inner Universe”
Paranoia Agent — “Shiroi Oka – Maromi no Theme”
Pumpkin Scissors — “Mercury Go”
Level E — “Cold Finger Girl”

Inevitably, I forgot a favorite: “Poltergeist,” from Ghost Hound.

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No one ever visits my photo gallery. I decided to open a Flickr account, so even more people can ignore my pictures. It seems I timed it just right — the Flickr page sure looks pretty, but I have to wait for it to load completely twice before I can do anything there. I joined a few Flickr groups and, again, I timed it just right. It seems that Wichita photographers hang out at Facebook nowadays. Although I do have a Facebook account to keep tabs on family and friends, as a policy I post virtually nothing there. That’s not going to change.

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Satsuma-jima

Satsuma-jima, not far from Kyushu, has been a bit feisty lately. I grabbed the picture above from the JMA webcam (third from the bottom of the list) this morning.