Walking Tanks

There are some people who are very into the idea of walking tanks. The whole game system Battletech, wiki entry, is based on tanks on legs. The problem is that a low profile is winning feature for tank. A tank standing on 10 or 15 legs is bazooka bait. Walking tanks show up in sci-fi setting where there is sufficent technology for grav tanks. Grav Tanks are alot better walking tanks. They can get as high, or higher, walking tanks and then go to ground. Check out Hammer's Slammers, David Drake's fictional exploration of the use grav tanks. Some Japanese fan has built his own walking, shuffling tank that looks a little like the AT-ST Walker from Star Wars. Look here for an archive of spaceship images.

Mel Gibson on the side of Terrorists

Mel Gibson's views have never been very well hidden. The causes he surports are known if not well advertised. He built a Church for a Roman Catholic schismatic group that split after Vatican II. Mel's father Hutton Gibson is a rabid bigot and holocaust deniner. What I think is interesting is that this editorial cartoon, by Lalo, is only one many that linked his antisemitism with the crazy violence of Islamic terrorists. This is going to damage Mel's career forever. What really made anti-semitism unfashionable in a way it wasn't before WWII, in fact many western democracies had levels of official antisemitism up to and during WWII, was the identifiaction of antisemitism with our enemies. These cartoons identify anti-semitism as part of our enemies belief system. However if we begin to sympathize with the people who want to kill or convert us and who also have a hate-on for jooooos, then we should worry.

Weird and Cute Japanese Beer Ad

I never thought Miss Kitty levels of ultra-cuteness could be used to sell beer. Here is the Beerchan flash ad.

Depressing Cartoon and Commentary

Comic Curmudgeon riffs on the depressing nature of panel.

I know Pluggers doesn’t usually do continuing storylines, but I’d like to see the new, bleaker Pluggers follow Rhino-Man for the next few days:

• “Plugger venture capital.” (Rhino-Man is rooting through a dumpster, looking for bottles or cans he can return.)
• “Plugger Zoloft.” (Rhino-Man is passed out in his battered easy chair, surrounded by empty cans of Milwaukee’s Best.)
• “Plugger liquid assets.” (Rhino-Man is selling his blood.)
• “This is how a Plugger’s wages are garnished.” (Two Bear-Men are cutting off one of Rhino Man’s thumbs.)
• “Plugger therapy.” (Rhino-Man has a shotgun in his mouth.)

Cat Model

In Get Fuzzy, Fuzzy has a scheme for fame and fortune by becoming a model.

Being Evil in History

YWUA is a term in SHWI that means "you wake up as". It means you take over the body and mind of some character.Today their was a YWUA thread, Second Guessing Hitler, that suggested some ethical amorality. The thread begins:

What would you do if you were Hitler starting in early 1941, you had all his evil intentions, but a little more ability to delay gratification and benefit of hindsight.

Humans as Parasites

Simpsonians at the Actor's Studio

I have always hated the program Inside The Actor's Studio. I have problems for with this program and the Method with is taught at the Actor's Studio. The host James Lipton adopts worshipful uctousness to his guest meatpuppets that grates, previous Ken Lipton hate on. The Actor's Studio is also to heavily worshiped as training ground for some very good actors. The case of the studio, its method and its alumni brings to mind two competing quotes about Eton; "the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton", "every battle thereafter was lost on the playing fields of Eton". There are times when it is worth watching.

Here is the cast of the Simpsons on Inside the Actor's Studio, 22 meg file. What is interesting is the Simpson actors take on a look of their characters when they do their voices. The funniest part for me is the little clip they show of Rainier Wolfcastle at the Actor's Studio. Similarly check out the comparison of Andy Serkis doing Gollum's voice looking a bit like Gollum, below the stuff on The Polar Express.

Youtube links instead of the 22 meg file.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

New Spaceport in the Desert

A small desert town in New Mexico is planning to build their own spaceport. This is a couple steps up from the facilities at Vulcan, Alberta. This isn't a sci-fi venture but a base for Virgin Galactic which sounds like a sci-fi venture itself.

Ice Cream Headache

Newstory:
Ice-cream treat led to boy's fractured skull

A Spanish Anti-National Anthem

Their has been some political conflict in the US over illegal emigration. Despite being both illegal and open to abuse and fraud, from both employers and employees. There are alot of different interest groups in favor of illegal immigration or the non-enforcement of laws. Business interests are in favor of a pool of insecure and easily cheatable workers, they bring down wage rates for US citizens and discourage unionization. There are other groups in favor of the current regime. The Hispanic population are in favour of growing the number of its interest group. Within this group are hispanic extremist groups, of whom La Raza is the mildest, these groups want to do take back the US southwest. Their are US "liberals", who are generally to right of most right wing parties in the developed world, they are "voices in the wilderness", but ignored. Finally there is one last group in favor of current state of non-enforcement of immigration laws, moslem extremist groups in the US and abroad. The oppenents of current strategy of subsidizing bad employees are derided on all sides as redneck vigliantes.

That was then however the recent (late April) protests about the reform, or deform, of immigration law. There have been some odd hicups of a crowd promoting their patriotism and love of the US were found carrying flags of a foriegn country, Mexico. Now there is a new spanish verison of The Star Spangled Banner. This new verison is being promoted by same groups that have have being pushing for perment amnesty, see here for the song, lyrics and story.

My Counter-Strike Stats on $Kingpin$

I have never been a great Counter-Strike player. My technique of reconnaisence by fire is now riskier. If you kill teammates "accidently" you might be banned. Lately since I reentered the world of Counter-Strike I have mainly been playing at one server, $Kingpin$. Too many single map servers. The other advancement which don't like is the superhero mod. I like Kingpin because it has a wide range of maps including Blahhh and Gahhhhh and doesn't merely run dust forever. Up til today every time I checked my stats at $Kingpin$ I was always in last place. Today I was 1561 place out of 1910. Whoooeee.

Actually I think I reset my stats by missing a couple of days.

Conspiracy Theories

Many humans distrust reality. The blind workings of history in which chance and stupidity are at least as important as any concious design are unsettling to many. Conspiracy theories provide meaning. The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they are like Pre-Copernican astronomy in that they have to be way to complicated to work. But the complicated simplicity of conspiracy theories are comforting. Who can forget that after 911 Arabs postulated that it was all a Jewish plot, here is one example from pro-nazi David Irving's site. Hamas, the governing Palistinian terror group/party/army, thinks that the Masons are an arm of the world wide zionist conspiracy, probably becasue the Protocols of the Elders of Zion mention them. After all who knows the power of their secret handshakes. Here is an interesting site devoted to Conspiricism, it explores all the various way conspiracy theories are formed and promoted.

There are ways we can look on the crazies who see plots behind everything from polio vaccines to death of a Fiat heir. For such people reality is no defense if it doesn't comform to their twisted fantasies.

Or you could play this entire phenomenom for laughs and play Illuminati. This is a game where you construct your own network of plotters to take over the world. You might have Network TV, Bankers, the Mafia, Trekkies, and the Boyscouts in on your plot. Oddly enough the connections that are made in Illuminati are at least as plausible as "real" conspiracy theories.

Anti-Slavery Group

I was reading a story about the lax punishment given to a convicted Saudi slaveowner. When the abolition movement began there was resistance to abolishing slavery by muslim nations. Saudi Arabia bowed to American pressure and officially abolished the slave trade in 1962. The abolitionist movement was founded in Christian ethics. Muslims on the hand saw reasons to keep slavery because their prophet Mohammed the Pedophile, The Rapist, The Thief, The Murderer, was also Mohammed the Enslaver. The biggest practioners of slavery today are criminal networks, many of whom are muslim like Turkish and Albanian gangs, and Muslim Arabs like the Saudis. Here is an group anti-slavery called iAbolish. Go there and read the spooky stories.

The History of Animation, Animated

Roman Roads Through the Alps

I have been following a devoted to trade routes called The Trade Routes Resources Blog. Here is a monograph on Roman roads in the Alps.

Frog Museum, not the Louvre

Some demented taxidermists stuffed and posed dozens of frogs. Years later an institution called The Frog Museum was founded. There are only a few pictures on the website. Still if I was passing through switzerland I would make a special stop to see the frogs.

Things To Do in Jail

There was an episode of OZ that spent 5-10 minutes on all the different ways of creating shivs. It is a design problem because the raw materials are limited to what a prisoner has access to. Which leads to an arty site, now offline unfortunately. A shiv is a primarily a home-made stabbing tool. All the shivs in this exhibit were confiscated at a high security lifer prison.

An NPR program, Talk of the Nation, is having a special this week on prison life. The first program was about solitary confinement, later programs will be about prison overcrowding, and from solitary to freedom. CBC's The Current had an segment today, 8/3/06, about managing sexual offenders.

How Crappy Games get Funding

We are told that computer games are made to expand on our wildest dreams. However before a game can be made it needs to be funded. There was a recent Gamasutra article, The Game Proposal, about the convoluted path a game must tread in order to receive funding. Proper bureaucratic forms must be followed and the game must be completed. A friend of mine, Tim Carter, has responded with his own rebuttal to this funding process. Of course if present trends continue we will only sequels and movie tie-ins as games in the future.

I can't find the article, but I recently read an Interview with the head of Atari who was gushing in praise of the profit margin of sequels.

Folk song about Mining found on SHWI

O come you young fellas
so handsome and fine,
and seek not your fortune
way down in the mine.
For the mine it will rot you
and seep in your soul,
'til the blood of your body
runs black as the coal.
Where its dark as a dungeon
and damp as the dew,
where the dangers are many and
the pleasures are few.
Where the rain never falls and the
sun never shines,
O seek not your fortunes in the dark
dreary mine.

--- some folk song about mining ---

from the thread Confederacy: Vicious Dystopia or Not?