I was appalled to see the fascination in the American media for the marriage of some second-rate actress to a foreign aristocrat, but it’s not the first time that Americans have embarrassed themselves, their nation and their ancestors by going buggo for this sort of foreign frippery. Fortunately, there are still many Americans who are properly minimally interested; so for them, the following video summarizes the events of the day.
This is a pretty slick system to restore functionality to someone who has had fingers cut off (leaving at least part of the first finger bone). No electronics or power systems are needed; all the strength in your fingers comes from muscles in your forearm, and *most* of the motion in your fingertips comes from a fairly simple and repeatable type of “folding” of the finger. So a purely mechanical system, if it’s clever enough, can reproduce *most* of the motion and strength of the hand.
Some time back some people got it in their heads to see if cats would step on the Koran. Why did they decide to test this? Who the frak knows. But the end result was a whole lot of YouTube videos made by Muslims showing cats refusing to step on Korans. This was touted as evidence that cats know that Korans are special, and thus the Koran is the true and inviolable word of God, and thus everyone should convert to Islam.
There are two immediately obvious problems with this:
1: It’s really easy to edit videos. Cats don’t like stepping on things they’re uncertain about, so getting footage of them not stepping on open books on the floor should be fairly easy.
2: I can think of other supernatural explanations for why a cat might not step on a book. If we’re positing cats having knowledge of good and evil and the ability to detect and avoid evil, they would avoid stepping on a Necronomicon. And so their avoidance of a Koran might have a different interpretation…
It’s a dumb thing. But then… this is the internet we’re talking about. “Dumb things” are its bread and butter.
If you’re of a mind to, wander over to YouTube and search for “cat walking on Koran/Quran” or some variation thereof. Bunches of videos, the vast majority of which are from Muslims either carrying out the “challenge” or reacting to other videos.
I’ve not seen too many contradictory videos. Possibly because how many non-Muslims have Korans, and how many of *those* have cats, and how many of *those* want to go to the bother. But there’s this guy, who is a Christian apologist who has a bunch of videos about how Islam is wrong, and he took up the challenge. Included at the beginning are a number of clips of cats avoiding Korans for your viewing pleasure:
Which led to this “reaction video” featuring a highly excitable young guy who promptly goes into vitriolic denial mode:
Part of the denial is the claim that those aren’t *real* Korans, but instead dictionaries. So, the Christian guy goes back to the drawing board and tries it again, this time going to some pains to show that those are indeed actual Arabic language Korans, and that the cat will nonchalantly step on them for some food.
Which has led to this reaction video, which this time seemed to accept that indeed the cat is stepping on the Koran, but that the cat is somehow being forced into it (with the gentle offer of food, which I can assure you is no effective way to “force” a cat into doing something the cat doesn’t want to). And as a result of the acceptance of a cat stepping on a Koran… threats of violence come out. Contain your shock.
The whole thing is patently absurd. But here we are, in an age when not only are we looking at manned missions to Mars within just a few years, but also a return of astrology; cars shot into solar orbit while more people are buying into the idea of a flat Earth; genetic engineering curing diseases while people are rejecting vaccines; incredible advanced in understanding the basic nature of the universe while more and more people are believing that the world is only 6,000 years old. People are using technologies that simply didn’t exist a generation ago to argue about whether a cat will step on a frikken’ book.
Fine. Great. Modern civilization is doomed.
What we have is another disconnect between headline and content:
“Amazon Studios is in talks to revive one of CEO Jeff Bezos’ favorite properties.”
“In Talks” isn’t the same as “done deal,” but it is at least a hopeful sign.
Some time back I posted a link to some YouTube vids of kulning, a form of Swedish singing used to bring in cows (don’t laugh, it seems to work). That sort of singing appealed to something in my Scandinavian DNA. It’s calming and beautiful, and seems to hearken back to Olden Times.
But then… there’s another side to northern European “olden times” music that also appeals to me. There’s a group called “Heilung,” composed of various norther European musicians, who create “neofolk” music that seems to be a mashup of what you’d think Vikings would sing before they made a mess of an enemy force, and modern metal music. And damn but it works, mixing Old English with Old Norse and Old German and Saami languages and styles with modern mixing.
There’s “Hakkerskaldyr” (“Shield Formation”), which is very much a Viking take on a Haka. The lyrics are in I believe old Norse and an English translation can be read HERE. The video below was made by a fan, and is just a “lyrics” video, but does an interesting job of it. I’d love to see this being sung in a modern public school…
There’s “Krigsgaldr” (“War Spell” or “War Incantation”), one of the few that’s mostly in English. It’s an interesting take on the concept… the singer doesn’t *want* war, but it is being thrust upon him, and he’s a-gonna go all Viking as a result. Heilung released an animated video for it that is really rather remarkable in the use of ancient Scandinavian imagery in an animated form. With a bonus cameo by Darth Vader!
Heilung has released both studio and live music. And I think the live versions are better. They performed live at “Castlefest” in the Netherlands last year, and they put on one *hell* of a show. Most of the music – vocals and instrumentals – are very, very definitely masculine… which makes the occasional feminine work just that much better.
There’s “Alfadhirhaiti,” which if it doesn’t get your blood pumping… you ain’t got no Viking in your soul, son.
There’s “In Maidan” with is basically just a repeated recital of the Futhark, the “alphabet” of the Norse runes. And it comes across as a religious or magical incantation of power… which, when you think about it, would have been very appropriate for the Vikings. The Futhark allowed them to record their words and thoughts for the ages, which is power indeed, and if there’s magic, it’s one of the strongest.
The whole 1 hour 16 minute show is in one convenient vid:
This is about as politically incorrect as a musical form can get without actually trying. It’s firmly rooted in Northern European traditions; there is a bit of cultural appropriation in the use of throat singing (generally though of as Mongolian and Tibetan, but there is something like it in Saami tradition, and if the Vikings didn’t use it, they *should* have); the songs don’t make a fetish of being weak and compliant; it’s *proudly* masculine; the musicians don’t seem to have the proper proportion of diversity. These musicians and their music would probably scare the pants off your average SJW. Its touting of European paganism would not fly in many places in Europe today.
Something a little odd has struck a lot of people about recent school shootings. On one hand, we’re told incessantly that these things are incredibly common; CNN is reporting that 20 weeks into 2018, there have been 22 school shootings. OK, fine, go with it. but when things are incredibly common, they’e *not* newsworthy. That’s kinda the whole point of news… to inform you of things that *aren’t* common. So how can school shootings be both common and worthy of nonstop news coverage? Simple: you define “school shooting” so broadly that it covers a vast array of very different events, which jacks up the numbers, but still allows you to tout the actually really rare actually newsworthy stories. Simple evil genius. So, about those “22 school shootings” CNN has been Goregasming over:
Their criteria:
You can already tell that those goalposts have been moved *really* down the field.
Some of their examples to build up the numbers:
April 12: Raytown, Missouri
A man was shot in the stomach in the parking lot of Raytown South Middle School during a track meet.
April 9: Gloversville, New York
A student shot another student with a BB gun in Gloversville Middle School.
March 13: Seaside, California
A teacher accidentally discharged a gun during a public safety class at Seaside High School, injuring a student.
March 8: Mobile, Alabama
One person was hospitalized after a shooting at an apartment building on the campus of the University of South Alabama.
March 7: Birmingham, Alabama
One student was killed and another critically wounded after an accidental shooting during dismissal time at Huffman High School. Police wouldn’t elaborate further.
March 7: Jackson, Mississippi
A student was shot inside a dormitory at Jackson State University. His injuries were not life-threatening.
March 2: Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Two people were shot to death at a dormitory on the campus of Central Michigan University. The victims were not students and police think the incident stemmed from a domestic situation.
February 27: Norfolk, Virginia
A student at Norfolk State University was shot from an adjacent dorm room while he was doing homework. He was not seriously injured.
February 27: Itta Bena, Mississippi
A person was shot in a rec center at Mississippi Valley State University. Police said the person was not a student and the injury was not life-threatening.
February 24: Savannah, Georgia
A person was shot on the campus of Savannah State University and taken to a nearby hospital where he later died. Neither the victim nor the shooter were university students, the college said.
January 31: Philadelphia
A fight led to a shooting in the parking lot of Lincoln High School, fatally wounding a 32-year-old man.
January 20: Winston Salem, North Carolina
A Winston-Salem State University football player, Najee Ali Baker, was shot to death at a party on the campus of Wake Forest University.
As can be seen, a large proportion of the incidents are at universities or otherwise involving adults. One involves a friggen *BB* gun. A lot of them seem to be gang related.
*THIS* sort of thing is why people have lost trust in the media.
Ah, modern journalism. Where would we be without you? Colonizing Alpha Centauri, perhaps?
Headline:
Content:
“Thus the possibility that cryopreserved Squid and/or Octopus eggs, arrived in icy bolides several hundred million years ago should not be discounted…”
Nathan Fillion is younger than me, so imagine how thrilling it was to see him referred to as “old as hell.” Still, looks modestly entertaining.
OK, physical prep work on the 3D printed parts is now complete and the model is ready to be shipped off for casting. Below are photos of the model parts simply taped together (the lower loop is bent upwards a bit due to being simply held together with tape). The model kit should prove fairly straightforward to build; there are only a few pieces:
1: Top shell
2: Bottom shell
3: Bridge
4: Lounge
5: Top loop
6: Mid loop
7: Bottom loop
8: Underside of shuttlebay
And that’s it.
If you want one – and you really should – it will be available from Fantastic Plastic. Send them an email to reserve a copy. this is an important thing to do… let’s ’em know roughly how many to make. Like a lot of kits like these, only a limited number will be made.
Oh, what the hell. The last few days lots of people online have been yapping about whether they hear “yanny” or “laurel” in a particular audio clip. It’s another one of those useless yet unavoidable little corners of the internet.
Here’s a link to a repeating audio clip that lets you slide frequencies back and forth. For me, starting it in the central position and letting it play, it started off very clearly as “yanny” but quickly turned very clearly into “laurel,” and I have to move the slider waaaay over into yanny-territory before I hear “yanny” again. In fact, the original audio file comes from the vocabulary.com page for “laurel.”