Sometimes I look at some of my goofier projects like the “2001 Briefcase Computer” and I think to myself “that’s actually pretty cool.” Then I see guys like this and I know that my nerd-cred is minuscule.
Jun 152023
Jun 152023
In the appendix to the Lord of the Rings, Tolkein included a short story about Helm Hammerhand, a serious badass and one man wrecking crew who lived hundreds of years before the events of LotR. A few years ago Warner Bors annlunced that they were doing an animated film about the events described in that story… and as spinoffs of lotR go, that one made sense. it’d make a fun action flick, animated or no.
But wait. There’s less.
New Report Shows ‘The Lord Of The Rings: The War Of The Rohirrim’ Will Inject Feminism Into Tolkien’s Classic Tale Of Helm Hammerhand
Basically: Helm Hammerhand, main character of the story… isn’t the main character of the story. Instead, it’s a female character who was so unimportant in the story that she didn’t even merit getting *named.*
The producer, one Philippa Boyens, claims that this effectively all-new character (named Hera, because the writers are such spectacular Tolkein experts that they know that the characters in Rohan are named after Greeks, not northern Europeans) is based largely on “Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians and daughter of Wessex king Alfred the Great.” OK, sure, great. It’s quite possible that a movie about Æthelflæd would be a spectacular thing. So… why not make a movie about Æthelflæd? Oh, right, because it’s easier to ride the coat tails of an existing property.
Who is this for? A movie about Helm would bring in the existing fans. This thing is likely to turn a lot of them away.
Jun 142023
Maybe something like “you get what you repeatedly vote for.” In this case, Chicago repeatedly votes for the worst possible mayors (and, sadly for the rest of the state, the worst possible Governors). And Chicago suffers for it. Will they ever vote for “the other side?” I doubt it. Not until the city collapses utterly, the population drops by 90% and the survivors are replaced.
In First Month in Office Crime Jumps 38% Under New Chicago Mayor Johnson
Refuse to learn at your own peril.
Jun 142023
Leader says Belarus now has Russian nuclear weapons, wouldn’t hesitate to use them
A whackaloon second-rate dictator with access to nukes? What could possibly go wrong?
Jun 142023
Where the case is made that fandoms are composed not of people laser-focused on a single mono-topic, but who are *generally* nerdy, conversant in a range of fandoms, some related, some not, but all somewhat similar in having canon and lore and the like. The point being that when franchises and IPs are taken over by people who are *not* nerdy, they cannot relate to the fans, and end up making a mess of the product. They have fundamentally different worldviews.
Jun 122023
The story goes: an Amazon driver delivered a package. Nobody was home, but the automated doorbell made some sort of innocuous announcement. The driver, who was wearing headphones, misheard what the robot said, decided that the robot did a racism, reported that as such to Amazon… and then the homeowner had his Amazon account locked. This included “smart home” devices, locking out some of the functionality of his house.
This story, if true, argues for several things:
1) Don’t have “smart” features that can be turned off by someone else on a whim
2) Perhaps companies should be prohibited from having this sort of authority
3) “Someone said something racist/sexist/offensive” should at the very least be accompanied by verifiable documentation of the incident before *anything* is done. False accusations should be met with punishments similar to but exceeding those that an accurate accusation would have resulted in.
Jun 102023
Even with a specially made setup and at close range, it’s difficult. This should drive home the difficulty and impressiveness of hit-to-kill interceptors that take out incoming warheads or missile from tens of *miles* away at closing velocities far greater than those of mere bullets.
Also: bullets don’t as a rule fuse together; rather, they explode in a shower of flattened lead fragments.
Jun 102023
A convincing case is made that the Kakhovka Dam was destroyed not by military action, but through incompetence.
Jun 102023
Biden and ATF just created 29 million felons
Obviously they’re not going to try to arrest everyone who still has a small piece of plastic and metal that was perfectly legal when they bought or made it. They’ll go after a select tiny number, and do so very publicly, hoping to instill fear… and to instill a subconscious realization that we’re living in an anarcho-tyranny. The result of *that* will be a general erosion of respect for the rule of law and an increased acceptance of generalized criminality. That doesn’t seem like such a great thing to me, but then, I’m not in charge.
Jun 092023
Swedish Prime Minister: “Massive Immigration Just Doesn’t Work”
Claims that Sweden is going to institute the strictest immigration rules in the EU, including such draconian ideas as demanding that immigrants learn Swedish and actually try to join Swedish society.
Probably too late to save Sweden, however.