Time to shut down YouTube and Soundcloud?

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Nov 032018

So a few days ago a nut shot up a synagogue and killed innocent people. Since that nut had previously posted hate-filled nuttery on the Gab social media platform, the hosting service and payment service that supported Gab took Gab off the air.

Yesterday, a nut shot up a yoga studio and killed a couple women. Turns out that the killer was a misogynist “incel” who *really* didn’t like the fact that women didn’t dig him. And for some years he has apparently been posting videos talking smack about women, and praising the likes of previous newsworthy mass killer Elliot Rodger, and posted a number of misogynist songs on Soundcloud.

So… why are YouTube and Soundcloud still allowed to function?

Fixing “The Last Jedi”

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Nov 032018

If I understand correctly, this feller is working on completely re-editing TLJ into something less horrible. How exactly he’d release his version without the House of Mouse and its army of attack lawyers jumping up and down on him I don’t know, but it’ll be interesting to see the final product. Vice Admiral Gender Studies does not appear in the trailer. Since the purpose of the project is to fix, as much as possible, TLJ, getting rid of the character entirely makes sense. Presumably the whole Canto Bight nonsense will be excised. There is some added dialogue; Ackbar sounds ok, but the Mark Hamill stand-in is… well, not quite on the mark. But whatryagonnado.

Note that Luke has his “real” saber back, so presumably in the re-edit he’s not phoning it in during the fight with Kylo.

#BelieveWomen

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Nov 022018

This is kinda interesting…

https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2018-11-02%20CEG%20to%20DOJ%20FBI%20(Munro-Leighton%20Referral)%20with%20redacted%20enclosures.pdf

Eventually, on November 1, 2018, Committee investigators connected with Ms. Munro-
Leighton by phone and spoke with her about the sexual-assault allegations against Judge
Kavanaugh she had made to the Committee. Under questioning by Committee investigators, Ms.
Munro-Leighton admitted, contrary to her prior claims, that she had not been sexually assaulted
by Judge Kavanaugh and was not the author of the original “Jane Doe” letter. When directly asked
by Committee investigators if she was, as she had claimed, the “Jane Doe” from Oceanside
California who had sent the letter to Senator Harris, she admitted: “No, no, no. I did that as a way
to grab attention. I am not Jane Doe . . . but I did read Jane Doe’s letter. I read the transcript of
the call to your Committee. . . . I saw it online. It was news.”
She further confessed to Committee investigators that (1) she “just wanted to get attention”;
(2) “it was a tactic”; and (3) “that was just a ploy.” She told Committee investigators that she had
called Congress multiple times during the Kavanaugh hearing process – including prior to the time
Dr. Ford’s allegations surfaced – to oppose his nomination. Regarding the false sexual-assault
allegation she made via her email to the Committee, she said: “I was angry, and I sent it out.”
When asked by Committee investigators whether she had ever met Judge Kavanaugh, she said:
“Oh Lord, no.”

In short, during the Committee’s time-sensitive investigation of allegations against Judge
Kavanaugh, Ms. Munro-Leighton submitted a fabricated allegation, which diverted Committee
resources. When questioned by Committee investigators she admitted it was false, a “ploy,” and
a “tactic.” She was opposed to Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Ummm…

This is not the woman who Avenatti represented, but was a woman who *claimed* to be that woman. So…double secret dumbass, I guess.

I suspect this will get minimal news coverage. It *does* seem to work against the cultural narrative.

Bring on the robo-buses

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Nov 022018

Fighting with a bus driver while the bus is in motion? Not such a good idea. While the bus is driving over a bridge? Epically stupid.

Self-driving vehicles will have their problems, rest assured. But the thing is, robotic vehicles *will* get better. Humans? We’re as good as we’re gonna get.

It actually looks like the driver did this on purpose. maybe he was trying to pull over, but if so, he was pulling over in the wrong direction. Instead it looks more like “Whelp, I’ve had about enough of this.”

Manned Mars Spacecraft

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Nov 022018

This is what a manned mission to Mars dating from the late Apollo era would have looked like: a cluster of hydrogen tanks with a small number of NERVA nuclear rockets. The spacecraft would have been relatively gigantic as it leaves Earth orbit; large enough that it would have been assembled in space from at least six Saturn V launches. When it returns to Earth it would have been little more than the mission module; this would blast past Earth and continue in solar orbit while the astronauts and a few trifling hundreds of pounds of Martian souvenirs would have plowed into Earths atmosphere in a compact entry capsule. The mission module itself is described fully and heavily illustrated in US Spacecraft Projects #3.

I’ve uploaded the full rez versions of these renderings to the 2018-11 APR Extras folder on Dropbox, available to all APR Patrons at the $4 level and above. If this sort of thing is of interest, please consider signing up for the APR Patreon.

Night of the living NPCs

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Nov 012018

“NPC” is the meme that keeps on giving…

The NPC meme had been around for a few years, ignored and unused until a woke video game news website published a piece bemoaning the NPC and whining about how it “dehumanizes” people. As a result, the Streisand Effect was put into full force, and now it’s everywhere.

“Dehumanization” is the public face of the outrage about NPC. It’s the excuse that Twitter used to block a whole bunch of NPC-themed accounts, as well as accounts that switched to an NPC avatar. But I don’t think that the SJWs whoa re upset about being compared to NPCs are really primarily upset about the fact that NPCs aren’t human. What I think upsets them is that the fact that the NPCs aren’t the heroes in the story. They are meaningless bit players, interchangeable and ultimately forgettable bit parts in someone else’s story. This plays hell with the self image your average activist (of any kind) tends to have. Political and religious activists tend to see themselves as the Little Guy bravely standing up to The Forces Of Evil, thinking that when their pluck, determination and absolute moral superiority inevitably triumphs, they will be recognized as the Great Person that they feel that they are. Being called an NPC reminds them that, nope, they are just a small cog in a big damn machine, and when they’re off the stage nobody will remember them. For people whose self image revolves solely around their own self importance… being made to consider that they are *not* important is the sort of world-shaking revelation they cannot allow. it’s the sort of realization that every adult had to go through at some point when they were transitioning away from childhood. But a lot of the screeching NPCs seemingly have yet to grow up, and retain their infantile sense of ultimate selfishness.

“The Crow” had a bit of wisdom on that, courtesy Top Dollar, one of the all time great cinematic villains.

Lovecraft in a nutshell

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Nov 012018

A YouTube video discussing number of H.P. Lovecrafts stories in an amusing and entertaining way. As is now required by the SJW Priorities Insertion Into Everything Act of 2015, there is a *lot* of time spent on pointing out Lovecrat’s racism. Additionally the narrator does not have a lot of respect for some of Lovecrafts… “cheesier” storytelling. But hey… Lovecraft cartoons.

More Magical Thinking

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Nov 012018

Lest anyone think my ire is focussed solely on theleft-leaning side when it comes to magical thinking…behold:

What Is the “Dark Energy” That Scientists Seek to Measure and Define?

The universe is observable. It is full of phenomena that can be quantified, even if they are not yet understood. One such phenomena is the apparent accelerating expansion of the universe, something that defies current understanding. The expansion *should* be slowing down as the mass of the universe causes slowing through gravitation, just as shrapnel shot into the air by an explosion are slowed by gravity… but careful observation indicates that that’s not happening. So scientists have come up with the concept of “dark energy” not to explain it but as something of a placeholder until observational data or improvements to theory can better explain the situation.

But what do we get from Monseigneur Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.?

This is why the universe expands more rapidly as it goes outward: Love, God’s love!

Fortunately, he points out that he’s speaking “lightheartedly.” But it remains an explanation firmly mired in magic. No real work goes into the explanation; no work *at* *all* goes into either confirming or falsifying the claim.

It’s not far from this sort of thing to “the Earth is less than 10,000 years old and using millions of taxpayer dollars to build a replica of a fantasy Ark in Kentucky makes a whole lot of sense.”

It Can Happen Here

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Nov 012018

China, leading the way into a future straight out of “Black Mirror” or “The Orville:”

Here's a dystopian vision of the future: A real announcement I recorded on the Beijing-Shanghai bullet train. (I've subtitled it so you can watch in silence.) pic.twitter.com/ZoRWtdcSMy

— James O'Malley (@Psythor) October 29, 2018

Translation: China has instituted an “individual credit system” to enforce proper behavior, sort of the ultimate expression of internet mob mentality but turned over to full governmental control. All of your government-defined sins will be recorded and used against you… and the people who associate with you.

Someone needs a math lesson

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Oct 312018

Disney bought Lucasfilm six years ago today and has already recouped its $4 billion investment

Ummm…

The deal, worth $4.05 billion in cash and stock, was announced Oct. 30, 2012 and marked the start of a new era in the Star Wars franchise. Disney would make back that investment and more in just a few short years. The four Star Wars feature films Disney has produced have grossed more than $4.8 billion at the box office, according to comScore.

UMMMM…

Someone needs a refresher course in the difference between “gross” and “net.” The general rule of thumb is that the movie company gets 50% of the tcket sales in the US, and 25% from the foreign box office take. So how much did Disney make?

(YAY! I get to do some math!)

From the graphic included in the article, box office receipts for the four movies are:

Force Awakens: $936,662,225 domestic (which works out to ~$468 million); $1,132,798,477 overseas ($283 M)

Rogue One: $532,177,324 US ($266M); $524,290,640 foreign ($131 M)

Last Jedi: $620,180,528 US ($310 M); $712,330,249 foreign ($178 M)

Solo: $213,765,308 US ($106 M); $179,094,450 foreign ($44 M)

Thus Disneys total take so far is *about* $1.786 billion, not $4.8 billion. Worse, these movies weren’t exactly free to make. TFA cost about $300 million. Rogue One cost about $265 million, TLJ about $317 million, Solo, $300 million. The total just to make the movies: $1.182 billion. And while marketing costs are usually not spelled out, they’re generally assumed to run about the same as the production budget. But Solo didn’t seem to be that well marketed, especially compared to the extreme cost. So, let’s say the total marketing budget for the movies has been about $1 billion. Thus the total cost to Disney to make and market the movies has been about $2.182 billion… with $1.786 billion in box office take. Which would mean that, so far, Disney has *lost* about $400 million on the star Wars franchise, rather than making their four billion dollar investment back.

Admittedly, Disney is doubtless making a whole lot of money from merchandising, as well as DVD/Blu ray sales. I’m pretty sure that Disney is, in fact, turning something of a profit. But they sure seem to *not* be doing as well as this truly bizarre article is suggesting.

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