This week's Tammy Tuesday is all tired out

Tammy in one of her all-too-rare quiet moments...

Miniature dachshunds might be small... but they more than make up for it in hyper-activity!  If you are contemplating getting one, you'll love them like nothing else... but you'll also come to appreciate those fleeting minutes of rest and quiet :-)

Read More

Just saw IRON MAN 3

Definitely THE best of the series by far! And one of the finest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date.

Go see it. Now! Or, perish in flames. It's your choice. But not really...

(And do not do not DO NOT leave the theater until you've seen the end credits. All of the end credits. You have been warned.)

Read More

Today's DILBERT a must-read for people with bipolar (like me!)

Dear Scott Adams:

Today's edition of your comic strip Dilbert is one of the most encouraging - and one of the funniest - cartoons that I've come across in a long time. As a person with bipolar disorder and on behalf of many others who must deal with having a mental illness, thank you for giving us something to laugh and smile about :-)

I think after reading this, I'm gonna begin referring to most other people as "normals" and myself as... how does "meta-human" sound? :-)

Sincerely,
Chris Knight

Read More

Want good comedy? Have a dose of THE AMOS 'N ANDY SHOW!

Awright, I got a secret to share: I'm a longtime fan of The Amos 'N Andy Show from the early 1950s. This was a television series that in my opinion was way, way ahead of its time. The writing was sharp and witty and as clever as anything, and this show had an amazing cast. Especially Tim Moore as George "Kingfish" Stevens and Nick Stewart, who played Lightnin'.

So since its Saturday and a time to kick back and have some good laughs, let's check in with the boys down at the meeting hall of The Mystic Knights of the Sea!  Here's The Amos 'N Andy Show episode "Kingfish Teaches Andy To Fly"...

Read More

A flapper and a slacker

Last night was Great Gatsby Night at Kristen's dance studio! Everybody was supposed to come in 1920s-era attire. Kristen made a terrific flapper girl ensemble! However her ne'er-do-well boyfriend couldn't put a proper costume together in time so he showed up looking more like a flood refugee...


And here is Kristen with two other fine ladies in period attire!


And a good time was enjoyed by all :-)

Read More

Department of Defense has 3D printed gun yanked... but I got it anyway (and so can you!)

The Liberator: Coming soon to
a desktop near you!

Defense Distributed has made a lot of headlines lately about the Liberator: a firearm which is completely fabricated by "3D printing", apart from the firing pin.  I think the success of this gun already is that it's got politicians like Charles Schumer and Steve Israel all steamed-up about it.  Schumer wants 3D printed guns to be outlawed completely.

The thing is, politicos like Schumer can't figure out how to pull that off.  3D printing will soon be a household implement and if it can be drawn up on a computer, anyone will be able to produce a fully-functioning model right on their desktop.  The computer doesn't care if it's a replacement part for a kitchen appliance or an action figure or a real working handgun.  The barn door has been thrown wide open and there's no getting that horse back inside.

Never let something like common sense stop the government from trying.  Earlier today the Department of Defense requested that Defense Distributed remove all its 3D weapons-related files from its website.   Defense Distributed's founder Cody Wilson is laying the blame on the doorstep of Secretary of State John Kerry.

As of this writing, Defense Distributed's site has "gone dark".

But less than five minutes after reading about the government having the Liberator pulled from the web, I had downloaded the gun.  And not once, but twice.

Here's how I did it, and how anybody else can as well:

Download µTorrent if you don't have it already (it's a free download) and run the install.  Any other torrent client should work too.  I found the Liberator files on The Pirate Bay.  There are two torrents for it so far: here's #1 and here's #2.  If either of those can't be found just do a search for "liberator" and "gun": I got those two results at once.  The file size is 2.02 megabytes (such a tiny thing for something so much fuss about).

And then... just download your Liberator files!  If you possess a 3D printer you can start making your Liberator pistol immediately.

I downloaded the file from each of those two torrents.  It is on my hard drive.  It is also on at least two USB drives that I've copied it too.  I can e-mail the file to anyone, anywhere in the world.  I could even set up a torrent on my own and allow people to download it from me directly.

In fact, it is happening right now.  Not by me, but by other people.  Lots and lots of other people.

Shutting down the Defense Distributed website was just about the worst thing that the United States federal government could have done, if it didn't want the Liberator to get into the wild.  By trying to outlaw it, the feds have made it so that practically everyone can want it.  Defense Distributed could not have asked for better publicity for and dissemination of its product!

Anyhoo... "Annie get your gun!" :-)

Read More

The Cleveland kidnappings and abortion

Like many others, I have been watching the news out of Cleveland this week: the three young women who escaped after more than a decade of captivity, rape, torture and other abuse.  There is a lot to be said about this story, but most of that has been discussed at considerable length already.

However, tonight I happened to catch something that has led me to articulate some thoughts aloud...

Apparently, at least one of the women became pregnant because of the Castro brothers (Ariel, the eldest, is still being held but his brothers are free for now).  It's being reported that at least one child was born but the others were killed as a result of induced miscarriages.

Ariel Castro, the "leader" of the three brothers charged with the kidnappings and torture, now faces the possibility of the death penalty if tried and convicted.  That is, if it is determined that he is responsible for purposefully causing one of the five miscarriages that hostage Michelle Knight suffered.  Knight was reportedly starved for more than two weeks and then Ariel Castro "repeatedly punched her in the stomach until she miscarried".

Here is what prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty told reporters earlier today...

“Based on the facts, I fully intend to seek charges for each and every act of sexual violence, rape, each day of kidnapping, every felonious assault, all his attempted murders and each act of aggravated murder he committed by terminating pregnancies” during the years the women were held, McGinty said.

"My office of the county prosecutor will also engage in a formal process in which we evaluate whether to seek charges eligible for the death penalty," he said. "The law of Ohio calls for the death penalty for those most depraved criminals who commit aggravated murder during the course of a kidnapping."

That is what Castro's alleged crime is being legally defined as: "aggravated murder".   McGinty made it clear that Castro's actions were "attempted murders" and "murder he committed by terminating pregnancies".

And for his heinous actions, Ariel Castro could be put to death.

But how is what Ariel Castro has reputedly done any different from abortion: something that has long enjoyed legal protection?

If Michelle's children were conceived as a result of Ariel raping her, and he is biologically the father and he didn't want any of them well... isn't that what happens thousands of times each day across America?  When a parent does not want a child?

How is it possible to defend the killing of unborn children as a legal "right" on the basis that they are not yet full-born human beings but rather an "unviable tissue mass", yet murder charges can be pressed against a man who likely killed at least one unborn child on the basis that these were humans he exterminated?

Logically, it is not possible.  Logically, it does not make sense.

How is the same act of killing someone a "protected right" in one situation and "aggravated murder" in another?

Want to know something?  I would bet real money that if Ariel Castro is charged with murder, the pro-abortion crowd is going to be sorely tempted to come out guns blazing against those charges.  Because if unborn children can be legally defined as having the right to live and that said right being denied is grounds for capital punishment, then the entire legal basis of abortion collapses.

It will have to.  There can be no prosecution for the murder of five innocent unborn children in one matter and a rigorous defending of "the right to choose" and "the right to privacy" so as to put to death unborn children in another.

We can't have it both ways.

Read More

Scientists create "injected breathing": breakthrough could save lives of millions

"Liquid breathing" from The Abyss.
Do not try this at home.

Remember in James Cameron's movie The Abyss, where Ed Harris' character was put into that funky diving suit which got filled with "breathing fluid" and he had to respirate through the liquid in order to survive a deep, deep dive?

(Incidentally, that was in 1989 and at the time it wasn't far from reality.  The mouse from the earlier scene that the fluid is demonstrated on?  That was not a special effect folks!  The mouse was actually breathing with that stuff!)

How about one better than that?  Say... put a needle in your arm and shoot yourself up with breathable oxygen?

Research scientist at Boston Children's Hospital have come up with a neat trick and it could revolutionize much of modern medicine: a nanoparticle which can be injected into a person and provide enough oxygen to maintain short-term "breathing".

From the article at TechWench.com...

This finding has the potential to save millions of lives every year. The microparticles can keep an object alive for up to 30 min after respiratory failure. This is accomplished through an injection into the patients’ veins. Once injected, the microparticles can oxygenate the blood to near normal levels. This has countless potential uses as it allows life to continue when oxygen is needed but unavailable. For medical personnel, this is just enough time to avoid risking a heart attack or permanent brain injury when oxygen is restricted or cut off to patients.

(snip)

The microparticles used are composed of oxygen gas pocketed in a layer of lipids. A Lipid is a natural molecule that can store energy and act as a part of a cell membrane, they can be made of many things such as wax, vitamins, phospholipids, and in this case fat is the lipid that stores the oxygen.

These microparticles are around two to four micrometers in length and carry about three to four times the oxygen content of our own red blood cells. In the past, researchers had a difficult time succeeding as prior tests caused gas embolism. This meant that the gas molecules would become stuck trying to squeeze through the capillaries. They corrected this issue by packaging them into small deformable particles rather ones where the structure was rigid.

Okay, I don't see how this could maintained for very long, before the carbon dioxide has to be expelled out of a person's system and that's one of the bigger functions of the lungs.  In fact, the 30 minutes limit cited in the article is very hard to believe, truth be known.  Even a few minutes without CO2 being exhaled would be fatal.  There would definitely be significant and possibly permanent damage.

But for things like localized injuries, this certainly could be extremely useful.  I'm also wondering how it could be used in therapies to fight oxygen-unfriendly situations like infection and most kinds of cancer.

Read More

Zero-tolerance out of control: Pencil leads to boy's suspension, while Eagle Scout hit with felony

I'll be damned if (Lord willing) I get blessed with children and I put them in a government-run school.

They're not here yet.  But I already love them too much than to subject them to the insanity of a modern public school.  And few things exemplify that madness more than do zero-tolerance policies.

(Hey, I ran for school board once.  It can't be said that I never tried to make the public schools better.  But things won't going to get better until more people get up the gumption to tell the bureaucrats "ENOUGH!")

Two stories demonstrating my point.  The first is about seven-year old Christopher Marshall of Suffolk, Virginia.  He was suspended from his elementary school last week per a policy of "zero tolerance".

What was his crime?  Pointing a pencil as if were a gun at another student and making "bang! bang!" noises with it.

Yeah, you read that right.  That's all that little Christopher was doing.

From the story at WAVY.com...

Seven-year-old Christopher Marshall says he was playing with another student in class Friday, when the teacher at Driver Elementary asked them to stop pointing pencils at each other.

"When I asked him about it, he said, 'Well I was being a Marine and the other guy was being a bad guy,'" said Paul Marshall, the boy's father. "It's as simple as that."

Christopher's father was a Marine for many years. He thinks school leaders overreacted.

"A pencil is a weapon when it is pointed at someone in a threatening way and gun noises are made," said Bethanne Bradshaw, a spokesperson for Suffolk Public Schools.

The Suffolk school system has a "zero tolerance policy" when it comes to weapons. And, Bradshaw admits, that policy has tightened up in recent years because of widely publicized school shootings.

"Some children would consider it threatening, who are scared about shootings in schools or shootings in the community," said Bradshaw. "Kids don't think about 'Cowboys and Indians' anymore, they think about drive-by shootings and murders and everything they see on television news every day."

And then there is the tale of Eagle Scout, honor student, devout Christian and model young man Cole Withrow from Princeton, a small town near Raleigh here in North Carolina.  Cole had been skeet shooting and accidentally left his shotgun in his vehicle when he came to school late last month.  Cole realized his error and sought to do the right thing: he went to the office and called his mom to come and take the gun out and away from the campus.  Unfortunately one of the staff at Princeton High School overheard the call and alerted the police.

Cole Withrow with his sister Hannah Walker

Cole was arrested on felony charges and expelled.  He will not walk with his classmates at graduation in a few weeks.  All for trying to do the right thing in the matter.  For trying to do what his faith and his vows as a Boy Scout would have him to do.

Cole will be allowed to graduate, just not from his own school.  His family is fighting for Cole's right to be with his classmates.

But at least his troubles caught the attention of Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University.  Cole Withrow has been offered a scholarship to attend the college.  Harding University has also extended a similar offer to Cole.

Is it paranoia?  Is it laziness?  Is it intentional conditioning of the kids on the part of the public school educators and administrators?  For whatever reason it is, this kind of thing has gone on... and continues to go on... for far too long.

"Zero-tolerance"?  More like "zero common sense".

Read More

Trailer for THE BROTHERS RAPTURE fan-made BioShock movie!

BioShock Infinite has been out for over a month. It's a game I haven't played an I'm not inclined to either. Why? Because in this blogger's opinion it's not a true BioShock game.

For me, the BioShock mythos will always be focused on Rapture: that city beneath the waves of the North Atlantic, not a brightly-lit metropolis floating Lord-knows-where in the sky. The first BioShock game was and remains the most intellectual and even enlightening video game I have ever enjoyed. It's difficult even calling it a "video game".  From what I've heard, BioShock Infinite's world of Columbia is a beauty to behold and has a degree of moral choice... but in the end it doesn't leave as strong an impression as Rapture.

I'll say it again: BioShock is high-brow literature of a whole new kind that hasn't been seen before. And its sequel BioShock 2 did a pretty good job continuing its themes.  And I think there's plenty, plenty of room for a BioShock 3 and more past that.  Maybe it could be a few years later in the 1970s and the U.S. and Soviet governments finally learn about Rapture and try to take it.  I'm not the first to think that and I hope that the folks at 2K have thought of it either... or any idea that would even more terrific!

Well anyhoo, the real BioShock saga has long inspired some amazing work by its fans and now a group of filmmakers has produced a film that looks just as good if not better than anything Hollywood is likely to crank out!  The Brothers Rapture (click here for its official Facebook page) is getting released next week on May 13th, but there's already a trailer for it.

And it is gorgeous to behold!


As the article at The Escapist describes it: " Set before the hidden city underwent cultural and physical collapse, The Brothers Rapture explores the people who thrived in a land without limits.  It appears to take the setting and theme of Bioshock and spin them out into an original story.  The trailer shows the brothers Charles and Arthur, artists newly arrived in Rapture.  They seem overjoyed at the freedom that Rapture offers them, until a shady figure in a dapper hat shows up offering to turn their very hands into tools.  Expect philosophical arguments and scenes of people shooting large vials of glowing goo into their arms."

Seriously, I don't know which I'm now looking forward to more next week: Star Trek Into Darkness, or this baby.

A thankful tip o' the hat to loyal reader Roxanne Martin for forwarding this along! :-)

Read More

Tammy Tuesday this week is a hyper dog

Tammy found herself last week at one of my favorite places: HyperMind in nearby Burlington!  So while the place was packed with people playing Magic: The Gathering, Settlers of Cataan and several other games there was this cute lil' miniature dachshund running up and down the store.  I think everyone stopped what they were doing to give her a pat on the head or a tummy rub and a lucky few even got their faces licked!

Here's Tammy with HyperMind's owner and manager Denise...

Tammy is getting to travel around quite often lately. I'll be sure to photographically document her exploits and post them here in the future :-)

Read More

Alien abduction in Roanoke, Virginia!

It's true! Two are missing after an alien abduction in Roanoke, Virginia. And frantic parents are desperately searching for answers.

It's not a headline ripped from the pages of Weekly World News.  This is happening and it's happening now!  Dan Casey of The Roanoke Times is the first to break a story which will no doubt be soon going national.

Click here to read more!

Read More

Well, here we go... the trailer for ENDER'S GAME

I shall remain cautiously optimistic. Ender's Game comes out on November 1st.

Read More

Ray Harryhausen, stop-motion genius, has passed away

Ray Harryhausen poses one of the many skeleton warriors
from 1963's Jason and the Argonauts.

For no reason that I can determine at all, late last night I found myself thinking about Ray Harryhausen.  Maybe it was because I caught the original Clash of the Titans a week or so ago and not for the first or last time, found myself marveling at the stop-motion magic that this man wrought over the course of his long, long career.

It occurred to me that if and when he passed, I was going to have an awful hard time choosing one photo that best conveyed Harryhausen's spirit, his ingenuity and his passion.  But that hopefully, Lord willing, that day was going to be a long, long time to come.  Instead here it is less than twelve hours later and I'm having to do just that.

Clash of the Titans is what introduced me to Ray Harryhausen's work, and I'm always going to consider Medusa and how he brought her to life as his most terrifying creation.  But that's such a classic image of him doing one of the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts that, it had to be that one.  It had to be a photo of him doing what he did best: making us believes that there really were monsters and other incredible creatures up there on the big screen.  From 1949's Mighty Joe Young on through 20 Million Miles to Earth, Jason and the Argonauts and many other legendary science-fiction and fantasy films, Harryhausen pulled off nothing short of magic... or pretty dang close to it.

This was a man without whom, there would likely have been no blockbuster movies as we have come to know and love them.  Harryhausen was a special and visual effects maestro who forever left his mark on cinema.  Without his pioneering work, there may have never been a Star Wars series.  George Lucas himself remarked as much earlier today.

I'm gonna say something, and I dare anybody to tell me otherwise: Ray Harryhausen's work will always stand up against anything done with computer-generated special effects.  The Clash of the Titans remake proves my point.  The remake's creatures were as cold as their silicon spawning.  But the Kraken, Medusa, Bubo and the rest?  They lived and breathed with a life all their own.  Because at their heart really was the drive and soul of a living man.  And what a life he lived...

This afternoon the sad word has come that Ray Harryhausen has passed away at the age of 93.

Thoughts and prayers going out to his family.

Read More

Internet sales taxes: Does the United States Senate NOT understand the Constitution?

A short while ago the members of the United States Senate voted 70 to 24 to pass the "Marketplace Fairness Act": AKA "Internet sales taxes".

The Senate has approved collecting taxes on goods sold on the Internet.  We'll examine that in just a sec.

("Marketplace Fairness Act"?  God, I hate how these people try to govern by emotion instead of intelligence...)

Anyone who voted for this bill should be removed from office at the earliest possible legal opportunity.  For one thing, it is insanity for government to be levying more taxes upon us at a time when you and I and most other Americans are being obligated to tighten our belts.  How much more do our supposed "representatives" believe we can take?

But what is most on my mind tonight is how this bill is a flagrant violation of the Constitution of the United States.

According to Article One, Section 7:

All bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

 "All bills for raising Revenue shall originate n the House..."

Why then is a bill for raising revenue now originating in the Senate and not only that but has been approved??

I do not have time to watch C-SPAN but I wonder: were there any senators who brought up this fact during debate on the bill?

In a sane world, the House of Representatives would reject the bill from even being admitted into its presence, given how it's unconstitutional.  But I seriously doubt that will happen (though it should).  Barring that, the House should overwhelmingly defeat it.  If it does pass though and President Obama signs it, the obvious thing in this blogger's mind is that the Supreme Court should strike it down.

The Supreme Court shouldn't have to do that though, given that any fifth grader would tell you that the bill has been unconstitutional to begin with.

Y'know, there could be a lot of trouble saved if those in government just followed the directions instead of pulling stuff like this out of their collective ass...

Read More

"The Crimson Horror": Everything a tight lil' DOCTOR WHO story should be!

Before sharing my thoughts on this week's delightfully entertaining new episode of Doctor Who, check these pics out.  The first is from the set of the fiftieth anniversary special, still filming right now.  Here we see guest star John Hurt wearing some rather intriguing attire...

Ignoring the modern jacket and Hurt looks... almost like a renegade Time Lord?  Let the speculation run amok!

But here's the pic that has gotten this fan-boy stoked most of all...

eeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK!!!  And there's also a photograph floating about of Coal Hill School with a sign reading "I. Chesterton" as its headmaster.

Looks like the Doctor Who Fiftieth Anniversary special is going back to where it all began.  And bay-bee, when I say "where it all began", I mean where it REALLY all began!

Now, onto this week's episode: "The Crimson Horror"...

I found this story to be a drastic and much-appreciated improvement over most of this past half-season.  It was considerably more entertaining than last week's "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" (an episode which after two more viewings I am even more of the opinion that it was one of the most wasted opportunities in recent memory about this show).

"The Crimson Horror" is a story filled with mystery, with grotesque imagery (the leech will have some remembering "the baby" from David Lynch's Eraserhead, which was something I've tried to forget having ever seen), with beat-skipping terror, with humor, with wild-eyed surprises and more.  The thing is: all of that is in the first third of the episode... before The Doctor finally shows up!  Mark Gatiss turned in a great story with this episode: rife with lots of twists along with some positivalutely sweet and snappy dialogue (especially from Strax!).

Yes, everybody's favorite trigger-happy lovable Sontaran (played by Dan Starkey) returns, alongside Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) and Jenny (Catrin Stewart).  The year is 1893 and our favorite Elizabethan-era trio of paranormal investigators are called upon to look into the "Crimson Horror": something that is killing people and leaving them with shock-filled faces alongside a sickening red and waxy skin coloration.  Vastra recalls the old tale of how a person's eyes capture the very last image they have seen before they died, and with a bit of photography turns up with the final thing one victim saw upon this Earth: the face of The Doctor.

The trail leads Vastra, Jenny and Strax (who insists upon a more ummm... "aggressive" approach) to the seemingly idyllic community of Sweetville: a place pitched by proprietress Mrs. Gillyflower as a refuge against the coming apocalypse.  But all is not as it seems in Sweetville.  And then there is the matter of "the monster" that Gillyflower's daughter Ada has secreted away...

I thought that "The Crimson Horror" was a rollickin' wild romp across a lot of genres: notably horror but also a healthy helpin' of steampunk.  The Doctor (Matt Smith) and Clara (Jenna-Louise Coleman) continue to grow their chemistry together.  However the core strength of this episode is to be found in Vastra, Jenny and Strax.  Especially Strax: I love the part where he accuses his horse of "failing in your mission" and is about to summarily execute it.  Jenny finally gets to show her chops in combat (bold prediction: prepare to start seeing leather cat-suited ninja girls alongside the guys in tweed jackets and bow ties at the cons) and Vastra proves she's every bit a skilled investigator as The Doctor himself.

But I would be negligent if I did not praise the appearance of Diana Rigg: considered one of the most sincerely sexy actresses ever (yes, I used to watch The Avengers.  No, not the Marvel Comics characters and if anybody mentions that atrocious movie with Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman, so help me I'll box your ears).  Don't expect however to see a hint of Emma Peel, because "The Crimson Horror" has Rigg veering hard into territory that many have never seen her in before.  Rigg's portrayal of Mrs. Gillyflower is intense, vicious and cold: one of the reasons why "The Crimson Horror" is such a gripping episode.  Rigg's real-life daughter Rachael Stirling plays Gillyflower's daughter Ada, and from the beginning we sense a persuasive (if also bitter) dynamic between their in-episode personas.  It's a work of brilliant casting and Mark Gatiss deserves bigtime props for writing an episode with this mother/daughter duo expressly in mind.

Listen for a reference to Tegan (aka the "Mouth on Legs") from the classic series which will have old-school fans snorting with laughter!  And there can never be enough Strax.  I wanna see him and his newfound human friend/GPS Thomas-Thomas cruising the streets of London (with Vastra and Jenny in the buggy) in their own spinoff series.  Tell me that idea for a show wouldn't fly.  Go ahead, I dare ya...

"The Crimson Horror" gets Four and 1/2 Sonic Screwdrivers out of a possible 5.  It's a model self-contained story that can be enjoyed by anyone, be they brand-new viewer or longtime Doctor Who fan.  I think the humor content alone will merit this episode as one that will be watched and rewatched for a long time to come.

Only two more episode left in this season of Doctor Who.  Next week: the much-anticipated "Nightmare in Silver", written by Neil Gaiman.  And then the season finale: "The Name of the Doctor".  And I found out this afternoon that because of circumstances beyond my control I won't be able to see it until two days later!  Ahhh well... gotta see it together with the girlfriend.  No ifs and buts about it.  But it's a small price to pay to be in love with a fellow geek :-)

Read More

"Bored..."

Read More