Monsterbeard

blind-animals: Class of 1999 WHOA! This movie! Guys, I have...

Thu, 23 May 2013 10:29:10 -0700

Class of 1999

WHOA! This movie! Guys, I have never seen the whole thing, but there was a point sometime in my childhood when we were staying in a hotel room, or at a relative’s home and HBO was showing this movie. I could not have been more than 12.

And there is a scene where one of the robot teachers finds drugs in a student’s locker and then during gym class beats that kid up and stuffs the drugs down his mouth, ALL OF THEM! And the kid dies! And I am pretty sure there’s throw-up too!

It FREAKED me out as a kid. The things that stick with you, huh?

therealkatiewest: wilwheaton: jenniferdeguzman: He said Star...

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:40:57 -0700

therealkatiewest:

wilwheaton:

jenniferdeguzman:

He said Star Trek is too “philosophical”? Screw that noise.

mechcanuck:

I don’t know when this interview happened but I AM SAD AND ANGRY NOW

The philosophies in Star Trek are kinda part of the actual setting. If you don’t get that, why are you allowed to make Star Trek movies.

Sigh. The whole point of Star Trek is that it’s philosophical. If you don’t want philosophical Science Fiction, there’s plenty of that for you to enjoy, but Star Trek is philosophical. Philosophy is part of Star Trek’s DNA, and if you’re given the captain’s chair, you’d better damn well respect that.

Yesterday I started watching all of TNG in order from the beginning (which I’ve never done before *gasp*) and I also had a conversation with Matt about J.J. Abrams and his “style” and Star Wars for about an hour. And my point is just…what Wil said.

Hang on… do people not know that JJ Abrams doesn’t “get” Star Trek? You didn’t get that from his first Star Trek movie? You know, the one that was nothing like Star Trek in any way? I would not be surprised if Gene Roddenberry’s ashes didn’t cluster together in space to form a black maw of death and swallow the earth whole for the abomination that is JJ Abrams’ Star Trek.

I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. More lens flare please.

Basically.

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:22:57 -0700

Basically.

Not to belabor the point in what has now become the sole focus...

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:03:53 -0700

Not to belabor the point in what has now become the sole focus of this blog (and also who are we kidding, “belabor the point” is basically my life’s work), but can we just talk a little bit more about domesticated llamas?

Native Americans had no pack animals other than llamas (which were only in Peru!) and therefore had no animal to pull a plow, or to carry large loads. Their lives remained labor-intensive because there was no possible way to divert attention to anything else, as a matter of survival.

Imagine the limitations of having to fight an enemy who doesn’t just have a more resilient immune system, but who can literally ride circles around you on a great stallion of death!

And yet Machu Picchu and the Mayan pyramids and the freaking Nazca Lines were all built using human hands! Sure, the Egyptians have their pyramids, but they also had every possible domesticated animal to help.

And YET! The llama is specifically designed to live in the mountains! Llamas have light, springy legs and nimble feet and if they were built any sturdier they wouldn’t be able to survive in the mountains. It is probable that only BECAUSE of their mountain dwelling that llamas were able to survive human invasion at all! So the Incans had domesticated llamas precisely because of their limitations which were only later understood.

All I am saying is that the whole of human history is a complex and interwoven tapestry that is so hard to hold in your head for the briefest of moments, and if you tug at one single thread you will see the whole work of it shift and move and that is a chilling discovery! Time travel with care!

Revisiting the llama question: it turns out you can’t ride...

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:12:18 -0700

Revisiting the llama question: it turns out you can’t ride llamas. The Incans used them as pack animals (h/t Elizabeth) but llamas as we know them today are not strong enough to carry a full grown human. There are legends of a pre-Spanish llama breed, subsequently killed off, capable of carrying a fully armored man, but no historical evidence has been found and this is probably another example of Incan exaggeration which, along with every other aspect of Incan culture, was killed off by the Spanish. The world may never know.

Did the Incans ride llamas? And if not, why not?

Sat, 11 May 2013 13:33:13 -0700

Did the Incans ride llamas? And if not, why not?

sciencefictiongallery: Sydney Jordan 1961

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:12:39 -0700

sciencefictiongallery:

Sydney Jordan 1961

markcoatney: think-progress: Damn. Yet another instance of...

Thu, 09 May 2013 10:33:14 -0700

markcoatney:

think-progress:

Damn.

Yet another instance of government taking money away from hard-working businessmen.

So awesome of the drug cartels to open their financial books and let us take a peek! Maybe we really can work together.

Also, this study actually came out in November, and it said legalized weed COULD cut drug cartel profits. Oh, and it’s based on completely hypothetical drug cartel profits in the first place.

Also: Duh? If someone can buy drugs legally instead of illegally, thereby removing all danger associated with buying those drugs, isn’t it a “no duh” type situation when the illegal drug market suffers as a result? It doesn’t even have to be drugs! This could apply to anything! ie, if California legalized prostitution, it would not be an amazing deduction that the Nevada prostitution economy would suffer!

spytap: Massive explosion hit Damascus about an hour ago (about...

Sat, 04 May 2013 21:23:37 -0700

spytap:

Massive explosion hit Damascus about an hour ago (about 20 seconds in.)

Wow. Using the ol’ lightning to thunder conversion, that giant fireball is 2 miles away. That is some kind of escalation

professionallush: brainstatic: He is trying to explain that...

Fri, 03 May 2013 12:01:43 -0700

professionallush:

brainstatic:

He is trying to explain that not getting laid (incel means involuntary celibate) is a violation of his civil rights and a grossly overlooked injustice. He is completely serious. This is his blog.

I CANNOT TAKE THIS

Hahaha! This can’t be real! Is this real? This isn’t real. YOU GUYS! This might be real!

Which brings up a good topic for debate: Do you think that sometimes there can be cases when, for the betterment of society, there are people who should not be a part of society? Like, should we have gulags for people like this?

"We have got to look at the roots of all of this because it exists across the whole [Asian]..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:41:05 -0700

“We have got to look at the roots of all of this because it exists across the whole [Asian] subcontinent and the Islamic world around the world. I think we also have to examine [America’s] use of drones [because] there are a lot of civilians who are innocently killed in a drone attack in Pakistan, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. And I can tell you having spent a lot of time over there, young people will come up to me on the streets and say, ‘We love America, but if you harm one hair on the head of my sister, I will fight you forever.’ And there is this enormous rage against what they see in that part of the world as a presumptuousness of the United States.”

- Because it’s wholly unacceptable to ever discuss how America’s foreign policy may be fuelling terrorism, and any time this connection is made, there’s an outcry questioning the patriotism of the person. Richard Falk being the most recent example.

Since 2004, 3115 Pakistanis have died as a result of drone attacks. 98% of these people are innocent civilians. That’s 3,052 innocent people. (educate yourself here)

But will the above exchange from Tom Brokaw, a venerated public figure, finally lead to some internal soul searching?

(via nomadsoul)

We can’t possibly be so blinded that we don’t see this, right? That our actions of violence against people will cause actions of violence against us? When things like the Boston marathon bombing happen, we don’t rally around Boston because of “patriotism,” we rally around Boston because we know that bombing is horrible and wrong and EVIL. It doesn’t take Americanism to see that. It is unequivocally WRONG to do such things, and we rally because we know those people in Boston. They’re our friends and our loved ones and our community.

But things like the Boston bombing are happening on a daily basis in places like Pakistan and Yemen. And those people feel the same way about their community and their friends and their loved ones. And so the violence just feeds itself. How many dedicated terrorists are created from a single errant bombing that kills innocent civilians? Not out of some ideological zeal, but because they want justice on those who killed their family member or community leader.

The problem with drones isn’t their ability to deliver a global war without human risk (that’s a deeper policy issue that people can freely debate). The problem with drones is that despite the billions of dollars that have gone into them, they are actually reducing our ability to clearly see the battlefield, rather than improving it. When we cannot or will not discriminate as to who is affected by our bombs, we are, by definition, terrorizing.

It’s been 12 years since the Global War on Terror started and the end still seems further away than the beginning. It isn’t because we aren’t killing terrorists. It’s because we’re creating more than we kill. If we don’t eventually see this, the war never ends.

I am not sure how to introduce this, but here is this text...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:20:17 -0700

I am not sure how to introduce this, but here is this text adventure type game about being in your twenties and dating/feeling things. I know that you are immediately not interested because I said “text” and “game” and “feelings”, but I think a lot of people I follow on tumblr who have the FEELZ and stuff would really connect with this game that presents a very frank and honest look about what we do to each other as we are passing through our disastrous twenties.

It has a lot of the f-word and uses a very hot pink screen, and part of the reason it’s called sacrilege is that the four guys you can talk to are named after the four gospels, so take that for what you will. Content warning?

But I’d encourage you to play it because sometimes when I was younger it felt like there was a niggling little worm eating the inside of my brain, helping me to hurt myself and others through carelessness or denial or whatever, which this game is able to present.

There is an emotional continuance of sex that goes beyond the physical act that our society largely ignores or downplays, but here is a game that is at the very least helping to address it and empathize with being lonely and our efforts to fill that loneliness. That’s why I think you should play it.

Yoto. Yoto.

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:45:56 -0700

Yoto. Yoto.

beenthinking: C is back home in LA, battling insurgent fleas in...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:35:55 -0700

beenthinking:

C is back home in LA, battling insurgent fleas in a city that never freezes and sleep deprivation and the political system’s propensity to break an idealist’s heart over and over again. I am north, driving slowly over wet roads, watching deer ramble though parallel woods in the late light of snowy spring nights. Sometimes it seems that one of our days must be a surreal dream within the other’s.

"The use of torture, the report concludes, has “no justification” and “damaged the standing of our..."

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:38:47 -0700

“The use of torture, the report concludes, has “no justification” and “damaged the standing of our nation, reduced our capacity to convey moral censure when necessary and potentially increased the danger to U.S. military personnel taken captive.” The task force found “no firm or persuasive evidence” that these interrogation methods produced valuable information that could not have been obtained by other means. While “a person subjected to torture might well divulge useful information,” much of the information obtained by force was not reliable, the report says.”

- US Practiced Torture After 9/11, Nonpartisan Review Concludes

Finally! Guys, for months I was all like “In the future, when I’m electronically conversing with younger generations through my cyber-robo-body, how will I explain to them what happened to that thing called America?”

But now I can just point to this nonpartisan report that came out last week when no one was paying attention, along with CISPA, and the little cyber-babies of the year 2243 will say “Oh, so in America’s post-9/11 jingoistic fervor, they determined that torture, assassination, and an ever-increasingly corporate-sponsored police state were more beneficial in forming a more perfect Union, establishing Justice, insuring domestic Tranquility, etc etc etc. than the actual Bill of Rights.”

And I will nod my head and cry my robot tears because &@#$(@#&)^#$——-

——[logic error]

Inside of a papaya, or alien egg sac?

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:27:53 -0700

Inside of a papaya, or alien egg sac?

On House of Cards

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:42:00 -0700

Can I talk for a minute about House of Cards? We finally (?) finished the first season.

First of all, I have to say that I don’t think Netflix is doing the right thing in giving us the whole season all at once. There’s no way for the show to work its way into culture. There are no gif sets appearing on tumblr, no “watercooler” conversations about it, and there’s little societal anticipation. You have either seen it or you haven’t. Netflix shows can’t be “Must See” TV because you can see them any time you want, like an entire season on your phone all the time.

Which is great but also, it hurts the appreciation of the show. Sure I could get a 13-course meal of well crafted plates of food, but there’s also a buffet over there so I can just gorge myself on everything and be done with it! And I know it sounds good and it even feels good when you’re doing it, but then you feel sick and never want to eat again.

But there’s something to waiting for Mad Men. There’s something amazing about Sunday night, show’s coming on! That’s an advantage TV has, because people WANT to watch because they want to be culturally with it. But House of Cards is all there, all the time, and as a result, there’s less excitement about it, at least for me.

Ok, the rest of this has spoilers. And complaints!

Is Zoe Barnes the worst character ever? Maybe! Zoe is supposed to be the scrappy cub reporter who is hungry for the story and… something. But she’s just a puppet! She has zero internal motivation or wants or desires, as far as I can tell. First she’s a puppet for Frank, and then she’s a puppet for her colleague Janine, who has to actually suggest EVERY IDEA as to what she should do.

Zoe only makes two actual choices in the whole season, the first being to approach Frank and the second is when she goes to Lucas. Everything else she does is suggested by others!

And what does Zoe want? Can ANYONE answer that? She doesn’t want to be a White House correspondent, she doesn’t want to find her own stories to write about, all she wants is information from Frank. What is that? That’s not a want. Why does Zoe report? Why is she a journalist? Why does she think it’s ok to sleep with someone to get information? Is it because she’s young and naive and stupid? Because that’s all the show ever gives me.

Plot problems -

If Frank’s entire plan is to sabotage Peter Russo, why the Watershed bill? Why waste all that effort and political capital on a bill that doesn’t actually matter? Why does Claire’s sabotage of the bill even matter if the bill is a complete red herring? The entire watershed bill and surrounding machinations turn into a big F-You to the audience!

Why is Linda suddenly so invested in Frank that she would risk her job by lying to the President just to make Frank VP? All he did was get her kid into Stanford. He didn’t save her life or anything! It doesn’t make sense.

Doug Stamper is the smartest political operative on the show. Why then, would he pick up his secret ex-prostitute from her meeting with the nosy journalist IN HIS OWN CAR?! Give me a break. Like, rent a car, bro. Maybe don’t pick her up right around the corner, use your brain!

The very best episode, Chapter Eight, is the sole standalone episode, where Frank spends the whole time at his Alma mater and Peter Russo is in Philadelphia fighting for Watershed support. It’s a wonderful episode, but also highlights the show’s lack of depth. I wanted to see a bigger tie in between Frank and Peter as they both dealt with the past and the present. It felt like an untucked thread that could have taken the episode from great to extraordinary.

Which brings me to my biggest problem with the show (outside of Zoe): Frank’s murder of Peter. I can understand the why, and I can understand Frank being driven to do it, but I don’t think the show bothered to build any suspense into the moment. Frank has always been the ruthless politician, so why do we care that he has now murdered someone. It doesn’t help that the murder is bloodless while every promo featured Frank’s bloodstained hands. It would have been much more interesting if both the audience AND Frank didn’t want him to do it. If Frank was torn, scared, vulnerable for one brief moment where he might make the right choice, that would be incredible! Instead, he just murders Peter, which we had been expecting to happen soon enough anyway, so the suspense is completely lost. Frank’s morality battle is completely lost.

Compare Frank to Don Draper, who, despite his cold calculated exterior, is actually completely broken inside! And when we see those moments, they blow us away!

I loved a lot of House of Cards, though, I really did! Frank and Claire’s relationship was amazing to watch, their honesty in scheming were a refreshing change. And the political maneuvering, especially in the early episodes, was so much fun, watching Frank secure the next person and then the next. That’s great! Don’t get me wrong, I’m never going to say no to a smart, gorgeous-looking TV show about the underbelly of DC politics, and House of Cards certainly impresses.

Also, I love to complain about things I actually like. And things I do not like. I’m a terrible person.

"you and I are not snobs. We can never be born enough. We are human beings;for whom birth is a..."

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:40:06 -0700

“

you and I are not snobs. We can never be born enough. We are human beings;for whom birth is a supremely welcome mystery,the mystery of growing:which happens only and whenever we are faithful to ourselves. You and I wear the dangerous looseness of doom and find it becoming. Life,for eternal us,is now’and now is much to busy being a little more than everything to seem anything,catastrophic included….

…Miracles are to come. With you I leave a remembrance of miracles: they are somebody who can love and who shall be continually reborn,a human being;somebody who said to those near him,when his fingers would not hold a brush “tie it to my hand”—

”

- e.e. cummings - introduction from new poems (via ksquared)

Maybe it is a series of synchronicities, but here is this beautiful prose from e.e. cummings and then also Jared Cardwell posted a snippet from an interesting NY Times article, part of which said

“When you share a smile or laugh with someone face to face, a discernible synchrony emerges between you, as your gestures and biochemistries, even your respective neural firings, come to mirror each other. It’s micro-moments like these, in which a wave of good feeling rolls through two brains and bodies at once, that build your capacity to empathize as well as to improve your health.”

And both of them together reminded me of that fixture of Infinite Jest:

I am in here.

And that reminds me of what happened in Boston, and what happens after bad things happen, which is to lash out and mistrust and never leave your home. Because there is danger and darkness in the world. There was a Saudi man at the bombing whose life has been torn apart because his skin was the wrong color and he came from the wrong place and he has customs different from our own.

This morning there was an earthquake across Iran and Pakistan with dozens of casualties, and there are frequent car bombs in Iraq and we forget that those people are us. There is an unseverable thread connecting us to one another and that thread doesn’t care where you’re from or what color you are or what you believe about the world. We all spend a lot of time and energy trying different ways to ignore that thread, and sometimes people ignore it violently but its still there. I’m still here. You’re still here.

Miracles are to come.

2013 Boston Marathon live blog

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:37:45 -0700

2013 Boston Marathon live blog:

nebraskagasm:

Turned into a up to the minute news source, for those of you who don’t twitter.

There was a bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line. Photo...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:32:18 -0700

There was a bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line. Photo via Deadspin.