Michael Emrys Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 12 hours ago, SLIM said: Also, Farnham's Freehold. Gack! That's the book that finally convinced me that Heinlein had become a nut case whom I didn't like any more. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Jack Ripper Posted August 20, 2017 Share Posted August 20, 2017 4 hours ago, Michael Emrys said: Gack! That's the book that finally convinced me that Heinlein had become a nut case whom I didn't like any more. Michael Strange, I rather enjoyed it. As crazy as it was, it convinced me of the value of preserving history. That's when I started reading lots of history books. I guess everyone takes away different things from literature. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 20 hours ago, SLIM said: I guess everyone takes away different things from literature. Hmmm. The forum seems to have swallowed my reply. Take two: Very true, and it's a good thing that you were able to take something of value from the book. BTW, I did kind of like a later book by him called Time Enough for Love although it did seem a bit odd and strained at times. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
General Jack Ripper Posted August 21, 2017 Share Posted August 21, 2017 9 hours ago, Michael Emrys said: Hmmm. The forum seems to have swallowed my reply. Take two: Very true, and it's a good thing that you were able to take something of value from the book. BTW, I did kind of like a later book by him called Time Enough for Love although it did seem a bit odd and strained at times. Michael That's funny. I have a hardcover printing on my shelf I use as my "rainy day book". I'm about a third of the way through it, given it's a bit tedious, but I like the way he portrays the psychology of the characters. I guess I'll have to wait for the inevitable "blast off into space" bit. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 (edited) I only discovered these gorgeous and incredibly talented girls this evening.....Via a military/realpolitik forum! Which I figure in itself makes them worthy of a post here: Edited August 22, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted August 22, 2017 Share Posted August 22, 2017 Getting back to the subject of SF books worth reading, I have to mention the works of Gordon R. Dickson, specifically the Childe Cycle of stories. The Final Encyclopedia I think qualifies as fine literature in almost any league. I seldom get very emotional over a book, but this one had several places that put me into a veritable rapture and pulling for some characters that I would never have believed capable of moving me in that way. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted August 24, 2017 Share Posted August 24, 2017 See I'm behind again on this thread in terms of reading and viewing, but while doing some research for an article, I came across this, which I strongly recommend you mix neither with liquids nor food. Call it a new and disturbing twist on dietary boredom.http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/08/pure-evil-man-admits-hes-tired-of-eating-human-flesh/ Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted August 25, 2017 Share Posted August 25, 2017 (edited) Here is an excellent demonstration of the leverage high tech can create in warfare. Chris Kyle's widow with about three hours of training vs the Five Time NRA Rifle Champion. Behold! Andy, That first video of the Pierces was simply delightful. They're so sexy, talented and deliciously feminine. The second was great visually and quite ingenious, not to mention pretty shocking, particularly in that first transformation, which came out of nowhere. That beat swept me up. The Pierces have a very distinctive vocal style which is somewhat reminiscent of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Believe you'll find this nicely complements the second video. Regards, John Kettler Edited August 25, 2017 by John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted August 27, 2017 Share Posted August 27, 2017 (edited) That tune rocks JK! That's my casual listening for tonight sorted out. Here's an older one, in a rather different vein, but a favourite of mine: Edited August 27, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 (edited) Andy, Here are three more videos of bands or groups you might like which are somewhat along the lines of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. The rather disturbingly named Cherry Poppin' Daddies in Zoo Suit Riot The stunning both in vocals and in looks (send all three here immediately) The Speakeasy Three in When I Get Low, I Get High. Just found these ladies! Squirrel Nut Zippers which was introduced to me by nephew Mark, along with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy about four years ago. This song is called "Put A Lid On It" and has another vocally talented lovely in it. Switching now to SF, Heinlein's Starship Troopers had a profound impact because, to me, the core argument made perfect sense. The vote was only given to those who had proven that they put the common good above their own. Thus, they were more likely to be responsible in how they used their power of the vote. No one was denied service, even if stuck in a wheelchair. Believe there was a line running "...now it might be testing nerve gas on Pluto.." A couple of other things stood out. First, there were the various things the troops in powered armor could do, ranging from sending a tailored, yet forceful message of official displeasure to all out war waged with small nuclear missiles. Of course, if things got really bad, the warships could glass a planet's entire surface! Loved the 30-second bombs. A friend of mine came up with a twisted version: "I'm a thirty second bomb! I'm a thirty second bomb! 29, 28, 27 I lied! KABOOM!" Second, the juvenile delinquency problem was handled by putting it on the backs of the parents--via a public whipping. Just imagine what the miscreant got later! The third was that whole discourse when a recruit told his DI "You can't touch me," whereupon he got quite the lecture informing him that not only could the DI touch or hit him if need be, but if in combat he refused to fight or worse, broke and ran, it would be his duty to shoot him dead then and there. A thoroughly sobered recruit, now properly calibrated, returned to his training. I recall very little of Heinlein's Time Enough for Love, but what did stick was that, for those with the means, life was practically unlimited, but the drawback was, as in The Eternal Soldier novel series of the Roman centurion Casca Rufio Longinus condemned by Jesus on the cross via blood that got transferred to Casca's mouth inadvertently to walk the Earth until the Second Coming ("You are a soldier and content to be a soldier, and so you shall remain, until we meet again), losing everyone around younot immortal as they age, become infirm and die. or simply, having drunk life to its fullest, tiring of simply being alive. In that society, as seen from the perspective of the protagonist Lazuaus Long, who was wealthy and was effectively immortal, the highest right was the right to die when you chose to do so. This was not a relative right or a constrained right but an absolute one. Having watched every episode of "The Sopranos," I instantly recognized the song as soon as the tour of dead jazz greats ended. Always that the song on the show was written for it, not cut down from something else. Speed of the Sound of Loneliness was okay and deep in places, but the person who put together the pictures in the video was a veritable genius. Couldn't stop watching. Mao Tse Tung Said was full of rage, and that rage wasn't, I'm sure directed at Communism overseas. I'm sure it was something domestic. Clever of him to do what the Russians did in trying. To discuss an otherwise classified topic, Soviet military officers used to use the formulation "Foreign experts say" or "According to foreign experts." Regards, John Kettler Edited August 29, 2017 by John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 (edited) Andy, Rather than risk losing video by trying to include too many in one post, I figured it would be wise to start another one. I rewatched The Speakeasy Three in When I Get Low, I Get High. After watching those delectable ladies, who thrilled me to the point of delicious shivers, YT served me the Sweet Sisters (never heard of them until five minutes ago) singing that great classic Hit The Road Jack. Man, can these ladies sing! I want the brunette. Wow! Their routine is quite entertaining. This one left me gobsmacked, in that this is the last place I would expect to see those involved do anything remotely like this. The Speakeasy Three have a band called The Speakeasies' Swing Band. Defy you to sit still for this one! Bright Lights Late Nights. Squirrel Nut Zippers The Ghost of Stephen Foster. Brilliant animated cartoon video, which looks like a direct lift from the 1930s, but may simply be something inspired by that. One way or another, it sure captures the feel of the old pen and ink B/W cartoons. Did you know some of the jazz greats used to play the jazz music on the cartoons of the 30s, 40s, 50s and maybe more? Forgot to mention that much of my music background was swing and jazz. In fact, my parents had the soundtrack--on shellac--of "The Glenn Miller Story. Every now and then they would put it on and shock us with their agility doing the Foxtrot. Dad, who hardly ever did any exercise, was 6' 3" and around 230 pounds, could really tear up the carpet with Mom, who weighed somewhere around half that and otherwise never moved at such a blistering clip. Truly, a sight to behold and a fond memory! Speaking of Glenn Miller, did you know the verdict of history was that his plane got hit by and downed one of myriad bombs (the group responsible is known, maybe even the squadron) dropped by bombers unable to hit their targets, bombs dropped in a designated map box off the coast of England before landing, since bringing back the ordnance was forbidden because of the disastrous consequences in the event of a crash or fire leading to ordnance detonation. Imagine what, say, 5000 pounds of bombs might do to an airfield, not to mention the engines and other heavy substantial objects. Regards, John Kettler Edited August 29, 2017 by John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 (edited) Presuming I haven't covered this ground already, when I was a young boy, I was an avid reader of SF. What particularly stands out in my memory is the Lucky Starr novel series by Isaac Asimov, who meant nothing to me then. Precious little stuck, unfortunately, but one thing which did was the concept of generation ships in which wave after wave of colonists would live and die aboard, until the last one reached the planet at some far star system and began to colonize. That both inspired me and upset me. Something else which sticks in my memory was reading a short story called "The Sun Jammer" which was about a regatta in space powered by solar sails! Saw that in Boy's Life back when I was in Cub Scouts. It was authored by another writer who meant nothing to me then, a guy named Arthur C. Clarke! Amazingly, here's an article about 'The Sun Jammer,', That short story was published in 1964 and was burned into my brain! Over a decade later, it came back, and is now here yet again, but has actually flown. See below. When I was at Hughes, I got a chance to see and meet the scientifically formidable but personally affable Dr. Robert Forward, an SF novelist in his own right, but who authored several studies on techniques for interplanetary travel (and maybe beyond). One technology was solar sails boosted to enormous speeds (close to the speed of light, I believe) by giant terrestrial lasers hitting their reflective sails. NASA is launching a probe fitted with one in 2018, In 2015, The Planetary Society put up what we in military aerospace would've called a light sail concept demonstrator on SpaceX Falcon Heavy. It worked fine. Used to have a great study he did outlining something like eight different methods, but had to sell it (got decent money) years later when I had some fiscal drama and needed quick cash. The space elevator for launching craft absolutely blew me away, and he had a considerable amount of analysis of it in that report. Speaking of SF, when I was in high school I got to go to an SF convention, whose panel discussion had A.E. Van Vogt, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon and, I believe, Ursula K. Leguin. At break, there was a mass male movement for the head. Would you believe on a four person urinal left to right, it was A.E. Van Vogt, me, Harlan Ellison and Theodore Sturgeon? They were chit chatting, and I believe Theodore Sturgeon was sounding off to Harlan Ellisosn with his 90% of what you read is BS statement, though he used the fuller form from which the acronym derived. Not exactly the usual convention experience! Here's another band I found. Believe you'll like it, but we're no longer in 30s and 40s nightclubs, dance joints or bars from then. Call the change of locale dramatic, as is the music. That said, I believe you'll love it. The band has wonderfully weird videos, too. Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. "Clap Your Hands" Regards, John Kettler Edited August 29, 2017 by John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted August 29, 2017 Share Posted August 29, 2017 Andy, Drat! I forgot the link for 'The Sun Jammer." Here it is, and it's not only about the short story, but the short story is there, too. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted September 1, 2017 Share Posted September 1, 2017 Found something pretty cool on Tumblr. You could sing to the melody of a famous early rap song by a gentleman named Sir Mixalot. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 4, 2017 Share Posted September 4, 2017 (edited) Bombs really don't need to explode to kill a tank: A lobotomised T-55! Edited September 4, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 6, 2017 Share Posted September 6, 2017 (edited) Edited September 6, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 What could possibly go wrong? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 8, 2017 Share Posted September 8, 2017 (edited) North Korea builds redundancy into its AA systems! Edited September 8, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 9, 2017 Share Posted September 9, 2017 2 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said: North Korea builds redundancy into its AA systems! But they have white sidewalls so they look cool. That's the important thing. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted September 14, 2017 Share Posted September 14, 2017 (edited) Andy, Would never have thought so much could be conveyed in LEGO movies, concerning which the second had better FX. Don't recall "gore" before, either. The second movie really got to me, to the point where I was glad I'd finished eating dinner before encountering things like shooting POWs and massacring civilians. Having never seen the Kuomintang forces depicted in any sort of miniatures, I found seeing them in the movie to be quite interesting, likewise Mao's people and the Unified Front. And the only Japanese WW II period armor I'd ever seen in a wargaming context was in AH's Up Front. Found myself in profound disbelief such an innocuous thing as a LEGO movie had such stark impact. Indeed, it left me thinking such things might be a way to effectively present certain historical events. If nothing else, this approach could be used as a springboard to a more traditional academic lesson. Mind, I'm "dismayed over the wholesale ignoring of the USS Panay Incident! Probably would've strained the capabilities of LEGO builders. Had no idea there was actual filming done during the attacks! Contemporary Coverage The S-60 on-mount secondary capability left me shaking my head, and probly blew the minds of the spooks who first saw the imagery. Unless memory fails me, I believe the vattery gun control radar is what we called a FIRE CAN, which was basically a copy of the US SCR-584 supplied in small numbers to Russia under Lend-Lease. As for the giant slingshot, biot only is there the "normal" danger of this approach, but I further note this is an off boresight launch, further raising the odds in favor of Murphy! Regards, John Kettler Edited September 14, 2017 by John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 I thought you might like those JK. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 (edited) Guys, Mods, this isn't about politics. The top paragraph merely provides context for the humor to follow. Was doing some online research for an article when I found one in a sidebar talking about a hoopla at a college over hoop earrings. The argument made by a few female blacks was that white females shouldn't wear them because it was (the great taboo) "cultural appropriation" vs browns and blacks. What started as a statement to that effect on a free speech dorm outside wall, followed by clarification subsequently rapidly escalated into a, so help me, email sent by a RA (Regular Assistant) to the entire school about this . The comments to the article are quite the education on the very ancient history of earrings, who's appropriated what from whom, whether POC should be dinged for using tech they didn't invent; whether non POC people should buy rap music, go to rap performances or even NBA games, plus much much more. Not only was it educational, outraged, sarcastic and such, but one person came up with a brilliant satirical response to what one woman said she'd long done in her history of earring wearing and what her daughters now did. The term "door-knockers" refers to earrings from which depends a single bar on each one with a loop at the end containing a hoop. That one sent me to Google because I couldn't for the life of me why someone would say she wore what goes thunk! thunk! on the front door. I've italicized the point by point replies one puckish commentator made to the first statement, which was a serious response. This was simply too priceless not to share. Pat Thomson (Mat-Su Community College) Now they've got too far, and taken to meddling. I have been wearing hoop earrings since before these children were born. My daughters have been wearing hoop earrings since before these children were born. I also wear feather earrings, and I'm not an American Indian. I wear door-knockers, pearl buttons and diamonds, and I'm not wealthy. Is it okay to "culturally appropriate" rich girls' earrings? These girls need some work to do, so they will quit bullying the rest of us. Like · Reply · 14 · Mar 8, 2017 7:47pm Rahul Shenoy "My daughters have been wearing hoop earrings since before these children were born."Passing on the hoops of hate to the next generation."I also wear feather earrings"That's even worse than just cultural appropriation.You are a particularly horrific example of the brutal exploitativeness of the white patriarchal imperialist hierarchy. You literally steal body parts from exploited non-human, non-mammalian people. There's a sentient avian person somewhere shivering in the cold right now for the sake of your fashion statement. It's particularly disrespectful to Senator Warren and the people with whose cuisine she identifies as well. How can you sleep at night?"pearl buttons"Stolen from helpless crustacean slaves murdered in the process. "diamonds"Blood diamonds!"door-knockers"I don't know what this is, but it certainly sounds like some minorities are getting exploited.This is the story. Left out direct link because I felt it might get me into trouble. Campus-Wide E-mail Tells White Girls to Stop Wearing Hoop Earrings Because It’s Cultural Appropriation KATHERINE TIMPF March 8, 2017 6:23 PM Regards, John Kettler Edited September 15, 2017 by John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 15, 2017 Share Posted September 15, 2017 I think we should start locking up sharks for nutritionally exploiting fish. And mushrooms for doing the same to decaying vegetable matter. No decaying vegetable is safe with mushrooms running loose in the forest. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 Michael Emrys, Strongly prefer mushrooms over this ghastly fate. Find this particularly objectionable in that I like to eat mussels! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted September 16, 2017 Share Posted September 16, 2017 (edited) Grade One visual misdirect! The caption is "Veganism is ruining the adult film industry." This one's really good, too. Regards, John Kettler Edited September 16, 2017 by John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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