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Newsletter title is a quote from Alexander Herzen, 19th Century Russian writer & thinker.

 

I really wonder where our country would be if both Reagan didn’t end the 1987 Fairness Doctrine, & Clinton’s 1996 Telecommunications deregulation act actually helped to serve the public. If you want to know what I’m talking about… hyper-partisan narrative and agenda driven non-objective journalism was born out of these two bits of legislation. Unintended consequences, of course.

Speaking of that, remember when Obama wore a tan suit and the GOP lost their minds at how unprofessional it was?

 

If you thought that was oddly uncomfortable:

Here’s Oliver Stone watching Dr. Strangelove with Putin

(He keeps looking to see if Putin is laughing at the correct parts, like when you really want someone to like and get the film)

Longer 9 minute mini-documentary on this:

 

 

Just like the Democrats vs GOP, I am not sure this “united Western democratic front” means much when Russia and China violate norms and human rights with capricious grins. When you play by civilized rules, the uncivilized will burn civilization to the ground. I’m not even making a recommendation, but, as they say…. (Ladder seeking power, chaos as opportunity).

 

 

  • All too familiar:

r/Military - Why does this all look familiar?

 

SO…. Zelensky:

  • Also, reality as got to be a simulation. Yes, that’s Zelensky on the left, the freedom fighter badass that is making Putin look like a weak and fragile dotard:

 

 

  • This clip is 5 years old, from his comedy:

 

Hey this may be helpful:

 

 

COMEDY YES WE NEED IT UP TOP

 

 

There’s gonna be memes. Oh there’s gonna be memes. Beyond the Vehicles title, Waaaayyyy down below, inclusive of wartime memes, which is an odd turn of phrase.

 

 

  • This is just the funniest and most delightful tone-deaf out of touch “one class vs another class” moment:

 

 

  • But, also, Mark Smalls is an incredible San Francisco based stand up comedian who looks homeless, and loves golf (and has a podcast on it).  But his stand up is superb, and 12 minutes isn’t a long time to enjoy some laughs about homeless people in SF, street sweeping, video games and violence, and more. Just superb, with a little bit of Mitch Hedberg.

 

  • “At Dinner with an actor and the waiter pretends to not see you”. HEY, if Nick Kroll liked it:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Dan Harmon (@danharmon)

 

 

  • This was one of the first viral things I saw on the internet. I mean, it’d be fun to document the first weird corners of the internet. But there’s always Eugene Mirman’s incredible singing baby. And I’m happy for his success. Bob’s Burgers is so charming.

 

 

  • What is wrong with people? DO NOT TOUCH THE MUSEUM PIECES:

 

SPACE

 

  • Nostradamus, evil villain like planning, but not really. Moore’s Law was real, even back then:

NASA is just now opening a vacuum-sealed sample it took from the moon 50 years ago: “The agency knew science and technology would evolve and allow scientists to study the material in new ways to address new questions in the future,” says NASA’s Lori Glaze, director of the Planetary Science Division. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/08/1085241811/nasa-moon-samples-apollo-artemis

 

 

  • I know they’re all built for this, but to be up in space right now with all this political and violent nonsense would mess with my head:

Germany switches off black hole telescope on Russian satellite, halts space cooperation: Germany stopped all science cooperation with Russia over its Ukraine invasion, but space station work continues https://www.space.com/germany-halts-russia-black-hole-telescope-space-cooperation

 

 

 

 

  • Expert Troll & Knock at Roscosmos… it tastes so sweet. Russian Gov being clowned on is so delightful.

 

But there’s so much bluster about ISS, satellites being hacked, childlike behavior. Pretty scary for those astronauts up there.

 

 

 

  • SILLY FUN: Artemis I will be the first uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft. The flight paves the way toward landing the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon! Add your name here to have it included on a flash drive that will fly aboard Artemis I. https://www.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/

 

 

 

  • Massive solar telescope starts science observations:

The observatory’s first experiment will look at a theorized process on the sun’s surface. A newly released photograph of the sun captured by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on May 11, 2021. (Image credit: NSO/AURA/NSF) https://www.space.com/dkist-sun-telescope-starts-science-commissioning

 

CLOSE UP:

 

 

 

  • In space, no one can hear you croak, but they sure as hell will scream and recoil while riding back down with your corpse:

What happens when someone dies in space? Space tourism brings new legal and moral issues https://www.space.com/what-happens-when-someone-dies-in-space

Event Horizon's "Blood Orgy" Original Cut Was Unwatchable

 

 

 

  • WE LITTERED ON MARS! WE LITTERED ON MARS! We finally did it, uh… I guess, some more? But this feels different.

 

 

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

 

  • Closer to ending all the wars, energy issues, and potentially halting climate change and repairing just so much. This is the gleaming and shiny city of the future stuff… essentially:

Artificial Intelligence is learning so fast for the containment in fusion reactors, it’s a primary aspect of solving problems of harnessing fusion energy at large scales.

“Magnetic control of tokamak plasmas through deep reinforcement learning”: . We successfully produce and control a diverse set of plasma configurations on the Tokamak à Configuration Variable1,2, including elongated, conventional shapes, as well as advanced configurations, such as negative triangularity and ‘snowflake’ configurations. Our approach achieves accurate tracking of the location, current and shape for these configurations: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04301-9

 

 

 

 

  • Twitch and other streaming services should air Ukraine war footage in Russia prior to streams starting, but holy heck this is amazing…

The hacking collective Anonymous today hacked into the Russian streaming services Wink and Ivi (like Netflix) and live TV channels Russia 24, Channel One, Moscow 24 to broadcast war footage from Ukraine https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/t86xig/the_hacking_collective_anonymous_today_hacked/

Anonymous hacks Russian state TV with Ukraine footage ‘Ordinary Russians are against war,’ hackers say https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/anonymous-wink-ivi-russia-24-channel-1-moscow-24-b2029915.html

 

 

Does a USB drive get heavier as you store more files on it? © Getty Images

 

 

 

 

  • This went viral in regards to Ukraine disrupting supply lines for the Russian army to refuel and re-supply, such that Russians are abandoning tanks and Ukrainians are taking them… and down in vehicles, you’ll see that Ukranian teens and farmers are posting tik tok videos of how to start up and drive them. Incredible times. But this is one of the most astute quotes, and thoughtful ideas, I’ve read in awhile:

“Amateurs talk about strategy and tactics. Professionals talk about logistics and sustainability [in warfare]” – Robert Hilliard Barrow (1922-2008), United States Marine Corps four-star general, in an interview published in the San Diego (CA) Union on November 11, 1979.

 

 

  • This is what Saab, the Swedish car company, developed that Ukraine has been equipped with. They’re sending so many. It’s nice.

 

 

 

 

  • This is applicable for brain to tech interfacing, ie “intelligent soft robotics”:

Venus flytraps doing the neuron dance Medical applications possible as artificial neurons are used to control the movement of the carnivorous plants. https://cosmosmagazine.com/technology/ai/artificial-neuron-venus-flytrap/

a closed venus flytrap plant similar to that controlled by an artificial neuron in this story

 

 

  • Costasiella kuroshimae (leaf sheep) are capable of a chemical process called kleptoplasty, in which they retain the chloroplasts from the algae they feed on. Absorbing the chloroplasts from algae then enables them to indirectly perform photosynthesis. They’re cute little sea slugs!

 

 

  • WHOAH – THIS JELLYFISH IS WILD! NATURE YOU SO CRAZY

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gu - Reality is a Hallucination | Insomnia Records

No, really:

 

 

  • NEWSFLASH: eating good food and drinking fine wine makes the end of life less sad. SCIENCE!

Why this French hospital serves dying patients wine and caviar At Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital, end-of-life care is filled with tasty indulgences. And brain research is confirming why that makes for a good ending. https://www.popsci.com/health/food-wine-palliative-care/

Syringe pouring red wine into a long-stem glass on a navy background

 

Label printer with sad face

 

 

  • Scientists Warn That Ad-Targeting Neural Networks Could Use “Infinite” Energy “It’s like a black hole.”

The neural networks behind social media’s sophisticated ad targeting could swallow the whole energy grid without ever getting to where their creators want them, scientists are warning. Researchers behind a recent study out of the University of Copenhagen warn that there’s not enough energy in the world to train neural networks to perfection, and if these networks are going to remain in use, they should be leveraged for more worthy ends than advertising. “The problem is that an infinite amount of energy can be used to, for example, train these neural networks just to target advertisements at us,” Mikkel Abrahamsen, an assistant professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Computer Science, told the school’s press arm. “The network would never stop training and improving. It’s like a black hole that swallows up whatever energy you throw at it, which is by no means sustainable.” Even the best conventional algorithms, which Abrahamsen said are only able to “manage up to eight unknowns,” are no match for the neural networks used by social networks to fine-tune their advertisements towards users, which, as the researcher explained, “can be set up to consider several billion parameters.” https://futurism.com/infinite-neural-networks

 

  • Using fusion to drill into the earth’s crust and get down far enough to harness that energy and power! Cool startup!

Quaise Energy Secures $40M Series A to Unlock Terawatt-Scale Geothermal Energy https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2022-02-08/quaise-energy-secures-40m-series-a-to-unlock-terawatt-scale-geothermal-energy

 

 

 

  • Using VR to mess with flies? Nope.. it’s research!

Flies Possess More Sophisticated Cognitive Abilities than Previously Known Immersive virtual reality and real-time brain activity imaging showcase Drosophila’s capabilities of attention, working memory and awareness https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/flies-possess-more-sophisticated-cognitive-abilities-than-previously-known

 

  • Duncan Trussell was right in 2017 when he mentioned this:

Dr. Bronner’s, the Soap Company, Dips Into Psychedelics Under the leadership of the founder’s grandsons, the company has become a big financial backer of efforts to loosen government restrictions on illegal drugs. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/28/health/ketamine-bronner-bros.html

Watch The Midnight Gospel | Netflix Official Site

 

 

  • UH OH: THE METAVERSE IS ALREADY BEING SLAMMED BY PROPERTY & SALES TAX!

TAXATION WITHOUT PHYSICAL REPRESENTATION. https://futurism.com/the-byte/metaverse-taxes

 

 

  • This is about logistics, and it’s a wonderful article on the complexity and fog of war: article below, this is the convoy:

 

The long and winding road Why a huge Russian convoy remains stalled north of Kyiv Botched logistics and fierce resistance are causing problems. But the respite could be temporary https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/03/04/why-a-huge-russian-convoy-remains-stalled-north-of-kyiv

 

How cheap Chinese tires might explain Russia’s ‘stalled’ 40-mile-long military convoy in Ukraine https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1010857/how-cheap-chinese-tires-might-explain-russias-stalled-40-mile-long

 

 

  • THEY FOUND THE ENDURANCE OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG This is the single greatest story of adventure, perseverance, and leadership of the modern era. Shackleton saved 27 men over a 2 year disaster in the most inhospitable climate on earth.

The Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust is pleased to confirm that the Endurance22 Expedition has located the wreck of Endurance, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s ship which has not been seen since it was crushed by the ice and sank in the Weddell Sea in 1915. https://endurance22.org/endurance-is-found

At the Bottom of an Icy Sea, One of History’s Great Wrecks Is Found Explorers and researchers, battling freezing temperatures, have located Endurance, Ernest Shackleton’s ship that sank in the Antarctic in 1915. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/09/climate/endurance-wreck-found-shackleton.html

 

 

 

TV & MOVIES: COME & SEE

 

 

  • Look. I can’t be at fault for spoilers when you’ve ignored the 6th highest grossing film of all time, and the 3rd highest grossing film in the United States DURING A DAMNED PANDEMIC, so… well… sorry. But this doesn’t provide context other than the 3 Spidies doing the famous meme template. But seriously… what they did in “No Way Home” melts two decades of film into a few hours and it’s just so impressive a film like that can exist, and that they pulled it off.

 

 

 

YESSss…

 

 

  • This is SUPERB news that wouldn’t have been gracefully taken a few years ago.

 

 

  • The 1985 Russian “grueling masterpiece” Come and See has hit Criterion.

“It’s said that you can’t make an effective anti-war film because war by its nature is exciting, and the end of the film belongs to the survivors. No one would ever make the mistake of saying that about Elem Klimov’s “Come and See.” This 1985 film from Russia is one of the most devastating films ever about anything, and in it, the survivors must envy the dead.” https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-come-and-see-1985

 

Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_See

“This legendary film from Soviet director Elem Klimov is a senses-shattering plunge into the dehumanizing horrors of war. As Nazi forces encroach on his small village in what is now known as Belarus, teenage Flyora (Alexei Kravchenko, in a searing depiction of anguish) eagerly joins the Soviet resistance. Rather than the adventure and glory he envisioned, what he finds is a waking nightmare of unimaginable carnage and cruelty—rendered with a feverish, otherworldly intensity by Klimov’s subjective camera work and expressionistic sound design. Nearly blocked from being made by Soviet censors, who took seven years to approve its script, Come and See is perhaps the most visceral, impossible-to-forget antiwar film ever made.” https://www.criterion.com/films/28895-come-and-see

 

The title is from Chapter 6 of the Book of Revelation:

“And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, “Come and see!” And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1036052-come_and_see

 

Here is what amounts to the most important anti-war film ever made… free online: https://youtu.be/NJYOg4ORc1w

Come and See (1985) | The Criterion Collection

 

 

 

 

 

Nyetflix and Dill: Putin Signs Law Regulating Foreign Online Streaming Services · Global Voices

 

 

 

  • This One Sheet for a ridiculous new film is AMAZING:

 

Reminds me of this a bit:

 

MUSIC

 

  • More Marcus Veltri down below, but with Harry Mack it’s just hilarious:

 

 

  • SO MUCH HEAT FROM FURNACE OF GOODWILL AND WIT.

 

 

  • Maybe some guy looked up and was like “If Dee thinks this, maybe I *AM* wrong”

 

 

  • Oof. Subscribe to this talent. He’ll be around for awhile.

 

  • Not for everyone, I absolutely believe Zappa’s final 1988 tour with this band was some of the best live music ever toured, and this truly is my belief: This cover of Stairway to Heaven is better than the original. Live, they performed as bored looking as possible and tore apart Page with that horn solo. Zappa wasn’t a fan of Page’s sloppy work, and as a perfectionist he absolutely murdered this song:

 

 

  • Frank Zappa sound check with Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”, and vocals by what sounds like Mr. Keith David. The vocalist is named Ike Willis, and he is unparalleled.

 

  • This Mancini album called “Combo” is a hallmark of lounge jazz. It’s delightful, but this song “Castle Rock” has a young John “Johnny” Williams on harpsichord.

 

  • This is an exceptional compilation, something I’m not really that into… but my wallet will be drained on this series, if I can’t stop replaying this single album. I’ve got to say, for you hepcats and groovy niks that like to snap your finger, bob your head, and pretend the world is a cool and groovy place, this is for you:

Various – Soho Scene ’66 Jazz Goes Mod https://www.discogs.com/release/11895658-Various-Soho-Scene-66-Jazz-Goes-Mod

 

  • People were clowning on this photo, saying Hammer shouldn’t be there and was out of place.

Image

 

Then this went viral, along with other “DO NOT MESS WITH HAMMER” historic gems:

 

 

  • Talent will never not be charming. These guys are a hoot. “Tell me what song to play”… and they can play any song. ANY SONG.

  • The kid he inspires at 4m51s:

 

 

  • I always wonder how much Bo Burnham learned from this guy. Tom Lehrer – We Will All Go Together When We Go, a cynical and dark cold war classic about being okay with the fact we’re all going to die at the same time in a nuclear holocaust. This guy was brilliant.

 

 

 

 

  • RIGHT BETWEEN MUSIC AND VIDEO GAMES:

Gaming Giant Behind Fortnite Buys Bandcamp, an Indie Music Haven: Epic Games is acquiring an online music platform that has been embraced by musicians for its eclectic offerings and a payment system that favors artists. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/arts/music/epic-games-bandcamp.html

The music seller says the acquisition will allow it to expand internationally and improve its website, apps, and services. https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-games-bandcamp-acquisition/

 

VIDEO GAMES & BITCOIN IS A SCAM

 

‘50% of transactions were fraudulent’ when Steam accepted Bitcoin for payments, says Gabe Newell By Wes Fenlon published 1 day ago No wonder Steam stopped taking cryptocurrency. https://www.pcgamer.com/50-of-transactions-were-fraudulent-when-steam-accepted-bitcoin-for-payments-says-gabe-newell/

This is Video Games’ Dan Harmon I guess! Or Detective Crashmore. Valve President Gabe Newell:

Gabe Newell 1 News interview

 

 

 

 

 

  • Speaking of blockchain, relevant because video game looking garbage: NFT BUYERS FURIOUS AFTER ART THEY SPENT $70 MILLION ON TURNED OUT TO BE COMPLETELY HIDEOUS IT’S AS HILARIOUS AS IT IS TRAGIC. https://futurism.com/the-byte/pixelmon-nft-scam

 

 

  • Seriously do not read this if you don’t play video games, understand open world games, or modern culture. You’ll be shaking your fist at the kids in no time. But this is incredibly philosophical, *psychological*, and important in regards to art and culture and the human psyche:

How Evil Should a Video Game Allow You to Be? https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/how-evil-should-a-video-game-allow-you-to-be

“video games don’t cause violence. I’ve been playing Madden for 15 years and never once have I thought I should suit up and take a snap. Video games can’t cause violence if they don’t even cause sports.” -paraphrase of a very funny San Francisco comedian named Mark Smalls, and I posted his set up above. https://youtu.be/IiDSmZlyE7c

 

 

  • This new hotel from Disney as a Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser looks like a bunch of horror space games like Dead Space, Alien: Isolation, Half-Life:Alyx, etc. It’s unreal.

This is the start of your hotel experience, which happens to look like the transit ferry that moves you around the space station, where you are likely hyperventilating trying to escape the most dangerous AI in gaming.

 

 

PEOPLE CULTURE & SOCIETY BUT NO WAR (that’s later)

 

  • “When something happens like a shooting, we immediately ‘talk about talking about it’, but don’t talk about it”.

Dan Harmon comment that came immediately after the 2017 Las Vegas shooting. It’s a problem that has been further amplified by bots and trolls that immediately use red herrings and straw men to change the subject and divert attention from the actual conversation.

But yeah… remember that shooting? The deadliest mass shooting in American history? The Route 91 Harvest festival where a single 64 year old man had enough firepower in the Mandalay Bay that he was able to fire a deluge of bullets for 10 minutes from the 32nd Floor of Mandalay Bay, killing 60 people and wounding 411 and injuring 867 people?

And the first conversation we had? “It’s too soon to talk about gun control”. This is after we let tiny little beautiful kids get slaughtered, and NOTHING happened but people buy more guns and gun company stocks go up? And we move on to the next trending nightmare with no attention span but slack jawed shock in our incapacity to gain access to move the needle or be part of the conversation. Our last philosophical tools are compartmentalization and normalization… a few zations too many, if you ask me.

When can we have the conversation? Too soon? Because our country has gotten real out of integrity with the values of our religions and founding principles, as people now foam at the mouth as unreliable, grifting narrators in bad faith divert the conversation into whataboutism, or they call you intolerant for being intolerant of intolerance…  vs ANYONE FOCUSING ON THE REAL ISSUE AND TALKING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED. So this, then, is the real issue since Sandy Hook to present day GOP banning books:

Image

 

 

OOF

 

 

  • This is Tyson playfully jabbing. This combo is 1 second:

 

 

Surrealist Art with a Heart!:

Revelations #1 from Gerald A Lewis on Vimeo.

 

Transcribed Text from the above. Cool story, I saw it in a film festival while living in Los Angeles, around 2002.  Somehow I had trasncribed it on a piece of paper, and found that paper in 2009 and wrote it on this blog.

In 2014, I found it. It was, yes, a revelation! =) I really love this, and hope you do too.

Revelations #1 by Gerald (I wish I had written this, but it exists nowhere online and we need it, it’s art – If you wrote & directed this animated short, please contact me)

 

 

  • More art:

Lovecraftian Creature in Paris Gallery Goes Viral: ‘I Am Shocked’ https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/peybak-sculpture-viral-tweet-galerie-gpn-vallois-1234620434/

A gallery installed with paintings and,

 

 

 

  • Jack Irving Kinetic Dress:

More Jack… This is precisely what I want fashion shows doing. PRECISELY. This is the fashion show I wanted to see in 2022, and it’s from 2018/2019! And before you guffaw, I’m not into couture, but these shows are meant to show the designers general creativity, not demo actual, sensible fashion. It’s amazing.

 

 

  • Me checking my portfolio during World War 3:

 

 

 

  • I’ve recently realized how much I dislike AirBnBs. You never know what you’re walking into, disparity of expectations due to differing levels of delivering some form of hospitality between rentals, and let’s not bypass all the creepy stories of cameras or weirdos. Here is one:

 

But the real issue is the guilt of going to an area with wineries and restaurants and outdoor tour operators all struggling to hire and retain staff in areas that haven’t had enough housing built due to poor legislators that allowed the urban-wildlife interface to run wild, and now we’re all crying about our remote homes burning down, while main st. can’t keep a store open because developers just develop, but don’t live in nor see the community, and everyone wealthy has their second home in the tourist mecca…. so Lake Tahoe? Sonoma and Napa? Jackson Hole? Aspen or Vail? There’s no housing because of AirBnB. And there’s hotels trying to staff, but can’t, and end up empty and struggling, because of these rentals taking up housing.

So sure, my personal predilections actually selfishly self-select AirBnB out of my life, for the most part.

I like hotels, I like hospitality, I like service, I like the little amenities they bring to your room at night, or the minibar of delightful temptations, or the coffee ready in the morning… and I LOVE ROBES. But the serious downstream economic implications of this wildly stupid and unregulated bit of entitled steaming garbage is part of the most cynical and selfish bit of capitalism in a long while.

YOU CAN STOP YOUR INTERNAL MONOLOGUE. If you’re selfish enough to think that a illegally zoned hotel in a residentially zoned area is truly a good idea, then you’ve never had rotating parties of people in housing next to you. Whatever the case, your desire to stay in an AirBnB is fine. You can do what you want, but I wonder how many have really thought deeply about all the pros and cons, rights and wrongs, and responsibility we all have as consumers and guests to make moral, righteous decisions with our wallets, hearts, and minds. Yes, in America, it’s that order.

Also, law is always behind tech… it moves so slow. But they’re banning AirBnB for the macro economic effects, in destinations like Hawaii, Tahoe, etc. It’s about time. Time Shares? Zone/Sanctioned Vacation Rentals? That’s gravy, and don’t feel bad! It’s also complex the amount of different options and categories. Just stay off VRBO and AirBnB, and you’re helping the economy, communities, hard-working people, and helping shape neighborhoods into the thing they were always meant to be: people who know and rely on one another to simply live their lives in peace.

 

 

  • From 2017, but I think about this ALL THE TIME:

How this man tricked TripAdvisor into listing his shed as London’s No. 1-rated restaurant https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.4437547/how-this-man-tricked-tripadvisor-into-listing-his-shed-as-london-s-no-1-rated-restaurant-1.4437555

 

 

  • How the American Right Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Russia: “Strong” may be the key word here. In this construction, a strong leader is apparently one who cracks down on opposition, cultural and political, and does not concede. This idea then dovetails with right-wing ideas that liberal elites are actively corroding deeply held traditional values — including traditional gender roles. For those who spend a fair amount of airtime worrying about the emasculation of men, the kind of strength portrayed by Mr. Putin https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/27/opinion/ukraine-putin-steve-bannon.html

 

 

This is so awesome:

Image

 

  •  I did send this to some of you this week, but I also ranted a bit about this hotel, last week. But the reviews of the hotel are in, and it’s amazing to me.  However, I am not a kid anymore, so my suspension of disbelief and newfound introversion would make this as cringey as possible, and that’s sad and more of a comment on me. If you were a kid or an adult who wanted to and could suspend disbelief, I am sure it amazing. The rooms suck tho.

Single review https://www.polygon.com/22949892/star-wars-galactic-starcruiser-review-price-hotel-video

Aggregate of many: https://www.sfgate.com/disneyland/article/is-disneys-galactic-starcruiser-worth-it-16950883.php

ouchie:

“The Halcyon’s interior scale just doesn’t match up to the grand ship shown in marketing materials. I expected the atrium to be taller, the banquet hall to be wider… Liminal spaces, like hallways and stairwells, feel particularly sterile, like wandering around a suburban junior high school built in the mid-1970s.”

“Many reviews compared the experience to living inside a two-day-long dinner theater show or escape room, and a heavy dose of extroversion will help get over the awkwardness of a room full of adults pretending they’re on an epic mission”.

“Disney went all-in on an experience that seemingly puts only the wealthiest guests inside a windowless bunker for two full days.”

 

 

8114621 14.02.2022 A cat is pictured in front of the Sugar castle in Sakharny (Sugar) village in Volgograd region, Russia. Kirill Braga / Sputnik via AP

 

VEHICLES

 

  • A vehicle for vehicles… didn’t do so hot (maybe not the best term). Felicity Ace finally sank after an alleged car battery started the fire that scuttled all the endless beautiful vehicles, even last production model Aventors. Interesting aside:

“Flotsam” is material that was not deliberately thrown overboard. “Jetsam” is material deliberately thrown overboard.

Cargo Ship Felicity Ace Sinks With Porsches, Audis, and Lamborghinis On Board The ship reportedly went down in about 10,000 feet of water, so good luck with your salvage car dreams: There’s no precise breakdown available for each affected model, though we know that 189 Bentleys, roughly 1,110 Porsches, and “dozens” of Lamborghinis were caught up in the smoke. https://www.thedrive.com/news/44510/supercar-carrying-cargo-ship-felicity-ace-sinks-following-massive-fire

felicity ace cargo ship sinks

 

 

  • Vehicles are used in war, so I am bringing up this quote again:

“Amateurs talk about strategy and tactics. Professionals talk about logistics and sustainability [in warfare]” – Robert Hilliard Barrow (1922-2008), United States Marine Corps four-star general, in an interview published in the San Diego (CA) Union on November 11, 1979.

So I start with 2 rumors. First, the Eastern Front in World War 2, and again, I say these are apocryphal:

“During the Battle of the Bulge, a high-ranking German officer inspected the hastily-vacated American lines, and noticed a birthday cake. Upon examination, he discovered the cake had been baked in Iowa the week before. He exclaimed “we can’t even get fuel and the Americans have a birthday cake from Iowa? The war is lost”.

But there’s also a story of a barge that was created during prohibition, and it lingered on until the Navy bought an Army barge and made it into an ice cream factory in the Pacific Theatre. Like the Birthday Cake, it not only raised morale, but when it was found out by the Japanese, it lowered it, akin to the German reaction of the cake.  It is fabled that when a famous tactician found out that the Americans had the infrastructure and logistics down to deliver ice cream all over the ocean, he knew the war was lost.

Again, fables, myths, urban legends? No. The Ice Cream Barge is real and well documented: An ice cream barge was a vessel employed by the United States Navy in the Pacific Theatre of World War II to produce ice cream in large quantities to be provisioned to sailors and Marines. The craft, a concrete barge acquired from the U.S. Army and worth $1 million,[1][2] was able to create 10 US gallons (38 l) of ice cream every seven minutes, or approximately 500 US gal (1,900 l) per shift, and could store 2,000 US gal (7,600 l).[3][4] It was employed in the USN’s Western Pacific area of operations, at one point anchored at Ulithi.[5] These ships were intended to raise the morale of U.S. troops overseas while producing ice cream at a fast rate.

Why the U.S. Navy Once Had a Concrete Ice Cream Barge The portable parlor sustained sailors on the high seas. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-did-navy-sailors-eat

That time the Navy spent a million dollars on an ice cream barge https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2021/07/21/that-time-the-navy-spent-a-million-dollars-on-an-ice-cream-barge/

 

 

Also, more war:

 

 

 

The plane (pictured in Warsaw, 2020) was used during the pandemic to ferry millions of masks around the world

It is was an amazing thing:

 

  • Warning: this a Russian helicopter being blown up, but what a shot.

 

 

  • Well, he’s not wrong. Good argument:

WAR MEMES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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By Uncle FishbitsCategories: Newsletter