Newsletter #0021 – There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists

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Looking at America…  When did individualism begin to forgo personal accountability? Ahh… yes. Us. U.S. Together.

 

Super great. We’ll get through it.

 

ANYHoooo- Humans aren’t always smarter than the average bear. This is Yosemite a few years ago, dealing with how dumb we are:

“But it turns out it’s actually quite tricky to get the design of these cans just right. Make it too complex and people can’t get them open to put away their garbage in the first place. Said one park ranger, ‘There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists.‘” https://www.kcet.org/redefine/new-study-will-track-bears-in-yosemite-high-country

 

SPACE

Astronomers see back of a black hole for first time, proving Albert Einstein was right Researchers prove theory through studying a supermassive black hole 800 million light years away. The “luminous echoes” come from the rear part of the black hole’s corona https://www.livescience.com/einstein-proven-right-black-hole

An illustration of a black hole.

Science, Tech, Biology

  • Mushroom releasing millions of microscopic spores into the wind to propagate ????

 

  • DRONE SHOWS! So, Tik Tok is the worst video editor and uploader on planet earth, and there is a pandemic of vertical video, to be sure. I would post the YT link, but can’t find it yet. This is just unreal. We’ve been talking about how ancient Celtics and Vikings would see a glacier shoot up from the water and believe in Ice Gods and Sea Monsters, or someone seeing a decayed whale on a beach and think it’s a dragon… and even a meteor would be angry gods, or volcanoes with their lightning strikes as Zeus battling with Gods. There’s no wonder that religion and mysticism came to answer the questions we weren’t prepared to understand. But just like Ash heading back in time with his 1973 Oldsmobile Delta-88 and Boom Stick… anyone that’s been in a coma or not around modern society would think the Gods are awake and toying with us.
@firefly_droneshowsNew 300 drone formation! #droneshows #SipIntoSummer #lightshow #TostitosUnspokenBonds #LoveMeMode #dronetiktok #epic #dronechallenge? Acid Rain – Lorn

 

  • We can make choices, but not making them is also a choice… we’re on track for societal collapse by 2040:

A controversial MIT study from 1972 forecast the collapse of civilization – and Gaya Herrington is here to deliver the bad news https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/25/gaya-herrington-mit-study-the-limits-to-growth

Point of No Return by 2050: Existential climate-related security risk: A scenario approach https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/148cb0_a1406e0143ac4c469196d3003bc1e687.pdf

 

 

 

 

  • What if the Guillotine is the most humane way for the state to mete out punishment? I don’t necessarily believe in capital punishment, but I think we all agree it should be the least painless way, possible. This is crazy to think about:

While the guillotine provides a death that is not easy to witness, the death it delivers to the condemned is quick and does not cause the extended pain of bespoke lethal injections. https://theconversation.com/why-the-guillotine-may-be-less-cruel-than-execution-by-slow-poisoning-121034

 

  • What’s it like to be an ant? STOP IT IS SORTA ABOUT ALTRUISM AND THE CONCEPT OF CONSCIOUSNESS…

Well, we might be able to learn about ourselves in thinking about it:

In The Mind’s I, a classic collection of writing on the philosophy of mind, Douglas R Hofstadter and Daniel C Dennett ask us to consider three concepts in relation to the ant colony: reductionism, meaning that the colony is merely the sum of its parts; holism, that is, the colony has an identity separate to that of its constituents; and the Zen notion of “mu,” which suggests we should reject the assumption that we have to choose between the two. Wisdom indeed. Is the ant an organism? Yes. Is the structure it lives in an organism? Very probably. Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. A colony is large and contains multitudes. As, of course, do we all. https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/what-its-like-to-be-an-ant-cal-flyn

 

More amazing science, math, biology and stuff in “EXPLORABLE EXPLANATIONS!” https://explorabl.es/

 

DAMN NATURE YOU SCARY – ROCKFALL EDITION

  • To be fair to viewers, this just happened a few days ago, and it does appear 9 tourists were killed (nothing on screen, just nature) and a few in critical condition. Valley bridge Batseri in Sangal valley of Kinnaur collapses (India):

 

 

  • Or this Rock Fall moving 100 ton Boulders like floating styrofoam:

 

 

  • Back to Ice Pillar shooters from calving glaciers. As I said above… no wonder the Vikings believed in the Norse Gods of Ice and Thunder. also, yes, big penis people giggle whatever

 

OLYMPICS

 

  • SKATEBOARDING: The Olympics have never had an athlete like Nyjah or a story like his. In one overstuffed sentence, it goes like this: Born on a living room floor in Davis, Calif., raised as a Rastafarian with little interaction with the outside world, Nyjah was funneled into skateboarding stardom by a strict father, signed a skateboard deal at 7 and made his first X Games appearance at 11, relocated with his parents and four siblings to a remote farm in Puerto Rico, watched his career sputter in social isolation, played the role of the rope in the tug of war of his parents’ divorce, was unleashed as a millionaire teenager and bought a mansion and a Lamborghini and lost all connection with his father, became the best contest skater in history, threw epic parties and built a rap sheet, and is now trying to outgrow that phase — but not all of it, because this is skateboarding — just in time for the sport that he has dominated for most of his life to make its debut at the Tokyo Games. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/23/sports/olympics/nyjah-huston-skateboarding-tokyo.html

 

  • Have you ever actually watched Speed Climbing, Badminton, or Table Tennis? These aren’t Olympics, but I think you might want to tune in… get that Tivo ready!

 

 

MOVIES, TV, WATCHABLE THINGS

Remember brokering the deal on which VHS movie to bring home from the rental store? That ritual of choosing together, and walking around and seeing movie art that was wildly inappropriate for your age? I got nostalgic, and made a VHS movie box art thread of old horror titles (find the right arrow to inline scroll and enjoy):

The VHS Horror Movie Cover Art that enthralled and captivated you in your youth, from the late 70s to early 90s.

Some movie history of some powerful gems that could have been lost to time.

 

  • We’ll get to Nightmare on Elm Street in music, both Fat Boys and Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff, but I think we’re forgetting how much Freddy pervaded culture at the time. I literally had Freddy Krueger posters on my wall when I was 14, not to mention I might not have understood the pedophile subtext. But even I remember “YOU’VE GOT THE BODY, AND I’VE GOT THE BRAIN” wild homoerotic suvtext

The Nightmare Behind The Gayest Horror Film Ever Made After starring in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, Mark Patton left Hollywood behind. More than 30 years later, the film has become a homoerotic cult classic — and its leading man is coming to terms with what he calls the “ultimate betrayal.” https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/louispeitzman/the-nightmare-behind-the-gayest-horror-film-ever-made

I will say, Harmontown has a hilarious chat about NoES2:

 

  • But this 6 minute doc explores how he was bigger than Jesus in the 1980s, appearing in Fat Boys and Dokken videos, hosting MTV, being marketed like a Rock Star, and even ending up doing bits on Nickelodeon, a kids network marketing an R-Rated film. I had two posters on my wall around the age of 13, and I am sure my patient parents were lost. I still don’t get how a pedophile child-killer became the biggest pop culture icon of the time!

 

 

 

  • This AFI list of the top 100 of 400 heart pounding all time great films is SO GREAT, and might be handy for picking some fantastic films you may have missed, that will keep your attention:

AFI’s 100 Years…100 Thrills revealed America’s 100 greatest thrillers, as chosen by leaders of the entertainment community, in a three-hour television event, that aired on the CBS Television Network in June 2001. Most of the memorable moments and scenes mentioned in these thrilling films have already been catalogued on this site, at Greatest Moments and Scenes. See also this site’s description of the Thriller/Suspense Films Genre and various notable examples of the Greatest Thriller/Suspense Films. (links if you click the link: https://www.filmsite.org/afi400thrillers.html

 

  • I miss practical effects, and man this must have been so fun to setup for the film “The Mummy”. I miss Brendan Frasier, but apparently he’s coming back! I think he played the role in this film masterfully… better than Harrison Ford. Goofy but strong and vulnerable. It’s not easy to pull off. But this bookcase scene is just a delight:

 

 

 

  • Speaking of Practical Effects, we really need to celebrate stunt people, and especially ones that would refuse to run across animal heads but it was a different time. All 5 Live and Let Die run attempts.

NOPE NOPE NOPE

 

MUSIC

  • When you’re fired from the band but still need to make money. Wait til about 40seconds.

 

  • I miss Phife, solely for knowing that Hip Hop will never exist like this again. Like Gift of Gab, like Doctor Dre, like Biz Markie. =(

 

  • Do we still need physical media? That sounds like clickbait, but it’s a good question, and philosophically, yes it’s clickbait. We need it, and for reasons that might surprise you:

Why physical media might be future proof, but keep that wax cool. https://unclefishbits.com/why-physical-media-might-be-future-proof-but-keep-that-wax-cool/

 

  • In the “I’m not waiting 88 years to be dead and not hear a banger and this needs to be immediately stolen and released” file:

U.S. Sells One-of-a-Kind Wu-Tang Album to Cover Martin Shkreli’s Debt Prosecutors did not announce who purchased the album, or for how much, but a lawyer for Mr. Shkreli said the sale price appeared to be at least $2.2 million. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/nyregion/martin-shkreli-wu-tang-album-sold.html

 

  • I really don’t think realizes how Freddy Krueger was HUGE in the 80s, as a pop culture icon. It was UNREAL, and there was a point he was everywhere.  And, hip-hop + horror = horrorcore rap, and it might be because of Nightmare on Elm St.

 

  • The Fat Boys are really scared, but not so scared they miss the donuts. DO NOT SLEEP… on donuts.

 

  • They even made his own record, and it’s weird and unexpected pop. And bad. Very bad.

 

PEOPLE, CULTURE, ART, SOCIETY

 

  • Did you know someone had a crazy plan in Lake Tahoe in 1980 and ended up blowing up a casino? It is too much to put in this blog, so I put it here for your perusal.

Lake Tahoe and Harvey’s Wagon Wheel Casino 1980: an “undefeatable” 1000lb bomb, the largest bombing in the Unites States prior to the the 1993 WTC. https://unclefishbits.com/lake-tahoe-and-harveys-wagon-wheel-casino-1980-an-undefeatable-1000lb-bomb-the-largest-bombing-in-the-unites-states-prior-to-the-the-1993-wtc/

 

 

“I’ve already grown a goiter from this torture,
hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy
(or anywhere else where the stagnant water’s poison).
My stomach’s squashed under my chin, my beard’s
pointing at heaven, my brain’s crushed in a casket,
my breast twists like a harpy’s. My brush,
above me, all the time dribbles paint
so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!”
“My painting is dead. Defend it for me, Giovanni, protect my honor.
I am not in the right place — I am not a painter.”
  • Well, this one is people, culture, and art! They used art to talk about a person who is certainly uncultured. This is a REAL Rick and Morty reading of a court transcript. It is the very definition of “BLUE” and you might want to keep it that way. If you can appreciate insanity and vulgar humor… click away!

 

 

  • This is how you get rid of evidence (bah, I feel the need to say this is staged BOOoooo):

 

 

 

  • Street Artists are always a treat:

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS!

  • Most of you likely know these, ie The Matrix lifted heavily from Gibson’s Neuromancer, etc. Most of you will know them… but if you like Bleeding Edge science fiction, here’s some recommendations:. Also, the links to Amazon don’t get me squat, just trying to make life easy… however buy from your local book store if possible.

The Forever War [1974]- The Earth’s leaders have drawn a line in the interstellar sand–despite the fact that the fierce alien enemy they would oppose is inscrutable, unconquerable, and very far away. A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in the distant thousand-year conflict; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But “home” may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries [LINK]

Snowcrash [1992]- In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous… you’ll recognize it immediately. It covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics and philosophy.   [LINK]

Neuromancer [1984]- The most prescient and groundbreaking novel of its time, defines and started a genre: Neuromancer is a cyberpunk novel about a group of mercenary criminals who secretly work for an artificial intelligence that’s trying to break free. Cyberpunk is a genre that focuses on future societies where technology has advanced, but crime and corruption have as well. [LINK]

But my biggest recommendation is for the more recent and less known:

Daniel Suarez’s “Daemon” and “Freedom” [2006]. It’s like if Ready Player One has ideas and was thoughtful and harrowing and good. “Upon publication of the obituary for Matthew A. Sobol, a brilliant computer programmer and CTO of Cyberstorm Entertainment, a Daemon is activated. Sobol, dying of brain cancer, was fearful for humanity and began to envision a new world order. The Daemon becomes his tool to achieve that vision. The Daemon’s first mission is to kill two programmers Joseph Pavlos & Chopra Singh who worked for CyberStorm Entertainment and unknowingly helped in the creation of the Daemon. The program secretly takes over hundreds of companies and provides financial and computing resources for recruiting real world agents and creating AutoM8s (computer controlled driverless cars, used as transport and occasionally as weapons), Razorbacks (sword-wielding robotic riderless motorcycles, specifically designed as weapons) and other devices. The Daemon also creates a secondary online web service, hidden from the general public, dubbed the Darknet, which allows Daemon operatives to exchange information freely. Daemon implements a kind of government by algorithm inside the community of its recruited operatives.” [LINK]

 

  • READY PLAYER ONE? BTW… I PUT IT AT THE BOTTOM IT IS SO BAD. UNDER VEHICLES.

VEHICLES

  • An exact, fully functioning replica of the ‘Chariot’ from the 1965 tv series ‘Lost in Space’. Built upon a 1964 Thiokol Snowcat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The HAV design doesn't need a mooring mast and ground crew like traditional models (Credit: HAV)

 

 

 

 

SUPER YACHTS and SUPERYACHTS. FIGURE IT OUT.

YOU NASTY IF YOU ALL THE WAY DOWN HERE. YOU NASTY.

 

PROJECT WEBSITE:

Noah Twins Carrier

 

 

  • A LITTLE BIG FOR MY TASTES, BUT PRETTY:

Boat of the Week: Meet the 443-Foot ‘Sunrise,’ the World’s Largest Open Sport Gigayacht At 443 feet, this gigayacht will be the largest day boat ever. Beyond size, its wave-piercing hull and 24-knot top end are breakthroughs. https://robbreport.com/motors/marine/sunrise-worlds-largest-open-sportboat-1234626017/

 

  • Ready Player One is the worst written piece of fiction in all history, and if you like it you are a bad person (JOKES, SIR WHO TOOK OFFENSE). But it’s 1980s Brand name nostalgia porn for people who weren’t there, and the guy sold the movie rights before publishing and bough a Delorean and that’s just perfect.

I actually keep a page handy to show how it’s neckbeard 1980’s Brand name nostalgia porn.: 

ENJOY YOUR ANEURYSMS:

 

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