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| Me - school photo - 1972 |
Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #1470 - 1972 school photo - Throwback Thursday for 1902.28 - hey mom #1153
Welcome to the weekly gallimaufry, a post where I toss all manner of things that pass within my consciousness while I am trying to work during the last week.
I have been ill.
I have mountains of things to grade smothering me. I am making progress but I am behind.
I am always behind.
Much like this thing about winter...
Here's musical accompaniment for this post.
O H Y E A H!!!!! SIGN ME UP. ALL TIME EXISTS AT ONCE. I AM ALREADY THERE.
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Thank you Kieron Gillen. We now know what Project Oh Caroliona has been.
I also I may have inspired someone to subscribe to his newsletter (Gillen's) today.
I am a newsletter zealot.
Here's the chunk from the recent Gillen missive.
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Meet ONCE & FUTURE (previously PROJECT: OH CARLOINA) , announced by Boom at ComicsPro. It’s worth reading Flip Sablik’s speech, especially if you’re a retailer. He’s talking about key issues in the industry, and Boom are offering some strong incentives here. That Boom are thinking like this is one of the many things which made me think I’d like to work with them on a book like this.
Here’s the press release, which includes the first selection of details.
I gave this quote…
“I’ve been chewing over how the classic explorer adventure serial could operate in the twenty-first century for a while. Doctor Aphra transplanting the genre to space was one conclusion. ONCE AND FUTURE is another, taking a genre whose core has barely changed since the 19th century, and updating it for the now,” said writer Kieron Gillen. “Adventure, romance, supernatural horror and too much bloody research, as always. When BOOM! Studios told me one of the most talented action artists of his generation was interested in collaborating, I knew that we had all the ingredients we needed to create gold. Gold which, inevitably, our heroes will steal.”
And Dan gave this…
“Working with BOOM! Studios has opened the door to new dream projects every year, but ONCE AND FUTURE is unlike anything I’ve ever worked on before,” said artist Dan Mora. “Kieron’s created a new world very much like our own, but plagued by supernatural and mythological creatures that are a joy to bring to life. And Bridgette, well, she’s one of the most fun – and surprising – characters I’ve ever worked on and I can’t wait for audiences to meet her!”
Also, reading the pre-release is a lot of fun, as you get to compare and contrast our photos. It’s very much a “who will protect the lovely artist from this horrible old man.”
In short: Arthurian-mythos-fuelled grandmother/grandson adventure fiction. It’ll take the form of a series of minis, as we return with different adventures. It’s very Indiana Jones or Hellboy in that way. I think you’ll like it.
Say hello to Bridgette and Duncan.
Oh my. Did you really speak to your screen just because I told you to? That looked really weird.
Out August. More before details before then, inevitably.
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I want to go to this, but I doubt that I will.
CHOWDER CHALLENGE
12:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Join us for the 12th Chowder Challenge, a blind tasting of a dozen samples of clam chowders by area restaurants and brewpubs. This year's event will take place on Saturday, March 2 from Noon to 3pm (or until chowders run out) at the 5th Quadrant, as well as inside the brewery, and at our Sidebar Tasting Room. Attendees receive a tray with a dozen numbered two-ounce samples of chowder, then vote for their favorite; the chowder receiving the most votes is named the People’s Choice Winner.
This year's challengers include Ascendant Beer Co., D'S BAR, EaT: An Oyster Bar, Ecliptic Brewing, Farmhouse Cafe, Le Bistro Montage, Lompoc Brewing, Paddy's Bar & Grill, Peter's Bar & Grill, Renner's Grill, Skyline Restaurant, and Ways & Means Oysters.
A tray of all 12 chowder samples costs $15, or $20 for a tray and a Lompoc pint; tickets are sold at the door. The event also features a beer garden, a raffle with prizes from the participants, and pub food for purchase. Minors are welcome at the family friendly event. All net proceeds are given to the Community Transitional School for homeless children in the Portland area.
The Chowder Challenge has taken place 11 times, and Lompoc Brewing has won seven of those; the four upsets were Morrison Hotel (2008), Ice Axe Grill (2013), and Farm House Cafe (2016 & 2018).
This year's challengers include Ascendant Beer Co., D'S BAR, EaT: An Oyster Bar, Ecliptic Brewing, Farmhouse Cafe, Le Bistro Montage, Lompoc Brewing, Paddy's Bar & Grill, Peter's Bar & Grill, Renner's Grill, Skyline Restaurant, and Ways & Means Oysters.
A tray of all 12 chowder samples costs $15, or $20 for a tray and a Lompoc pint; tickets are sold at the door. The event also features a beer garden, a raffle with prizes from the participants, and pub food for purchase. Minors are welcome at the family friendly event. All net proceeds are given to the Community Transitional School for homeless children in the Portland area.
The Chowder Challenge has taken place 11 times, and Lompoc Brewing has won seven of those; the four upsets were Morrison Hotel (2008), Ice Axe Grill (2013), and Farm House Cafe (2016 & 2018).
AND NOW, THE NEWS......
Of course, music is driving Starbucks employees nuts. Who would really want to listen to Hamilton on a loop? And I am sure there other mixes just as awful. My most hated song that on repeat would make me "chew my face off" is Barry Manilow's "The Copacabana."
https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/02/25/2238215/starbucks-music-is-driving-employees-nuts
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We're living in a Golden Age of GEEKY GOODNESS!! Bring on da NERDS.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/02/25/0038208/netflix-buys-rights-to-stream-chinese-sci-fi-blockbuster-the-wandering-earth
An anonymous reader writes from a report via NPR:Netflix announced this week that it has acquired the rights to stream Chinese sci-fi blockbuster "The Wandering Earth," which has already grossed more than $600 million globally and hit number two in the all-time Chinese box office rankings since it was released in theaters Feb. 5. Netflix will translate the movie into 28 languages and release it in more than 190 countries. The movie, based on a short story by Hugo award winner Liu Cixin (author of "Three Body Problem" and "Ball Lighting") is set in a distant future in which the earth is about to be devoured by the sun. Using propulsive engines, humans turn earth into a spaceship and try to launch it out of the solar system and the planet is saved by a Chinese hero (rather than American ones as typically seen in Hollywood sci-fi movies.)
For China's film industry, the release marks a major milestone. "Filmmakers in China see science fiction as a holy grail," Raymond Zhou, an independent critic, told The New York Times. "It's like the coming-of-age of the industry." Two sci-fi movies, "The Wandering Earth" and "Crazy Alien," which is also inspired by Liu's work, topped this Chinese New Year movie season. Inkoo Kang wrote at Slate that the film "understands what American blockbusters are still loath to admit: Responding to climate change will pose infrastructural challenges on a massive order and require drastic measures on a planetary scale. Perhaps it takes a country like China, which is accustomed to a manic rate of construction and grandness of organizational possibility, to seriously consider how dramatically humanity will have to reimagine our ways of life to survive such a catastrophic force."
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/02/24/172216/judge-says-washington-state-cyberstalking-law-violates-free-speech
Here's an interesting thing... protecting those of us who speak out against TRUMP??
A federal judge has blocked Washington State's 2004 cyberstalking law after ruling that a key provision violated First Amendment protections for free speech due to vague terms. "Its prohibitions against speech meant to 'harass, intimidate, torment or embarrass' weren't clearly defined, according to the judge, and effectively criminalized a 'large range' of language guarded under the Constitution," reports Engadget. "You could theoretically face legal action just by criticizing a public figure."
THANK YOU WASHINGTON, my new home.
But the protections don't matter because when it comes to life ON THE GRID, we're FUCKED.
Totally fucked.
FUCKED.
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/02/25/1321251/icann-warns-of-ongoing-and-significant-attacks-against-internets-dns-infrastructure
ICANN's chief technology officer David Conrad told the AFP news agency that the hackers are "going after the Internet infrastructure itself." The internet organization's solution is calling on domain owners to deploy DNSSEC, a more secure version of DNS that's more difficult to manipulate. DNSSEC cryptographically signs data to make it more difficult -- though not impossible -- to spoof.
MEANWHILE, not only must we beware of Chinese and Russian hackers attacking the roots of the Internet itself, we have to beware of multi-billionaires who want us to "out" our friends. BIG BROTHER WANTS YOU TO INFORM ON YOUR NEIGHBORS. Its for a good cause. REALLY IT IS.
IGNORE THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/02/25/0055255/bill-gates-amazon-and-google-urge-followers-to-share-data-on-teacher-friends"The success of our professional learning program depends on the work of our partners to spread the word," explained Code.org in a Medium Post. "Corporate partners like Amazon, Infosys, and Google are rallying their employees and communities to nominate a teacher, and so are fellow teachers, parents, and students. We couldn't do it without you! [...] Code.org (and these scholarships) are supported by: Amazon, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Facebook, Google, Infosys Foundation USA, Microsoft [...] Code.org has prepared almost 100,000 educators to teach our courses, and they give our program rave reviews. We welcome teachers from all subject areas-no CS experience needed!"
https://www.newsarama.com/44054-black-panther-wins-at-oscars.html
But not enough awards... no best picture... :-(
For the first time in I am not sure how many years, I watched the entire Oscars. Glad this one won.
https://www.newsarama.com/44055-spider-man-into-the-spider-verse-wins-best-animated-film-at-oscars.htmlSony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse has won an Oscar for "Best Animated Feature Film" at the awards ceremony Sunday evening.
Spider-Verse won out over Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, Mirai, and Ralph Breaks the Internet.
This follows previous "Best Animated Feature" wins for Spider-Verse from the African American Film Critics Asociation, the Allience of Women Film Journalists, the American Cinema Editors, the Annie Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, the Golden Globe Awards, and more.
https://www.newsarama.com/44051-the-justice-society-returns-in-doomsday-clock-9.html
I know the wait for 9 is frustrating but here's a glimpse of 10 to be getting on with. pic.twitter.com/DOXxdWez5e— Gary Frank (@1moreGaryFrank) February 22, 2019
https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/02/27/1358253/oneweb-wants-to-rebuild-the-internet-in-space-connecting-billions-not-on-the-web
Later today, the first six of OneWeb satellites are expected to be launched.[Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source] from a remote launch site in French Guiana, a key step toward building out a constellation that could eventually reach nearly 2,000. From a report:If OneWeb's founder Greg Wyler plans are successful, what he and his fellow executives at OneWeb envision is nothing short of revolutionary: becoming one of the world's largest providers of Internet service by building the architecture in space, allowing the billions without access to WiFi to finally use the Web. Wyler founded the British-based company in 2012.
"The ultimate goal is to connect every school in the world, and bridge the digital divide," Wyler said in an interview after his pep talk. "We're bringing connectivity and enabling it for people around the world, and in rural populations." If successful, remote areas all over the world, from Alaska to Africa, that are out of reach of fiber optic cables could suddenly join the world of Google and YouTube, a feat Wyler and others believe could be transformative. But building the backbone of the Internet in orbit is no easy task. Others have tried to put up constellations of communications satellites, only to fail spectacularly. The enormous cost is only outmatched by the risks of putting up hundreds of spacecraft in orbit.
https://science.slashdot.org/story/19/02/27/0113237/astronomer-finds-potential-furthest-object-in-solar-system
Prominent astronomer Dr Scott Sheppard, of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington D.C., has discovered a new object in the distant reaches of our solar system and given it the name FarFarOut. "At 140 times further away from the sun than our own planet is, the newly identified body -- if its discovery is confirmed -- will become the furthest known object in our solar system," reports The Guardian. Sheppard's discovery was made after his team was analyzing astronomical data to track down Planet Nine, a yet-to-be-discovered body thought to have 10 times the mass of Earth. From the report:Sheppard said he made the discovery of FarFarOut when a lecture he was due to give on his team's work was postponed and he went back to analyzing his data. He said FarFarOut was somewhat mysterious. "It is very faint; it is on the edge of our ability to detect it," Sheppard said. "We don't know anything about the orbit of this object, we just know it is far, far out." Sheppard said further observations were in the offing to shed more light on the find.The current record holder -- a dwarf planet at 120 times the Earth-sun distance -- was named merely FarOut when it was spotted by the same team in December last year.
I am a regular reader of David Brin. He's always spot on.
http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2019/02/fresh-perspectives-on-evolution.html
A new and remarkably detailed monograph on AI may be worth examining by any of you who are true topic-wonks. It comes from Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute proposing that artificial intelligence will be less about particular smart entities than smart services, a concept related to the dispersal notions we see in recent discussions of the Cloud or the Internet-of-Things, but also with some crucial differences. The upshot - Reframing Superintelligence - (crafted by Eric Drexler) is guardedly optimistic.
One of the most virulent propaganda campaigns currently operating in the United States is the war on sex workers...
https://maggiemcneill.wordpress.com/2019/02/18/the-war-on-whores/
The War on Whores
February 18, 2019 by Maggie McNeill
Just because I like it.
http://sequart.org/magazine/69493/breaking-panels-breaking-time-examples-of-the-connection-between-panel-construction-and-narrative-time/
Dissolving the boundary – Zero Hour: Crisis in Time:
As the title implies, Zero Hour: Crisis in time, plays around with the idea of time. How creative. The story works as a sort of sequel to 1985/86s Crisis on Infinite Earths. The issues countdown to #0 rather than going up. Parallax’s plan involves compressing and re-writing time in order to start a new big bang. This in itself did effect DCs overall sense of time and history. If only in minor aspects. As the story nears its final act, in the last two issues. Parallax succeeds in his plans, and time momentarily blips out of existence. Leaving nothing but a white page. As the final issue begins, that same white page stares back at us. But as the next few pages proceed, we see panels slowly begin to fade back into existence.
As time begins to start again in the DC universe, panels begin to appear once more. Here we have a very direct and powerful connection between the disappearance of time, and their connection with the missing panels. It’s the panel borders that we first see. Not characters, not scenes, the borders themselves signifying time restarting. Noticeably, they don’t fade back in as you would expect. They slowly come back into existence in patches of green light. No sense of order to how this happens, or why. But time is erratic as it begins to reorder itself. Much as the panels do. Zero Hour: Crisis in Time lives up to its name by giving us time itself, and consequentially the panels, having their own crisis as they reform.
Because after all that news, much of it upsetting, you need some comics.
https://www.sadanduseless.com/t-rex-trying-and-trying/
FROM BOING BOING!!
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And just because... I need to do more comics...
https://comicsradio.blogspot.com/2019/02/are-firecracker-arrows-really-best.html
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019
Are Firecracker Arrows really the best ordinance with which to fight Dinosaurs?
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| cover art by Curt Swan |
As proof of this, we have the story "The Creature from the Crater," (World's Finest #108--March 1960), written by Ed Herron and drawn by Lee Elias. When Oliver Queen and Roy Harper are visiting a plantation-owning friend, that friend falls right into this trap. Of course, as soon as he finishes dismissing the monster-from-the-volcano story as nonsense, the volcano erupts and a monster emerges. Duh.
The monster is a fire-breathing T-Rex, which presents a challenge for Ollie and Roy. They change into Green Arrow and Speedy, but they don't have an anti-dinosaur arrow. They really don't have anything that packs enough punch to take down Rex. But then can at least distract it, using firecracker arrows to do so and allow the plantation workers to escape.
This does allow the workers to escape, but Arrow and Speedy are scooped up by the monster. They soon discover that the dinosaur is a giant robot, referred to by its mad scientist creator as "Iron Rex." The motive behind letting Iron Rex loose on the plantation is to scare everyone off and then loot the place.
Why the scientist didn't just make a fortune giving rides to kids inside Iron Rex is beyond me.
Up to now, this has been a fun story with some nifty visuals. The short length (7 pages including an introductory splash page) hurts it at this point as Arrow and Speedy get the best of their captors in just a couple of rushed panels.
But, heck, even if the story is flawed, we get to see the above image: a cutaway schematic of Iron Rex. Something like that is always worth the price of admission.
That's it for this week. Next week, Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin join the circus.
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Reflect and connect.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.
I miss you so very much, Mom.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 1335 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1902.28 - 10:10
NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.
