Visual Effects and the Art of Explosive Decapitation

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What makes truly great visual effects? Animation, design, attention to detail and many other elements. Rarely does mere story affect the greatest work in the field, as modern technology has proven that plot and story are obsolete and not worth the added expense.

Recently reviewing a much overlooked masterpiece, Pirates of the Caribbean part 18, Dead Men Tell no Tales, I came across a fabulous example of the dedication and attention to the *smallest thing* that can turn merely good work into great work for the ages.

There are few truly great head explosions in the western cinema, and if you look closely at one of the attached frames you will see that "Dead Men" contributes to this canon with a notable entry.

Congratulations to all the artists involved for making our lives that much more fulfilling and enriched through the art of explosive decapitation!

Delusions of Reference and this Blog

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Do you think you are seeing yourself referenced in this blog or on Facebook only not by name? I might say “a very successful friend of mine” or maybe “a very smart friend of mine”. And you think I am talking about you, and get offended or something of that nature.

Well, I have bad news for you, its worse than you think. In fact, there is a pretty good chance I am not referring to you at all, and if I was, you would know it because I would have asked your permission first (whether or not I use your name). Always, every time. Pretty much.

It is possible, even likely, that the person I am referring to does not exist but may contain some indefinable essence of your sacred uniqueness (as we are all unique, dont you know, all God's children, etc) in some sort of composite character that I am creating in order to make a point about society, our lives, our civilization.

And you want me to stop, in fact you demand an apology on Facebook, and after I plead innocence, you tell me that is no excuse and so I end up blocking another old and dear friend. This is a bummer.

But I am not going to stop, and you are going to have to go away bitter in total ignorance of the fact that I was not talking about you at all.

Swine McConnell Sells Us Out to the Russians

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Write your congressman, you never know. Post what you say. Encourage others. Those of you who are rich swine from the exploitation of the poor (present company excepted of course) should also make progressive donations as the great ancient philosophers have said "money talks".

Ursula K LeGuin Has Passed Away

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I wish to note that Ursula K LeGuin is dead. She was a great influence on me growing up. It makes me ashamed to have failed so completely when I had inspirations like Ms. Le Guin.

It makes me sad.

MW

Second Amazon Hub and Considerations Involving Labor and Housing

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Amazon is close to selecting its second hub and cities all over this country are bending over and spreading their cheeks for the privilege of having some employment and tax base which they suppose will come along with the Amazon hub. And indeed there may be some financial benefit to the local communities in certain sectors. No doubt the slaves will have to buy their rations from the designated franchises that are raping them for their undernourishment for example. No doubt there will be disenfranchised and impoverished men and women who will provide sex services to the slightly better off hub worker units. There will be other business opportunities as well.  

Many people believe Atlanta is a front runner in this race because of its developed airport infrastructure, mild weather, and guaranteed hostility to unions and workers rights.  We can be sure that Georgia will use the full range of the law, the police and private thugs to destroy any attempt of the workers to organize.  This makes for a productive business environment.  All of these characteristics are important and no doubt make Atlanta a plausible choice.

But there is one area that is emphasized far too much, and that is the issue of housing. Slaves should have no rights to housing. Slaves should plan on bedding down where they work, and maybe sharing a hose as a shower. It is disgusting and unAmerican to even consider giving the worker anything but a minimum fee. There should be no benefits, no time off, no over time, no health care, no pension, and certainly no housing. These are all leftover concepts from the last century.

When they execavated Caesar Augustus's house in Rome they found a floor filled with about 50 cubicles for the slaves. In our opinion, even that is too good for them and would be an unnecessary drag on shareholder value.

We are more sophisticated today and know better.  Let us hope that Amazon holds the line on these matters and does not give into any sloppy sympathy for the worker-swine.

After all, its a free country.  If they dont want to be a slave for Amazon they can go off and be unemployed somewhere else or just die as far as our government is concerned.  

Thats what America is all about.

Email to My Congressman Regarding Shithole Trump

Guess Which Picture Violates Facebook Community Standards

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Guess which of the pictures below violates Facebook Community Values and will get you blocked.

Have you guessed yet?  Examine each one carefully!  Which one is the most salacious, which one is the least?   Your average 12 year old boy would have no trouble answering this question.

The answer is image number 2 from Lifeforce (1985).   This is the image that got me blocked from Facebook for 24 hours.  The other two caused no problems with their totally automated, perfectly insane, AI guardian of public morality.

Pretty wacky, huh?

When you consider that Facebook also owns Tumblr, the very home of twisted pornography on the Internet, the mind achieves a unique state of Zen like incomprehension.

[My friend Jerry Weil informs me that there was a huge brouhaha about "nipples" on Facebook and so he knew immediately which picture was the offending one.  Well, me bad, I had missed this important social dialectic entirely but it reinforces my opinion: Facebook is not very sophisticated here, they are in fact, holding back my real feelings, near moron-like stupid.]


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Notes:

1. For those of you who are coming into this late, my objection is not to Facebook's removing images, my objection is to how they handle it, the lack of human communication, and the extreme punishment system which is probably malfunctioning.  You are welcome to read the forums if you want to see what other people think of this Facebook system.  Be prepared to read many swear words.

2. The other two pictures are (1) the famous Vampirella of comic book fame and (3) a still from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2.

Facebook, Freedom of Speech and Corruption in America

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Since I use Facebook to discuss politics with my colleagues and friends, when Facebook blocks my account for no good reason, see picture below, and since there is no discussion and no recourse, and since Facebook is my only medium for having these sorts of disucssions, then that would seem to me to be a violation of my freedom of speech. It may or may not be a violation based on the First Amendment, but it is certainly a violation of my freedom of speech.

This is not to say that Facebook can not restrict certain images, although this is mighty funny given some of the blogging sites that Facebook owns, but that is different from blocking someone entirely.

But not in America, where after all, there is no freedom of speech and the government is corrupt.

Mystery of Blogspot / Blogger Anomaly Probably Resolved

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The reason some people can not leave comments on this blog, as well as other Blogspot based blogs, is because the commenting facility is broken under Google Chrome.

Go to another browser, such as Mozilla Firefox, and it seems to work.

What is weird about this is that Blogspot.com is owned by Google. You might expect that they would make it work with their browser.