draft
So now we wait. Is it the apocalypse or just another example of the dysfunction and stupidity of our government? I have no idea. But presumably if the hammer comes down it comes down in 1-3 weeks. I am guessing we will only know it is bad if we start hearing stories of hospitals filling up. Or not filling up, as the weeks go by. Idiots.
Showing posts with label apocalypse. Show all posts
Showing posts with label apocalypse. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Who Stole Japan's Submarine?
Great events of history often start with deceptively small incidents. A glacier melts and suddenly we have Global Warming. Several gay men dying in a ward in San Francisco in 1984 and suddenly we have the AIDS epidemic.
Or a submarine disappears and we suddenly have the beginning of the end of all civilization.
Recently, Japan lost one of its submarines in the Tsugaru Strait between Honsho and Hokkaido. They have looked everywhere but can not find it. They were using this $5M remotely operated
submarine to map the ocean floor although some news articles have said that the submarine was actually used to detect other submarines at a distance. The lost submarine was on a tether,
it was not free and autonomous. It is very hard to lose such a
submarine, but they did.
Somehow, the cable got cut. No one
knows how. They looked everywhere in the area for the submarine, but
they could not find it. It did not just drift to the bottom in the
area, it did not float to the surface. It disappeared.
Maybe it was an accident and the
submarine got caught on something underwater and they just could not find it. It is, after all, very dark down there.
Graphic from a news article on where the submarine was lost
Or maybe someone cut the cable and took
the submarine because they figured it would tell them a whole lot
about Japanese technology.
But, if it was stolen, who would do such a nasty thing? Would China or Russia perpetrate such a criminal act? These countries are peace-loving dictatorships that regularly talk about destroying the West. We might do something like this to them, of course.
No, those who would suggest that China or Russia did such a thing are just war mongers looking to increase the defense budget. This explanation is just a front to hide the possibility of what really happened.
No, those who would suggest that China or Russia did such a thing are just war mongers looking to increase the defense budget. This explanation is just a front to hide the possibility of what really happened.
What else could have happened then? Notice where the submarine went missing. That is not so far from the worst oceanic radiation leak in history, Fukushima. Perhaps the radioactivity from this disaster has caused the mutation of giant underwater monsters. Everyone has seen the movie Godzilla, we know the score. What if those movies channeled the future of the end of our civilization? What if these giant radioactive monsters were sleeping but were disturbed by someone dragging a submarine over them?
That is an explanation that you will not read in the Western press anytime soon.
We may all look back at the missing submarine and realize that we were witnessing the Beginning of the End.
I want more submarines !
Monday, March 11, 2013
The Aesthetics of Earthquakes in Southern California
Well we finally had a decent earthquake
after a long time. Not that great, but a 4.7 which is just ok.
About 60 miles away. Pffft. One good shock. Is that it, I thought? That's all you got? Definitely not enough.
I may as well tell you that I have been
very disappointed by the earthquakes I have experienced in S.
California since I came back from the East Coast. Let me be blunt guys, its for your own good. S. California is less than the East Coast in almost any measure one can use, its crummy weather, its crummy non-transit system. Its failure to deal with civic planning. The only thing it has going for it imho is earthquakes and a few other things like surfer girls and beachside Mexican restaurants.
Before I left for NY and Aspen in 1994 or so, I could count on a solid interesting earthquake every few months. One that would rattle the house, rattle the windows, annoy the dogs and set off the happy chirping of car alarms up and down Lookout Mountain. It was the car alarms and the barking that convinced the observer that the earthquakes were real and not just the result of a happy dream.
But since I have returned that old earthquake magic seems to be gone. Dried up. Every once in a while a dreary little rumble is felt, occasionally a shock to the house, more your imagination than anything substantial.
Before I left for NY and Aspen in 1994 or so, I could count on a solid interesting earthquake every few months. One that would rattle the house, rattle the windows, annoy the dogs and set off the happy chirping of car alarms up and down Lookout Mountain. It was the car alarms and the barking that convinced the observer that the earthquakes were real and not just the result of a happy dream.
But since I have returned that old earthquake magic seems to be gone. Dried up. Every once in a while a dreary little rumble is felt, occasionally a shock to the house, more your imagination than anything substantial.
What happened?
No one knows. No one asks, No one
cares. Its like the rest of Los Angeles. Dreary devolved robots, joyless, idealess, soulless. Going through the motions. Hoping that nothing will shatter the fragile illusion of normality that they clutch to their bosom so tightly. That nothing will happen to make them fall into the abyss like so many of their friends, screaming soundlessly into the night, and then gone forever.
What constitutes a good earthquake?
1. The earthquake should have structure, periods of intensity, periods of quietness. It shouldn't just be on and off. One boom equals boring. No, there should perhaps be a solid and dramatic
initial shock to get your attention, then perhaps an anticipatory
pause, then a good solid series of shakes building in amplitude to
the point where you wonder if you should get out of bed to stand
underneath a door jam. Then a pause again, and a few more shakes
as a finale. Many variations on this theme are possible, this is not a hard and fast prescription. The general principle is that
a good quake will reveal a structure and not just be one blow.
2. The earthquake should have solid
aftershocks. After the main quake, in a minute or two, or five, or
an hour, there should be another good earthquake or two. More than
one if possible. Maybe not as ambitious and complicated as the first
one, these could indeed be just one shock without structure, but an
aftershock or two. (1)
3. The house should demonstrate
harmonics and vibrations. You should hear windows rattle, doors
creak, and see or hear other examples of wave interactions.
4. The neighborhood should come alive
with noise. Dogs barking, car alarms going, wind chimes chiming, radio announcers
announcing.
5. Going beyond "good" to "excellent", an excellent earthquake should be violent. It should wake you up and make you think. It should make you wonder if this is it, if this is when you die, or someone you know dies, your existence forever extinguished. An excellent earthquake makes you think about your own mortality.
MCA/Universal's Masterpiece starring Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner
5. Going beyond "good" to "excellent", an excellent earthquake should be violent. It should wake you up and make you think. It should make you wonder if this is it, if this is when you die, or someone you know dies, your existence forever extinguished. An excellent earthquake makes you think about your own mortality.
6. After "good" and "excellent" of course is "Apocalyptic". The "Wrath of God" Earthquake. The one like the one you saw in disaster movies, but without the happy ending and Charlton Heston. The earthquake that announces the "Last Days". The one that demands your complete attention. The one that does more than shake up your day. The one that lasts a minute or two or five, is off the Richter scale, and leaves Los Angeles flattened, an even 1.5 or so feet of crushed plaster, with an oil derrick or two sticking out of the ruins and millions of BMWs, Mercedes, Lexus and Acura's alarms demanding attention but getting none until they finally run their battery down and one by one go silent.
Miles and miles of cars protruding above the crushed plaster, silent, motionless.
They stand silent forever, monuments to the shallow greed and the shallow graves of their former owners.
Miles and miles of cars protruding above the crushed plaster, silent, motionless.
They stand silent forever, monuments to the shallow greed and the shallow graves of their former owners.
Soon, maybe, soon.
[Of course we do not really wish for the Apocalyptic earthquake to happen anytime soon, at least not until all the people we care about have sold their property in LA and moved out, especially the surfers and people who run beachside Mexican Restaurants. ]
_________________________________________________
LA Times Article on Today's Earthquake:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/more-than-100-small-aftershocks-follow-47-quake.html
Information on 4.7 Earthquake
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/more-than-100-small-aftershocks-follow-47-quake.html
Information on 4.7 Earthquake
Information on All Recent Earthquakes
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
Earthquake (1974) on IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071455/
_________________________________________________
1. The managed news media in S. California tells me that there were over 100 aftershakes after the one this morning. Well, maybe. But if so, I did not feel a *single* one.
Earthquake (1974) on IMDB
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071455/
_________________________________________________
1. The managed news media in S. California tells me that there were over 100 aftershakes after the one this morning. Well, maybe. But if so, I did not feel a *single* one.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Computer Graphics and the Doctrines of Original and Derivative Sin
[Substantially revised 2/19/2013]
Anyone who looks at the field of Computer Graphics and Animation today sees vast misery, incredible and increasing unemployment, despair and uncertainty. (3) The political actions of other nations have made it impossible to do computer animation in this country and compete thus increasing the offshoring and outsourcing of 3D animation. Our people are driven to the four corners of the earth; parents are forced to work in slave-like conditions and separated from their families in order to earn what is barely a living, starving to increase the profits of the rich. And the rich are very rich indeed, privileged and ruthless at maintaining their privileges and laugh at the misery of the poor. Unemployment everywhere, despair everywhere, injustice everywhere.
Many years ago I heard a talk by computer artist William Latham (1) in which he proposed that computer graphics imagery was different from other forms of imagery because, by its nature of being computed, it was thus free of the Original Sin, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge and then expelled from Paradise.
But since we are clearly not in Paradise, but are being punished daily, then it is likely that whether we are guilty of Original Sin or, even more likely, an unoriginal sin, a "derivative sin", but definitely a sin of one type or another, or so one might reasonably judge from the reality of the punishment that we are receiving. (7)
Anyone who looks at the field of Computer Graphics and Animation today sees vast misery, incredible and increasing unemployment, despair and uncertainty. (3) The political actions of other nations have made it impossible to do computer animation in this country and compete thus increasing the offshoring and outsourcing of 3D animation. Our people are driven to the four corners of the earth; parents are forced to work in slave-like conditions and separated from their families in order to earn what is barely a living, starving to increase the profits of the rich. And the rich are very rich indeed, privileged and ruthless at maintaining their privileges and laugh at the misery of the poor. Unemployment everywhere, despair everywhere, injustice everywhere.
Many years ago I heard a talk by computer artist William Latham (1) in which he proposed that computer graphics imagery was different from other forms of imagery because, by its nature of being computed, it was thus free of the Original Sin, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge and then expelled from Paradise.
But since we are clearly not in Paradise, but are being punished daily, then it is likely that whether we are guilty of Original Sin or, even more likely, an unoriginal sin, a "derivative sin", but definitely a sin of one type or another, or so one might reasonably judge from the reality of the punishment that we are receiving. (7)
3D animators being laid off from a CG studio
Although this may seem superstitious to us, for large parts of history, people of all types believed in the concept of divine punishment so, for a moment, lets ask ourselves how people of the 1st Century AD might have looked at these things. How would they have perceived these disasters and calamities?
Ancient people believed that plagues, famines, war and so forth was God punishing a wicked people or evil nation for their sins. They would look at a fallen meteor and see a sign from God that he or she was displeased. They would look at our misery and say that God (or the Gods) were punishing us and that what we had to do was to ask ourselves in what way we have sinned, that we may sacrifice to the appropriate God(s), and change our ways, and repent.
If one were sincere, a number of cattle might be sacrificed, or if really sincere, in some cultures, a good human sacrifice or two was required. (4)
So let us review the many ways that the field of Computer Animation has sinned.
First and foremost, 3D animation has utterly destroyed the commercial basis of the traditional arts of 2D animation and visual effects. Thus we are so very guilty of putting many innocent and talented people out of work, forcing them to put down their pencil or their optical printer and get a job as a day laborer for slave wages. You may call it progress, but I say that we caused a lot misery, however unintentionally.
What other sins are we guilty of?
Pride, arrogance, a failure to help our fellow biped, greed, indifference to poverty, to unfair practices, guilty of setting up and worshiping false gods, competitiveness without mercy, driven by self-interest, ignorance of our effects on the other arts, ignorance of our own history. Not to mention the sins of making bad movies and creating very bad animation.
Without doubt, we are guilty of all of these.
And the Gods have responded to our wickedness by providing subsidies to foreign nations to uplift our enemies and cause great misery through divinely-sanctioned unfair trade practices! Heaven has sent the Angels of Unemployment to strike down Sinners even as they type at their Workstations!
As a prophet of doom, I suggest that things will only get worse unless the people repent of their sins and return to the path of righteousness.
God only knows that our misery could not possibly be the result of our own actions, our failure to act, our cowardice, or the inevitable result of our own corrupt practices and stupidity. It must be a result of divine displeasure. Because if it was a result of playing it safe, of failing to protest foreign subsidies as a way of keeping quiet and "minding our own business" (2), of rewriting our own history whenever it was convenient to do so (or simply being ignorant of our own history), then we would have no one to blame but ourselves. If we are guilty of transferring our technology to foreign venues as a way of making a fast buck, then who is at fault other than us? If we thought the studios that finance films cared about the computer animation community in this country, from whence their current riches originate, then that would be particularly stupid and indicate a complete failure to face reality of how these things work. No, the answer must not lie here, among ourselves, the answer must lie in the realm of divine displeasure.
I recommend sacrificing at least one goat or maybe two at once. (6)
Ancient people believed that plagues, famines, war and so forth was God punishing a wicked people or evil nation for their sins. They would look at a fallen meteor and see a sign from God that he or she was displeased. They would look at our misery and say that God (or the Gods) were punishing us and that what we had to do was to ask ourselves in what way we have sinned, that we may sacrifice to the appropriate God(s), and change our ways, and repent.
If one were sincere, a number of cattle might be sacrificed, or if really sincere, in some cultures, a good human sacrifice or two was required. (4)
So let us review the many ways that the field of Computer Animation has sinned.
First and foremost, 3D animation has utterly destroyed the commercial basis of the traditional arts of 2D animation and visual effects. Thus we are so very guilty of putting many innocent and talented people out of work, forcing them to put down their pencil or their optical printer and get a job as a day laborer for slave wages. You may call it progress, but I say that we caused a lot misery, however unintentionally.
What other sins are we guilty of?
Pride, arrogance, a failure to help our fellow biped, greed, indifference to poverty, to unfair practices, guilty of setting up and worshiping false gods, competitiveness without mercy, driven by self-interest, ignorance of our effects on the other arts, ignorance of our own history. Not to mention the sins of making bad movies and creating very bad animation.
Without doubt, we are guilty of all of these.
And the Gods have responded to our wickedness by providing subsidies to foreign nations to uplift our enemies and cause great misery through divinely-sanctioned unfair trade practices! Heaven has sent the Angels of Unemployment to strike down Sinners even as they type at their Workstations!
As a prophet of doom, I suggest that things will only get worse unless the people repent of their sins and return to the path of righteousness.
God only knows that our misery could not possibly be the result of our own actions, our failure to act, our cowardice, or the inevitable result of our own corrupt practices and stupidity. It must be a result of divine displeasure. Because if it was a result of playing it safe, of failing to protest foreign subsidies as a way of keeping quiet and "minding our own business" (2), of rewriting our own history whenever it was convenient to do so (or simply being ignorant of our own history), then we would have no one to blame but ourselves. If we are guilty of transferring our technology to foreign venues as a way of making a fast buck, then who is at fault other than us? If we thought the studios that finance films cared about the computer animation community in this country, from whence their current riches originate, then that would be particularly stupid and indicate a complete failure to face reality of how these things work. No, the answer must not lie here, among ourselves, the answer must lie in the realm of divine displeasure.
I recommend sacrificing at least one goat or maybe two at once. (6)
Doctrine of Original Sin on Wikipedia
___________________________________________________
1.I http://www.nemeton.com/static/nemeton/axis-mutatis/latham.html
2. Ironically, of course, it is our business. But it would mean making waves and possibly offending the rich and powerful.
3. Of course this does not apply to some people. I believe, for example, that my friends at Pixar are treated quite well. But if they could not work at Pixar for some reason, and were thus like the rest of us, and had to find employment outside of that special reality, they would very much not be happy.
4. Human sacrifice is in most cultures past whether or not they admit it. But there was quite a diversity in how many humans, who they were (e.g. captured prisoners or citizens) and when they eliminated the practice. Other than hating Christians, the Romans were tolerant of nearly everything among their multitudes of incorporated cultures other than human sacrifice. They had no trouble with the death penalty, but that was completely different in their eyes from killing people for religious reasons which they considered barbaric.
5. Most Prophets of Doom are not volunteers, but claim to have been chosen by God more or less against their will. Also prophets of doom normally do not make a good living but have to live as hermits in caves and so forth. Much better to be a prophet of hope and joy if you want to make a profit, so to speak.
6. A little off topic, but the best political cartoon found on the topic of human sacrifice is:
7. This is of course circular logic, and proudly so.
2. Ironically, of course, it is our business. But it would mean making waves and possibly offending the rich and powerful.
3. Of course this does not apply to some people. I believe, for example, that my friends at Pixar are treated quite well. But if they could not work at Pixar for some reason, and were thus like the rest of us, and had to find employment outside of that special reality, they would very much not be happy.
4. Human sacrifice is in most cultures past whether or not they admit it. But there was quite a diversity in how many humans, who they were (e.g. captured prisoners or citizens) and when they eliminated the practice. Other than hating Christians, the Romans were tolerant of nearly everything among their multitudes of incorporated cultures other than human sacrifice. They had no trouble with the death penalty, but that was completely different in their eyes from killing people for religious reasons which they considered barbaric.
5. Most Prophets of Doom are not volunteers, but claim to have been chosen by God more or less against their will. Also prophets of doom normally do not make a good living but have to live as hermits in caves and so forth. Much better to be a prophet of hope and joy if you want to make a profit, so to speak.
6. A little off topic, but the best political cartoon found on the topic of human sacrifice is:
7. This is of course circular logic, and proudly so.
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