September 03, 2011
Ducks In Anime: Don't Call It A Comeback
The bad thing about hunting for rubber ducks in anime is that you can go for months without ever seeing one. Even shows where a rubber duckie would make the most sense, like one taking place in an onsen, will inexplicably skip the duckie... and yes
Hanasaku Iroha, I'm very disappointed in you.
And then from out of nowhere, in a show you'd never expect to include anything as light-hearted as a duckie, you get rewarded.

-
Blood-C, ep08
I mildly enjoyed the first few episodes of
Blood-C, but not really enough to keep up with it. I wasn't a fan of the first two installments (
Blood: The Last Vampire,
Blood+) and the addition of CLAMP to the team for
C did nothing to keep me enthralled. I found myself wondering just exactly why Saya would do her hair like
that, which is probably not what the creators intended. Then came the censoring of the fight scenes in later episodes, and I just gave up. But something told me to download this episode today... maybe it was a mystical link I have with duckies, maybe it was fate, maybe it was
Doki's preview picture, I don't know. But there, in the middle of an dark, dark anime about a schoolgirl with a sword killing the bad things that go chomp in the night (and in the day, for that matter)... is a duck.

A nice duckie, too. Good sized, big eyes, floats well, an all-around attractive duckie.
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Do you float-test every duck in your collection? Are there any that don't float at all?
Posted by: Siergen at September 05, 2011 10:28 AM (HfzDP)
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No, and yes, many. In fact, I'd say the majority of the flock don't float well, led by Rusty II, the cast-iron duck that weighs about two pounds.
Posted by: Wonderduck at September 05, 2011 11:12 AM (o45Mg)
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Well, if ever get stumped for a blog topic (after you fully recover from your recent travails), perhaps you could do a full float test of your entire flock (with photos, of course). does Duck U have an engineering department? If so, they could help design tests for buoyancy, stability, etc...
Posted by: Siergen at September 05, 2011 08:59 PM (HfzDP)
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Going Shopping For Some Toys

My computer has three burning needs at the moment:
1) A new graphics card
2) A new external hard drive
3) A wireless mouse
The mouse I
already have picked out, but I'd like some advice from the tech nabobs out there on the other two. I'm looking for a midrange graphics card that'll work with a 400w PSU, PCIx16 of course, but that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I'm partial to Nvidia. Any thoughts?
For the external HD, I've been looking at the
LaCie Minimus, for which the user reviews I've seen have been pretty good, but I'm open to anything. 2TB or more is preferred, but if someone knows about a great 1TB drive that's a must-own, I wouldn't say no.
I'm running Windows XP SP3 with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ with 3GB of RAM.
So, lemme hear your opinion!
UPDATE: Brickmuppet, Nori is not a nerd.
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For a good recommendation, I'd really need to know more. What do you use the computer for what do you expect out of the part, etc. In general terms though: I've always had good success with buying either the current-generation mid-level nVidia board, or the top level of the previous generation (not the extreme overclocked one that gets more expensive, but the common version of that same board.) Generally such a part is in the $200-299 range, and lasts me many years. My current computer was built in January '08 and is only now starting to make me want to upgrade, and it's not the video card that's driving it. I mainly use this computer for watching anime, and playing MMORPGS.
On the hard drive, is this for storage, backup, or both of those? Would having extra features like being able to stream movies and music off it be desireable? How about being able to access it from a smartphone? Is write speed important, or do you only need read speed? If what you mainly want is a fast drive that doesn't happen to reside in your machine, that LaCie looks like a fine choice. If you want the extra features, I've heard good things about the WD LiveBook World Edition.
Posted by: David at September 03, 2011 06:08 PM (Kn54v)
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David, the HD will be used for storage, not backup. I use my current external HD to hold video and music, but it's getting maxed out (there's a pun there: it's a Maxtor drive)... I just want something bigger. The Maxtor will be used for other purposes; maybe backup, maybe an expansion for my DVR, maybe just more storage space, I haven't really figured that out yet.
The graphics card... I'm an occasional gamer, not hard-core. I enjoyed
Fallout 3,
Portal, etc etc etc, and will go through phases where I'll play a game for three hours a night... and then won't game for weeks. I'd like to play the new versions of those games. I also intend to do some video editing once I get it.
Chiyo-chan's been with me for
five years, and she still handles anything I can throw at her. Sure, a brand new system would be nice, but why? It'd be like moving from a Ferrari F40 to an Enzo... the Enzo goes a bit faster, but the F40's no slouch and is a legend to boot.
Posted by: Wonderduck at September 03, 2011 08:21 PM (o45Mg)
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So it sounds like that LaCie drive is a fine choice. Nvidia has a "help me choose" tool where you plug in what you do, your budget, how much room your case has, and how many watts your PS provides, and it gives you a list of cards to chose from. At 400 watts, nothing appears in the list. So I suspect you have to go back at least two generations, which given the rest of your machine is probably a sensible thing to do anyways. I'd just hit your preferred online vendor and see what is the most recent Nvidia card you can find that fits your power supply and budget.
Posted by: David at September 03, 2011 10:38 PM (Kn54v)
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I was sorta expecting to hear that. Back when my GPU went south a few months ago, GreyDuck pointed me at Nvidia's 9800GT. At the time, it was $149... not a bad price. Upon reading your comment, David, I headed to TigerDirect to see if it was still available. It was.
For $69... before rebate.
I just finished placing my order.
Posted by: Wonderduck at September 03, 2011 11:08 PM (o45Mg)
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Went to BigBlueBoxStore to purchase the Minimus... got it home, took it out of the box, and wha-hey! No powercord.
They've got another one waiting for me, I'll pick it up tomorrow.
Posted by: Wonderduck at September 04, 2011 02:35 PM (o45Mg)
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I've been banging around a couple of Seagate FreeAgent 2TBs for a couple of years, they're reliable. I've had lots of other externals through the evolution from 40GB to 3TB, so general observations:
1. Get two (2) drives and perform manual backups (Microsoft's free and excellent (I don't usually say that about free M$ stuff) robocopy works with XP SP2+).
2. One drive with a lot of important content will always fail at a bad time.
3. Two (2) drives with some kind of automatic backup will always propagate errors and bit rot.
4. I keep new content on my primary computers (laptop and home base big box) sync'd when I come back from a trip, migrate the stuff with robocopy to the primary content drive(s), then about once a month do the backups and purge the primary computers.
4. XP cannot support 3TB drives without ugly work-arounds.
Posted by: conrad at September 04, 2011 08:51 PM (rlhRl)
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September 02, 2011
I Think It's Over
I've made it through Friday, bringing an end to the Bookstore Death March that has been my schedule for the past month. You know what that means, right? Break out the dancing gifs!
Of course, I was supposed to have last weekend off, and we all know what happened then. So I guess it's possible that it isn't all over after all... maybe a hail of frogs, or suddenly from out of nowhere: BADGERS! Maybe I'll get a call tomorrow morning saying I have to go back into the store...
"Dozo! Have a starfish!"
Right. I'll shut up about that. Regular blogination will resume as soon as I regenerate some hit points.
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My cheerleader Miku actually came in today. Good timing! ;p
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 02, 2011 07:55 PM (pWQz4)
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Yay! I suggest you set appropriate tripwires and traps to alert you of the approach of zombies, ninja, etc., and then get lots of sleep. Perhaps you can 'forget' to plug your phone in and the battery will run out.
With any luck, you'll wake up with a half-naked alien catgirl in your bed!
Posted by: David at September 02, 2011 11:21 PM (Kn54v)
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...of all those, I think I find the Nagato Yuki most disturbing.
Which means that people will probably now find
me most disturbing. Ah, well.
Posted by: GreyDuck at September 02, 2011 11:47 PM (7lMXI)
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That Yuki GIF is straight out of the end animation for the first series; it's one of the dance moves.
I have already stolen it.
Posted by: Ed Hering at September 03, 2011 12:23 PM (mt2tk)
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That bottommost image...is that one of those "girl THINGS" I hear tell about?
Posted by: brickmuppet at September 03, 2011 01:51 PM (EJaOX)
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That's no Zaku, boy, no Zaku!
(always wanted to say that)
One of the weird Zeon Zaku-derivatives from Gundam, couldn't tell you which one.
Posted by: Avatar at September 03, 2011 08:01 PM (+X3kh)
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September 01, 2011
Almost There
Just one more day. Day 19 in a row. I figured out that I worked 28 of 31 days in August and at one point, 23 out of 24. Yes, the overtime is sweet, but what good is it if you can't actually generate the energy to actually spend the cash?
Or to blog, for that matter. It'll come back soon enough... but for now, here's something goofy.

See? Goofy. Ho ho. Ha ha. It is to laugh.
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I'd rather get bitten by Rin, personally...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at September 01, 2011 09:16 PM (pWQz4)
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It's good to know that you are getting overtime. You're certainly earning it.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 01, 2011 09:41 PM (+rSRq)
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Man, there'd better be a five-day weekend in this for you, and soon.
Posted by: GreyDuck at September 01, 2011 11:00 PM (7lMXI)
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Ditto Steven and the duck of grey.
Posted by: ButMadNNW at September 02, 2011 11:08 AM (k8tsf)
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August 30, 2011
Brain Has Performed An Illegal Operation...
...and must be shut down. So here's a picture of a picture of some seafood.

That's all I've got right now.
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Your brain has shut down, and you think of shrimp, hmm? Now what sort of brain-damage causing trauma could be related to
shrimp...
Posted by: Siergen at August 31, 2011 06:53 PM (ORZOi)
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August 28, 2011
F1 Update!: Belgium 2011 Not Coming Tonight
...and I don't care. I'm not in the mood to write about the 2011 Grand Prix of Belgium. I may never write about it. Seb Vettel won, Hamilton crashed, Slappy had a great race and finished 5th. I'm tired, I'm irritated, and to be blunt, I just don't feel like spending two or three hours trying to create a coherent narrative about the race right now. Here's Hamilton obliterating an advertising panel... enjoy.
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I like Hamilton as much as the next guy, but what we have here is a pattern. If he keeps driving like this, he's going to get someone hurt. Hell, he couldn't even avoid contact with other cars in Quals, after the session!
Also, is it true that Mark Webber's race-starting mojo has been stolen by a voodoo ritual?
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 28, 2011 10:18 PM (j42B4)
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It was an interesting race, it would be a shame if you didn't do at least a minimal writeup. But there is no hurry, I prefer a rested and sane wonderduck to an F1U.
Are you at least earning extra pay or comp time for all the extra work you're doing?
Posted by: David at August 29, 2011 11:50 AM (ttXyi)
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With all that crazy stuff at work it's no wonder F1 has to take a back seat. BTW, Hamilton changed his mind and accepted the responsibility.
Posted by: Author at August 29, 2011 05:09 PM (9KseV)
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I caught some of the GP2 race before the F1 event, too. They started mostly-dry and then the skies opened up... a good chunk of the race happened behind the safety car, after a couple spins, and then something like half the field dropped out or wrecked under the safety car! They speculated that water was getting into the electronics, or that the cars were falling too low in temperature and their engines were shutting down... and that caused additional collisions, and that kept the safety car out longer...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 29, 2011 05:59 PM (pWQz4)
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Come on ! Where is my F1update !!!!!?
Posted by: Thomas Bland at September 03, 2011 11:47 AM (gZ6hP)
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Gosh, I'm sorry Thomas. I should have done that as soon as I got home on Friday after working 55 hours in the past week, and 64 the week before.
Posted by: Wonderduck at September 03, 2011 12:33 PM (o45Mg)
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(Wonderduck's note: Edited for profanity)
You don't have to be an a***hole about it, I was just looking forward
with my brother to your F1 update, next time I won't bother.
Posted by: Bland Thomas at September 04, 2011 07:03 PM (o45Mg)
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Perhaps I didn't have to be, Thomas, but it sure felt good. No apologies, no regrets.
Posted by: Wonderduck at September 04, 2011 07:06 PM (o45Mg)
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Wow. Just Wow. I'm grateful we got an F1 Update at all. I hope Wonderduck did most of the work on it before he saw your post, Bland, because my reaction would have been "well, you're not getting one now." Probably with profanity.
Just to begin with "Where is
my F1update". I don't know. Maybe you should look for
your update somewhere dark and smelly. The F1update that Wonderduck chooses to share with us, on the other hand, appears at a time and in a manner Wonderduck chooses. And we're grateful for it when it does.
Posted by: David at September 04, 2011 10:18 PM (Kn54v)
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I always hated it when certain readers came to feel they had an entitlement to my work.
Thomas, take a hike.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at September 04, 2011 10:51 PM (+rSRq)
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David, I had intended to write it tonight anyway... and he nearly
did cause me to drop it altogether. I could have spent those two hours doing something else.
But I've only missed two F1U!s since I started this blog six years ago (one due to my mother's passing, one due to weather), and I didn't want to make Spa a third.
Posted by: Wonderduck at September 04, 2011 11:12 PM (o45Mg)
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I'm sure Wonderduck will give you a full refund of all monies that you paid to....wait.
It's free.
It's a hobby.
Its his time, his blog, his rules his programming.
I vote for ducks.
Vengeful ducks.
Posted by: brickmuppet at September 04, 2011 11:28 PM (EJaOX)
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...out of spite.
(yes I hit post early)
Anyway. Stop trolling.
Posted by: brickmuppet at September 04, 2011 11:32 PM (EJaOX)
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Posted by: David at September 04, 2011 10:18 PM (Kn54v)
"Just to begin with "Where is my F1update". I don't know. Maybe you should look for yourupdate somewhere dark and smelly. The F1update that Wonderduck chooses to share with us, on the other hand, appears at a time and in a manner Wonderduck chooses. And we're grateful for it when it does."
I just said where is my F1update as a joke, I wasn't whining on about it, that why I was surprised when you said that in the way you did . Maybe
in Hindsight it could of looked that way, but I assure you it wasn't, I just really love F1 ( been to French GP 01-02-03-04-05-06 Spa 2010 ) And your reviews are really good
Posted by: Thomas Bland at September 05, 2011 02:55 AM (2Y15L)
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Still Another FARK Greenlight!
This one was low hanging fruit, but I plucked it first!
Silence.
Make sure to turn on the Closed Captioning when you watch it.
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August 27, 2011
F1 Quals: Belgium 2011
I still haven't watched Quals, so here's the provisional grid with a minimum of conversation:
Guess what? It rained at Spa; go figure. As a result, the grid is a little jumbled. NKOTT in 6th? Bruno Senna 7th? Button 13th? Lap times in the 2-minute range? It must have dried out substantially for Q3, though.
Slappy had a run-in with a wall early in Q1, which is why he's got a "No time." He'll surely be allowed to race, though. Lord only knows if the three other DNQs will be allowed to participate, though considering the weather I suspect they will. Rabbi Maldonado qual'd 16th, but he's received a five-spot grid penalty for intentionally running into Lewis Hamilton after Q2 ended, after an altercation during the session.
Oh, look! Vettel is on pole. Who'dathunkit?
Race in the morning. I have no idea when the F1U! will go up. It might be Sunday, maybe Monday, maybe a week from next Tuesday. We'll see. Keep your eyes peeled, though... I've only missed two writeups in six years of this stuff; one of them was because of a bad thunderstorm, the other because of That Terrible Weekend two years ago. A flooded bookstore shouldn't stop me. See you soon.
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Schumacher had that run-in with a wall because his right rear wheel decided it had better places to be than on his car.
Button was called in during Q2 because I guess they felt his time was good enough. Turns out it wasn't.
Posted by: flatdarkmars at August 28, 2011 04:05 AM (zxqxC)
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Ofergawdssake...
So I got up at 8am, all set to settle in and watch what I was sure would be an exciting Quals for Spa. As I'm brushing my teeth, my cellphone rings. It's the Regional Manager, saying that I need to get to the Duck U Bookstore as soon as I can... seems something happened involving some water, a leak of some sort, and I needed to let people into the store. This has occurred in the past, no big deal... though it hasn't happened since they fixed that pipe.
Shrugging, I threw on some clothes and drove into Duck U., cursing my luck. After all, today was my first day off in two weeks. I get there, walk into the building the Bookstore is located in... and THIS is what I see:

Ah. I'm just thinking that this isn't a good thing. But if we've got an inch of water in the hallway, what do we have in... the... store?
more...
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Where did the water come from?
(Hey, Brickmuppet, keep your flooding in Virginia, man!)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 27, 2011 06:40 PM (+rSRq)
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A small crack in a water pipe that went unnoticed for about three hours. It could have been worse, but
SUNUVABEECHMARTIN!
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 27, 2011 06:48 PM (o45Mg)
Posted by: brickmuppet at August 27, 2011 06:53 PM (EJaOX)
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Good grief!
Where did the water come from?
(Hey, Brickmuppet, keep your flooding in Virginia, man!)
It's not MY fault.
Look, he's a duck...that's motive right there.....
Posted by: brickmuppet at August 27, 2011 07:03 PM (EJaOX)
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I can't believe he let that perfect opportunity for a rubber-duck photo go to waste. I guess he still hasn't fully recovered from
Rio...
Posted by: Siergen at August 27, 2011 07:39 PM (ORZOi)
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I was too busy trying to save floorstacks of textbooks and getting everything away from the wet sweatpants. By the time I had done that, the cleaners were sucking up the water.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 27, 2011 10:26 PM (o45Mg)
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was holding my breath all day wondering what happened. krazy krap if you ask me.
Posted by: Danyel Sutton at August 27, 2011 10:56 PM (E5AiJ)
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Ladies and Gentlemen, a member of the Duck U Bookstore staff!
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 27, 2011 11:18 PM (o45Mg)
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Aw, [bleep]. The hits just keep on coming, don't they?
Posted by: GreyDuck at August 28, 2011 08:44 AM (TmzAF)
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Yeowch. Still, good thing more books/merch weren't water damaged.
REALLY sorry about your lost day off. That always sucks. :-(
Posted by: ButMadNNW at August 28, 2011 02:57 PM (MwRo+)
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Wow. When I first looked at the photo, I thought, "What, the shiny floor? The chairs? Wait, there's something wrong with that shiny...ohhhh."
If there was some way you could send it to Texas, I'd take it. Not really an option, though....sorry.
Posted by: Ben at August 28, 2011 07:57 PM (RalIr)
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August 26, 2011
F1 Practice: Belgium 2011 (take two)
If it isn't raining at Spa, it's getting ready to. It's a F1 cliche,
but cliches get to be cliches by being repeated, usually because, well,
they have basis in fact. So guess what it did today during the two
Friday practices?

If you guessed "rain", you win the no-prize. There were about five
minutes at the start of the first practice where it wasn't raining. The
track was slowly improving through the afternoon practice until, just
as the teams put on dry tires, it began to pour again. As a result,
nobody got much data other than figuring out just exactly where the
driver would stick the car in the wall. So, short day on track all
around.
However, there's a couple of big news items to discuss. The first is
that Renault has unceremoniously booted Grizzly Nick Heidfeld from his
drive. Team boss Eric Boullier said "I think it didn't work. His
leadership didn't work in the team and when you are sometimes slower
than (Red Menace) Vitaly (Petrov), in fact most of the time slower than
Vitaly, it is
difficult for him to push the team and to settle himself as the team
leader." In reply, Grizzly Nick said "I have a valid contract, I want
to drive," and filed suit in London's High Court to regain his seat.
There's something smelly coming from Renault, and it isn't the cheese.
I'm sure it's only a coincidence that the Bearded One was being paid
€250000 per start and Renault is reportedly desperate for funds, not
only for this season but for next. Of course, The Red Menace brought a
metric farkton of sponsorship money with him for his seat. But who has
replaced Grizzly Nick?

Ladies and gentlemen, may I reintroduce Bruno Senna, last seen driving
for HRT in 2010. Somewhere, Grizzly Nick Heidfeld was pointing at the
monitor and laughing.
The other bit of news is that this weekend is a major moment in the
career of one of the F1 legends, for this is the 20 year anniversary of
Slappy Schumacher's debut in the sport. In 1991, he was drafted into
service for the Jordan team when their regular driver, Bertrand Gachot,
was imprisoned for two months for spraying a taxi driver with teargas
(and really, who amongst us hasn't wanted to do that?). He proceeded to
qualify the Jordan 191 7th for the Grand Prix of Belgium, making his
more experienced teammate, Andrea de Cesaris, who qualified 11th, look
awful. Slappy would be forced to retire on the first lap of the race
with a gearbox full of neutrals, but it was the start of one of the
greatest careers ever. This week, Slappy is wearing a special
commemorative helmet.

Say what you want about Slappy, and believe me, I have, he's one of the
best. Was one of the best. Something like that. Whatever.
It's supposed to rain during Quals... that should be fun! See you in the morning.
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August 24, 2011
Harry's Life
There are times that I hate blogging. Trying to come up with interesting posts, spending the time to bring them to fruition, then realizing that it was an "eh" idea in the first place. Then there are the days that you can't come up with anything good at all, and you resort to posting pictures of rubber duckies or cartoon girls or music videos. There are days where you just feel like chucking it all and walking away.
And then there's days like today, when the perfect idea for a story falls into your lap. Like this one, which I'll call "Harry's Life."
Harry lived and worked in India before The War To End All Wars. A newspaper reporter, he surely could smell the coming conflict, but he was of the age where one has no fear of one's own mortality. It could never happen to you, it would always happen to the other guy. Once the Great Mistake (pt 1) began, Harry didn't give staying out of the fray a second thought.
Harry was never a tall man. He did have the air of the rake about him, however, with hair that Clark Gable could only envy. He occasionally grew a dapper mustache, but it never stayed around for long. His eyes had the cool, appraising look that were the mark of a good newspaperman. In truth, he didn't look the part of a soldier but when War began, he immediately enlisted with the nearest British regiment... well, almost. Instead, he joined the Ghurkas.
"If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or a Ghurka." This quote, from Field Marshal Manekshaw, tells you all that you need to know about the fighting spirit of these legendary soldiers. Amongst them, Harry felt at home. He learned and truly understood the war cry of the Ghurkas, "Jai Mahakali, Ayo Gorkhali!", which translates to "Glory be to the Goddess of War, here come the Ghurkas!" When his regiment was called to France, Harry went along... to the Battle of Loos.
In a war full of mass casualties for little gain, Loos would barely rate a mention... if it wasn't for the futility of it all. Ammunition shortages limited the pre-attack artillery bombardment. The British used poison gas for the first time, releasing 140 tons of chlorine gas... much of which was blown back over their own lines. Then, at 0630 on September 29th, 1915, six divisions of troops charged out of their trenches... into the face of German machinegunners unfazed by the weak bombardment. As they charged across the open plain between the trenchlines, the Ghurkas discovered that much of the German barbed wire was still in place, unsevered by artillery. Undaunted, Harry found himself in the forefront of his company's charge into the enemy trenches. With kukri and grenade, he helped cause one of the first substantial breakthroughs of the war, leading to the taking of the town of Loos. Three days later, the Germans counterattacked and threw the British back to their lines. Over 20000 men lay wounded or dead after three days of stiff fighting. Harry was one of them, the victim of a German artillery shell.
Riddled with shrapnel, he was invalided to England to recuperate. While there, his Regiment of Ghurkas, used up by battle, was sent back to India, surely kicking and screaming. However, Harry wasn't done with France yet. Once up and around, he joined The Duke of Cambridge's Own Middlesex Regiment and returned to the trenches. Except this time around, he was an oddity. His kukri by his side, he knew his ways around the muddy passages and the fields of death around him. His experience made him valuable to his company, and he quickly became a trusted squad leader. One dark night, he led a handpicked team across no-man's land, returning with prisoners and intelligence. This brazen mission earned him a mention in the regimental dispatches... and a Croix de Guerre with bronze star. He only just was told of this honor when his old nemesis, the German artillery shell, found him again and left him with a bellyful of shrapnel. And back to England he was sent once again, back to hospital.
While there, he caught the eye of a pretty nurse. Certainly there wasn't a whole lot he could do with his abdomen wrapped in bandages, but his good looks and witty repartee certainly stood out amongst the other soldiers there. In some ways, leaving hospital was one of the tougher things he'd ever done... after all, he was leaving the pretty nurse behind. Much to his surprise and delight, she made sure he knew how and where to reach her when he could. For once again, the warrior in Harry sent him back into the fray. But this time, he would make sure that the German artillery could not get him.
As early as his time at Loos, Harry would look up and see the birds of the Royal Flying Corps soaring high above him and marvel at their grace and serenity. During his second recuperation, he petitioned for a transfer to the RFC, and to everybody's amazement, he was accepted. Perhaps 'Bloody April' had something to do with it. In any case, Harry found himself posted to RAF Station Marham, flying the Sopwith 1-1/2 Strutter. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he tended to fly the way a Ghurka fights... take no prisoners and all-out, nearly in a frenzy. Also perhaps unsurprisingly, in 1917 he somehow managed to make his bus fall eight hundred feet out of the sky and into a cabbage field. The result looked something like this...

His training set back by the injuries sustained by this wreck, he only managed to fly a few milk-run missions over France before the war came to an end. One would think that'd be the end of the tale of Harry's life, but in some ways the best was yet to come.
After the war, Harry tracked down the pretty nurse, courted her and eventually married her. Amongst other things, he somehow eneded up working for St Dunstan's, the UK's national charity for ex-servicemen that had suffered blindness due to the war. There, he taught various vocational skills and discovered that he himself had a hidden skill at laquerwork. Late in his life, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II came to St Dunstan's, where he presented her with one of his laquerwork trays in celebration of her visit. It was one of the high points of a busy, and unique, life.
A wonderful story, and I'm glad I came up with it... except I left out two details which make it even more amazing:
more...
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God BLESS it, I love the way your mind picks out subjects to write about..... Now where's that article about Black Cats in the Pac Theatre? (grin)
Keep up the good work - don't let the undergrad ducklings mess with your mojo...
Posted by: The Old Man at August 25, 2011 09:46 AM (TcNy+)
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Well done!
Alas, All I came here to give you was a link to a Music Video with a Cartoon Girl and a Rubber Duckie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1E_LgLaiRE
Which I found here in this article about an innovative 3-D display device in Japan.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2011/06/22/hatsune-miku-larger-than-life-5-centimeters-tall/
Posted by: Mauser at August 26, 2011 02:43 PM (cZPoz)
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August 22, 2011
F1 on SPEED!: Belgium 2011
...and we're back! The F1 Circus' summer vacation is over, the motor homes and carriers have converged on a little town in the Ardennes Forest, and the crew of F1 Update! has awakened from their forced hibernation. Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for Formula 1 to return to Spa!

For most of the world, going to a spa for the weekend means a calm, relaxing experience, sometimes involving mud getting into places it shouldn't and fish nibbling dead skin off your toes. For Formula 1 drivers though, going to Spa for the weekend means excitement, tension, stress and danger lurking behind every corner of this 4.35-mile long circuit, arguably the best on the F1 calendar.
One cannot speak of Spa without referencing the track's signature piece, the combination of Eau Rouge and Raidillon. The run from La Source to Eau Rouge is downhill, but at Eau Rouge the track suddenly climbs steeply
uphill. Indeed, the vertical direction change is so abrupt that you will hear what sounds like the drivers pulling their foot off the accelerator. Nothing could be further from the truth; what you're hearing is the engine suffering from the compression resulting from the sudden changes. Meanwhile, you also have a horizontal direction change as you negotiate the blind third turn. THEN you have another change of direction at Raidillon, the site of some of the
most dramatic, violent accidents in F1 history. In the old days, saying that you took Eau Rouge flat out was a sign of a driver's bravery. In today's F1 cars it's not quite as difficult to accomplish, but one never, ever, takes Eau Rouge lightly. In fact, news came down today that DRS is not to be used through the turn during practice and quals.
The other signature piece of Spa is the weather. It's practically guaranteed to rain sometime during the F1 weekend, and one can probably count the historical number of totally dry races on the fingers of both hands, and it's likely you'd have a digit or two left over. This year, rain is expected on Friday with chances on both Saturday and Sunday.
All of which can be seen on SPEED! Yes, the Legendary Announce Team will be back in all their glory, providing us with their usual sterling coverage. Here's the way the schedule breaks down:
Friday: 3a-430a Practice 1 (streaming). 7a-840a Practice 2 (live).
Saturday: 4a-5a Practice 3 (streaming). 7a-830a Quals (live).
Sunday: 630a-9a 2011 Grand Prix of Belgium (live). 230p-5p race replay.
All times are, as usual, Pond Central Time. The F1U! crew will be all over the weekend... or at least as much as we can be, considering that Friday will be the 12th day of work in a row and the 18th out of 19. There is a chance we'll not have much in the way of Practice coverage.
But F1 is back! All is right with the world... or something along those lines. See ya then!
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I just noticed "Malmedy" on your map, which pulled me up short. I'm sure you know why. Is that really where the massacre took place?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 23, 2011 12:49 AM (+rSRq)
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I went to SPA last year, great circuit but god the rest is awful, no electric ( we were camping ) it was shitty and boggy, the shops shut at 7.00PM exactly, nothing to visit , badly signed posted , a shame for such a great circuit ! I will watch it on TV now....
Posted by: Thomas Bland at August 23, 2011 05:36 AM (ahRZi)
3
@Steven: no, it's not. Part of the track is on Malmedy land, so I suppose it's a tip o' the cap to the people of that region.
@Thomas: I hear there's a great WWII museum in Spa itself, but the "little town" bit wasn't hyperbole. Sorry you had a crummy time!
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 23, 2011 07:22 AM (o45Mg)
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August 20, 2011
Saturday Night Tunage IX
The original plan for tonight was to write up a post on the PBY Catalina. I've discovered instead that I don't have the mental oomph to tackle that the way it deserves. Today was move-in day for the first-year students at Duck U, and our first really busy day of Fall Book Rush. It was also Day 6 of 12 in a row for me. I came home, had something to eat, and fell asleep in my comfy chair. But what I do have the mental oomph for is some Tunage!

...and where there's Tunage, there's DJ Wonderduck! Tonight, my children, in tribute to all the 18-year-olds spending their first night at Duck U., I bring you music from before they were born... mostly! Let's get on with the show...
more...
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It's OK to take your time on the post about the PBY. I'd prefer a good post, that you enjoyed writing, to a post you hammered out and hated doing.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 20, 2011 09:38 PM (+rSRq)
Posted by: brickmuppet at August 21, 2011 01:20 AM (EJaOX)
3
There are two versions of
Tales of Mystery and Imagination. (ToMaI.)
The original version lacks the readings by Orson Welles, and some other flourishes, but it also lacks the over-processing of the second release.
In 1985, Parsons took the recording budget from Arista for
Stereotomy and bought himself a fancy new all-digital 48-track recording studio. And so, a few years later, he took all the original analog tapes for ToMaI and digitized them, and remixed the album with all the original material reinserted and some tracks re-recorded entirely.
In the process, he added too much reverb to everything, for one thing. It sounds awful compared to the original re-release. So on the one hand you have the awesome introductions by Orson Welles, but you also have startlingly bad engineering from one of the best audio engineers in the business. Argh etc.
Posted by: Ed Hering at August 21, 2011 10:52 AM (v62gL)
4
Ed, there are actually
three versions of ToMaI. In 2007, a "deluxe edition" was released that included the original version, the 1987 remix, and most importantly, eight tracks of previously unheard material.
I've thought about getting that, I have.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 21, 2011 01:15 PM (o45Mg)
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August 19, 2011
The Nightmare Begins
It started out small: one or two, here and there. A trickle, really But it was obvious that wouldn't...
couldn't... last.

Soon, they were coming in ever-greater amounts. The trickle became a stream, then a torrent, then an unstoppable horde.

Slowly they moved, but inexorably. None could stop them, none could hope to contain them. When the horde stood at the gates, all hope seemed lost.

But just when it looked like the insane mass would run devour all in their path, four heroes stood in their way. They faced the ravenous beasts and held their ground.

The staff of the Duck U Bookstore was ready for Fall Book Rush.
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LOL. But I knew where this was going before I was done reading the second sentence. But remember, no matter how zombie-like the students may be, you aren't allowed to shoot, smash, saw, or otherwise maim/dismember/destroy them, If you end up with blood or brains on your clothes, you've done it wrong.
Good luck!
boooooks...
Posted by: David at August 19, 2011 09:51 PM (Kn54v)
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Congratulations! (And now that all the work is done, they can assign you a new manager, right?)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 19, 2011 09:56 PM (+rSRq)
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Or promote you with a fat raise!
(hey, it could happen.)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 19, 2011 10:01 PM (pWQz4)
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The beleaguered staff is both confident-looking and well-armed in that final picture, but they are lacking the crucial element which would ensure their survival. They have no rubber-duckie!
Posted by: Siergen at August 19, 2011 10:50 PM (ORZOi)
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@Steven: he starts Sept 7th.
@ Avatar: see above
@Siergen: it's in the HMMVW.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 20, 2011 06:14 PM (o45Mg)
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I love this. :-)
I ordered my grad school books online, so I'm not pestering any hardworking bookstore employees. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if my grad school *has* a bookstore.
Posted by: ButMadNNW at August 22, 2011 01:46 PM (MwRo+)
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August 16, 2011
Random Anime Picture #66: Working On It
I'm getting annoyed with myself. While I've turned out some okay stuff recently here at The Pond, more often than not I find that I'm more whining about work than writing about something interesting. So, yes, I'm annoyed with myself.
Not annoyed enough to be able to
stop whining, but annoyed. So instead of moaning, kvetching and complaining (and I totally expected FireFoxy to give me the red squiggly line under "kvetching", but it didn't), instead I'm going to give you something to look at. Here you go:
-High School Of The Dead, ep08
And really, that's all you need to know about
HSotD... which I really liked. One of these days, I'll get around to giving the show a full review... maybe an episodic one?... but until then, you'll have to be content with a lack of content. Or something.
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And a dozen days till Spa.
Posted by: jon spencer at August 16, 2011 08:52 PM (hFoyt)
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After witnessing the terrible toll that
Rio took on your sanity (and perhaps on your very soul), I'm not sure that another review series is something to look forward to...
Posted by: Siergen at August 16, 2011 09:07 PM (ORZOi)
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I don't understand why Rio caused him such psychic pain, but HSoD didn't bother him at all.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 16, 2011 10:00 PM (+rSRq)
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He saw HSotD
AFTER RRG....the damage had already been done.
Posted by: brickmuppet at August 16, 2011 10:11 PM (EJaOX)
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Actually, I watched
HSotD as it was airing, i.e. before
RRG!. I did have some problems with
HSotD, but as a zombie movie/show, it's top-notch, with good character growth. I'd probably give it a grade of B-, or 2.5 stars. Not great, but decent enough.
RRG!, on the other hand, just isn't good (D+, 1.5 stars). I had fun with it, but mostly at its expense. Of course, it gave me plenty of material to work with.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 16, 2011 10:39 PM (KBBJ+)
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August 14, 2011
August 14, 1945
66 years ago today, Japan surrendered to the Allies, thus bringing an end to World War II. The official ceremony wasn't conducted until September 2nd, and that's the day that we celebrate here in the US as the end of hostilities, August 14th was the date that the the announcement was made to the Japanese people. August 14th was also the date the second-most famous photograph from the Pacific War was taken.

I wonder what the following 19 days were like for those on the front lines of the war. Hostilities had ended, but it wasn't official yet... and surely nobody wanted to be the last casualty of WWII.
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1
Nobody on
our side. A not-insignificant portion of the Japanese high command committed suicide. One of them declared his intention to "live on in the noble spirit of the special attack" (think I'm quoting that right, anyway), hopped in a plane, and headed east, never to be heard from again. Certainly he didn't hit anyone.
The Japanese were pretty worried that some other hothead would decide to do something similar to MacArthur's fleet when it arrived. They went so far as to take all the propellers off the planes to prevent any last-minute stupidity.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 15, 2011 01:55 AM (j42B4)
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Or Halsey's fleet, anyway. (MacArthur was Army...)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 15, 2011 07:45 AM (+rSRq)
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Not my phrase, was the one they used in
Downfall. Granted that of course he was army and not in direct command of the naval vessels, but he was the one who'd been instructed to accept the surrender and to head up the occupation. And for all his many failings as a general, I don't know that we could have found a better man for that role.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 15, 2011 12:01 PM (j42B4)
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Sadly, it was a fairly insignificant number of the Japanese high command who decided to die with honor - Dr. Edward Drea records that out of 1500 IJA generals, only 22 committed suicide. My read on the proportion of suicides in the IJN is fairly similar. Too many of the rest were trying to destroy documents, or following the example of the Japanese foreign minister, trying to use the dropping of the atomic bombs to divert attention from Japanese atrocities and war crimes against Allied POWs and civilians (Allied and Asians.).
Some of them probably had second thoughts about not taking the honorably way out when it was their turn to face the hangman later on (Like the Japanese admiral commanding the Wake Island garrison, who found his attempt at covering up his war crimes to have failed utterly.).
Posted by: cxt217 at August 15, 2011 01:26 PM (ob/3N)
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Sorry, Avatar, but MacArthur is a sore spot for me.
MacArthur had the same virtues and flaws as Patton and Montgomery. All of them really were great battlefield commanders. All of them were charismatic, great leaders of men.
And all of them were deeply flawed because of their towering egos. You compare them to men who didn't have that kind of ego problems, like Nimitz and Bradley, and you can see that it wasn't an essential part of the makeup of great leaders.
MacArthur's ego made him do stupid things. It ultimately led to him being relieved in Korea by Truman, and if anything Truman was preternaturally patient with the man and put that off. (And Ridgway, who took over, actually fought a smarter and more effective war than MacArthur had.)
His campaign in New Guinea was by all accounts brilliant, considering his terrible logistics and the beastly conditions, and in fact the ground operations during the reconquest of Luzon etc were brilliant, too. But the man simply wouldn't keep his mouth shut.
And I have to give him credit for his performance during the post-war occupation of Japan. There were so many things he did well; but his flaws and his mistakes just stick in my craw.
Referring to it as "MacArthur's fleet" seems typical, because MacArthur was a glory hound and it would have been in character for him to take credit for that.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 15, 2011 04:18 PM (+rSRq)
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Don't get me wrong, I'm no more of a Mac lover than you are. I don't even really give him the credit for generalship. The histories I've read generally credit him for bungling the defense of the Philippines (not that they expected him to hold it, to be sure, but his defensive plans ensured that most of the troops ended up in Bataan with most of the supplies outside it, and were responsible for a good amount of the misery the soldiers suffered.) They weren't any kinder to him when it came to the crossing of the Owen Stanley range ("reminiscent of the worst generalship of the First World War", one wrote).
I'll grant that he knew how to use amphibious landings to his advantage. But his actual generalship wasn't any better than indifferent, at least not until later in the war, by which point he was facing isolated Japanese outposts that he could bypass when necessary. And his political interference simply had no place in the proper conduct of an officer. There's also the matter of all that Filipino money that he ended up with...
Shoot, now I wanna do a MacArthur post.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at August 15, 2011 10:05 PM (pWQz4)
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August 13, 2011
Saturday Night Tunage VIII: The Covers
I've wanted to do this theme for a while, and tonight, I'm gonna do it! Run in fear everybody!
See what I did there?
For some reason, many people hate cover songs. They believe that there's no way a copy can be as good (or better) than an original work, that even thinking such a thing is an abomination. Well friends, I'm DJ Wonderduck, and I'm here to say that such thoughts are hooey. HOOEY, I say!
Let's get right to it!
more...
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"Jacob's Ladder":
Huey Lewis and the News had a hit on their hands with that song in 1986, and as for me it was the whole reason I bought their otherwise tepid album "Fore!".
...but the song was written in its entirety by Bruce Hornsby, and appeared on his second album "Scenes from the Southside" sometime in the next year. And the Hornsby version was vastly inferior to the Huey Lewis version.
Thus we have the original artist performing a crappy cover of his own song.
Posted by: Ed Hering at August 14, 2011 05:35 AM (8KFNL)
2
I love covers, and the 'Cars' cover there is one of my favorites. In the same theme, may I recommend Coal Chamber 'Shock the Monkey', and two from Type O Negative: 'Summer Breeze' and 'Light My Fire'?
Also, totally for laughs, track down the Gourds and "Spoken Word" covers of 'Gin and Juice'.
Posted by: JP Gibb at August 14, 2011 07:32 AM (S3r8/)
3
I strongly recommend Elektra's 40th-anniversary cover collection,
Rubaiyat. Some don't work terribly well, but most are quite good.
I can't decide which one is the most soul-scarring, though: The Gipsy Kings
Hotel California, Faster Pussycat's
You're So Vain, or The Sugarcubes
Motorcycle Mama...
-j
Posted by: J Greely at August 14, 2011 07:11 PM (2XtN5)
4
Anime picture, cover songs?
Needs a Yuuko Gotou, Smells Like Teen Spirit mention for the funny.
Posted by: Mikeski at August 14, 2011 11:49 PM (GbSQF)
5
I got
so very tired of that "Sweet Jane" cover... one of the stations I worked for, the PD must've had a serious thing for that version because it played
all the damned time.
The thing with Bruce Hornsby was that it seems he was a better songwriter than a performer.
Coal Chamber's "Shock The Monkey" rendition (complete with Ozzy) amuses the hell out of me. In a similar Genesis-related vein, Disturbed's "Land Of Confusion" works far better than I originally expected.
Posted by: GreyDuck at August 15, 2011 07:46 AM (7lMXI)
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August 11, 2011
Random Anime Picture #65: Ptui!
-THE iDOLM@STER, ep04
Work is the story of my life right now. Pulled an 11-hour day on Wednesday, and rewarded myself by coming in only 20 minutes early today! Woo! Sunday is my last day off until August 27th, meaning I'll get one day off between August 8th and August 27th. Double-yay!
Well, at least The Librarian came over tonight. Lots of banter, no anime, which is fine too. She's got the annual Anime Club Overnight + Pockypalooza event starting Friday evening, so she borrowed a few DVDs from me: the first four discs of
Cardcaptor Sakura and
Summer Wars. Time for the kids to see what
good anime is really like. Oh, and there's
Keroro Gunso, too... I gather Funimation donated the show to The Librarian's library. Very cool of them, that. Don't envy her, though... 13 or 14 hours of being cooped up with teenagers? Yeesh.
Enough babbling.
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August 09, 2011
The Muroc Maru
Over the years, practice targets have taken many forms. Watermelons, poles stuck in the ground, human silhouettes, bulls-eyes, "black dots," on and on. One of the most...
unique... was finished in 1943.

Army Air Forces Temporary Building (Target) T-799, dubbed the "Muroc Maru", was constructed on the grounds of Muroc AAF Base for the then princely sum of $35000. Built out of 4x4 lumber and chicken wire, then covered with tar paper and liberally coated with ground-up chicken feathers, it was the spitting image of an Imperial Japanese Navy
Takao-class heavy cruiser. Sand berms were added to give the appearance of a wake.

Probably the largest single-structure target ever built at 650 feet long, the Muroc Maru was used for identification training, strafing and skip-bombing practice. Unfortunately, the chicken feathers could not hold up to the hot winds and .50cal slugs and usually disintegrated or blew away.

Built at one end of Rogers Dry Lake on the Muroc base complex, it often gave pilots the impression of movement from heat distortion coming off the lakebed. It also caused some consternation amongst drivers passing by to the north, to whom it looked exactly like a ship sailing in the desert.

The Muroc Maru stayed in position until 1950, when it was declared a flight hazard and taken down (sunk?). Reportedly the Army engineers had quite the time of it from all the unexploded ordinance in the vicinity. All that remains today are a few tons worth of nails and staples and some sand berms.
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I love the pic of the Mitchell behind it. Wonder if it was set up with all the .50s for strafing....
(To mis-quote the Joker) "Where do you get all the marvelous pictures??
Posted by: The Old Man at August 10, 2011 01:20 PM (TcNy+)
2
T.O.M., a lot of the time finding the "marvelous pictures" are just luck. For example, I first saw a pic of the Muroc Maru while doing research for my
USS Wasp post, and said "that's cool, I'll remember that." Over a year later,
World War II magazine used the same photo (the color one) in one of their contests, which rekindled my interest in the topic. So I went digging and found the others.
Usually there's a lot of googling involved. I've already put in a solid three hours on the upcoming PBY post, looking for suitable pics. Sometimes, they're only available in a book... at which point I break out my trusty camera.
So it goes.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 11, 2011 10:01 PM (KBBJ+)
3
I think the Starblazers are going to have trouble turning that into a starship.
Posted by: Maureen at August 11, 2011 10:39 PM (BB7+i)
4
Space Target Muroc Maru!
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 12, 2011 06:58 AM (KBBJ+)
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Seeing photos of the Muroc Maru reminds me of all the cool, weird, and just-plain-strike-your-fancy photos from WW2 I remembered over the years. Other than the obvious one (The Flag of Suribachi.), the one that immediately comes to mind is the photos taken aboard the ZUIKAKU just before her crew started going over the side at Cape Engano. I am sure other people have other photos that come to mind.
C.T.
Posted by: cxt217 at August 12, 2011 12:15 PM (obaoh)
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August 08, 2011
Name This Mystery Ship VII
Interesting one for y'all tonight...

Take a guess, get it right, win a post!
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Posted by: Brickmuppet at August 08, 2011 09:49 PM (EJaOX)
2
If I was going to guess a time and place, I'd guess England in 1943 or early 1944, during the build up to Normandy. This looks like the naval equivalent of all the inflated rubber tanks which made up most of the "strength" of FUSAG.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 08, 2011 11:00 PM (+rSRq)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 08, 2011 11:34 PM (+rSRq)
4
Steven, saw
Senna back in March. It's great.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 09, 2011 06:00 AM (KBBJ+)
5
Actually, I just noticed that it's a sillhouette. I bet it was built in southern California to allow Navy pilots to practice torpedo runs.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 09, 2011 11:07 AM (+rSRq)
6
I'm not having much luck coming up with info on this one. But it sure looks like a Myoko class to me, although the Takao is very similar. I would agree that it's probably a training device of some kind.
Posted by: David at August 09, 2011 05:10 PM (ttXyi)
7
If you're volunteering a post for the winner, does that mean that work is no longer consuming most of your time?
Posted by: Siergen at August 09, 2011 05:45 PM (H+DyV)
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Did I come close enough to win?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 09, 2011 07:07 PM (+rSRq)
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Well, I
did say "name this mystery ship," but I'll let it slide. Name the topic, Steven, and remember: no pr0n, no politics, no religiosity.
Siergen, actually it's getting worse. We'll be exactly two weeks away from the start of classes on Wednesday, and I feel like I'm bailing out the
Titanic with a colander.
Still, the Regional Manager was in today and he's pleased with how things are going. But dear merciful heavens, is it gonna be long. I get one day off between now and the 27th.
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 09, 2011 08:12 PM (KBBJ+)
10
This was a tough one. At least two of us were able to guess at several pertinent details "training target, Takao class", and in Steven's case, "Southern California." Yet that wasn't enough to get google to cough up the details. I'm tempted to keep playing with keywords to see if I can come up with it without actually using the name.
Posted by: David at August 09, 2011 08:32 PM (Kn54v)
11
Please write about the PBY Catalina, which was involved in the war before Pearl Harbor (it helped chase down the Bismarck) and still working hard after the cease fire, helping rescue the survivors of USS Indianapolis.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 09, 2011 09:11 PM (+rSRq)
12
Twist my arm, Steven!
David, lemme know what you come up with. I just stumbled upon it a few months back while looking up something else. "Hmmm, lessee... that's good to know... uh-huh... what the hell is that?"
Posted by: Wonderduck at August 09, 2011 09:49 PM (KBBJ+)
13
"wooden ship lakebed" or "wooden ship muroc" come up with a link to a page about Edwards AFB that mentions the Muroc Maru by name. But even a search on "muroc maru" doesn't come up with anything extensive, and I haven't found the source of your image. Interestingly, most of the pages I've found claim it was a mogami class heavy cruiser, but that doesn't match your image at all.
Posted by: David at August 09, 2011 10:16 PM (Kn54v)
14
Even though I didn't win the free post, you might want to consider a response to the following:
http://gizmodo.com/5829163/the-classy-way-to-crush-a-duck-and-drink-its-blood
Posted by: David at August 10, 2011 01:52 PM (ttXyi)
15
I was trying to see if there was an online copy of ONI's recognition guide for Japanese ships to see if the Muroc Maru appeared in it, but no such luck. On the other hand, ONI's guide for German ships can make for an amusing read, especially the self-deprecating humor.
Posted by: cxt217 at August 10, 2011 02:46 PM (eMOxS)
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