December 10, 2019
Endings And Beginnings II
HMS Prince of Wales. Sunk on December 10th, 1941.
HMS Prince of Wales. Commissioned into the Royal Navy December 10th, 2019.
There is no way that wasn't intentional, and the RN deserves a round of applause for it. If only they could have put the ship's bell that was recovered from the battleship on the carrier...
On second thought, sailors are a superstitious lot. Maybe putting the bell from a sunken ship on board a brand-new one is a bad idea.
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December 06, 2019
Once Upon A Time...
Back in the days before the Duck U Bookstore, heck back before the days of CowPuters, I worked at the local news-talk radio station as a buttonpusher show producer on a fill-in basis. I did have one regular shift however... the Sunday Morning Church shift. I mean, it started at 6am with the Catholic Mass in Swedish, for heaven's sake, pun not intended. The Salvation Army had a recorded program, there was a program I literally never paid attention to except to make sure it was still running, there was the live-in-studio show with the purple-suit-clad preacher who was, eventually, removed from his position in his church because he got a little too close to some of his female parishioners, and then there was the show I privately called "the church ladies."
Yeah, kinda like that, except not at all. The preacher in purple I mentioned earlier? The church ladies usually matched him sequin for sequin when they came in, spoke loudly and cackled even louder. But their chat show took place in and around gospel music songs... and since I was the button-pusher I had to pay attention for the cues and stuff. And along the way, I discovered something: gospel music could be quite good.
I found out today that one of my favorite groups from that show, The Blind Boys of Alabama are still recording, and what I was playing for the Church Ladies was already 30 years old at the time.
Really, there's no reason for this post other than to mention that. Have a nice day!
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December 02, 2019
Cyber Monday
Maybe it's just that I'm old or something, but I can't be the only person around who thinks calling it CYBER Monday is hilarious, right?
I mean, "cyber" means something completely different to me... and probably to others my age, right?
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November 25, 2019
Huh. Upgrades!
A week ago last Sunday, I began to have a very odd sort of problem with my internet connection. Everything would be fine, normal speed, no problems, I walk away for some reason, come back a half-hour later, and the internet would be... missing. The computer could see the modem on my side, the internet provider could see the modem from their side, but never the twain shall meet. And the entire time the modem would be happily saying that it was connected and it had no idea what anybody was talking about. But then, some time later... a half-hour, a couple of hours... internet was back like there had never been a problem in the first place.
Monday, everything was fine for most of the day. It wasn't until mid-evening that the internet went away, but by the time I had finished dinner an hour or so later, it was back. Didn't even bother calling the internet provider. Tuesday, it worked in the daytime, but as soon as the sun began to go down, *poof* the signal went away and wouldn't come back until around midnight. Solar-based internet issues???
The next day was more of the same, tech support still had no idea what the issue was ("It should be working!"), I had a pretty good idea what the issue was ("Tech support is dumber than a shipping container full of hair!"), but fortunately I could at least get caught up on the Great Anime Backlog. Thursday? It was down all day, only coming back late in the evening. Another frustrating call to tech support. I went to bed late... or very early that night. Only to be woken at 930 the next morning by the apartment complex's maintenance guy who specializes in tech support knocking on the door.
After asking him to please step back out of my apartment so I could get dressed, I had to explain to him exactly how everything was acting, how no amount of resetting, unplugging, replacing, troubleshooting, sacrificing of goats, anything, had made a difference, and the only commonality was that eventually it would come back and the modem was acting like everything was fine the whole time... and indeed, as we stood there, the computer was acting like the world was missing. Techie hooked up his test modem, and instantly the whole of the interwebz was revealed for all to see.
Techie took a closer look at my equipment, and realized that it was one of the original cable modems from when broadband was first turned on at the apartment complex... 12 years ago. He then said that I was probably the only person left in the complex that still had one... between hardware failures and people moving out, all the others had been retired. He left, heading for the leasing office to explain what the situation was to The Powers That Be. A half-hour later, he was back with a new modem in hand... a replacement for the old one, free of charge from the complex. Living in one place for a long time does have its benefits sometimes. And as an added bonus... it has built-in WiFi! No more data usage on my cellphone! No more waiting 30 seconds for a simple google search to complete after I hit my 2 GB max for the month!
I can get used to that. And I am!
EDIT: Completely forgot to mention... MUH SPEEDS! Download speeds, not exactly slow before, have literally doubled. Like, two minutes per GB, and sometimes less? So, to recap: solid internet connection, with WiFi, and a doubling of speeds both up and down... for free? The only way I can compare that to real life would be stepping outside and discovering that the DuckMobile has been replaced by a Ford GT... except without all the cranky supercar bits. And a higher and stronger suspension so I can sit in it without bottoming the car out. And maybe some way to me into and out of it without amputating my legs. So, really, not a Ford GT at all. But you know what I'm trying to say.
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November 20, 2019
Ducks In Anime: Now With Less Giraffe
-Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight, Ep03
If you had told me that the director of this show had never worked with the director of Revolutionary Girl Utena, I would not have believed you. And I would have been correct: the director of Revue Starlight, Tomohiro Furukawa, was assistant director on Yuri Kuma Arashi under Kunihiko Ikuhara. And boy, does it show.
It's not quite as stylized and "out there" as Utena, but the ties are there. The same fever-dream imagery, girls and swords, the same grand theatrical attitude towards itself. Which is good, since Revue Starlight is ABOUT theatre. Not surprising; the anime is based on a stage production that's half-musical, quarter-Cirque du Soleil, and quarter-Formula 1 Qualifying. Which sounds weird, but trust me on this one... it is. But in a good way! If you've ever spent any serious amount of time in the theatre biz, this is a must-watch. If you haven't, it's basically a sports series with a serious psychological aspect. And singing.
A lot of singing. In flat-out stage musical style. These ain't pop songs, these aren't Idols, these are being sung by professional musical theatre actresses, many of whom have either been in or would join the stage productions. And they're friggin' excellent. It's been a long, long time since a series made me feel the way this one does. I actually despise one of the characters... not because she's written poorly but because if you've spent any time in theatre, you know her attitude is... untenable. That's good work from the writers. But don't go into this expecting Idol happiness and fluff, you won't get it. Does the possibility frighten you?
I understand.
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November 12, 2019
Because Rusty2 Said So
When my rubber duckies start talking to me, telling me to do something, I'm gonna do it. So when Rusty2 said "post that picture, I look good in it," I'm sure as heck not gonna say no.
Oh sure, like your rubber ducks don't talk to you?
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November 06, 2019
She Needs Us
On November 7th, 2009, this video was posted to Youtube for the first time:
Now on the verge of the 10th anniversary of God Knows being made available to the world by the SOS Brigade, a concerted effort is being made to push the video over 100 million views. At the time of this writing, it's only 36000 views short. I call on the accumulated members of The Pond Scum: let's make it happen!
You don't want Haruhi to be disappointed.
Edit: changed the target from ten million to the correct one hundred million.
Another Edit: Nine hours to go until Midnight Pond Central Time, and we're less than 18000 views away from the goal.
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October 30, 2019
Not So Little David
One can't help but think that Morty was... um... overcompensating for something.
One of those things that nobody ever thinks about is bomb aerodynamics. I mean regular people, that is. The military, they think about things like that all the time. After all, when you strap something to the bottom of a wing, it's usually a really good idea to make sure it's not going to have the airflow of an apartment building. Also, when you drop something from an airplane, it makes it a lot easier to hit what you're aiming at if you know how the thing is going to "fly". Fall. Plummet. You know what I mean.
But of course, there's a catch: getting the darn thing into the sky in the first place. If it's got more drag than RuPaul on Halloween, strapping it to a wing may not be good for the plane or pilot's long-term survival chances. Putting it in the bomb bay of a larger plane sounds good, until you actually drop it and you haven't the faintest idea what's going to happen next. If it tumbles instantly upon the application of an airflow, it's a bad idea to find that out at altitude after it rips your tail off.
So what's an aerial ordinance designer to do? Well that's just easy as pie: get it into the air without an airplane! Easy! Except we're talking about something 500, 1000, 2000 pounds in weight... you can't just pick it up and throw it like a baseball. Well, I can't, maybe you can. 500lbs is the weight of a 10" naval shell, 2000lbs is closer to a 16" battleship round. So what's a good way to do it?
Meet the Little David, a 36" caliber mortar! Yes, a three FOOT diameter barrel. You put an aerial bomb into a... kind-of sabot thingy... and voop! You've got a way to get an aerial bomb into the air without endangering an aircraft. It didn't have much of a range considering the size involved, less than 10km, and accuracy came down to "over there somewhere", but that's not what the US military was wanting anyway.
Until people began to realize that that the Japanese were turning the home islands into a fortress, and then they began to look at the Little David as a bunker buster of extreme proportions. The Powers That Be developed a 36" shell, weighing over 3600 pounds, for the mortar. Problem was that neither the accuracy nor the range was ever improved, and it was never what you could call "portable." See that wall the guy is standing in front of? That's a concrete and steel base that had to be buried for stability purposes that the mortar itself would be placed into... the FORTY TON mortar and the FORTY-SIX TON base.
Of course the invasion of Japan never occurred, and people quietly retired Little David as a weapon. Only one of the six built exists today, and it's on display at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.
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October 21, 2019
Akagi Found!
As I semi-postulated would occur in the Kaga post, Paul Allen's team has now found what they are pretty sure to be the Akagi.
Guess the report on them having another ship's location was right! All of this was breaking just shortly before I'm typing this, so we don't have much information yet, and the RV Petrel apparently either hasn't been down yet or they haven't released any footage. Still, we can tell a lot from these sonar images. Like Kaga, Akagi is sitting upright, and it sure looks like she hit with not too much horizontal motion. I'm hardly an expert on that sort of stuff, so take it with a grain of salt.
I'm pretty sure the bow is to the left in both images. If she landed stern-first, that might explain the "arrow-head" shape... the impact could have compressed the stern maybe? Of course, the flight deck is gone, though I wonder if the Akagi's massive underdeck supports might still be there? In any case, this is just as exciting as the Kaga finding, and for similar reasons. Hopefully we'll get to see more as the day goes on!
edit: forgot to mention... according to a comment I saw from Jon Parshall over at the Petrel's facebook page, the Nauticos company did not share the location of the chunk of Kaga's hull with Paul Allen's team... they found the ship on their own, making all this even more incredible.
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October 18, 2019
Kaga Found!
The late Paul Allen's team has done it one more time... and this time, they did something I thought would never happen.
They found the Kaga.
In this sonar image, the stern is in the lower-right corner. The Kaga's flight deck is gone, which comes as no surprise whatsoever. Of the four Japanese carriers sunk at Midway, Kaga was the one that suffered the most grievous and swift fire damage. Nearly all of her hangar deck personnel (aircraft mechanics and armorers) were killed by the fires caused when a 1000lb bomb punched through her flight deck to explode among fully fueled and mostly armed aircraft. That particular explosion also ruptured her avgas lines, knocked out the generators powering the water pumps, damaged the fire mains, and destroyed a one-shot carbon-dioxide fire smothering device.
The ship is upright in the sea floor, though she's quite deep in the mud and silt. Information is still sparse... the announcement was only made about five hours ago as I write this... but from what I've managed to piece together, they should still be able to locate where the Nauticos chunk would fit on the hull.
Undoubtedly the Nauticos find is what allowed Paul Allen's group to narrow down the search area. There's only a finite amount of distance the burning ship could have moved before she was scuttled, and the Nauticos report linked above gives a presumed maximum of about five hours, 30 minutes from the time the chunk was blown free to the time of scuttling. So knowing the ship went roughly thataway for up to 5h30m gives you a search area. Then it's just the tedious job of combing the ocean floor with sonar and ROV until you find something.
Like a piece of hull with a gun turret on the side. Oh, and speaking of finding something... one report I saw said they have a strong possibility for another ship location. Could we have an Akagi or Soryu next? Hiryu is probably quite a distance away from the others... if any of them is going to stay missing now, I'm guessing its her.
Holy crap, folks... 
I'm actually giddy about this. Seriously: what a find! Naval historians everywhere owe the late Paul Allen a debt of gratitude... pour a YooHoo out for your homie tonight!
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October 12, 2019
Well I Dunno.
Don't have a whole lot to say these days. Still unemployed, still secluded, still... I dunno.
Here's a cleverly edited AMV:
Remember when I used to post five times a week? Good times, good times.
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October 05, 2019
Python 50
Today is the 50th anniversary of the first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
I don't believe there's been ANYthing that's been more influential in my sense of humor, and possibly my entire life, than Python. At the age of nine, every Sunday night at 930pm you could find me camped out in front of the television at the Old Home Pond. Then, after staring at a blank screen for a while, I'd actually turn it on.
What came forth from that box would change me forever. I knew types of cheeses that didn't exist yet. I learned that hedgehogs hated gangsters. I learned that penguins were electric and had long stinging tentacles. Musical instruments played by whacking mice with hammers. I learned what a fjord was, and that certain types of parrots pined for them. I learned what a twit was.
As it turned out, very little of this would help me in the formal sense. I knew the winners of the 1949 FA Cup but I couldn't do math.
Despite this, there's no question that my life, and that of countless others, has been...
...improved by Monty Python being in it. It's a debt I can never repay, nor would I want to... who has that much gouda?
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September 28, 2019
"...And I Shall Call Her Mini-Me."
Two from the Haruhi Collection, which are legion.
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September 24, 2019
Spot Spot Spotted.
"Part of me wishes they'd hurry up with the post-human cyborg/digital consciousness transfer technology..."
-Karel P Greyduck
Apparently Boston Dynamics reads The Pond.
I don't have a use for one... I mean, besides the obvious take over the world scenarios, or rubber duck mobility device scenarios... but it's still very cool.
And remember, these are the same people who made Spot dance a year ago.
Won't anybody consider robot rights? "Dance for the camera, Spot, dance like your electronic life depends on it" is just a terrible image.
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September 23, 2019
At Least I Was Comfortable
After going to bed at a less-than-sane time Saturday night, I woke up on Sunday with a problem. I was ill.
The headache wasn't terrible, but the fever was. Not that it was all that high, but because it existed at all. AND WOULDN'T GO AWAY. I woke up, I used the loo, I went back to sleep. Repeat every few hours. Next thing I knew, it was 530pm, the sun was basically down. I got some food, sent a few texts and once again, the next thing I knew it was 830pm and I was heading back to bed. There was a lot of "next thing I knew" going on, lemme tell ya.
Midnight Sunday night/Monday morning found me here. And now I'm going to go back to sleep. Because I still feel like cacapoopoo. I no longer know if I have a fever, and I don't care. I want to wake up in the morning feeling like I'm vaguely human again.
Until then, I shall sleep.
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September 20, 2019
It's Been 10 Years.
They say time heals all wounds. I just wish it didn't have to. Still miss you, Momzerduck.
A lot.
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September 18, 2019
Ducks In Anime: Forgot About This One!
-Shokugeki no Soma S2 OVA
While casually searching through one or another of my "screenshots I may use someday" folders, which are filled to the digital brim with reaction shots or interesting things... trains, scenery porn, that sort of stuff... I discovered a Ducks In Anime picture I didn't recognize! Understand, this is practically unfathomable to me... I can tell at a glance if I have used an anime duckie in a D.I.A. post, and I know this one has never been. PARTICULARLY since it's Megumi, who would rank rather high on my list of favorite characters of late. She's interesting, which is more than I can say about the main for this particular show.
What really (note: not really) terrifies me is that I don't remember watching this particular episode/OVA/whatever. Indeed, I just yarrrred it and watched and I'm almost positive I haven't seen it before. So how did the first picture in this post wind up in possession? I don't know, it will forever be a mystery to me. But hey, more Ducks In Anime, amirite?
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September 11, 2019
Look! A Spot Of Commonplace Activity In My Otherwise Humdrum Life
Stealing a page from my good buddy Brickmuppet, I am warning you in advance about the contents of this post. If you are not interested in listening to bloviate about mundane achievements, then please watch this wonderful AMV that has altogether too few views on yootoob (less than 1200 at the moment of posting).
If that is enough for you, then I thank you for your time and have a lovely day. Otherwise, press onward (or "more") to continue.
more...
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September 05, 2019
Ducks In Anime: Yes I Saw It
It started simply enough... an e-mail saying "Watch DanMachi2 Ep 05." Then a text message. Then a comment here on The Pond. Then another text message. Then a post over at R's place. Then another e-mail. And what heralded all this fooferraw?
-Danjon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Daro ka S02, Ep05
First, it was a duckie. A very nice duckie to be sure, don't get me wrong, but a single duckie. At which point, the producktion staff realized that while a single duckie is nice, many duckies are better. Much better. Much much better.
Even I had to admit, that was a lot of duckies... and they almost literally appeared out of nowhere. First one duckie, then many duckies flowed their way into the bath like they had been there all the time... which they hadn't, as an earlier establishing shot confirms.
So where did all of these rubber duckies come from? Particularly considering this is a fantasy world of swords and magic and Hephaestus isn't a lame, misshapen, ugly man but a eye-wateringly hot redhead with an eyepatch... rubber duckies should, sadly, not be a thing. But yet, there they are!
I am hardly one to complain about rubber duckies in anime. Heavens no! I don't even care about internal consistency when it comes to their appearance in a series... the more duckies the better, is what I say. Particularly when we all really know why they're here...
Yep. That's why. They're just doing their job.
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August 31, 2019
Anthoine Hubert 1996 - 2019
While I may not be writing about Formula 1 these days, I'm still following the goings-on in and around the sport. Heck, I'm even still watching the races though without the usual fervor. Which is why I winced when I checked my phone just a short time ago and saw that today's F2 race at Spa-Francopants had been red-flagged, then cancelled altogether, following a "horrific" crash at Eau Rouge/Radillion. I winced even harder when I finished up my morning shower, sat in front of my computer, and discovered that in the intervening time the FIA had released a statement on the incident. A driver had been killed.
Video of the accident can be seen here if you want to see it. Reports say that the driver in front of him, Giuliano Alesi, wrecked which wound up involving Hubert. His car hit the tire barrier at the exit of Radillion, site of many accidents in the past, rebounded back onto the track, where he was then hit by the car driven by Juan-Manuel Correa. The t-bone accident split Hubert's car, tearing off everything behind the cockpit, and sent Correa skidding down the track upside down. All three drivers were taken to the infield care center. Alesi was treated and released with only bumps and bruises. Correa has been transported to a hospital in Liege, and at last report is in stable condition. Hubert was declared dead at the care center.
I did not know much about Anthoine Hubert before right now. I knew he was in F2, and I must have seen him on track a couple of times as I've watched a few streamed F2 races this season. He was reigning world F3 champion, which means he likely had a good chance at reaching Formula 1 eventually. As can be seen in the photo above, he had a relationship with Renault Sport as a member of their young driver program.
F2, which races twice per weekend, has already cancelled Sunday's sprint race. Formula 1 has already said that they'll race as scheduled. No information yet about what sort of tributes will be held. It's interesting to note that this is supposedly the first driver death at a circuit in F2 or F1 since That Horrible Weekend when Ratzenberger and Senna were both killed... or at least that's what SKY is reporting. F1 polesitter Charles LeClerc posted this photo of the two of them just a short time ago, I can't imagine what's going through LeClerc's mind right now, and I only just discovered that Jules Bianchi was his godfather.
More as information warrants. Condolences from The Pond to all families, fans and friends of Hubert.
Edit: Here's a breakdown of what happened in the crash. Includes a new camera angle.
Juan Manuel Correa suffered fractures to both legs and a "minor spinal injury." He underwent surgery and as of reports released at 7pm Pond Central Time is in Intensive Care. He was incredibly lucky, as the breakdown above shows his feet were exposed. It takes a lot of impact to do that, essentially tearing the front of the safety cell off. This could have been a double fatality easily enough.
Edit 2: clear video appeared overnight. Spans from before Alesi's accident to seeing trailing cars slam on their brakes to avoid plowing into the shattered remains of Hubert and Correa's cars. I think I'm done watching these.
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