Spotted in the headlines today:
"Putin vows revenge for suicide bombing"
Shit is going to get REAL. We're talking about one of the most manliest and badass humans to exist on this Earth vowing revenge against someone.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Monday, December 20, 2010
Priorities
Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been really busy with schoolwork and other stuff (like trying to start a website and things like that).
So anyway, a few months back I heard that a show I watched, Axis Powers Hetalia had been licensed for release in the US, which I thought previously was absolutely impossible because it was weird and the episodes were five minutes long each. Oh, and the fact that all of the countries of the world are anthropomorphized and get into wacky hijinks and historical in-jokes. Hilarity Ensues.
A little bit after that, I heard that the English dub was on Hulu. Despite having thirty or so of the episodes in their original language (with English subtitles) on my computer, I wanted to check it out because I wanted to see 1.) if I recognized any of the voice actors and 2.) how many of the jokes they changed (the Japanese language having lots of linguistic concepts that tend to be translated differently from localization group to localization group).
When I went to see the first episode, I was greeted with this:
The fuck? Hetalia was somehow not suitable for minors? I mean, yeah, there are some overtones between Italy and Germany, but you'd have to be a regular anime fan to really catch anything and most of the jokes in the entire show would pretty much fly over the heads of anyone not well-versed in history (including the obscure stuff).
Now, keep in mind, the one show I've watched on Hulu happens to be Gurren Lagann, which is accessible to anyone on the site. Now, granted, I think that TVTropes's description of it as a Saturday Morning Cartoon Made by Gainax (the creators of Evangelion...yeeeeeahh) is pretty damn accurate, but on the other hand, the Japanese are apparently perfectly fine with their kids watching a show in which the main female lead basically wears a bikini and has bouncy boobs and the characters all mention tons of innuendo involving drills.
You know, for kids!
But I can see why Gurren Lagann wouldn't be censored. After all, "minor" covers everyone under 18, including teenagers, and teenagers would hardly be phased by that.
However, there is something that is seriously off.
While on my normal wandering of TVTropes, I came across the article for a rather bleak show called Now and Then, Here and There (which happened to air right after Gurren Lagann on TV).
The summary for the show starts with "Not for the faint of heart" and goes downhill from there. Influenced by the events of Rwanda during the genocide taking place there, it involves child soldiers and rape (which befalls one of the main characters at the beginning of the series), and is said by the article to belong right next to Grave of the Fireflies on your shelf. For the uninformed, Grave of the Fireflies is infamous for easily being one of the most depressing and heart-wrenching movies ever to be made in the history of mankind.
Now and Then, Here and There is on Hulu. Upon starting the first episode...
The screen preceding the show's opening credits.
That's right. There isn't a "not suitable for minors" disclaimer. Of all of the FUCKING shows to be on Hulu, this one is apparently fine for everyone. And if you think I'm kidding, here's the link to the video.
In other words, the people running Hulu seem to think that a comedy show about anthropomorphized countries is more harmful to minors than a show where one of the main characters gets repeatedly raped by soldiers.
...yeeeeeah. If you were wondering at any time why I can't stand Hulu, this is why.
So anyway, a few months back I heard that a show I watched, Axis Powers Hetalia had been licensed for release in the US, which I thought previously was absolutely impossible because it was weird and the episodes were five minutes long each. Oh, and the fact that all of the countries of the world are anthropomorphized and get into wacky hijinks and historical in-jokes. Hilarity Ensues.
A little bit after that, I heard that the English dub was on Hulu. Despite having thirty or so of the episodes in their original language (with English subtitles) on my computer, I wanted to check it out because I wanted to see 1.) if I recognized any of the voice actors and 2.) how many of the jokes they changed (the Japanese language having lots of linguistic concepts that tend to be translated differently from localization group to localization group).
When I went to see the first episode, I was greeted with this:
The fuck? Hetalia was somehow not suitable for minors? I mean, yeah, there are some overtones between Italy and Germany, but you'd have to be a regular anime fan to really catch anything and most of the jokes in the entire show would pretty much fly over the heads of anyone not well-versed in history (including the obscure stuff).
Now, keep in mind, the one show I've watched on Hulu happens to be Gurren Lagann, which is accessible to anyone on the site. Now, granted, I think that TVTropes's description of it as a Saturday Morning Cartoon Made by Gainax (the creators of Evangelion...yeeeeeahh) is pretty damn accurate, but on the other hand, the Japanese are apparently perfectly fine with their kids watching a show in which the main female lead basically wears a bikini and has bouncy boobs and the characters all mention tons of innuendo involving drills.
You know, for kids!
But I can see why Gurren Lagann wouldn't be censored. After all, "minor" covers everyone under 18, including teenagers, and teenagers would hardly be phased by that.
However, there is something that is seriously off.
While on my normal wandering of TVTropes, I came across the article for a rather bleak show called Now and Then, Here and There (which happened to air right after Gurren Lagann on TV).
The summary for the show starts with "Not for the faint of heart" and goes downhill from there. Influenced by the events of Rwanda during the genocide taking place there, it involves child soldiers and rape (which befalls one of the main characters at the beginning of the series), and is said by the article to belong right next to Grave of the Fireflies on your shelf. For the uninformed, Grave of the Fireflies is infamous for easily being one of the most depressing and heart-wrenching movies ever to be made in the history of mankind.
Now and Then, Here and There is on Hulu. Upon starting the first episode...
The screen preceding the show's opening credits.
That's right. There isn't a "not suitable for minors" disclaimer. Of all of the FUCKING shows to be on Hulu, this one is apparently fine for everyone. And if you think I'm kidding, here's the link to the video.
In other words, the people running Hulu seem to think that a comedy show about anthropomorphized countries is more harmful to minors than a show where one of the main characters gets repeatedly raped by soldiers.
...yeeeeeah. If you were wondering at any time why I can't stand Hulu, this is why.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Hydra
You know Tyler Clementi, that kid who committed suicide after his jerkass of a roommate secretly recorded him smooching a guy?
If this article is any indication, there are lots and lots of problems involved with this. Considering that it's 11:30 at night right now, I don't know any other way to put this.
Is the suicide of a bright young student tragic? Yes, yes it is. However, what it should NOT be is a symbol for agendas the world over.
First off, look at the title of this article.
The internet as a whole had very little involvement in this - it's not like the Anonymous is Legion decided to troll this guy, it was one stupid prick who decided to rig his web camera so that he could remotely control it (which, BTW, is something that I don't even know how to do). Furthermore, "privacy online" doesn't work into this, either - it was the guy's roommate who did it, someone who was physically there to begin with to set it up. It's not like some hacker across the country decided to take control of his webcam for the lulz, nor was the victim's computer or account hacked to post the photos. Internet privacy settings or practices had utterly nothing to do with this incident, and it really fucking pisses me off when one person does something bad on the internet and the entire online society/entity gets blamed for it. That's like characterizing the entire United States of America based on the fact that someone got murdered in Chicago. It's ridiculous to title the article like this.
And "civility"? Like I said, Anonymous is Legion had nothing to do with this, it was one single jerk. They really paint the whole internet as a mass of unruly, unwashed, trollish masses with this one statement.
To clarify, yes, the internet was used AS A MEANS, but nothing more than that. This title makes it sound like vast legions of people were egging this guy on, which it wasn't. It was a prick who decided to remotely use his webcam to tweet something humiliating about someone. There wouldn't be nearly as much controversy (ok, maybe less internet scapegoating) if this guy took the photos with his webcam and posted them around campus as flyers, despite the fact that the effect would be the same: widespread humiliation across campus.
It gets better:
Sounds a lot like the anti-gun lobbying groups, if you ask me. "How many murders will it take?" "Think of the CHILDREN." And "enough is enough" sounds ominous enough to raise my hackles. If this one guy becomes enough of a martyr that legislation to regulate behavior on something as vast and international as the internet comes to pass, I'm going to build a giant attack robot and go on a rampage.
People act like this is something new. It's not. The internet suddenly didn't make people mean bullies, they existed to begin with and simply found a shiny new tool to use to torment their victims. Acting like you can "educate" or "legislate" it out of people is fucking ridiculous and reeks of completely and utterly blind optimism that only exists in the minds of five-year-olds who haven't experienced the real world yet. Bullying and the physical/emotional harming of other members of our species is in the subconscious of all human beings, there is NOTHING you can do about it. As long as people can still write and physically speak, there will always be bullies spreading around unwanted information about people among their peers, internet or no.
Oh yeah, BTW, it gets better:
It would not surprise me if he was mocked for it, but...
Yes, I do, actually. A girl could easily be labeled a "slut" or a "whore" using the same exact kinds of evidence - except that that kind of crap doesn't make national news. These people are hypocrites: they decry the bias that contributed to this student's death, and yet it is because of sexuality bias (and the Internet) that this article, with their statement, is even in the national news. People kill themselves all the time and it only makes the local obituary at most. But the instant someone kills themselves because of sexuality harassment, it's BIG FUCKING NEWS. It's sick that this guy and his organization are using the dead student as a martyr to pursue their own agenda, and it's sick that the media is doing the same.
Oh yeah, did I mention that IT GETS BETTER?
They can do that by being an immature prick with computer skills.
And yet again, another example of trying to influence behavior among people who are supposedly adults. Going off on a tangent here, I'm getting really sick of all of the hand-holding I keep seeing everywhere - in the Dining Halls here, there are "stars" denoting how "healthy" something is, for instance. That just pisses me off because whoever came up with that thought that I was too stupid to know that it miiiight be a little unhealthy to have that swiss cheeseburger with bacon. I'm supposedly an adult, I should be able to take care of myself, even if it's with a little help from family and friends. So please, you condescending pencil-pushers, SHUT THE FUCK UP and let me live my life without your screeching!
Gimme a break. This essentially means that they're likely going to restrict hall behaviors more and more - because forcibly keeping people quiet in their rooms always works so well.
Because that has worked soooo well in the past. Eradicating natural human behavior DOES. NOT. WORK. Also, twenty bucks says that the students going to these programs know more about how to "properly" use social media more than the people running said programs.
See, martyr.
DON'T FUCKING SEND NAKED PHOTOS OF YOURSELF TO OTHER PEOPLE'S CELLS, ESPECIALLY IF IT'S YOUR HIGH SCHOOL BOYFRIEND! Common. Freaking. SENSE.
Which is an indication of serious emotional issues to begin with.
Proving. My. Point. EXACTLY. I don't remember this ever making national news or being cited repeatedly as an example of why the internet is evil. Media freaking BIAS.
HOLY CRAP, someone sane in this article, preaching COMMON SENSE!
They just HAD to put this dig on the internet in there, didn't they? *eyeroll* Never mind that we have people like the Westboro Baptist Church who spew their hate at funerals without the use of the internet...
Am I being a little harsh? Yeah, totally. It's late and reading this article put me in a bad mood. However, I don't think it's at all right to push agendas or demonize large groups of people because a single prick and his friends decided to bully someone using a web camera. Stuff like that just pisses me off.
If this article is any indication, there are lots and lots of problems involved with this. Considering that it's 11:30 at night right now, I don't know any other way to put this.
Is the suicide of a bright young student tragic? Yes, yes it is. However, what it should NOT be is a symbol for agendas the world over.
First off, look at the title of this article.
Suicide shows need for civility, privacy online
The internet as a whole had very little involvement in this - it's not like the Anonymous is Legion decided to troll this guy, it was one stupid prick who decided to rig his web camera so that he could remotely control it (which, BTW, is something that I don't even know how to do). Furthermore, "privacy online" doesn't work into this, either - it was the guy's roommate who did it, someone who was physically there to begin with to set it up. It's not like some hacker across the country decided to take control of his webcam for the lulz, nor was the victim's computer or account hacked to post the photos. Internet privacy settings or practices had utterly nothing to do with this incident, and it really fucking pisses me off when one person does something bad on the internet and the entire online society/entity gets blamed for it. That's like characterizing the entire United States of America based on the fact that someone got murdered in Chicago. It's ridiculous to title the article like this.
And "civility"? Like I said, Anonymous is Legion had nothing to do with this, it was one single jerk. They really paint the whole internet as a mass of unruly, unwashed, trollish masses with this one statement.
To clarify, yes, the internet was used AS A MEANS, but nothing more than that. This title makes it sound like vast legions of people were egging this guy on, which it wasn't. It was a prick who decided to remotely use his webcam to tweet something humiliating about someone. There wouldn't be nearly as much controversy (ok, maybe less internet scapegoating) if this guy took the photos with his webcam and posted them around campus as flyers, despite the fact that the effect would be the same: widespread humiliation across campus.
It gets better:
"How many suicides will it take?" asked Andrea Weckerle, a public relations consultant who founded CiviliNation, a group that promotes responsible Internet use. "Enough is enough."
Sounds a lot like the anti-gun lobbying groups, if you ask me. "How many murders will it take?" "Think of the CHILDREN." And "enough is enough" sounds ominous enough to raise my hackles. If this one guy becomes enough of a martyr that legislation to regulate behavior on something as vast and international as the internet comes to pass, I'm going to build a giant attack robot and go on a rampage.
People act like this is something new. It's not. The internet suddenly didn't make people mean bullies, they existed to begin with and simply found a shiny new tool to use to torment their victims. Acting like you can "educate" or "legislate" it out of people is fucking ridiculous and reeks of completely and utterly blind optimism that only exists in the minds of five-year-olds who haven't experienced the real world yet. Bullying and the physical/emotional harming of other members of our species is in the subconscious of all human beings, there is NOTHING you can do about it. As long as people can still write and physically speak, there will always be bullies spreading around unwanted information about people among their peers, internet or no.
Oh yeah, BTW, it gets better:
•Gay-rights advocates say Clementi was targeted for harassment because of his sexual orientation.
It would not surprise me if he was mocked for it, but...
"This student taped and mocked him," Goldstein said, referring to Ravi. "Does anyone think that would have happened if (Clementi) was with someone of the opposite sex?"
Yes, I do, actually. A girl could easily be labeled a "slut" or a "whore" using the same exact kinds of evidence - except that that kind of crap doesn't make national news. These people are hypocrites: they decry the bias that contributed to this student's death, and yet it is because of sexuality bias (and the Internet) that this article, with their statement, is even in the national news. People kill themselves all the time and it only makes the local obituary at most. But the instant someone kills themselves because of sexuality harassment, it's BIG FUCKING NEWS. It's sick that this guy and his organization are using the dead student as a martyr to pursue their own agenda, and it's sick that the media is doing the same.
Oh yeah, did I mention that IT GETS BETTER?
To Rutgers officials, Clementi's death put a spotlight on the need for what the university had officially kicked off on Wednesday: a program to promote civility among students.
"How could one roommate do this to another?" asked Rutgers spokesman Steve Manas.
They can do that by being an immature prick with computer skills.
And yet again, another example of trying to influence behavior among people who are supposedly adults. Going off on a tangent here, I'm getting really sick of all of the hand-holding I keep seeing everywhere - in the Dining Halls here, there are "stars" denoting how "healthy" something is, for instance. That just pisses me off because whoever came up with that thought that I was too stupid to know that it miiiight be a little unhealthy to have that swiss cheeseburger with bacon. I'm supposedly an adult, I should be able to take care of myself, even if it's with a little help from family and friends. So please, you condescending pencil-pushers, SHUT THE FUCK UP and let me live my life without your screeching!
Another session was scheduled Thursday for residence hall staff on how to make dorms "laboratories for civil behavior."
Gimme a break. This essentially means that they're likely going to restrict hall behaviors more and more - because forcibly keeping people quiet in their rooms always works so well.
In October, students will be invited to programs and talks that tackle bullying and the proper use of new technologies — including social media.
Because that has worked soooo well in the past. Eradicating natural human behavior DOES. NOT. WORK. Also, twenty bucks says that the students going to these programs know more about how to "properly" use social media more than the people running said programs.
To Internet safety advocates, Clementi was the latest casualty of the Web's ability to abet defamation and shame
See, martyr.
Jessica Logan, an 18-year-old Cincinnati woman, killed herself in 2008 after an ex-boyfriend forwarded her nude cellphone photos to high school classmates.
DON'T FUCKING SEND NAKED PHOTOS OF YOURSELF TO OTHER PEOPLE'S CELLS, ESPECIALLY IF IT'S YOUR HIGH SCHOOL BOYFRIEND! Common. Freaking. SENSE.
Megan Meier, a 13-year-old Missouri girl, hanged herself in 2006 after learning that an Internet romance on MySpace was a hoax.
Which is an indication of serious emotional issues to begin with.
Anthony Scala, an Oregon State University student, was convicted of invasion of privacy in 2001 for using his laptop webcam to broadcast on the Internet scenes of his roommate and his girlfriend having sex in a dorm room.
Proving. My. Point. EXACTLY. I don't remember this ever making national news or being cited repeatedly as an example of why the internet is evil. Media freaking BIAS.
Jim Steyer, founder of Common Sense Media, a group that educates families about Internet safety, said they shouldn't bother, and that no matter how many kids hurt themselves, the Internet is here to stay.
"The genie is out of the bottle. This is where kids live today, period. ... And as a parent you can't simply shut it out and protect yourself from the brave new world of social media.
...
He said that means schools and parents must teach kids to "self-reflect before you self-reveal;" to respect others' feelings and privacy online; to remember that what you do digitally never goes away; and that everything on the Internet isn't true or accurate.
HOLY CRAP, someone sane in this article, preaching COMMON SENSE!
The Internet continued to be a mixed blessing Thursday. Although more than 46,000 people clicked "like" on the newly established "In Honor of Tyler Clementi" page on Facebook, there also were predictions that the young man would go to hell, and claims that homosexuality is a sin.
They just HAD to put this dig on the internet in there, didn't they? *eyeroll* Never mind that we have people like the Westboro Baptist Church who spew their hate at funerals without the use of the internet...
Am I being a little harsh? Yeah, totally. It's late and reading this article put me in a bad mood. However, I don't think it's at all right to push agendas or demonize large groups of people because a single prick and his friends decided to bully someone using a web camera. Stuff like that just pisses me off.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Life Emulates Fiction
So, apparently scientists have finally found a really Earth-like planet. It's a rocky planet (as opposed to the Jupiter-esque gas giants the vast majority of the exoplanets are) in the "habitable zone", where its orbit is not too close to the sun or not too far, and it apparently has enough gravity to retain an atmosphere.
What really grabbed me was this:
One of my favorite video games is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, an adventure game in the first person where you explore levels, finding power ups to better your weapons or proceed farther in the game, scanning enemies and other items of interest for awesome info*, solving puzzles, and shooting hostile life forms that are trying to kill you. One of the planets that you explore is called Bryyo, and one of the scannable log entries about it says:
...so yeah, scientists have found the real-life Bryyo. Prime 3 came out in 2007 and was being developed for three years before that. Real life emulates fiction.
This quote in the article, though, made me roll my eyes:
It's called dumb luck. Events in space are pretty much random occurrences, it doesn't mean anything if a system relatively close to ours just happened to catch or form a body in the right orbit. Besides, what about the previous exoplanets people have discovered? Nearly all 400 of them were massive gas giants. Just talking about probability using this sample (which, admittedly, could be biased towards the larger bodies due to detection methods), that means that the vast majority of the planets out there are gas giants. Finding a rocky planet is a stroke of luck, nothing more. Assuming that there are a lot of "planets like this" simply because this one happened to be relatively close to ours or that we "found it so quickly" is like assuming that our planet is the center of the universe and has far more influence on surrounding systems than it really does.
Anyway, yeah. Possible habitable planet. That makes the sci-fi fan in me squeal!
*I'm not kidding. I'm pretty sure players don't need to know that the statue they're passing is that of B-stl, Child Hero of Agon, who died in the first Dark Aether raids, like, 200 years ago, to beat the game, but the developers put it in as scan data anyway! Little touches like that really make the game's universe feel more real.
What really grabbed me was this:
One side of the planet is always facing the star, much as one side of the moon constantly faces Earth. This means that the far side of the planet is constantly in darkness. The most habitable region of the planet would be the line between the light and dark regions.
One of my favorite video games is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, an adventure game in the first person where you explore levels, finding power ups to better your weapons or proceed farther in the game, scanning enemies and other items of interest for awesome info*, solving puzzles, and shooting hostile life forms that are trying to kill you. One of the planets that you explore is called Bryyo, and one of the scannable log entries about it says:
Federation scouts discovered the planet Bryyo ten years ago. The planet's alignment makes most of its surface uninhabitable: 48% of the world is always exposed to the sun, with another 48% shrouded in permanent night. The remaining 4% lies in an equatorial ring of fertile jungle, where the bulk of Bryyo's bioforms dwell.
...so yeah, scientists have found the real-life Bryyo. Prime 3 came out in 2007 and was being developed for three years before that. Real life emulates fiction.
This quote in the article, though, made me roll my eyes:
"Our findings offer a very compelling case for a potentially habitable planet," said Steven Vogt, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "The fact that we were able to detect this planet so quickly and so nearby tells us that planets like this must be really common."
It's called dumb luck. Events in space are pretty much random occurrences, it doesn't mean anything if a system relatively close to ours just happened to catch or form a body in the right orbit. Besides, what about the previous exoplanets people have discovered? Nearly all 400 of them were massive gas giants. Just talking about probability using this sample (which, admittedly, could be biased towards the larger bodies due to detection methods), that means that the vast majority of the planets out there are gas giants. Finding a rocky planet is a stroke of luck, nothing more. Assuming that there are a lot of "planets like this" simply because this one happened to be relatively close to ours or that we "found it so quickly" is like assuming that our planet is the center of the universe and has far more influence on surrounding systems than it really does.
Anyway, yeah. Possible habitable planet. That makes the sci-fi fan in me squeal!
*I'm not kidding. I'm pretty sure players don't need to know that the statue they're passing is that of B-stl, Child Hero of Agon, who died in the first Dark Aether raids, like, 200 years ago, to beat the game, but the developers put it in as scan data anyway! Little touches like that really make the game's universe feel more real.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
New Study Says That I Should be a Lesbian
According to this study, clear signs of upcoming homosexuality in children include not giving a shit about gender roles. In other words, preferring to role-play as Sonic the Hedgehog and building robots and spaceships out of Legos when I was little was a clear indication that I would grow up to be lesbian. Oh, wait.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
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