Category: Uncategorized

AH:Q1 for backers

Yesterday we sent out 25 emails to backers who didn’t receive the initial mail blast, and have just sent out another 18 to additional backers who contacted us to inform us that they didn’t receive it. So, if you’ve emailed us about AH:Q1 in the last 24 hours, please check your email.

In other backer-related news, we expect to send the omnibus editions of ALT-HERO issues #1-6 out, featuring new covers by Cliff Cosmic and another artist, before the end of the month. We also expect to release the first digital edition of SWAN KNIGHT’S SAGA.

If you didn’t back AH:Q #1 WHERE WE GO ONE, please note that you can still pick it up at Amazon, where it is the #1 New Release in graphic novels, ahead of the new Superman and Batman comics.

Not-American by definition

On his recent stream, Owen directed us to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary online. And if you happen to consult it, one thing you’ll notice is the indisputable fact is that if you’re not a descendant of the American Indians or the European nations, you are not an American. Literally and by definition.

AMER’ICAN, adjective Pertaining to America.

AMER’ICAN, noun A native of America; originally applied to the aboriginals, or copper-colored races, found here by the Europeans; but now applied to the descendants of Europeans born in America.

Notice there is nothing said about propositions, ideas, citizenship, or Judeo-Christian values. Those ideas are Fake History concocted as 20th-century immigrant propaganda. This is why the falsifiers and revisionists always attack history. This is why liars attack the truth and those who tell it. This is why evil always attempts to claim that whatever year it actually is, today is always Year Zero.

And to those who might be inclined to argue that the definition has simply changed again, I encourage you to think all the way through exactly what that implies.

Assange expelled and arrested

The rumors last week were correct. Julian Assange has been expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy and arrested by the UK police:

Julian Assange has been arrested by British police today after Ecuador withdrew his political asylum seven years after he was given refuge by the country. The Wikileaks founder was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in handcuffs by a large group of seven Metropolitan Police officers as stunned supporters and protesters watched on in central London.

He is currently in police custody and is set to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court ‘as soon as possible’.

Ecuador’s president Lenin Moreno said the decision to withdraw Assange’s asylum status came after the ‘repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols’ and his ‘discourteous and aggressive behaviour’. Moreno added that he had asked Britain to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty.

Moments after the arrest, during which Assange held on to a Gore Vidal book on the history of the national security state, WikiLeaks said Ecuador had acted illegally and ‘in violation of international law’. Assange, 47, has not left Ecuador’s diplomatic soil for seven years amid fears he would be arrested and extradited for publishing thousands of classified military and diplomatic cables.

Obviously Ecuador has the right to expel anyone it wants from its embassy. But why now? And what UK law has Assange violated to justify his arrest?

Enhancing your experience

Amazon isn’t SPYING on you. They’re just improving your experience!

Amazon workers are listening to private and sometimes disturbing voice recordings to improve the voice-assistants’ understanding of human speech. Amazon has admitted to its customers that thousands of recordings are being analysed by staff and transcribed before feeding them back into the software.

As many as 1,000 clips are reviewed by workers in buildings all over the world, many of which are not obviously run by the online giant.   Staff members have said that the work is mostly mundane, however they do come across embarrassing clips, like a woman singing off-key in the shower.  The teams use internal chat rooms to share files when they need help deciphering a muddled word – or come when they come across an amusing recording. Among more sinister content the workers have heard, have been a child screaming for help and two instances were they believed they heard a sexual assault taking place. 

Amazon last night confirmed the revelations when approached by Bloomberg saying that ‘an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings’ are analysed by staff. In an emailed statement to MailOnline, an Amazon spokesperson said: ‘We only annotate an extremely small sample of Alexa voice recordings in order to improve the customer experience.

I find this particularly amusing because Spacebunny and I use the term “enhancing your user experience” as a synonym “made it stop working”. Which is usually expressed in some sort of context like this:

“Did you take out the trash?”

“No, I’m enhancing your user experience!”

Experts approve

One of the foremost authorities on Qanon, NEON REVOLT, very much likes ALT-HERO:Q #1. He posted his initial reaction on Gab:

Wooooooow. This is actually really good!

Vox Day’s Alt-Hero Q issue one, is now available for purchase through his Arkhaven Comics site, and on Amazon.

And as though it were by by some divine coincidence, it’s written by Chuck Dixon, the guy who did a ton of work on The Punisher and Batman.

(I swear to god, none of this was planned).

This is an honest-to-goodness spy story, and possibly the first piece of fiction inspired by #QAnon, and man, it’s a lot of fun.

And no, we don’t mind patriots posting single panels or creating memes from the comic. WWG1WGA.

This is why moderation is required

In case you find yourself being a little irritated by way in which the institution of comment moderation here causes a delay in the appearance of your comments, don’t be. Be grateful instead. Because what you no longer see is the antics of all the angry gammas sperging out in hapless gamma rage at their rejection from the group here.

For example, the banned gamma who goes by the laughable name “spinoza” posted this comment 28 straight times today between 3:13 and 3:19 PM, as he apparently failed to realize that his comments go directly into spam now.

33339777737655901870574806828678347965624146102899508487399692
97075043753029972722973279344429886464127253481606037797072982
99173029296308695801996312413304939350493325412355071054461182
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83472419979478564362042094613412387613198865352358312996862268
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27804689122468214608067276277084024022661554850240089528916571
17617439020337584877842911289623247059191874691042005848326140
67733375102719565399469716251724831223063391932870798380074848
57265161234349332733566644733585564302352808839243482787608864
94328939916639921048830784777704804572849145630335326507002958
89062659154985094079727675671297950100982294762289618915914415
20032283878773485130979081019129267227103778898053964156362364
16915498576840839846886168437540706512103906250612810
on Foreign investment
spinoza
at 3:16 PM

This is nothing, in fact, it is two orders of magnitude less than the worst gamma tantrum we’ve witnessed here. And what you also probably don’t know is that every single gamma who is banned attempts to continue posting here after being told not to do so. That’s how reliable the socio-sexual hierarchy is. Although the level of persistence and the number of attempts vary, they exhibit the exact same patterns of behavior every single time.

Once you see how they respond to being rejected, you begin to understand why women react to them as if they are lethally radioactive cancer-causing agents.

AH:Q #1 now available

Arkhaven Comics is very pleased to announce that the digital edition of Alt★Hero:Q issue #1 Where We Go One is now available in CBZ and Kindle formats.

AH:Q backers should check your email, as we have sent out emails with download links to both formats to all the backers. Please note that these were only sent out to AH:Q backers, not backers of the original ALT-HERO campaign.

If you are an AH:Q backer who did not receive an email, please check your spam trap and your social media trap on Gmail before contacting us. If you still cannot find it, then please email us at books -at- castaliahouse -dot- com and we will add your email to the mailing list. Please note, however, that if we add your email to the list and discover that it is already there, then the problem is on your end which means there is nothing we can do about it. We would also suggest whitelisting the @castaliahouse.com address to increase the likelihood that you will receive the emails properly.

If you are not a backer, then you can purchase Alt★Hero:Q issue #1 Where We Go One for $2.99 at Arkhaven Comics, which includes both formats. The Kindle version should also be available on Amazon later today. Backers should note that we will not be sending out the individual print editions until all six issues are available in print and can be sent together.

UPDATE: You can now buy and review AH:Q #1 on Amazon.

That would be awkward

My money would be on China getting there first.

The US military is desperately trying to recover the wreckage of a Japanese F-35A stealth fighter which crashed over the Pacific yesterday amid fears China and Russia could beat them to it. Parts of the tail of the world’s most sophisticated stealth jet have already been found after it disappeared off the radar 85 miles east of Misawa, Japan during a training mission.

Eight ships and seven aircraft,including a U.S. Navy P-8 Orion maritime patrol plane, are looking for traces of the jet that is believed to have sunk to 5,000ft. The pilot of the aircraft is still missing.

But experts today warned that Russia and China could also be trying to get their hands on the aircraft to discover its secrets.

Tom Moore, a former senior professional staff member at the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted: ‘There is no price too high in this world for China and Russia to pay to get Japan’s missing F-35, if they can. Big deal.’

‘Bottom line is that it would not be good,’ retired US Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula told Business Insider.

It is believed Russia and China could be using their advanced submarines to scour the ocean floor in search of the jet in order to steal vital technology on board. And experts have warned that parts of the jet could easily be replicated if they do recover the wreckage before US or Japanese search teams.

On the other hand, given the apparent shortcomings of the F-35, the bigger fear might be the Chinese or Russians learning that there is no reason to replicate any parts of the jet. It’s interesting how this storyline tends to track the plot of A Mind Programmed/The Programmed Man.

Foreign investment

This destruction of the housing stock by rich foreign owners is the sort of consequence the free traders never factor into their “it’s good for the economy” arguments when considering the free flow of capital:

Drained whirlpools, decaying walls and foliage creeping up the stairs can be seen on a North London street called Billionaires’ Row. Bishops Avenue in Hampstead, north London, is one of the most exclusive roads in the country, but many of its 66 mansions lie vacant. Footage taken by ‘urban explorers’ shows moss growing up the once pristine white walls of the huge rooms and swimming pools with a shallow layer of murky water. The gardens rise high and in many the decor is clearly a few decades behind.

They include a selection of residences worth £73 million, reportedly bought for the Saudi royals between 1989 and 1993. In those days the homes caught be purchased for a cool million, now prices rise to around £20 million. In 2014, an estimated £350 million worth of mansions could be found on the prestigious street, the Guardian reported.

An Iranian resident told the paper: ‘Ninety-five percent of the people who live here don’t actually live here. It is a terrible place to live really.

So, the best housing stock in the most desirable areas is being destroyed, but on the plus side, the natives can’t afford to live there anyway. And the cycle will only continue as new developments are built to house the people who now live elsewhere and are building up a desirable neighborhoods that will attract more foreign “investors”.