Category: Uncategorized

Bill Gates didn’t kill himself

One of the things that becomes clear about the success of Bill Gates with Microsoft is that it was by no means assured at many steps along the way. This is well-chronicled in In Search of Stupidity. The number of sheer coincidences and terrible decisions by competitors that were required for Bill Gates to become so massively successful with someone else’s software on someone else’s hardware platform were astonishing.

And remember, this is the guy who didn’t even mention the Internet in his book The Road Ahead. So we’re not talking about a supergenius with great foresight here. Now there are a growing number of signs that his success, like that of so many other ticket-takers, was entirely manufactured for him.

Melinda Gates warned her husband Bill against any further contact with Jeffrey Epstein after the couple had an uncomfortable meeting with the convicted sex offender, according to a new report.

Melinda was ‘furious’ at Bill’s relationship with Epstein after the couple visited the predator’s Upper East Side townhouse in September 2013, people familiar with the matter told the Daily Beast.  

The meeting proved a turning point in Bill’s relationship with Epstein, after Melinda expressed how uncomfortable she was with the sex offender and said she wanted nothing to do with him, the sources said….

In March 2013, Gates flew on Epstein’s private plane – the aircraft that has been dubbed the ‘Lolita Express’ because it was allegedly used to traffic young girls. Bridgitt Arnold, a spokesperson for Gates, told the Times that Gates was not aware that the plane belonged to Epstein.

In September of that year, Gates and Epstein met for dinner in New York to discuss philanthropy, according to Arnold — possibly the same meeting attended by Melinda, triggering her fury. 

Just a few more of those inexplicable coincidences, right? It was just two fake billionaires who happened to be billionairing together. But if there is one thing we learned from The X-Files, it’s that there are no coincidences.

Convergence here, convergence there

 Convergence pretty much everywhere. A pair of readers email about their recent run-ins with organizational convergence:

I ran a fan channel on YouTube, Owen Benjamin Digest, that reposted clips from you, Owen and more recently Stefan. Since I really want to help spread awareness, I have made sure to adhere to every single Promethean rule that YouTube imposes on its content creators, and cut out some of your most enlightening pieces as a compromise. Moreover, I spent grueling weekends trying to appeal to Christian men on YouTube by remixing your and Stef’s interviews with wholesome, family friendly rap beats, just to really bring home the message. It was fun, educational and really spread the gospel.

Despite that, the channel, hundreds of subscribers, dozens of hours of highlights, days and days of work, got terminated today, and my appeal was struck down within minutes. I am absolutely positive that it is solely because your names were included in the titles of the videos, and they have some evil desire to wipe you, Owen, Stef all of us, off the internet. It is a literal digital Holocaust! 

If you mention any of the Names That Shall Not Be Mentioned, the SJWs will do their best to ensure the minds under their control neither see nor hear them.

I just wanted to inform you about the incredibly reasonable requests which the student government at the U of MN – TC are making. One example includes the eminently just policy which allows “No-excuse-required extensions on assignments for Black and Muslim students, along with those who protested in favored causes”. Convergence is here; convergence is there; convergence is increasing everywhere!  

Of course, one can’t reasonably expect blacks or muslims to do their work on time. That would be racist or something. It’s fascinating to see that those who literally argue that non-Europeans can’t be expected to do their homework don’t grasp what that implies for when those same non-European college graduates will be required to keep the lights on and the toilets flushing. 

One guess what’s going to happen. Just one guess….

Thursday Arktoons

ASCENDANT: Episode 2, Transfiguration

ALT★HERO: Q: Episode 2, Reassignment

A THRONE OF BONES: Episode 2, Our True Vocation

FLYING SPARKS: Episode 2, Secret Lives

CHUCK DIXON PRESENTS: ADVENTURE: The Frogmen: Episode 2, Dangerous Discoveries 

The dev team is also pleased to announce that the image processing time has been decreased by a factor of around 10x. If you were on mobile or a slow connection, you may have noticed that the images will pop up much faster now even though they are still high-resolution.

This is a result of switching the image display from PNG to a newer and more efficient file format that is supported by most, though not all, modern browsers. The Arktoons engine is now smart enough to determine whether your browser supports it or not, and if not, dials up either a PNG or a JPG that it can support. So, the problem some people were seeing on the first day, where no images appear in the episodes, should be resolved.

In case you weren’t sure he’s fake

 The Fake Pope lies – blatantly – about the nations.

Pope Francis on Thursday denounced “aggressive” nationalism that rejects migrants, and said Catholics should follow the Gospel-mandated call for an inclusive, welcoming church that doesn’t distinguish between “natives and foreigners, residents and guests.”

Francis made the appeal in his annual message for migrants and refugees. He said the current pandemic had shown how the concept of the human family had been “fragmented, wounded and disfigured,” with the poorest and most marginalized paying the highest price.

The universal “we,” he said, “is crumbling and cracking due to myopic and aggressive forms of nationalism and radical individualism.”

He demanded that Catholics in particular actually act “catholic” in the universal sense, noting that migrants and refugees enrich the faith, the church and one another.

There is no “Gospel-mandated call” that rejects the nations. To the contrary, God promises that the nations will endure to the end. It is the Devil who constantly preaches the unity of Man and attempts to destroy the nations through the false promises of wealth through free trade and charity through submission to invasion.

Castalia Library May update

 

This Castalia Library subscriber has clearly been blessed by the shipping gods. But it offers conclusive evidence to support the idea that the Castalia Library can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Franklin Library without shame. First, while the bindery’s new shipping system appears to have sorted out the international issues, we’re still in the process of figuring out the past problems, which is why both the Library and Libraria editions of THE DIVINE COMEDY are now out of stock. We need to make sure we’ve got sufficient quantities of both in hand just in case any shipments that went awry are lost.

Second, HEIDI is being printed now, and will almost certainly ship before SUMMA ELVETICA. Producing a signed edition seemed like a good idea at the time, but has introduced various complications and delays that we would have been wiser to avoid.
Third, for the next week, you can order the complete set of the Junior Classics in leather, or if you prefer, volumes one through three in leather. We’re about to print the first three volumes and place orders for the leather, so we need to determine the final numbers. If you still haven’t received the regular hardcovers yet, this is neither the time or the place to inform us of that, as we’re going to work on that issue the week after next.
And fourth, the current Library subscription book for May-June is DISCOURSES ON LIVY by Niccolo Machiavelli. This is, in my opinion, by far Machiavelli’s most important work, far surpassing both THE PRINCE and THE ART OF WAR in its historical and intellectual significance. I’ve read it in both Italian and English, and we’ve chosen the 1882 translation by Christian E. Detmold for its accuracy and clarity.
Finally, you can now order RHETORIC by Aristotle as a one-off. Subscriber discount codes are already valid.

Devoured by the Borg

Making a lot of money by selling the farm is the dream for most entrepreneurs. However, it’s usually the beginning of the end of the road for what made the property worth acquiring in the first place. It will be interesting to see how Clay Travis feels about literally selling out in a few years:

Fox Corporation (Nasdaq: FOXA, FOX) today announced an agreement via its subsidiary to acquire OutKick Media, LLC, a digital media platform founded and led by Clay Travis, and related assets. OutKick is an omnichannel leader in sports, opinion politics, and pop culture content across its radio, podcasts, online and social outlets, as well as one of the foremost sources of sports wagering information in the United States. Further, OutKick is in an exclusive marketing agreement with FOX’s partner FanDuel and serves as a significant source of sports wagering referrals.  

Fox Corporation Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Lachlan Murdoch commented: “As FOX further diversifies our growing digital portfolio and broadens our position in the sports wagering ecosystem, there could be no better acquisition than OutKick. Clay and his team have quickly made OutKick a content powerhouse with a very large, loyal and engaged audience. We expect the synergies presented across FOX’s existing portfolio of assets will turbocharge this exciting business.”

Travis added: “OutKick has grown out of my passion for producing bold, well-informed, and entertaining content about sports, current events and, more recently, sports wagering. With the power of FOX behind us, we look forward to maintaining OutKick’s unwavering commitment to that mission, as well as further accelerating the growth of our audience, and continued leadership in the sports wagering affiliate category.”

These acquisitions often look good on paper, but companies like Origin Systems and id Software were never the same after being acquired. Fortunately, fans of Castalia, Arkhaven, and Unauthorized don’t have to worry, as we have even less interest in being acquired than the corpocracy has in acquiring us.

Most organizations pursue growth at any cost. We don’t even use our mailing list very much, or send out press releases, because we’re not satisfied with how we’re managing our existing operations yet.


UPDATE: So, who’s interested in the idea of Unauthorized Sports?

Money cannot compensate

When it comes to intersexual relations, money is a force multiplier. It is not a complete replacement for any element of attraction. Didactic Mind considers the Gates divorce from the perspective of the Socio-Sexual Hierarchy:

First among these is that money CANNOT compensate for Gammatude. It doesn’t matter how rich, wealthy, or influential you are – if you are a hardcore Gamma, this will show through eventually and inevitably. The list of such men goes on at some length – Jeff Bezos, Harvey Weinstein, Harry the Ginger Whinger, and now Bill Gates. And, in the case of Weinstein, the Gammatude has devastating consequences for those women unfortunate enough to be caught up in his web of influence and corruption.

The second, related, lesson has to do with an old maxim of Roissy’s from back in the day. Essentially, the sum of testosterone in a marriage equals the sum of oestrogen. A low-T man like Bill Gates will eventually end up with a low-E woman. By contrast, a high-T man will inevitably end up with a high-E woman.

Case in point: Hazy history of Melania Trump’s immigration status raises …

The third lesson can be found in the key phrase, “irretrievably damaged”, used in the statement to describe the couple’s separation. Think about it from Bill’s point of view. He is one of the richest, most powerful, most influential men on the entire planet. He has deceived himself into thinking that he is on a quest to save Mankind from itself. And his best buddies are all liberal, progressive, right-on loonie gazillionaires like him – and every single one of them has the approximate musculature of a chipmunk. (Even Jeff Bezos isn’t in that great shape, these days.)

Yet, even then, he knows, somewhere deep down, that he can do better than what he has. He could buy himself a harem of the most jaw-droppingly beautiful Eastern European women to rival King Solomon’s, but he stays with a woman whose best days are thirty years in the past.

Would you be able to avoid straying under those circumstances? Especially given the reputation that Melinda Gates has for being an unpleasant ball-buster?

That’s not me saying this about Melinda Gates, by the way: Given her appearance, I can WELL believe it, though.

The overriding lesson of all of this remains the same for all men, of any age:

Money, power, and influence do not make up for innate Gamma traits, and never will. The ONLY way out of that particular Hell is through relentless, focused, careful, structured self-improvement.

Money is just a tool. And the love of it is the root of all evil. So never, ever, rely upon it for anything, especially not as a foundation for your relationships.

Episodes 2 (and in one case, 3)

 All five of the Wednesday Arktoons series have been updated for your reading pleasure.

ALT★HERO: Episode 2: Friends in High Places

DEUS VULT: Episode 2: Blood Sacrifice

GO MONSTER GO: Episode 2: The Ghost Car

MIDNIGHT’S WAR: Episode 2: The Wicked Dead

THE HAMMER OF FREEDOM: Episode 3: Watcher and Watched

You can probably expect several new series in June, as we’ve been hearing from creators in both Brazil and the USA who would like to utilize the new digital comics platform.

UPDATE: In addition to being the first series to 10,000 views on Arktoons, THE HAMMER OF FREEDOM is the first to 1,000 likes. Congratulations to Luciano and his Brazilian team at Super Prumo!

SJW Wars

The Dark Herald answers the question that literally no one in the sane universe is asking at Arkhaven: Who Will Be the First Openly Gay Star Wars Character?

A stupid question to be certain but one that SJWs are demanding an answer to. And Disney will absolutely provide that answer.  There is zero doubt in my mind that past a certain point, one of the senior executives at Fort Mickey will start demanding it.

During the run-up to the Rise of Skywalker, there was a big Stan campaign, #SWRepMatters on Twitter to try and get Finn and Poe out of the closet and into each other’s arms.  Sadly, for the deranged malignantly repulsive fifteen-year-old girls on Twitter, Rose had stolen a kiss from Finn, and since she is underrepresented, this forever cucked poor Poe.  

I don’t make up these rules, I just shake my head in horror at them….

Who will it be?

Think about it. The SJWs at the LucasFilm Story Group may indeed be on borrowed time.  If their Slay Queen Kathleen has fallen then they are on their way out.  Leftie or not, no one in Hollywood with half a brain will keep that clown circus on the payroll.  Consequently, they will try to do as much damage to the brand and set it in stone before they are shown the door.

What character would most damage Star Wars by making him Gay? It’s obvious when you think about it.

He’s almost certainly right. And if he’s correct, this would accomplish the ultimate goal of the Devil Mouse, which is to absolutely corrupt all things utterly.

You mandate it, you’re responsible

It’s really not a difficult concept, but it’s enough to make some virtue-signaling corporations rethink the wisdom of their decision to mandate vaccinations:

On April 20, OSHA released the new guidance in the frequently asked questions section of its website for COVID-19 safety compliance.  

The question asks whether an employer should record adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccination if the employer requires the vaccine. OSHA states that if a vaccine is required, then any adverse reaction is considered work-related and therefore it must be recorded.

In response, several large contractors said they have changed or will change their vaccination policy to only recommend—not require—a vaccine.

“We, sadly, had to back off our (employee vaccination) mandate because OSHA did something I don’t understand at all,” said Bob Clark, founder and executive chairman of Clayco in a recent ENR Critical Path podcast. “I side with OSHA frequently, we’re in its VIP program, but on this they’re just wrong. It’s a terrible decision they’ve made and I think it’ll be overturned.”

Clark said Clayco, which participated in crafting the initial Centers for Disease Control guidance on construction site safety during the pandemic, would be communicating with OSHA through members of congress to seek changes to the guidance. A spokeswoman for OSHA did not immediately return messages asking for clarification of the new guidance. Construction industry groups universally panned the guidance and said it would hurt their efforts to encourage employees to get vaccinated.

The decision won’t be overturned. Because if you force something on your employees on the basis of them working for you, and then it goes wrong somehow, the problem is quite obviously “work-related”.