Category: Uncategorized

UPDATE: Paperback #2 and Hardcover #2 now available

And Dynamique is considering her options. We’ve got some very interesting new Alt★Hero developments we’ll be announcing soon, including at least one new stretch goal, although I understand it is going to be a few days before we’ll able to add the various add-ons that people have been requesting. Don’t worry, we’ve got more than three weeks left, so there is plenty of time to straighten these things out.

I’m also interested in learning what size figurine between 8 and 10 inches would be of most interest to the Rebel backers. Remember, you can back the project for only $15 and you’ll receive the first SIX volumes of Alt★Hero in their digital format.

UPDATE: In its fifth day, Alt★Hero is already in the top 5 percent of all Kickstarter projects ever. Back the project and help us move into the top one percent!

UPDATE: We’ve made some changes to the Rewards and stretch goals. We’ve decided not to wait to greenlight Paperback and Hardcover #2, both of which will include Volumes IV, V, and VI, so the two stretch goals are can now be considered preemptively reached. Both editions can be ordered now via the appropriate Reward level; Add-On: Paperback #2 is $30 and Add-On: Hardcover #2 is $65. Neither comes with anything else, but shipping is included.

We’ve also replaced the $70k stretch goal as follows:

Alt★Hero Novel
Castalia House will publish the first Alt★Hero novel, co-written by Vox Day and an author to be named when this goal is met. The book will be published in ebook, audiobook, and trade paperback editions.

The death of the cloud

This sort of thing is why we don’t use the cloud. Frankly, I don’t understand why anyone does.

Yahoo said a major security breach in 2013 compromised all three billion accounts the company maintained, a three-fold increase over the estimate it disclosed previously.

The revelation, contained in an updated page about the 2013 hack, is the result of new information and the forensic analysis of an unnamed security consultant. Previously, Yahoo officials said about one billion accounts were compromised. With Yahoo maintaining roughly three billion accounts at the time, the 2013 hack would be among the biggest ever reported.

“We recently obtained additional information and, after analyzing it with the assistance of outside forensic experts, we have identified additional user accounts that were affected,” Yahoo officials wrote in the update. “Based on an analysis of the information with the assistance of outside forensic experts, Yahoo has determined that all accounts that existed at the time of the August 2013 theft were likely affected.”

The information taken in the heist may have included users’ names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, passwords scrambled using the weak MD5 cryptographic hashing algorithm, and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers. Yahoo said investigators don’t believe the stolen information included passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information. Yahoo also provided updated figures in a press release and in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As if there is any chance – any chance at all – that they didn’t know that all of the information had been taken. Who trusts anything these Big Tech companies say anymore anyhow?

Sure, I use Blogger and Gmail, but always in the full knowledge that everything on this blog and in my email could go public one day. There is no such thing as “security” in social media.

So what is the matter with that?

In 2008, the Dalai Lama warned of the “danger” of one million Chinese immigrants increasing Tibetan GDP and enriching Tibet’s culture:

The Dalai Lama claimed yesterday that Beijing was planning the mass settlement of 1 million ethnic Chinese people in Tibet after the Olympics with the aim of diluting Tibetan culture and identity.

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader also claimed that some of Asia’s most important rivers which flow from the Tibetan plateau are being polluted and diminished by careless industrialisation and unplanned irrigation.

The Dalai Lama made the claims in an interview with the Guardian after a meeting yesterday with Gordon Brown at Lambeth Palace. He said the talks had been detailed and the prime minister had been helpful “in spite of his difficulties”. The Dalai Lama said: “He met me and he showed genuine concern and he wants to help.”

Downing Street said the discussion focused on talks due next month on Tibet’s future between Tibetan representatives and Beijing officials. The prime minister is said to have stressed the importance of the Dalai Lama’s pledge to oppose violence, not seek Tibetan independence, nor support a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.

The Dalai Lama said he feared the Chinese authorities could take a tougher line on Tibet after the Olympics, and possibly flood it with Han Chinese, the world’s largest ethnic group.

The Dalai Lama said he had been informed by Tibetan residents that large areas of empty land had been marked out, as if for construction, in the past two years. “Then last year we received information – after the Olympics 1 million Chinese are going to settle in the autonomous region of Tibet,” he said, adding the information came from a “military source” in Tibet.

“There is every danger Tibet becomes a truly Han Chinese land and Tibetans become an insignificant minority. Then the very basis of the idea of autonomy becomes meaningless.”

What was the matter with that? Is Tibetan dirt any less magic than American dirt? Won’t those Han Chinese become true native Tibetans, just indistinguishable in every way from other native Tibetans, in precisely the same way that a Han Chinese immigrant is every bit as American as the Daughters of the American Revolution?

I just don’t see any problem here. We’re are just one human race. Everyone is equal. What on Earth was the Dalai Lama complaining about?

Fake gun control converts

The media is attempting to build a false narrative around people being magically converted to gun control by the recent events in Las Vegas.

The lead guitarist of a country music band playing Route 91 Harvest festival, where a gunman murdered 58 people on Sunday night, has said the horrific experience of the attack has changed his views on gun laws in America.

“I’ve been a proponent of the [second] amendment my entire life,” Caleb Keeter posted on Twitter. “Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was.”

In the chaotic hours after the attack, which began around 10pm, the members of the Josh Abbott Band were eventually able to post a message on social media, saying that the band and crew were safe. “I’ll never unhear those gunshots; and our band [and] crew will never forget how that moment made them feel,” singer Josh Abbott wrote on Twitter. “Our hearts are with all the victims.”

But Keeter went further, describing the deadliest shooting in modern US history as a revelation. He said that members of the band’s crew have concealed handgun licenses, and legal firearms on the bus.

“They were useless,” he said. “We couldn’t touch them for fear police might think that we were part of the massacre and shoot us. A small group (or one man) laid waste to a city with dedicated, fearless police officers desperately trying to help, because of access to an insane amount of firepower. Enough is enough.”

The feeling, he wrote, “was enough for me to realize that this is completely and totally out of hand. We need gun control RIGHT. NOW,” he added. “My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn’t realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it.”

There are two significant problems here. First of all, the band’s concealed handguns weren’t useless for fear of the police, but because the shooter was 300 YARDS AWAY. Knives, fists, and other close-range weapons were also useless, but then, very few criminal engagements take place at a range of 300+ yards. As for the “dedicated, fearless police officers” who took 72 minutes to not engage a single shooter, the less said the better.

Second, Caleb Keeter is a liar, as proved by his own archived tweets. He always was a gun control advocate, he simply happened to be dubious about the federal government’s ability to do so effectively.

18 December 2012
The Feds can’t even balance a checkbook and we trust them to deal with gun legislation? Gotta be done at a state level, if you want it folks

18 December 2012
We’re talking about a Federal Government composed of scummy, awful people. Contact your STATE representatives if you want gun control.

6 Jan 2013
Maybe they should have psychological tests for gun purchases?

On a related note, I think this guy won Twitter today and it’s not even 9 AM Eastern.

FlyingSkillet‏ @flyinskillet
Hey @Calebkeeter the Dixie Chicks are looking for a guitar player for their Pyongyang show.

72 minutes

While the media once more goes through its futile routine of attempting to push gun control on a population that absolutely is not having it, the more important lesson to be learned is the incredible tardiness of the police response. It seems the old joke about how when seconds count, the police are minutes away needs to be updated; in an emergency situation, you can be certain the police will be there to pick up the pieces in just 72 minutes.

A partial transcript of the full scanner audio:

  • Minute 15: they have identified room 135 on 32nd floor. But then reported 29th and 32nd floor. Security officer shot in leg on 32nd floor.
  • Minute 19: they had 4-man team on 32nd floor, another 4-man team arriving. Reporting definitively a 2nd shooter. Problem – police lacked rifles.
  • Minute 70: need roll call of personnel in Mandalay and strike team. 2 strike teams 13 officers total. All units SWAT use tac 1
  • Minute 71: control Zebra 20 – on suspects door – need everyone in hallway prepared to pop door — all units move back SWAT has explosive device — breach breach breach — SWOOOOSH!
  • Minute 72: has anyone covered airport — two shots fired in park area of New York New York
  • Minute 73: Have influx of returning ambulances any other area they need to respond to – Sending two teams Excaliber
  • Minute 74: Control 374 I have medics reporting getting shot at Tropicana — need strike team to the Tropica — announce yourself if you are going there — Unit 20 – entered room have one suspect down – Zebra has one suspect down in room

Deception at Mandalay Bay?

I saw the live reports on European TV. As a result of those early live reports, I remain very, very dubious that a single shooter, shooting from 300 yards away, caused 586 casualties, 59 of them fatal, in that amount of time. Even allowing for the elevation and the large size of the crowd, it strikes me as highly improbable (unless many of the injuries are related to trampling rather than shooting, that is plausible). At any rate, this independent journalist is not buying the Official Story:

SHOOTER COULD NOT HAVE BEEN AT MANDALAY BAY

The gunfire is too loud over the concert, it was happening at the concert . Windows are easy to kick out later.

HERE IS THE KEY VIDEO THAT DESTROYS THE LIE. This is just a file on this site, which you can right click and save. This video is evidence, there is no way the official story holds up against this. The gunfire was simply too loud and too local in reference to the concert for the official story to hold.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS –
1. If it was originating 1500 feet away at Mandalay Bay, it was not close enough to totally blast over the concert loud enough to cause the performers, who wear monitor equipment to block all sound, to stop playing. The concert was LOUD when the shooting happened. You simply can’t outdo a concert from that far away, no one would have heard it over the music, especially the performers, who have equipment that is designed to block the sound of the concert and let them hear only the sound of their instruments, as they are played in reference to the other instruments. The failure of this system is what did Mariah Carey in on New Years, when you are playing that “big” you have to be directly piped to the mixing board with all other sources of sound blocked. This would have prevented the performers from hearing anything. Why did they stop? ANSWER: Gunshots from above them on the same stage would have been loud enough. What happens on stage in the video is a supreme bust of the official lie.

POINT TWO: Audio recording equipment (even on a camcorder) automatically sets the level of the audio to optimal. The concert was LOUD, it is obvious because the crowd cannot be heard when the music is playing. Then gunfire clearly is louder than the concert, even though according to the official story it originated 1500 feet away. The automatic level control in the audio recorder proves the gunfire was simply too loud in relation to the music to have come from Mandalay Bay, it had to have originated above the speakers. That is the only way the automatic level control circuit would not have had the recording level choked back so far that the gunfire would not be heard. The recording should not have had the sound of gunfire so prominent, IF it even managed to record the sound of the gun at all. Obviously after the music cut the recorder would pick up the gunfire from that distance because it would automatically turn the record volume up.

POINT THREE:

Watch the video. The stage crew cuts everything to black, and then takes the stage lighting, points it directly out at the crowd, and turns it back on to illuminate the crowd. The shooting does not resume until this process is complete. This was a deliberate act that no one would have thought of off the cuff unless it was planned ahead of time. Without a doubt, someone on the stage crew was involved in this shooting. Interesting it is that the concert was called the “Route 91 harvest” and took place on route 91!

Here is what I think happened. The shooters were actually situated above the stage. The windows on Mandalay Bay were kicked out for the story line. I have a video that shows it all unfold. I do not think the singer knew what was going on. I believe it was people planted in the crew that did this.

Anyhow, my position is the same as it always is. I don’t know what actually happened. But over the years, I have learned that the truth is seldom all that closely related to the Official Story. The way in which the crowd was illuminated from the stage AFTER the shooting began is particularly troubling. What sort of idiot would ever do that? And who was responsible for it?

A brother’s lies

A body language analyst on the interview with Paddock’s brother.

She concludes that Paddock’s attack was likely political in nature rather than religious, and was more likely connected with Antifa than with ISIS.

90 percent for independence

To absolutely no one’s surprise, the Spanish attempts to stop the Catalan independence referendum completely backfired:

Catalan officials claimed 90{c6770088f688fedd109195fb76ded7bc5c58269bd213a4319575b4bd99e8e8ff} of 2.2 million voters had called for independence in an ‘illegal’ referendum blighted by violent scenes which left at least 888 people injured. World leaders condemned the brutal scenes after officials revealed that hundreds of protesters have been injured so far. Officers were seen kicking and stamping on protesters as they stormed buildings and seized ballot boxes.

Footage captured in the village of Sarria de Ter in the province of Girona showed authorities using an axe to smash down the doors of a polling station where Catalan president Carles Puigdemont was due to cast his vote.  He said the region had won the right to become an independent state with the referendum results due in a few days. And in Barcelona, the region’s capital, officers fired rubber bullets at thousands of protesters demonstrating against their votes being denied.

Now, I am as dubious as anyone else about the accuracy of the reported vote. But seriously, who on Earth is advising the Spanish government? One would think they actually wanted Catalonia to successfully succeed, given how inept and counterproductive their crackdown was.

20+ dead in Vegas shootings

Automatic fire at a country music festival near Mandalay Bay Hotel. Multiple shooters reported and five hotels on lockdown. Attack happened while Jason Aldean was playing. Video of the first two minutes of the attack.

Confirmed reports of 50+ dead, 200+ injured. The clattering sounded like AK-47s on full auto.

No reports yet on whether it is Muslims, Black Lives Matter, or someone else. But it looks like Religion of Peace. ISIS featured the Las Vegas Strip in a video four months ago.

UPDATE: Las Vegas sheriff confirms 20+ dead.

UPDATE: Some of the witnesses are saying the shooters were Mexicans, not Muslim Arabs, and they threatened the crowd before the shooting. The competence and body count is in line with that suggestion.

UPDATE: Possible suspect: Geary Danley from Fayetteville, Arkansas​. He is married to Marilou Danley. Geary is a fan of the The Rachel Maddow Show​ and liked several pages on Facebook​ including Thank You Obama, Anti-Trump Army, Progressive Day, Organizing for Action, Not My President, Proud to Be A Democrat, Fight Trump, Boycott All Things Trump, and Impeach Trump.

UPDATE: The Las Vegas Police Department said the suspected gunman, who was believed to be a local resident, was on 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay hotel. Police responded to the scene, engaged him and he is now dead. Law enforcement officials identified the suspect as 64-year-old Stephen Paddock.