Pete asks how big a problem illegal streaming is. Obviously I can't provide an exact answer, but there is some information available which may give some indication.
BakaBT's front page says that they have 160,568 registered users, of which 65,286 are "power users".
A power user is someone who has an exchange rate of at least 0.5. (It used to be 1.0 but that ended up being too restrictive.) Power users are therefore significant and probably regular users of the site.
On the "Top 10" page (which may not be accessible if you aren't logged in) the #1 uploader has uploaded 3.02 petabytes and the top downloader has downloaded 41 terabytes.
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But these are almost by definition the people who do not use illegal streaming sites. If you can and do torrent, why bother with streaming (which gets its material from same torrents).
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at March 11, 2016 10:44 PM (XOPVE)
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I didn't recognize that distinction. My apologies.
That is a Kawasaki C-1 transport. What I want to know is, how did they get it through the Gate?
I'm getting less and less enthused with this series as it goes along. It's getting harder and harder to give a damn. This episode mostly refocused attention on Lelei, and that still didn't help.
UPDATE: I'm also getting tired of deus ex machinas.
Lelei presented her paper and it got a positive response. In other words, she passed. But she isn't a master yet because the current situation has to be resolved, or so they say. Why? There's no excuse in character for why that should be. My guess is that if she's accepted as a master, she has to stay at Rondel and they (the director and original author) don't want her to drop out of the story at this time.
Baloney.
UPDATE: Also,
we saw her fighting against her sister, tossing around energy blasts and other things. I don't believe that when the last two attempts were made on her life that she'd just freeze and look scared. She should have blown Shandy to bits, in particular.
UPDATE: Some serious carping, including spoilers, below the fold.
Word sure traveled fast about Pina's imprisonment. Granted there were a few days passing here and there. But why was the order to move the paras so slow in coming? The decision was made in the prior episode, long before the current series of attacks got started at the Jade Palace.
Also, when you said "deus ex" I expected you to carp on the one that had me rolling my eyes. "I took advantage of the bridge repairs to send a messenger." On cue, breathless messenger shows up.
I think they're cutting a LOT out, and this mess is resulting.
Other points:
1. If everyone was waiting for an attack, why didn't the old wizard get splatted?
2. Itami and his group are famous, so the wizard probably didn't know what a 9mm was, but knew it was something being pointed at him by a guy who killed a dragon. And there was a god's avatar smirking in the background. Yeah, I'd think twice.
Word sure traveled fast about Pina's imprisonment.
I don't think so. Shandy was brainwashed, and the bad guy knew it would motivate her. I think the bad guy didn't know it was actually going to happen; he lied to Shandy just the same way he lied to everyone else.
Itami had a bead drawn and plenty of time. At at least had enough time to say "I won't make it in time" and then to have a multitude of magic blasts cast.
Posted by: topmaker at March 11, 2016 05:54 PM (6stZH)
They took the wings and tail off, then pushed or pulled it through. They can get multiple tanks abreast through the Gate, a cargo plane fuselage should fit just fine. Then they just reassemble the thing on the other side.
Posted by: Wonderduck at March 11, 2016 09:56 PM (KiM/Y)
I'm not sure I believe that it could be disassembled like that, and reassembled again, and that it would be sufficiently strong afterwards to be able to fly safely.
In particular, it may be that the wings could be taken off, but I don't believe the tail could be.
I was willing to grant the show the possibility of Phantoms being handled that way, but a transport jet is another matter.
It's done to C-130s for inspection and maintenance purposes. It's not rot done every day of course, but the tail section is "simply" bolted on. Sure, you need a crane to remove it, but if you're moving tanks, planes and helicopters through the Gate, a crane or two is just another vehicle.
Posted by: Wonderduck at March 11, 2016 11:47 PM (KiM/Y)
Today's guest star is known in Japan as ano puuru ("That pool") or rei no puuru ("The usual pool").
Here's a NSFW post which describes it as "The Most Infamous Swimming Pool in Japanese Pornography". It's been recreated several times in Minecraft, and it's out there as a mesh for standard 3D renderers.
(By the way, if anyone can tell me where those girl models came from, I'd be very grateful. I'm looking through the DAZ3D marketplace right now but it's just too big; I don't want to wade through 150 pages of thumbnails. Based on the NSFW web page where I found that image, the artist used Poser to set up the models, and then exported them into a program called Vue to create the background and render the image.)
(UPDATE: They are variations of a figure called "NearMe Custom".)
I remember seeing a mesh of The Pool offered on DLSite for maybe $5, but last night I tried to find it again and couldn't. Maybe it's been deleted?
Anyway, given this degree of fame, and its association with softcore (and hardcore) porn, it's hardly a surprise it's also heavily featured in fan art. Let's take a look.
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Honestly, the only thing I like about Japanese porn is the promotional photo shoots featuring the actresses. Which was sufficient for me to recognize "the pool" when you posted this, but I hadn't seen it often enough to know it was an industry cliché.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at March 10, 2016 11:05 PM (ZlYZd)
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I don't recall the pool, although obviously all those artists above had an idea. I mostly feed off Graphis, which uses random pools in hotels and resorts. BTW, Minami and Isuzu sneaked in twice each (not that I'm complaining).
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at March 10, 2016 11:16 PM (XOPVE)
I suspect one of the reasons That Pool is popular in porn shoots is privacy. It's entirely enclosed with frosted glass. That also means they can heat the air, so the models don't get goosebumps and so on.
And since it's part of a condo, now not occupied by anyone, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the rest of the place also gets featured in porn. Plus the current owner is keeping it precisely for photo shoots, so that makes it easy to book. And there's no resident to get in the way and cause trouble.
Given how heavy water is, I agree. But I've seen a drastically bigger example of that kind of engineering: the Venetian Casino in Vegas.
The ground floor, with really high ceilings, is the main casino and it's wide open and spacious. Above that, on the second floor, is a shopping mall, and the entire mall is built around a large number of interconnecting canals full of water. You can ride a gondola with an oarsman moving it around. There must be several hundred tons of water in the canals, and it must have been quite an engineering challenge to make that work without the building collapsing, especially since they couldn't load up the casino with supporting columns.
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I'm sure that frosted glass helps with proper lighting as well. It's not as easy as it might look.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at March 11, 2016 10:14 AM (XOPVE)
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Yes, the frosting turns the windows into a giant softbox, terrific for photoraphy. Models love frosting...
-j
Posted by: J Greely at March 11, 2016 01:05 PM (ZlYZd)
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Mmmmmm... frosting.
I recognize it, but mostly because Mr. J-List features it on his blog a couple times a year.
Posted by: Mikeski at March 11, 2016 06:51 PM (bj8Y8)
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I knew I had seen it before and I finally stumbled across *where*: ero-cosplay model Chouzuki Maryou/Mariposa apparently did a photoshoot there sometime last year. There's a photo on Sankaku Complex's photo site with a lot of likes, so it pops up at the top of the page quite a bit.
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Does it say something about me that the most disturbing thing in that photo is how the handrails/exit would lead you right into the window? Shouldn't they be at the end of the pool, leading to the chaise lounges?
My bright idea was to choose a series of themes corresponding to keywords on Gelbooru in order to select pictures for successive cheesecake posts. My first idea was "elf". The result was page after page of bondo, torture, and rape pictures. It's said that no matter what you're thinking of, someone has a fetish for it, but I didn't really think that the main fetish for elves was such dreadful violence. It's stuff like this that gives us all such a bad reputation.
The second idea was "multiple girls"; the third was "maid" and in each case I couldn't find anything I could reasonably post here.
So we finally got to my fourth choice, "sword". And here we go:
The electorate is furious. It's furious with Washington, Wall Street, hedge funds, big banks, lobbyists, fat cats in corner offices—all of them cutting special deals for themselves while average folks are left out. Voters know their real incomes are down. They know their retirements are in jeopardy, their kids are loaded with college debt, and everybody is looking at a tough job market. We are not in a recession, mind you, and employment is actually growing. No matter. All across the country, voters are saying, "We're mad as hell and we aren't gonna take it anymore.†That's why the most damning indictment this year is to be called an "establishment candidate.†The second most damning is to receive Mitt Romney's endorsement. If there was a ballot option for "tar-and-feather the lousy SOBs,†it would win in a landslide.
AND... it's another girl-of-the-week episode. This week's girl is Ruru.
After Haruhiko steps on her, she wants to be big. So a deus-ex-machina shows up and grants her wish.
I got 8:30 into this episode and stopped watching. If this is one cour, they only have two episodes left to explain that device from way back in ep 2 and to start telling us what's really going on. If it's two cours, then it's being painfully stretched. Hell, it's already painfully stretched. (When the planning for this series began, there was only one novel available. Usually anime made from light novels will adapt three or even four volumes in one cour.)
This entire series has been filler. Of course, I shouldn't be that surprised since this is from the studio that brought us "Endless 8".
Actually, your comment would be deleted. For all their pretensions to being "open-minded" and valuing "diversity", they seem quick on the deletion trigger these days. I've had two comments deleted in the last week, and neither of them were abusive or involved any invective.
One was in an abortion thread (pro, of course) where I pointed out the similiarities between the anti-abortion movement and the anti-gun movement in terms of tactics. It lasted about ten minutes.
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I agree with Steven that any such comment on Metafilter would either generate an excrement storm or merely be deleted.
Double-plus-badthink cannot be tolerated, you know.
In minor fairness to the Wachowski brothers, I don't think their insanity is to the point where they are completely dysfunctional. I assume that they are able to interact with more-or-less sane people without a lot of difficulty.
As I've mentioned to other people, every family can have a crazy uncle or two but if all of your relatives are insane then nothing good can come of it.
Posted by: Mark A. Flacy at March 09, 2016 07:25 PM (ATlQg)
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CG got at least two entries: Rin as #1 and Minami as #14. Not sure how the latter ended in the surf in her socks and shoes, however.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at March 08, 2016 11:33 AM (XOPVE)
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6 is the girls from Dagashi Kashi
8 is Super Sonico
9 is Erza and Lucy from Fairy Tail
10 is GATE, of course
13 is Lucy from Fairy Tail
16 is Kancolle
6"Oh, is that what they are?" Sort of. Boob size seems to be derived from how well-armed and armored a ship is. That's why refits are usually depicted a bit curvier. The newer ships, at least carriers and battleships, tend to be bustier as a result, but I'm not sure if that's true about the other ship types.
For my readers who use the Mac, it's being reported that the bittorrent program "Transmission" version 2.90 was infected with a really vicious ransomware program.
The Transmission people are saying that if you're using 2.90 you should immediately upgrade it to 2.91.
UPDATE: Actually, you should upgrade to 2.92. 2.91 wasn't infected. 2.92 deletes any infected files left over from 2.90.
Transmission 2.90 was released on February 28. Per Palo Alto Networks, the malware-infected version was released with a different signature on March 4. If you had upgraded to Transmission 2.90 before March 4, you might have an uninfected copy. Upgrade to 2.92 anyway, of course...
Apple has now disqualified the signature used on the bad version, so if you have a copy of the bad installer you won't be able to install it.
Well, it's about that time again. Let's see what horrors await us. As usual there are a bunch of shows that don't even merit mention. Of the others:
Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta? -- another competitor for "absurdly long title". This one is about a hikkikomori who happens to be a gorgeous, stacked girl who confesses online to Our Hero. He and his friends decide to help socialize her and get her out into the world. She thinks she's a magical girl, and Our Hero's friends who are helping out are all cute girls too. So it's another high school harem show. Pass.
Usakame -- is a spinoff of Teekyuu, a show I've been meaning to check out but haven't gotten around to. Teekyuu is a 3-minute gag show, and I assume this will be, too.
There's a new Gundam show and a new Macross show. The Macross show is about 5 girls in an idol unit battling alien invaders and snore... Oh, sorry about that.
Kyoukai no Rinne gets a sequel. I haven't watched it (and won't) but I gather it's about the wacky hijinks of a death god trying to get by in the world. Yeah, those death gods are just loads of fun, aren't they?
Bakuon!! is about a group of shapely high school girls who love motorcycles. It seems to be based on a game of some kind, likely played on smart phones, so it's another extended advertisement. I predict it features a lot of fan service. (Though it might be motorcycle fan service rather than girl fan service. What kind of high school girl can afford to buy a Ducati?)
Shounen Maid is about a cross-dressing grade school boy and... blech.
Joker Game is nostalgia for the good old days of 1937 in Japan when men were men and the Army ran everything. Good times!
We need more idol shows! Gekidol is here to fill that need.
Anyone up for an anime about Phoenix Wright, defense attorney? Objection!
We need more cute-girls-doing-cute-things shows: Pan de Peace
We need more shows about girls with big boobs! Onigiri There's probably something Freudian about that name for this show and I don't want to know what it is! Quote:
Anime adaptation of CyberStep's MMORPG. Onigiri thrusts its players into mystical Japan, a land filled with mythical creatures of Japanese legend. Starting as a lone Oni, players fight against the malevolent influence of the Kamikui as their miasma spreads over the land. 8 NPCs, each with their own distinct personality and skills {and impressive figures -- SCDB} ally themselves with the player to help build a legend, and quell the evil that has arisen. As you grow stronger together, so do the bonds binding you to each other.
How in hell do you do an MMORPG like that, with every player wandering around with their own harem? Sounds like a setup for a single player game. Anyway, it's the latest anime fantasy-harem adaptation.
Hai-Furimight be good but probably won't be. Two high school girls join a military training academy. The girls aren't stacked or at least their school uniforms don't emphasize their figures, so it likely isn't a source of cheap thrills.
Nothing here reaches out and grabs me. I'll give some of them one ep: Onigiri, Netoge no Yome etc., Pan de Peace, Bakuon, Hai-Furi. It's barely possible that Hai-Furi will be worth watching for characters and story. The others? The search for cheap thrills continues because Christ knows there's nothing else there.
UPDATE: Knowing me, I'll probably end up watching the entire season of Bakuon. I looked it up and "bakuon" is the sound of an engine revving. I also looked up all the makes of motorcycles, and aside from the Ducati they're all Japanese. So my guess is that the meganekko, who rides the Ducati, is probably a rich girl.
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The Phoenix Wright thing caused me to realize that I'm not aware of any anime that are murder mystery series. An anime take on Columbo could be awesome.
Posted by: Boviate at March 06, 2016 09:26 PM (XRvFv)
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...You know what, I totally forgot about Detective Conan. I worked too much this weekend, my brain is fried.
Posted by: Boviate at March 06, 2016 09:42 PM (XRvFv)
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Anime being anime, most of the detective/cop shows wind up being comedies, supernatural series, or sci-fi. Dirty Pair, Patlabor, You're Under Arrest, Burn Up!, Ghost in the Shell:SAC, Rin - Daughters of Mnemosyne... Not much in the Columbo vein.
When They Cry (Higurashi no naku koro ni) is a serial about murders. And probably as far away from Columbo as you can get and still be that... (Umineko etc... probably is, too, but I haven't seen it.)
Posted by: Mikeski at March 07, 2016 12:09 AM (LIUK5)
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Bakuon!! is actually a manga. (The game on the website is probably a flash promotion.) The meganekko is Hijiri Minowa, daughter of the CEO of the Minowa group. She wants to be a renegade and quotes James Dean. Since she's too young to have a motorcycle license, she rides in a sidecar on the motorcycle her butler rides. First it was an Augusta F4 750 series Oro, then she switched to the Ducati 750SS (it's on the website at her profile). Her butler reassures them that the Ducati's frequent breakdowns are a myth, then has a replacement helicoptered in when it does break down. The manga goes beyond fan service into motorcycle porn. The character profiles for the anime even have the engine sounds.
Posted by: muon at March 07, 2016 04:47 AM (IUHrD)
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Well, I don't know if this counts as "girl fan service" but it does seem to be "yuri fan service". Yikes!
