Just in time to remind everyone that the war isn't over, an EgyptAir A320 flying from Paris to Cairo has dropped off of radar and didn't arrive in Cairo. Odds are it crashed in the eastern Med, and of course we all know the most likely reason why, don't we? 69 people on board.

I do hope I'm wrong, of course.

UPDATE: It takes two to make a peace, but only one to make a war.

UPDATE: How long before someone in a position of authority assures us that terrorism was not involved? I say even money it happens within the next 12 hours.

UPDATE: Here's a surprise: a French official says, "It's too soon to rule anything out." Of course, these days the French government is no longer so concerned with anti-Muslim backlash.

UPDATE next morning: Much to my surprise the consensus now is that it probably was terrorism. My guess: it was a bomb smuggled on board, not one set off by a passenger. I don't think this one will be "crazy pilot".

But it definitely crashed. They've already found a bit of debris, though the search is only beginning. (It takes a while for ships to reach the area.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 08:49 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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John Kovalic is a very witty man and a very good comic artist, with a very distinctive style. His original claim to fame is a comic called "Dork Tower". It updates online when he gets around to it, based on how busy he is with paying work. He also brings out volumes of it, which are not collections of the online stuff. That, too, is "when it happens".

He's a terrible punster. Just awful. Monumental. And I want one of these.

He's buddies with Wil Wheaton, which is kind of cool. They go way back. (Probably met at a gaming convention.)

What he is probably most famous for now is doing the art for various games, in particular the Munchkin series from Steve Jackson. Jackson and Kovalic have a very long and successful business relationship going back at least 15 years, and at this point Kovalic has done more than 5000 Munchkin cards for Jackson, plus working on other things (e.g. Chez Geek). He's also worked for other publishers, about which more later.

One of the more recent versions of Munchkin is "Munchkin Zombie" and there was one card in it that Kovalic simply could not bring himself to do. He writes about it here.

What I find interesting about this is that he has done "kids in danger" before, but that was a long time ago. In particular he did the art for a game called "Kobolds ate my baby". It's a very silly game. (No, I haven't played it; I don't do that anymore.) But the original cover art is a kobold chasing a woman carrying a baby in her arms. And the baby is reaching out to the kobold.

That was long before his daughter was born, and I wonder how he feels when he thinks back to it? (Probably something like "Well that was then and this is now.")

All I can say is that I'm very happy for John and Judith that their daughter (now 7) is happy and healthy and growing up nicely.

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These characters are from "Idolmaster -- Cinderella Girls", and if that's how things are in that series, I may have to watch it.

(UPDATE: Actually, I'd watch this one, too. Thanks, Craig!)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Cheesecake at 10:27 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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This frame comes from the second-to-last episode of GATE. Paratroopers are about to relieve the Rose Knights defending the Jade Palace and this soldier is about to open up on the legionaries. And we see him flip that switch to its upright position.

That rifle has a triple-burst mode (we see Kuribayashi using the triple-burst mode in the last episode) and clearly that's what the "3" means. It's the other symbol, on the top, I'm curious about. What is that symbol and what does it mean?

It's possible it's タ ta in katakana. It's also possible it's 夕 which is a kanji that seems to be pronounced yuube and means "evening". But I'm not sure about either of them because they aren't exactly the same as what's in that image. I'm assuming the symbol on the rifle means "full auto" but I can't figure out how to get there from that symbol.

Anyone know?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at 02:19 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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It's time for the school festival, and all the clubs are supposed to put on events. The Bike club decides to put on a race and somehow Hijiri ends up in charge of it, and she's got big plans and strange ideas. (Ep 6 was the setup for this race but I didn't write about it last week. Sorry!)

Her plan is to turn the school itself into a track, around which they will run 10 laps. The stairs will have boards on them to make them smooth.

(By the way, word-of-god is that "Raimu" is really named Lime, and I'm going to call her that from now on. Her name, "Lime", shows up in writing in this episode.)

In order to get the other students interested enough to watch the race, they get permission to run a book and then they go around the school trying to get people to wager on the race. First visit is Rin's class, and she challenges a classmate to name the four domestic Japanese motorcycle makers. "Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, and... um... Ah! Mr. Harley David-san." (That's right, of course. Nailed it in one!)

So it's time for the race. Hane has modified her bike by adding mirrors, signal lights, and extra mufflers. (Actually, Lime did it for Hane at the end of ep 6.) Onsa is riding a special two-stroke bike her father used to ride. Rin is on her Katana but she's added a couple of mods.

And Lime is riding a Kawasaki scooter as a handicap, provided by Onsa's father.

Hijiri is announcing the race, in a rather... interesting... costume standing on a rather... unusual... motorcycle.

And they're off! And Lime flips her scooter immediately and seems to be out of the race. The other three start off pretty slowly, being cautious and getting used to the track. But competitive spirit will out and they go faster and faster each trying to get into the lead. By the final lap it's pretty impressive and they're starting to take chances.

Coming into the final lap Hane is way behind and instead of going down the ramp slowly, she takes a jump. Her bike seems to have wings. She lands perfectly and catches up. Meanwhile, Lime finally recovered and got back into the race, making back up the couple of laps she lost. Heading for the finish line, all four bikes are very close. Then Lime's engine explodes (for reasons too complicated to explain) and she tumbles through the sky. The other three make it a photo finish.

While the photo is being evaluated, the audience begins to express its opinions. To each other. Violently.

So who won? That would be telling... All I can say is that it wasn't Harley David-san.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:17 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I seem to have spoiled Wonderduck's fun regarding this week's F1 race in Barcelona. I'm very sorry; I thought I had waited long enough, but apparently not.

Next time I'll keep my typing fingers in my pocket.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 08:05 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 I generally don't watch the 6am or 7am races live... I'm not usually awake quite yet.  It's the races at midnight or 1am that I'll usually watch, even though they'll end at 4am Pond Central. 

Posted by: Wonderduck at May 15, 2016 09:17 PM (XQ5ac)

2 Even assuming Wonderduck was watching it live, not all his readers were.  We do exist

Posted by: David at May 15, 2016 10:31 PM (YHSti)

3 Thank you for piling on and making me feel even worse.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 16, 2016 06:41 AM (+rSRq)

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No sign of any baby ducks yet this year, which is a bit surprising. But we've got three goslings, which first showed up about three days ago. I tossed some bread out for them and they dutifully posed for your pleasure.

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As we all know, high school girls can defeat any enemy that doesn't have tentacles. But against kaiju they need a bit of help.

Ragnastrike Angels! Earth is invaded from space and nothing seems able to defeat the giant aliens, known as Fiarem. So as an emergency measure a group of high school girls are recruited as a special defense force. When given technomagic treatment they become 38 meters tall and can fight the Fiarem on even terms.

Well, except...

This is a series of 30-second ads running in weekly sequence which are pimping a computer game that runs on PC, iOS, and Android. And we just reached episode 7, and...

**EPISODE 1**

Earth is being invaded, and our main character Ayano watches a bombardment.

**EPISODE 2**

There's an attack on our city! Send out Ayano!

The problem is that Ayano is sacked out under a kotatsu.

**EPISODE 3**

So they send another one of the girls to wake her up.

She tries a tickling attack, but it backfires and she ends up asleep, too. (I wonder if there's a problem with carbon monoxide?)

Skipping ahead, the team tsundere gets them both up and back to base. And now it's time to become giants!

**EPISODE 4**

The trapdoor she's standing on opens and she falls into a technomagical pool.

And gets hit with a technomagical beam, and gets big.

**EPISODE 5**

Three girls are going on this mission, but first they have to dress.

**EPISODE 6**

Into combat! (About damned time, too.)

And there's the enemy!

Combat? You were expecting to see combat? Actually, there's about three seconds of combat but it's too motion-blurred to see anything.

**EPISODE 7**

The team tsundere chews out the girls who went on the mission because they ran away. And then we learn, it couldn't be helped because in order to use their special powers (!),

And there you have it. You, (yes, YOU!) are needed to save the Earth from the invading space aliens. You have to romance all these gorgeous girls and make them love you, and then they can win their battles! But if you don't, the aliens will win and the human race will be exterminated! Are you ready for this challenge? The human race needs you!

Well, there have been stupider concepts for games. At least it ain't Ikki Tousen...

UPDATE: Here's a youtube that does show some of the combat from the game. It also shows the powerup which is referred to in that last picture above.

And as shouldn't be a surprise, the tsundere is the only one of the girls who is flat-chested.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 05:08 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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As nice as my Kindle is, and it's very nice (8.9" Kindle Fire) the big problem is that a lot of the books I want to read are not yet available for it.

Like The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. A lot of the classic Heinlein books are available for the Kindle but not that one.

And A Night in the Lonesome October.

And just now I had a really strong urge to reread Jack of Eagles. It's one of the lesser known novels by James Blish, but it's really good.

On the other hand, I just discovered that The Demolished Man is available for the Kindle. So maybe I'll read that tonight.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Entertainment at 08:15 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I know this will come as a shock to some of you, but there's more to life than catgirls. There are also fox girls, who are sometimes kitsune and sometimes tenko. And they're especially awesome if they have more than one tail! (Today's search term is "fox tail".)

"If you make a fool of yourself in front of a cat, he will sneer at you, if you are sober; he will leave the room if you are drunk. If you make a fool of yourself in front a dog, he will make a fool of himself, too.”-- Chuck Jones

A cat loves you for what you can give it. A dog loves you for what you are.

With a fox-head cutout instead of a cat-head cutout!

Daww... don't you feel like giving her a great big hug?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Cheesecake at 03:24 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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