Brickmuppet has now done the Otaku hajj.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 07:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Jessi's description of Umineko no Naku Koro ni makes it sound a lot like The Seventh Guest. (Probably coincidence, though.)

Of course, you all know the story of The Seventh Guest, right?

Group blogs seem to be all the rage these days. Sea Slugs has recruited two new members, and absorbed their old blogs into the collective history (I think).

And the Hountoni-tachi have merged their separate blogs into a single one. (Though it's not particularly obvious why.)

Somehow the group blog way has never attracted me. Don't think I could really be comfortable doing it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 06:11 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 I agree with you about a group blog - you seem more of a "lone wolf" to me.  But how a "blog ring" with your favorite correspondents?  You could call it "The Order of the Duck"... 

Posted by: Siergen at August 15, 2009 08:35 PM (PdeFZ)

2 It isn't possible to order ducks. They don't sort well.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 15, 2009 08:56 PM (+rSRq)

3 It isn't possible to order ducks. They don't obey.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 15, 2009 08:57 PM (+rSRq)

4 Isn't duck sorting an NP-complete problem?

I too got some 7th Guest vibes from Umineko no Naku Koro ni in the beginning. I haven't been terribly impressed with Umineko so far, though, and unlike 7th Guest there aren't any awesome strategy puzzles to keep my interest.

Reminded me a bit of The Westing Game, too, at first, although that story was by far the better of the two.

Posted by: 0rion at August 15, 2009 09:24 PM (k9G8D)

5 I don't know about "The Seventh Guest", but the setup reminds me about Agatha Christie's book that I only know by its Russian title, approximately translated back into English as  "10 Little Children of African Descent".

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 15, 2009 10:47 PM (/ppBw)

6

Yeah, that's this one. (I can't believe she used that title.)

Usually these days it's referred to as "Ten little indians", which is considered a slightly more polite version of the nursery rhyme to which she was referring.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 15, 2009 11:25 PM (+rSRq)

7 See, in Russian, "negrityonok" means "a child of negroid race" and nothing else (an adult would be "negr", and "negroid" used in scholarly publications). Whereas the adjective that means "black" ("chernyiy") is offensive when applied to people, because it's a racial slur for inhabitants of Caucasus. This invesion tripped me so badly in America, and it's not explained in any textbooks.

Japanese is probably full of likewise traps too.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at August 15, 2009 11:44 PM (/ppBw)

8 "The Seventh Guest" Good Lord.  Next you're going to be telling us stories about how you listened to music on cylinders....

Posted by: Tiberius at August 17, 2009 05:55 AM (TXmvK)

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Our friend Brickmuppet is taking his second vacation in Japan. As with his first, disaster stalks him, but at least it's going better this time. The first time, he got to the place he expected to be staying and found out it had burned down. This time, Japan greeted him his first night with a typhoon and a Richter 7.1 earthquake.

While there, he should visit McDonalds. They have a different menu, and they're selling this there. (Via.) I think that's an egg on the top. And who ever heard of McDonalds putting bacon on their Big Macs?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 02:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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ANN says that there's going to be another Sekirei series. (Could be worse. Could be an Akikan sequel...)

I only watched about two episodes of Sekirei, and looked at maybe a hundred pages of the manga, and it never really worked for me. The fundamental "there can be only one" conceit bothered me when applied to all those gorgeous women. I don't like seeing women die.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 01:37 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The Brickmuppet is not happy with the current naming scheme for American CVN's.

Ubu links to an article in the Guardian which talks about that exact same subject, and then suggests new themes for naming. (why not a "USS Lina Inverse", for instance?) Coincidence? Great minds thinking alike?

I would point out one of the strangest names for ships in the history of the US Navy: USS George Washington Carver. It was a Poseidon missile sub. Considering that Carver was a pacifist, naming a boomer after him was a bit incongruous.

At least the ships of the gator navy still have names that mean something. LHA's are named after battles in which the Marines participated. And most of the LHD's are, too. The ones that don't are named after famous ships (Essex, Wasp).

And there's going to be what amounts to a light carrier called "USS America" in the gators, too.

There are some commitments that shouldn't be broken. In WWII there was a destroyer escort named "USS England" which was named after ensign John C. England, who died at Pearl Harbor.

In May, 1944, over a two week period USS England used the hedgehog to sink six Japanese submarines. In response, Admiral King radio'd "There'll always be an England in the US Navy."

But there isn't. There was a guided missile frigate named "USS England" beginning in 1960, but it was decomissioned in 1994 and now there is no ship with that name.

There's a Wasp (it's an LHD) but there's no Hornet in the US Navy. There's no longer a Saratoga in the US Navy. There's no longer a Lexington.There's no longer a Yorktown. The three greatest battles of the American revolution are no longer commemorated that way. (Lexington was the opening shot of the war. Saratoga was the big surprise win, the first time a major British force surrendered. Yorktown was the last battle.) Maybe, if we're lucky, someday the gators will get those names too.

And the greatest indignity? There's a USS Enterprise, but it's a building in Illinois.

I'm not sure I want to see USS Ferocious or USS Bloodthirsty or USS Kick-them-in-the-balls; the British can have those kinds of names. But ship names should really mean something if you ask men to go out and fight and maybe die in them. They should have names that inspire, names worth fighting for.

I shudder to think that someday one of our carriers will be called "USS Bill Clinton". But I fear it'll happen. They already named ships for Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush Sr. Clinton is next in line.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at 07:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm not a big one for linking to YouTube, but this one really is a lot of fun. They created what amounts to a giant carbide cannon and use the shock wave from it to knock over structures from a great distance.

Actually, what they're doing is to charge it with oxy-acetylene mix, and then setting it off with a spark. The result is a high intensity vortex, which travels in a straight line. It's pretty neat.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 05:51 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Kabitzin is looking for a co-blogger.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 03:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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ANN says that Hatsune Miku will perform on stage on August 22. And then they say:

The event organizers have not explained how Hatsune will make her appearance.

I'm sure it'll be the same technology that was used to let the Gorrillaz perform in front of a live audience.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 11:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...and it still isn't done.

Sixten has figured out what message KyoAni is sending the fans with this.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 08:14 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Kabitzin has a poll about Endless 8.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in linky at 08:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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