Does anybody else remember that Battlebots show that was on Comedy Central a few years back? I really enjoyed it a lot, because who doesn't enjoy robots banging the crap out of each other, pulverizers and killsaws tagging the unwary robot drivers, and in general geek mayhem?

The whole "turning crap into functioning (and sometimes useful) machinery" thing got me hooked on Battlebots as well as a Junkyard Wars. I like American Chopper for similar reasons, except there you get a lot of high-priced machinery and heavy doses of the Teutels screaming in entertaining fashion at each other (and their employees - long live Vinny!)

Anyway, what the hell was my point? Oh yeah, Battlebots.

This is why I find myself in Rochester, NY for a weekend. I'm at the two-day Rochester Robot Rampage, sponsored by the Battlebots folks. Two days of robot carnage.

God, I'm such a geek, aren't I? Ah well. Such is life.

Posted by: Harry Callahan at 05:15 AM | Comments (13)
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From Yahoo news

(Kyodo) _ Sadamasa Arikawa, a special effects director known for such works as the original "Godzilla" film and the TV series "Ultraman," died of lung cancer Thursday at a hospital in Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, his family said Friday. He was 80.

Arikawa, a native of Tokyo, made his debut as a special effects director in "Godzilla" that premiered in Japanese theaters in 1954 before working on many other Toho Studios movies.

He later helped produce the popular Japanese TV series "Ultraman" in the 1970s and early 1980s.

The article is wrong. Arikawa wasnÂ’t the special effects director on the original Godzilla. Rather, he served as an uncredited cameraman, eventually helming the FX on some later Godzillas films (including the really very silly, though loved it as a child, Son of Godzilla)

Nor was Arikawa a producer on Ultraman. Both the credits the writer tries to give him, in fact, belong to Eiji Tsuburaya. Someone just got their Godzilla FX directors mixed up.

That sucks. Now, I’m sure Arikawa was a hell of a guy, but his accomplishments were, appropriately, more “Son of Godzilla” level to Tsuburaya’s “Godzilla.” more...

Posted by: Dr. Reo Symes at 09:24 PM | Comments (30)
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Multiple layers of painstaking editorial fact-checking, huh?

Well-- that's true, if it's a Republican or conservative activist making a claim. You can bet in that case that Lexis/Nexis gets fired up and searchin'.

But when a longtime protest-whore and ANSWER member represents herself as just an awww-shucks apolitical schoolteacher who finally decided to oppose the war -- a mainstream kinda gal, in other words -- the Washington Post prints her claims uncritically, and without any sort of fact checking at all.

Seems bloggers have one advantage over those genius j-school graduates in the press corps. Some of us know how to type "www.google.com" in an address bar and then do a search of a person's name.

It has long been claimed, even by conservatives, that press bias was not intentional, and was rather simply an effect of ideological blindness and a "willingness to believe." I am strongly beginning to doubt that.

Does anyone-- ANYONE -- think that if the WaPo interviewed a pro-life protester who claimed to have never gone to prostesting first-base before in her life (assuming they even deigned to cover such a protest, of course) they would have run her claims without checking?

Our fair-and-balanced press is determined to find a "mainstream," moderate, mom-and-pop kind of uprising against the Iraq War... and war as a general matter.

And goddamnit, if they can't find that sort of popular uprising they'll just have to help ANSWER invent it, won't they?

Thanks to Traffic Non-Santa.

Posted by: Ace at 02:51 PM | Comments (36)
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Hey, let's admit it. When Republicans took over as a governing majority, they began acting like a governing majority.

Not in ways like boldy pushing forth needed reforms to the dismal operations of government. No, I mean porking out worse than Robert Byrd at a Klan Kook-Out.

First came the outsider Reagan, then the outsider Gingrich took on the party establishment and took control himself. Both men accomplished some things, but left an awful lot of work to be done.

Bush, an establishment type if ever there was one, is in dire political straits. And he's being challenged by fed-up fiscal conservatives. The natives are no longer restless, they're in open revolt.

The Republican Study Committee in the House has compiled a wish list of areas where funding should be outright revoked, or at least frozen. This grand bête noire, titled "Operation Offset," suggests ways to save $139 billion in 2006 alone, and $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. We would be happy to take all the RSC's suggestions, and just running our eyes along the list, with the word "eliminate" repeated over and over, is enough to thrill our hearts.

$1.2 trillion over ten years. Think about that.

NRO is down on the chances of success of this initiative... but business-as-usual, tax-and-spend (or, in the case of Republicans, borrow-and-spend) politicians can occasionally be dragged kicking in screaming towards fiscal responsibility when the public demands action on this decidedly un-sexy, non-hot-button topic.

They did in 1992 and 1996, gathering around the strange and mercurial figure of Ross Perot.

There is, I think, majority support for a serious anti-pork initiative. But some majorities fail to coalesce without sort of prominent leader to push the issue.

There's no single big-name leader for this cause now -- although McCain could be, I suppose, if he wanted to be -- but the blogosphere can be a player in this fight. It was, after all, one French schoolteacher's blog that galvanized France's opposition to the E.U. treaty.

The Truth Laid Bear is leading this charge.

Posted by: Ace at 12:07 PM | Comments (55)
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The Japanese mafia is creating hurricanes.

In 2004 we have entered the 2-year "final preparation phase". These operations have been intensified and will continue to be intense, wreaking great economic damage. Hurricanes Charlie, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, etc. have been no exception to the Yakuza weather engineering, which included directly influencing and controlling each hurricane's power and behavior, as well as directing its course and speed so as to choose its targeting path. Indeed, Ivan did a 180 degree turn, and Jeanne did a 360 degree loop before reaching Florida, demonstrating the degree of control available.

A brief synopsis of this guy's central theories here.

"There is nothing that isn't possible. The only thing that gets in your way is your will. If you have thousands of scientists, an unlimited budget and political powers telling you to do something, it gets done," Stevens said, adding that people need to be alert to changes.

UPDATE: Link works now.

Posted by: LauraW. at 11:49 AM | Comments (22)
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Very hard-hitting piece about British Muslims' attempts to get rid of Holocaust Remembrance Day in a passive-aggressive bit of Holocaust denial.

File it in the "No, seriously, tell me what you really think" category.

Posted by: Ace at 11:47 AM | Comments (12)
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Dennis Kucinich's silly proposal now finds a new champion in Mark Dayton of Ohio.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In what peace activists call a milestone, Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., introduced legislation Thursday supporting a long-shot citizen lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence.

He is the first and, so far, only member of the U.S. Senate to publicly endorse the plan.

A remnant of the quixotic 2004 presidential candidacy of Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, the idea of a "Peace Department" has been derided by critics as utopian and naïve, while supporters say it is an idea whose time has come.

Almost half of Minnesota's congressional delegation -- all the Democrats but one -- have lined up in support of the campaign, which calls for a cabinet-level secretary to develop an array of policies from international conflict-resolution to reducing domestic abuse and violence against animals. [!!!!]

...

"It sends the right message," said Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn. "It's about promoting justice, expanding human rights and preventing conflict."

It seems to be a grab-bag for every silly-shit bullet point on the left-liberal agenda.

Look, idiots, we already have TWO Departments of Peace. The State Department for Talking Peace, and the Department of Defense for Making Peace when the State Department fails.

Posted by: Ace at 11:42 AM | Comments (18)
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SCENE: A corporate boardroom dominated by a long table of polished wood. Three Democratic Senators -- TEDDY [KENNEDY], CHUCK [SCHUMER], and JOE [BIDEN] -- file in and take their seats at the table.

After a moment, the double-doors behind the table open, and CAROLYN enters, followed by a seven-foot-tall humanoid covered in matted fur and wearing nothing but a pale yellow ascot. They take their seats, and then DONALD TRUMP enters and takes his seat.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:09 AM | Comments (26)
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Okay, this is taking longer than I thought. Especially because I just finished, saved it, and then suddenly I had only a partial draft from two hours ago, and now I have to rewrite the thing.

Stupid Moveable Type.

So, for now, an open thread. Sorry, I want to finish this stupid thing as soon as I can.

Posted by: Ace at 10:02 AM | Comments (15)
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Just to let you know, I'm not being all lazy or internet-connection plagued as I was yesterday. I'm working on a comedy piece. It involves Donald Trump, as well as a Gay Bigfoot.

Posted by: Ace at 07:59 AM | Comments (16)
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