Thursday, March 21, 2019
Article comparing the USA's overseas military bases to Bond villain lairs
"Power Is Sovereignty, Mr. Bond"
Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, knew something about islands. During the Second World War, he’d served as the assistant to Britain’s director of naval intelligence. In 1943, he traveled to Kingston, Jamaica for a high-level intelligence conference with the United States. The Caribbean was then in dire straits, tormented by German submarines that evaded the Allied navies. Rumors floated that the boats were finding safe berth at a secret harbor built by Dr. Axel Wenner-Gren, a mysterious Swedish multimillionaire with Nazi ties who had established himself on an island in the Bahamas.*Previously: "Is the United States about to lose control of its secretive Diego Garcia military base?"
The accusations that Wenner-Gren was using his island as a secret Nazi base proved false. But Fleming nevertheless found it all irresistible. He bought an estate in Jamaica (named Goldeneye, after one of the intelligence operations he’d help run) and began writing his Bond novels from there.
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What, specifically, could the United States do with a base? A fine example is the Swan Islands, a small cluster of three islands in an isolated part of the Caribbean, not far from the fictional location of Doctor No’s island. In the 1950s, the CIA secretly built a landing strip and a fifty-thousand-watt radio transmitter on Great Swan. That single transmitter could reach South America, allowing the United States to cover with its radio beams territory inaccessible by ground.
Soon after the CIA built that radio station, a delegation of Honduran students carrying arms came to Great Swan to “liberate” the islands and claim them for Honduras. They had no idea of the CIA’s presence, and the agency was determined to keep them in the dark. give them plenty of beer and protect the family jewels read the frantic cable from Washington (i.e., don’t let them discover the broadcasting equipment). Marines sped to the island to repel the invasion.
What happened next can be best appreciated by reading the cable traffic from Swan to Washington:
"A dev trained robots to generate 'garbage' slot machine games—and made $50K"
Ars:
they opted to buy a 3D slot machine asset off of the Unity Store (a marketplace that lets game makers pay modelers and animators for unrestricted use of various 2D and 3D assets) for $15. They then spent the rest of the jam creating a system that would automatically generate the rest of the skinning needed to make this basic virtual slot machine just unique enough to be published as its own smartphone app.
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The most scintillating name they went for at that point was "3D Sexy Librarian Slots."
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The team came up with a theory: "All of our advertising keywords were related to casino related content," Schwartz said to Ars. "We had an epiphany: our game looks so fucking terrible, but people downloaded it for some reason. When they see an ad for a much better slot machine or casino, they click it because... of course you do!
Nope I was wrong. This might be it. pic.twitter.com/ocQdGzFkwR— 𝐌𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐑𝐎𝐄 🕹@ GDC (@GCS_WT) March 21, 2019
Ten funny tweets
Boohoo have done me soo dirty pic.twitter.com/2HBLAQ6TPV— paige (@paigetoremember) March 18, 2019
These arrived today, and I still can’t quite convince myself this article is real. pic.twitter.com/PUETt83nX9— Aaron Perzanowski (@APerzanowski) March 19, 2019
Subway turnstile screaming pic.twitter.com/qcE03xMasi— Gabe Habash (@gabehabash) March 19, 2019
She knows me. pic.twitter.com/p2ARm4OzKG— Brett Kelman (@BrettKelman) March 19, 2019
More on the fake wall from @NYPDTransit: It was built out of plywood by the @MTA on March 12 inside the Court Street station on the R train, and essentially created a small room or enclosure with a door to the outside— Joe Anuta (@joeanuta) March 19, 2019
"Florida man in custody after landing helicopter on White House lawn" pic.twitter.com/etisTPZpz9— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) March 19, 2019
These batteries got the right idea. Its like they are meant for a guy like me. pic.twitter.com/qkgSTAi1Sh— The Lonely Havoc (@TheLonelyHavocs) March 20, 2019
I just looked at this and then looked at my profile picture and I am... so mad https://t.co/KRKtKQRn6B— Terron Moore (@Terr) March 19, 2019
I was driving on the 10 fwy in Ontario, CA today and this happened... pic.twitter.com/QigicXIaYr— 5xDubyaCDubyaChamp (@youkwait) March 17, 2019
The dog got picked up by its owner today! Here's Maya, the I-10 dog reuniting with the owner's grandson.— Paulo nonVTEC Acoba (@ferio_252) March 19, 2019
Source: https://t.co/WEeowgQvX9 pic.twitter.com/NznDqwv3jT
this is the most haunting thing I've ever read pic.twitter.com/DullZJ9FIi— Big Time NIT Fan (@dylmdav) March 18, 2019
(Kind of true.)
Starforce Captain Marvel and Goblin Queen figures available for preorder
The newly-revealed Diamond Select toys are available for preorder, including Westworld. The new "Ultra Deluxe" Alien Queen by NECA is available, too.
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Zima Blue from Netflix's Love Death Robots is great
A BG from Robert Valley's episode called Zima Blue from Love, Death and Robots. Now on Netflix. I had a blast working on this with him! pic.twitter.com/RXpIGRsRPe— Robh Ruppel (@robhrr) March 15, 2019
More designs from Zima Blue. Love, Death and Robots on Netflix. #conceptart #design #animationdesign #lovedeathandrobots pic.twitter.com/Z6jgUmljMw— Robh Ruppel (@robhrr) March 16, 2019
The next thing! Robert Valley's installment of Love, Death and Rockets. Can post more art when it premieres in 2 weeks on Netflix pic.twitter.com/SM1uX2IZlC— Robh Ruppel (@robhrr) March 1, 2019
The Wonder Woman statue based on Robert Valley's design is 50% off at Amazon, btw.
Miles Morales designer vinyl toy
Available for preorder. There's also a Deadpool, Black Panther, and Thanos.
Into the Spider-Verse Kingpin cosplay
— Dinabean (@dinarosecima) March 20, 2019
Speaking of cosplay:
Marvel versus Capcom 2 character select screen made by @Xypher316. Featured by @cosplayamerica. Photo taken by The Quarter Guy. #Cosplay #Prop #VideoGame #CraftYourFandom pic.twitter.com/M4w29Vxpuq— the RPF (@therpf) March 19, 2019
I could not but fall in love with Rachael the first time I’ve seen her in Blade Runner, in her famous black suit. Such a unique and iconic character, not only in a film sense, but also from a standpoint of costume design and visual aesthetic.— cosplay in america (@cosplayamerica) March 18, 2019
READ REST https://t.co/8ocQZMhJ95 pic.twitter.com/EXmX8GA60v
"About 1,600 people have been secretly filmed in hotel rooms in South Korea, with the footage live-streamed online for paying customers to watch, police said Wednesday"
CNN:
the scandal, which involved 42 rooms in 30 accommodations in 10 cities around the country. Police said there was no indication the businesses were complicit in the scheme.
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Cameras were hidden inside digital TV boxes, wall sockets and hairdryer holders and the footage was streamed online
Star Wars roundup
— Imperial News (@ImperialNews2) March 15, 2019
Was fortunate enough to see Empire on the big screen tonight. And there's always something new to spot. While I knew Luke has what appears to be an ice cream maker that he loads into his X-wing, I had not noticed it as part of his camp during the handstand scene before tonight. pic.twitter.com/NHBOzhIrie— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) March 15, 2019
It's happened before, too. pic.twitter.com/zIKFZHOlEB— Pablo Hidalgo (@pablohidalgo) March 19, 2019
For a moment I thought Harrison Ford had written a novel called Minty Clinch and I wanted to buy a thousand copies of it pic.twitter.com/GXnYxhHoXT— Sean Fallon (@FirstToLastPod) March 19, 2019
They won’t take Jedha without a fight. #TamPosla with Saw Gerrera’s Partisan Xwing Squadron face off against the Empire over the Holy City. #guardiansofthewhills #StarWars pic.twitter.com/gPzg8mpmwD— Darren Tibbles (@daztibbles) September 9, 2018
Kylo's birth name should have been Ben Organa because Alderaan was a matriarchy and Leia Organa's last name and Alderaan's history is more important then Han Solo's ever will be https://t.co/ZAHGNWadUi— Ahsoka with Beef (@Purplebluecrow) September 8, 2018
i had no idea george lucas was a fan of russian romanticism @TabloidArtHist pic.twitter.com/UIkjMYbkq0— lana del reign of terror (@guillonteenidol) February 26, 2019
*More Star Wars.
Teeny-tiny third-party Omega Supreme figure
From Mechanic Studio & Mech Soul, the MS-11 Mini Sentry figure stands about 2.5 inches tall and can transform from robot to base mode. Also included with this set is a head tank patrol unit and doctor figure.
Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Two reviews of Netflix's Love Death Robots animation series
the worst installments feel like the show is simply hitting every lowest common denominator for the Comic-Con demographic and turning the volume up to 11. Both “Sonnie’s Edge,” about psychics who engage in Lovecraft-monster cockfights, and “The Witness,” about a belle du jour running from a homicidal perv, look and play like toxic cut scenes from old PlayStation gamesGuardian:
If cyberpunk stories about harassed exotic dancers and distressed sexbots are supposed to be state-of-the-art science-fiction, then an R2 #MeToo moment seems long overdue.
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