Did I plotz? Oh yeah, I plotzed.

Thaddeus J. Plotz is the CEO of Warner Brothers Studios in the alternate universe of the Animaniacs cartoons.

See previous post.

==================

Mike said...

So was there Plotzing involved?

==================

Well, yes, absolutely plotzing.

The Self-Ref Monster from PizzaQ Hell has an answer. (Some problems don't have answers. Others maybe have answers, but there's no way to know whether or not they have answers.)

But the first time I saw this problem, I immediately slammed the book (Douglas Hofstadter's "Metamagical Themas") shut because I didn't even want a teeny-weeny hint about how to solve it.

"I can do this," I declared. Haughtily. Arrogantly.

It took me about a week to nail it. And frustration? Mega. Giga. This problem was -- at least for me -- the intellectual equivalent of trying to transfer 26 greased pigs from one pig pen to another.

So I plotzed

A. that ANYBODY tried to solve it

B. that your answer came back within 1 day (of a 2nd goading). While changing diapers.

Is there something in your brain that made this an EASY problem for you? Had you encountered it before? Or do you have that really expensive SELFREFaROONIE [v.3.3] software?

Well, yes, I plotzed as soon as I got your answer. (I've made mistakes. So far you haven't, or at least I haven't caught any.) But there are no Free Passes from the Ministry of Pizza, so I had to count the letters. Gimme some more details about how you solved it. For the Decryptions, you used a spreadsheet.

I don't like the translations of "plotz" on the web much. "Plotz," to me, is when a heterosexual woman or a homosexual man gets on a hotel elevator, the doors close, and she/he suddenly realizes she/he is locked alone in a little box with Matthew McConaughey for 40 seconds.

And then Matthew looks at his fellow passenger. And he smiles.

Mike slays the Self-Ref Monster (and changes diapers too!)

Sorry it took a few days to count all the occurrences of all 26 letters, my trusty ancient QuickBASIC is allergic to Vista, and I was cruising around Vermont for a couple of days.

But, naturally and as always, Mike was right on the nose. He took this self-ref monstrosity and computed:

This is my favorite English sentence, and it contains five a's, one b, three c's, three d's, thirty-one e's, six f's, two g's, seven h's, sixteen i's, one j, one k, two l's, two m's, twenty-four n's, seventeen o's, one p, one q, nine r's, thirty-four s's, twenty-two t's, four u's, six v's, seven w's, six x's, six y's, and one z.

a 05 g 02 m 02 s 34 y 06
b 01 h 07 n 24 t 22 z 01
c 03 i 16 o 17 u 04
d 03 j 01 p 01 v 06
e 31 k 01 q 01 w 07
f 06 l 02 r 09 x 06

CRUMMY OLD WINE: Buy your Sgt Poiuyt (™) Action Figure now! / the New Romans say: fuck the Geneva Convention for the Treatment of Prisoners of War

Click, yes, of course.

You should buy the Sgt. Poiuyt (™) Action Figure right now so you'll have it to give to your kids for Christmas, because it's going to be the biggest toy craze this year. If you wait till December, it'll be much too late, and your kids will spend Christmas Day weeping, because every other kid in the neighborhood got a Sgt. Poiuyt (™) and they didn't.

If you find Vleeptron's Merchandise Website too confusing to navigate, click on

Talk To A Pretty Girl

and you will be connected to a Pretty Girl (she is geographically located in Terra Haute, Indiana), and she will help you complete your purchase. If she's busy with other callers, you can listen to background music of Celine Dione singing "Theme from Titanic" over and over again.

Then
Once more
You OPEN the door ...............

The Poiuyt exists. See? There it is, you can see it. So it must exist.

Just not in your neighborhood. The Poiuyt is an Object which cannot exist in our Universe's ordinary 4D SpaceTime even if you have a pair of RealD (™) 3D movie glasses. Unlike your coffee mug or your underwear, the Poiuyt is having a lot of trouble differentiating between its Inside and its Outside. In your neighborhood, the Universe has gone to a great deal of trouble to very clearly define Inside and Outside, but the fun of having a Sgt. Poiuyt (™) Action Figure is that its Outside and its Inside are Ambiguous.

One way of looking at Sgt. Poiuyt (™) is that he is somebody's Revenge for the year we were all forced to learn mechanical drafting in junior high school. Now I guess everybody learns it on CAM/CAD computer software. So go for it, draft a Poiuyt just the way you learned drafting in school. Then take it to the Rapid Prototyping machine and make your own Poiuyt.

I spend a lot of time drawing things with MS_Paint and Paint.net.

This was the hardest thing to draw I ever encountered. It took me hours and frustrated the living crap out of me. Which is pretty strange. It's just a 2-dimensional projection of a 3-dimensional object, or that's what it seems to be. It should be very happy to be projected on an ordinary sheet of paper or on a computer screen. Check it out. From scratch, draw one of these simple little objects.

=================

patfromch said...

From the Geneva Convention

Art 13. Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest.

Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war are prohibited.

Art 14. Prisoners of war are entitled in all circumstances to respect for their persons and their honour
...
I would like to see the day that the USA will be held liable for crimes against humanity in The Hague (which you are not a part of), no matter if it was for Barry Manilow, Agento Orange or Abu Grahib. Or et cetera

=============

Yup. That's what the Geneva Convention for the Treatment of Prisoners of War requires of any civilized, decent human society.

For these American wars, our leaders have chosen not to be one of those. The USA is not recognizing and is not acknowledging its obligations under the Geneva Convention for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Vleeptron usually doesn't have much nice to say about the Third Reich.

But during World War Two, if an American or a British or a Canadian soldier was taken prisoner by the Germans, the Germans treated him in accord with the Geneva Convention. He was fed, he was protected from harm or injury, he was taken far from the danger of the battlefield, and he pretty much had a guarantee that he would live through the war, and return home to his community and family safely. We did the same with German soldiers we captured.

And we did not torture or torment or abuse or mistreat POWs. And the Germans didn't torture, torment, abuse or mistreat Allied POWs.

So this is why Vleeptron has been posting about Imaginary Geometrical Objects, and this is why Vleeptron has been posting filthy porn in classical Latin.

The United States of America, under George W. Bush, has publicly declared itself to be Uncivilized. We torture, abuse, mistreat, torment, terrify and humiliate human beings. We reject the Geneva Convention. We declare that this civilized restraint has nothing to do with us. This is the way we have chosen to wage war in the 21st Century.

I suppose it begs the question: Are we winning? In Iraq? In Afghanistan?

No, of course not. We're losing.

We're LOSING???? That's IMPOSSIBLE!!!! The United States of America is the world's most powerful military superpower! We have Cruise Missiles! We have Stealth Bombers! We have nuclear-powered Aircraft Carriers! We have Hum-Vees! We have unmanned Predator reconnaissance robot aircraft! We can't lose!

cf. the Vietnam War. Yes we can lose.

Vote McCain for Victory, watch us escalate, watch us lose, watch the flag-draped coffins of our neighbors' children fly back to Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.

How we treat prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo is the most powerful recruiting tool to attract more people to fight Western military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. Bush has chosen a strategy guaranteed to fill Asia, Africa and Pacifica with those who hate and want to defeat and destroy us.

Emperor Tiberius is teaching America how to treat our enemies (or people our paranoia leads us to believe might possibly be our enemies -- Canadian teenage boys, Afghan goatherds). Jack Bauer is our new pop-culture American hero.

We look back to the days of the New Testament, and whom have our American leaders chosen to act like? The Christians or the Romans?

* * * * * * *

Blivet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This blivet portrays two irreconciliable perspectives at once, creating a "lost" layer between the top two rods, and an impossible extra, vanishing rod in between the bottom two.

A blivet, also known as a poiuyt, is an undecipherable figure, an optical illusion and an impossible object. It appears to have three cylindrical prongs at one end which then mysteriously transform into two rectangular prongs at the other end.

Blivet has numerous other meanings, explained below.

Contents 1 Paradoxical graphic figure 2 Military usage 3 Technological usage 4 "Placeholder" usage 5 Common Southern usage 6 Alternative names 7 External links

Paradoxical graphic figure

In its most common usage, the blivet is an indecipherable figure, illustrated above. It appeared on the March 1965 cover of Mad magazine, where it was dubbed the "poiuyt" (the last six letters on the top row of many Latin-script typewriter keyboards, right to left), and has appeared numerous times since then. An anonymously-contributed version described as a "hole location gauge" was printed in the June 1964 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, with the comment that "this outrageous piece of draftsmanship evidently escaped from the Finagle & Diddle Engineering Works"

Military usage

In traditional U.S. Army slang dating back to the Second World War, a blivet was defined as "ten pounds of manure in a five pound bag" (a proverbial description of anything egregiously ugly or unmanageable); it was applied to an unmanageable situation, a crucial but substandard or damaged tool, or a self-important person. In Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses, Rawlins defines a blivet as "10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag". During the Vietnam conflict, a heavy rubber bladder in which aviation fuel or POL (petroleum, oil, and lubricants) was transported was known as a blivet, as was anything which, once unpacked, could not be replaced in its container. The usage of blivet for a fuel container is still current. A recent request for quotation ('Solicitation number W91B4P-07-Q-0615 titled "Fuel Point Bill of Materials"') in Afghanistan includes a line item for "10 50,000 gal. blivets" .

In various United States Air Force communities (e.g. Strategic Air Command), blivet may have referred to what are euphemistically called "Special Weapons" whose presence are officially neither confirmed nor denied. Usage apparently derived from the original cavalry definition.

In some areas of the U.S., it refers to a juvenile prank, clearly connected with the original military usage: a sack full of excrement is ignited on the victim's porch, while the pranksters ring the doorbell and run. The victim attempts to put the flames out by stamping on the bag. This may also be related to the term's claimed use as military slang for a land mine, not well-documented.

In Naval Aviation, a blivet is the common term for an external baggage container carried on a tactical jet.

Technological usage

Among computer programmers, a blivet refers to any embarrassing glitch that pops up during a customer demonstration. Among computer security specialists, it can refer to a denial-of-service attack performed by monopolizing limited resources that have no access controls (for example, shared spool space on a multi-user system). There are other meanings in other technical cultures; among experimental physicists and hardware engineers it may designate any random object of unknown purpose (similar to hackers' use of frob).

Early versions of Adobe Photoshop used a blivet on the plugin icon.

"Placeholder" usage

The word blivet is sometimes used as a cadigan. In economics, the term may be used (like "widget") for some hypothetical product. Butler Manufacturing Services Ltd, in Longford, Ireland, has used the trade name "BMS Blivet" for over 15 years for their compact "all in one" sewage treatment plant.

Common Southern usage

"Blivet" is often used in the Southern United States as a self-descriptor when one has failed to adhere to a healthy and reasonably nutritious eating plan (e.g., "I feel like a stuffed blivet."). The origin of this usage cannot be determined, but dates back certainly to the 1940s in the northern Alabama hill country.^{[citation needed]}

Alternative names

• Ambiguous trident
• Devil's pitchfork
• Devil's tuning fork
• Hole location gauge
• Mark III blivet
• Poiuyt
• Three-legged widget
• Three pronged blivet
• Trichotometric indicator support
• Two-pronged trident
• The Impossible Magnet^{[citation needed]}
• Three forked, one slot widget (so named by Games Magazine)

External links

Look up Blivet in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Optical illusion

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blivet"

Categories: Optical illusions | Impossible objects

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This page was last modified on 8 July 2008, at 21:17.

the private life, habits, proclivities & pleasures of the Emperor Tiberius, as chronicled by Suetonius / not my fault if you can't read Latin

Click, gets bigger. Gold does not rust or corrupt.

The Roman Emperor Tiberius and the Empress Livia (as the goddess Pax), gold coin from AD 14-37. Coin from CNG coins.

from the life
of the Emperor Tiberius
from
"The Twelve Cæsars"
by Suetonius

Vita Tiberii

41

Regressus in insulam rei p. quidem curam usque adeo abiecit, ut postea non decurias equitum umquam supplerit, non tribunos militum praefectosque, non provinciarum praesides ullos mutaverit, Hispaniam et Syriam per aliquot annos sine consularibus legatis habuerit, Armeniam a Parthis occupari, Moesiam a Dacis Sarmatisque, Gallias a Germanis vastari neglexerit; magno dedecore imperii nec minore discrimine.

42

Ceterum secreti licentiam nanctus et quasi civitatis oculis remotis, cuncta simul vitia male diu dissimulata tandem profudit; de quibus singillatim ab exordio referam. In castris tiro etiam tum propter nimiam vini aviditatem pro Tiberio "Biberius," pro Claudio "Caldius," pro Nerone "Mero" vocabatur. Postea princeps in ipsa publicorum morum correctione cum Pomponio Flacco et L. Pisone noctem continuumque biduum epulando potandoque consumpsit, quorum alteri Syriam provinciam, alteri praefecturam urbis confestim detulit, codicillis quoque iucundissimos et omnium horarum amicos professus. Cestio Gallo, libidinoso ac prodigo seni, olim ab Augusto ignominia notato et a se ante paucos dies apud senatum increpito cenam ea lege condixit, ne quid ex consuetudine immutaret aut demeret, utque nudis puellis ministrantibus cenaretur. Ignotissimum quaesturae candidatum nobilissimis anteposuit ob epotam in convivio propinante se vini amphoram. Asellio Sabino sestertia ducenta donavit pro dialogo, in quo boleti et ficedulae et ostreae et turdi certamen induxerat. Novum denique officium instituit a voluptatibus, praeposito equite R. T. Caesonio Prisco.

43

Secessu vero Caprensi etiam sellaria excogitavit, sedem arcanarum libidinum, in quam undique conquisiti puellarum et exoletorum greges monstrosique concubitus repertores, quos spintrias appellabat, triplici serie conexi, in vicem incestarent coram ipso, ut aspectu deficientis libidines excitaret. Cubicula plurifariam disposita tabellis ac sigillis lascivissimarum picturarum et figurarum adornavit librisque Elephantidis instruxit, ne cui in opera edenda exemplar imperatae schemae deesset. In silvis quoque ac nemoribus passim Venerios locos commentus est prostantisque per antra et cavas rupes ex utriusque sexus pube Paniscorum et Nympharum habitu, quae palam iam et vulgo nomine insulae abutentes "Caprineum" dictitabant.

44

Maiore adhuc ac turpiore infamia flagravit, vix ut referri audirive, nedum credi fas sit, quasi pueros primae teneritudinis, quos pisciculos vocabat, institueret, ut natanti sibi inter femina versarentur ac luderent lingua morsuque sensim adpetentes; atque etiam quasi infantes firmiores, necdum tamen lacte depulsos, inguini ceu papillae admoveret, pronior sane ad id genus libidinis et natura et aetate. Quare Parrasi quoque tabulam, in qua Meleagro Atalanta ore morigeratur, legatam sibi sub condicione, ut si argumento offenderetur decies pro ea sestertium acciperet, non modo praetulit, sed et in cubiculo dedicavit. Fertur etiam in sacrificando quondam captus facie ministri acerram praeferentis nequisse abstinere, quin paene vixdum re divina peracta ibidem statim seductum constupraret simulque fratrem eius tibicinem; atque utrique mox, quod mutuo flagitium exprobrarant, crura fregisse.

45

Feminarum quoque, et quidem illustrium, capitibus quanto opere solitus sit inludere, evidentissime apparuit Malloniae cuiusdam exitu, quam perductam nec quicquam amplius pati constantissime recusantem delatoribus obiecit ac ne ream quidem interpellare desiit, "ecquid paeniteret"; donec ea relicto iudicio domum se abripuit ferroque transegit, obscaenitate oris hirsuto atque olido seni clare exprobrata. Unde in Atellanico exhodio proximis ludis adsensu maximo excepta percrebruit, "hircum vetulum capreis naturam ligurire."

* * *

61

Singillatim crudeliter facta eius exsequi longum est; genera, velut exemplaria saevitiae, enumerare sat erit. Nullus a poena hominum cessavit dies, ne religiosus quidem ac sacer; animadversum in quosdam ineunte anno novo. Accusati damnatique multi cum liberis atque etiam a liberis suis. Interdictum ne capite damnatos propinqui lugerent. Decreta accusatoribus praecipua praemia, nonnumquam et testibus. Nemini delatorum fides abrogata. Omne crimen pro capitali receptum, etiam paucorum simpliciumque verborum. Obiectum est poetae, quod in tragoedia Agamemnonem probris lacessisset; obiectum et historico, quod Brutum Cassiumque ultimos Romanorum dixisset; animadversum statim in auctores scriptaque abolita, quamvis probarentur ante aliquot annos etiam Augusto audiente recitata. Quibusdam custodiae traditis non modo studendi solacium ademptum, sed etiam sermonis et conloqui usus. Citati ad causam dicendam partim se domi vulneraverunt certi damnationis et ad vexationem ignominiamque vitandam, partim in media curia venenum hauserunt; et tamen conligatis vulneribus ac semianimes palpitantesque adhuc in carcerem rapti. Nemo punitorum non in Gemonias abiectus uncoque tractus, viginti uno die abiecti tractique, inter eos feminae et pueri. Immaturae puellae, quia more tradito nefas esset virgines strangulari, vitiatae prius a carnifice, dein strangulatae. Mori volentibus vis adhibita vivendi. Nam mortem adeo leve supplicium putabat, ut cum audisset unum e reis, Carnulum nomine, anticipasse eam, exclamaverit: "Carnulus me evasit." Et in recognoscendis custodiis precanti cuidam poenae maturitatem, respondit: "Nondum tecum in gratiam redii." Annalibus suis vir consularis inseruit, frequenti quodam convivio, cui et ipse affuerit, interrogatum eum subito et clare a quodam nano astante mensae inter copreas, cur Paconius maiestatis reus tam diu viveret, statim quidem petulantiam linguae obiurgasse, ceterum post paucos dies scripsisse senatui, ut de poena Paconi quam primum statueret.

MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE! I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING! MAKE IT STOP!

Click Barney the Purple Dinosaur or Eminem
and the music will get louder and play endlessly.

The New York Times
Wednesday 16 July 2008

Torture Royalties

by Freakonomics

We’ve tackled the future of music distribution and we’ve taken on the War on Terror. But what happens when the two intersect?

Apparently, guards at Guantanamo Bay have been playing David Gray’s “Babylon” at all hours of the day and night, to distress detainees and soften them up for interrogation.

Since this arguably constitutes a public performance of Gray’s song by the U.S. military, the government technically may owe royalties to Gray for the use of his track.

Will the military pay up or stop using the music?

It seems unlikely that ASCAP or BMI will try to collect the royalties due to them from governments that use music as a weapon: after all, nobody seemed to mind when officials in a suburb of Sydney, Australia started blasting Barry Manilow songs as a means of chasing hooligans from a public park there.

- 30 -

===============
24 comments so far...

1. July 16th, 2008 1:19 pm

… or when Marines blasted AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells” in Fallujah in 1994 or when the FBI blasted the the Branch Davidian compound in 1993 or when the Army blasted Manuel Noriega in 1989.

— Posted by Tom A. Kosakowski

2. July 16th, 2008 1:45 pm

I think the bigger questions are:
What does David Gray think about the military’s use of his song as a weapon/to soften up detainees? Does this help or hurt his image? And if he were opposed to the military using his song this way, could he do anything to stop it?

— Posted by David S

3. July 16th, 2008 2:12 pm

Hey, I kind of like that song! But Barry Manilow would definitely be against the Geneva conventions. So did they actually buy the David Gray CD, or download it from a legit online source, or did they steal it? There’s the question. Is it a public performance or a private gathering? I mean, the detainees are basically invited there — so to speak — so it’s not really a public performance, is it? If I have a bunch of people over to my house and play “Babylon” on my stereo, I don’t have to pay Mr. Gray do I? (Would I get in trouble for torturing my guests?)

— Posted by Karen

4. July 16th, 2008 2:18 pm

If they really want ‘em to crack, I’d suggest they try a few selections from the Osmonds’ catalog.

— Posted by jblog

5. July 16th, 2008 2:29 pm

Since government is the originator and enforcer of the limited monopoly granted through copyright why haven’t government exempted themselves from the provisions therein? The government probably spends billions just dealing with the hassle of auditing and properly tracking software licenses. By exempting themselves the government would save a significant amount of taxpayer money even if they continued to pay for the most of the creative works they use.

Of course we all know the reason they don’t do this is because our government continues those to pay lobbyists instead of those that pay the bills.

— Posted by Mike B

6. July 16th, 2008 3:07 pm

IMEEM.com posted a list of songs it claimed were/are used in this manner (Babylon is on the list), it includes:

‘F**K Your God’ by Deicide
‘Die MF Die’ by Dope
‘Take Your Best Shot’ by Dope
‘White America’ by Eminem
‘Kim’ by Eminem
‘Barney Theme Song’
‘Bodies’ by Drowning Pool
‘Enter Sandman’ by Metallica
‘Meow Mix Jingle’
‘Sesame Street Theme Song’
‘Babylon’ by David Gray
‘Born in the USA’ by Bruce Springsteen
‘Shoot to Thrill’ by AC/DC
‘Hells Bells’ by AC/DC
‘Stayin Alive’ by The Bee Gees
‘All Eyes on Me’ by Tupac
‘Dirty’ by Christine Aguilera
‘America’ by Neil Diamond
‘Bulls on Parade’ by Rage Against the Machine
‘American Pie’ by Don McLean
‘Click Click Boom’ by Saliva
‘Cold’ by Matchbox 20
‘Swan Dive’ by Hed PE
‘Raspberry Beret’ by Prince

— Posted by brent

7. July 16th, 2008 3:55 pm

Brent (#6) - you had me at “Barney Theme Song”

— Posted by cathy

8. July 16th, 2008 4:16 pm

Would that actually be considered a commercial or private use? It is played in the big house.

— Posted by Adrien

9. July 16th, 2008 5:27 pm

An interesting topic, as what would be most torturous depends upon one’s musical taste. Funny that so much of it popular music that many actually pay to be subjected to.

I’d like to see the research they put into selecting the tunes. “2 minutes of Barry Manilow’s Greatest Hits was more effective than 15 minutes of Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica? Who’da thunk?”

— Posted by Othar Hugh Manati

10. July 16th, 2008 9:42 pm

The American military certainly have refined torture to new levels. Maybe it could be used to win the war on terror with a few live Paris Hilton concerts.

— Posted by Oliver Townshend
*
11.
July 16th,
2008
10:09 pm

Anything by Celine Dion would break me down in about two minutes. I’m getting nauseous thinking about it.

— Posted by Kevin in McLean, VA

12. July 16th, 2008 10:53 pm

Can we remember “Safety Dance” in Biodome?

— Posted by H Dizzle

13. July 17th, 2008 12:31 am

The idea that David Gray’s song Babylon is used as torture is absurd. That song is deep and uplifting. I think that giving prisoners a song that is actually thought provoking is more of a relief from boredom. :)

— Posted by David Gray Admirer

14. July 17th, 2008 3:01 am

Uh oh–we used to sing “Raspberry Beret” to our dog … were we torturing her?

That list of songs is hilarious.

— Posted by jessica

15. July 17th, 2008 7:32 am

How many of the listed songs abowe can be played in Guitar Hero? Thats just another way to train new heroes :-p

— Posted by Peter

16. July 17th, 2008 8:51 am

sorry, but this post is too flippant- if our guys were captured, and some arabic claptrap was played as a sleep deprivation technique, it wouldn’t play for cute analysis- the fact that we torture is a serious signal as to what type of superpower we are

— Posted by frankenduf

17. July 17th, 2008 9:50 am

#16, I’ll tell you what kind of superpower we are: a victorious one. One which will perform any necessity in order to assure sovereignty into the foreseeable future.

— Posted by Tarkin

18. July 17th, 2008 10:23 am

frankenduf - yes we use sleep deprivation and other techniques that may make the faint of heart a bit queezy and whiney. We do not however; decapitate soldiers and send the videos out to be seen by their families. I wonder what kind of superpower we must be, that our freedom fighters use the popular music they enjoy to uplift themselves and accomplish the goal of weakening our enemies shows me that our military is ingenious- multi-tasking. ROCK ON!

— Posted by Jax

19. July 17th, 2008 10:59 am

@ #9, Maybe ‘Dachau Blues’ from Trout Mask Replica?

— Posted by Fasten Bulbous

20. July 17th, 2008 5:30 pm

“sorry, but this post is too flippant- if our guys were captured, and some arabic claptrap was played as a sleep deprivation technique, it wouldn’t play for cute analysis- the fact that we torture is a serious signal as to what type of superpower we are”

Based on what we know about how our enemies treat THEIR prisoners, I’d say song selection would be the least of my worries.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0524072 torture1.html

Read that first, and then we can discuss what constitutes torture.

— Posted by jblog

21. July 18th, 2008 3:06 am

@joblog - #20
So as long as you torture people less than my enemy, I am “good”. Interesting definition of a democratic, freedom loving nation. This means basically your moral is based on who your country is fighting at the moment. Come on - think before you write …

— Posted by Ben

22. July 18th, 2008 7:07 am

You’re right frankenduf, the topic is flippant. Sometimes when something awful is happening, mocking it has an effect. Maybe here, maybe not.

— Posted by Oliver Townshend

23. July 18th, 2008 8:21 am

No, I’m just saying if we’re going to discuss what constitutes torture, let’s really discuss it — in full context, examining how all parties in this conflict treat the issue.

That’s what a thinking person does.

Is subjecting someone to AC/DC at high volume torture? I don’t think so. Is waterboarding? Possibly. Is strapping someone down and going at them with a power drill or a blowtorch? Most definitely.

That fact that we’re even having a moral discussion about this issue clearly delineates us from our enemies on this subject — people who employ the most barbaric methods of torture as casually as if they were eating a sandwich.

— Posted by jblog

24. July 18th, 2008 10:36 pm

jblog - AC/DC 24×7 is torture. 4 minutes isn’t. Waterboarding is. Attacking them with a powerdrill or blowtorch is. You have a very strange definition of torture, that you think just because it isn’t as violent as the opposition it is morally better. We learnt at school that two wrongs don’t make a right, clearly something that many have forgotten.

— Posted by Oliver Townshend

===============

BBC News
Friday 4 July 2008

Gray's warning
on 'torture' music

Singer David Gray has warned that US interrogators playing loud music as a form of "torture" -- including his own song Babylon -- was no laughing matter.

"Only the novelty aspect of this story gets it noticed ... Guantanamo greatest hits," he said.

"What we're talking about here is people in a darkened room, physically inhibited by handcuffs, bags over their heads and music blaring at them."

His track Babylon is reportedly a favourite of US interrogators in Iraq.

Repeatedly playing loud music to suspected terrorist detainees is also a standard interrogation technique in Guantanamo and other US bases.

"That is torture," the singer-songwriter told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight.

"That is nothing but torture.

"It doesn't matter what the music is -- it could be Tchaikovsky's finest or it could be Barney the Dinosaur.

"It really doesn't matter, it's going to drive you completely nuts."

He said such torture formed part of a US "retaliation to a few terrorist acts."

"No-one wants to even think about it or discuss the fact that we've gone above and beyond all legal process and we're torturing people," he added.

Babylon -- from his White Ladder album -- was Gray's breakthrough single, reaching number five in the UK in 2000.

White Ladder reached number one in the UK and number 35 in the US.

- 30 -

================

from www.davidgray.com

David's Warning On 'Torture' Music

In recent months, articles have surfaced with regards to US interrogators reportedly playing music loudly as a form of torture to suspected terrorist detainees. Among the songs listed is David's Babylon - from his White Ladder album.

To date, David remains to be the only artist who's music has been listed that has spoken out about it and he urges, this is no laughing matter.

Published Friday, July 04, 2008 5:22 PM by kendall
Comments

Monkeytrix29 said:

Disgusting.Torture in any for[m] is STILL torture!! Music is a piece of someones soul and heart,to take such a thing and use it in this depraved manner is unholy!!

July 8, 2008 3:12 PM

==================

"Babylon"
by David Gray
from the album "White Ladder"

Friday night Im going nowhere
All the lights are changing green to red
Turning over tv stations
Situations running through my head
Well looking back through time
You know its clear that Ive been blind
Ive been a fool
To ever open up my heart
To all that jealousy, that bitterness, that ridicule

Saturday Im running wild
And all the lights are changing red to green
Moving through the crowd Im pushing
Chemicals all rushing through my bloodstream
Only wish that you were here
You know Im seeing it so clear
Ive been afraid
To tell you how I really feel
Admit to some of those bad mistakes Ive made

If you want it
Come and get it
Crying out loud
The love that I was
Giving you was
Never in doubt
Let go your heart
Let go your head
And feel it now

Babylon, babylon

Sunday all the lights of london
Shining , sky is fading red to blue
Im kicking through the autumn leaves
And wondering where it is you might be going to
Turning back for home
You know Im feeling so alone
I cant believe
Climbing on the stair
I turn around to see you smiling there
In front of me

If you want it
Come and get it
Crying out loud
The love that I was
Giving you was
Never in doubt
And feel it now
Let go your heart
Let go your head
And feel it now
Let go your heart
Let go your head
And feel it now
Let go your heart
Let go your head
And feel it now
Let go your heart
Let go your head
And feel it now

Babylon, babylon, babylon

Molly in 3D / you could reach out and touch her / but don't even think about it / MAKE SURE THEATER SHOWING "J2tCotE" in 3D!!!

Put 3D glasses on,
then click image to enlarge
and add 1 extra SpaceTime dimension.

Molly Ringwald and some guy in "Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone" (1983), for many years Hollywood's last 3D movie.

It was almost as if you could reach out and touch Molly Ringwald. Of course if you had reached out and touched Molly Ringwald in 1983, you would immediately be arrested and sent to state prison.

The Plot: A disgusting wrinkled 300-year-old criminal fiend wants to suck the Vital Youth Life Fluids out of Molly Ringwald. (I'm not making this up.)

--> Publicke Warning <--

All Cineastes of Planet Earth are hereby WARNED to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that the theater showing "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is projecting this summer blockbuster in 3D.

DO NOT BE RIPPED OFF LIKE WE WERE at the MultiCinema PolyCineQuad CinePlexOdeon-19 in Hadley Massachusetts USA, which had this sign on entrance to the auditorium (after we'd already bought our tickets):

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
IS NOT SHOWN IN 3D AT THIS THEATER
WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE

So anyway later this afternoon we are driving 20 miles Elsewhere to put on goofy glasses and see it all over again in 3D.

LATE-BREAKING BULLETIN!

We just saw "Journey to the Center of the Earth" in 3D / RealD, and it just totally kicks ass!

(They charge $3 extra for the 3D glasses.)

THE PLOT: A kindly Uncle hires a car in Reykjavik and drives his teenage Nephew all over Iceland to see Volcanos and the Mid-Atlantic Tectonic Plate Rift where the old Althing used to meet and they get hopelessly lost for hours because all the road signs are in Icelandic.

WAIT!!!!!! THEY STOLE MY LIFE FOR THEIR FUCKING MOVIE! I'M SUING! AND HALF THE MONEY GOES TO MY NEPHEW ALEXANDER!!!

This summer re-make of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" stars Brendan Fraser and some Euro-babe pretending to speak English with an Icelandic accent. (She's not Bjork.) It's the first Live-Action Movie ever made in a new 3D technology called RealD.

* * *

From Wikipedia:

==============

RealD Cinema is a digital 3D stereoscopic projection technology which does not require two projectors, unlike some older 3D stereoscopic projection technology. A high-resolution digital projector using Texas Instruments' DLP Cinema technology is used.

Technology

The RealD 3-D system is based on the push-pull electro-optical modulator called the ZScreen invented by Lenny Lipton, an American inventor.

[VLEEPTRON EXTRA: When Lipton was 19, he wrote the lyrics to "Puff the Magic Dragon." I am not making this up. Click on Lenny Lipton, above.]

The technique that RealD uses is comparable to the traditional method of 3-D imaging which uses linearly polarized glasses. The traditional method works by projecting two differently linearly polarized images onto the same screen, polarized at +45° and -45° from the horizontal, which are then filtered by linearly polarized glasses worn by the audience. This type of 3-D imaging requires two projectors, and suffers from visible double-imaging if the head is tilted to the side which places the glasses at an inappropriate angle.

RealD however uses a single projector that alternately projects the right-eye frame and left-eye frame, and circularly polarizes these frames, clockwise for the right-eye and counterclockwise for the left-eye, using a liquid-crystal screen placed in front of the projector lens. Circularly polarized glasses make sure each eye sees only "its own" picture, even if the head is tilted. The very high framerate, which is 72 frames per second per eye, makes sure the image looks continuous. In RealD Cinema, each frame is projected three times to reduce flicker, as the source video is usually 24 frames per second. The result is a seamless 3-D picture that seems to extend behind and in front of the screen itself.

Films featured using RealD

The first film released using this format was 2005's Chicken Little. For this release, the computer-animated film was re-rendered in 3-D by Industrial Light and Magic and exhibited on RealD Cinema Systems using Dolby Digital Cinema servers.^[1]

The 3D version of Chicken Little has so far earned about 2.5 times as much per screen as the flat version. When the movie was first shown in 2005, fewer than 100 theaters around the US were equipped to show the movie in 3D. These statistics are difficult to correlate on their own given the many unknown factors involved.

Also, a stereoscopic 3D version of the film Monster House was released in approximately 200 theaters equipped for RealD Cinema . In October 2006 and again in October 2007 The Nightmare Before Christmas was re-released in this technique as well.

Meet the Robinsons was released March 30th, 2007, in both traditional "flat" and "3D" versions of the film. The film was converted to stereo by Digital Domain. Some estimate over 700 screens for the 3D release of the film. That would make this release the largest up to that date using the RealD system.

Beowulf, directed by Robert Zemeckis, released in November 2007 is another film that uses the RealD 3D technology. Beowulf opened on close to 900 RealD screens. RealD at that point had passed its stated milestone of 1,000 global RealD screens installed for the release of Beowulf.

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert was released on February 1st, 2008, and marks another in the Disney stable of 3D films. "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" was only shown on digital 3D screens, 97% of which are RealD 3D screens, and brought in $31 million in its opening weekend, virtually all of which was generated in RealD theaters. (Disney Digital 3D films do not exhibit in IMAX 3D theaters, which utilize an analog technology).

U2 3D, U2's concert film based on the Vertigo Tour, debuted in RealD in 2008. The film was exhibited in both IMAX 3D and RealD Cinema.

Future films

New Line Cinema and Walden Media's Journey to the Center of the Earth is set to be released in summer 2008 in both 3D and 2D, making it the first live-action film to be released in RealD 3D. On March 12, 2007, DreamWorks Animation announced^[2] that beginning with the spring 2009 release of Monsters vs. Aliens, all of their features will be released in theatres in 3D. On April 8, 2008, Disney/Pixar followed suit, announcing that from the November 11, 2008 release of Bolt, all Disney/Pixar animation features will be released in 3D ^[3] . Other upcoming 3D releases in 2009 and beyond include Focus Features' Coraline, from the book by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick of Nightmare Before Christmas; 3D conversions of all Pixar's Toy Story films; Robert Zemeckis's A Christmas Carol; and Tim Burton-helmed versions of Alice in Wonderland and his original short Frankenweenie. One of the most eagerly awaited releases is James Cameron's Avatar , currently scheduled for December 18, 2009. Horrorween 2009 will also be filmed in RealD 3-D. 3-D legend Chris Condon, and Director Ed Meyer are set to remake The Stewardesses, the most successful 3D film in history, in RealD in 2009. Also, Dante's Inferno is expected to be released as an animation feature in 3D as well as a live action feature in 3D in 2009[1].

List of RealD released and upcoming films

• Chicken Little
• Monster House
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Meet the Robinsons
• Beowulf
• Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
• U2 3D
• Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D
• All DreamWorks Animation films, beginning with Monsters vs. Aliens in 2009^[4]
• Avatar (upcoming)
• Coraline (upcoming)
• Horrorween (upcoming)
• The Stewardesses (remake) (upcoming)
• Toy Story (upcoming)
• Toy Story 2 (upcoming)
• Toy Story 3 (upcoming)

See also

• Disney Digital 3-D
• Lenny Lipton
• XpanD
• Dolby 3D

References

1. ^ "A Look at Chicken Little in 3D" July 5, 2005, movieweb.com
2. ^ "DreamWorks going 3-D in 2009". Variety Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
3. ^ "Disney unveils animation slate". Variety Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-04-08.
4. ^ "DreamWorks going 3-D in 2009". Variety Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-03-12.

External links

• Real D website
• Real D Theater Finder
• 
  

unclaimed pizza / the Wazzit by night / still no whack at the Evil PizzaQ From Hell / tomatoes will not kill you anymore

Click to enlarge.

Received by private e-mail a guess that The Wazzit Thing (above) is a new kind of windmill farm somewhere.

Good guess. Wrong. No Pizza. So the PizzaQ continues: What Is It?, Where Is It?, and there is a Who Is It? to be identified, too.

Here is an image of the Wazzit by night, that will have to do in lieu of a hint.

As for the Evil PizzaQ from Hell

This is my favorite English sentence, and it contains two a's, one b, two c's, one d, thirty-seven e's, twenty f's, four g's, thirty-nine h's, fifty-one i's, one j, one k, forty-seven l's, twenty-five m's, eighteen n's, thirty o's, one p, one q, thirty-three r's, forty-one s's, fifty-five t's, thirty-six u's, twenty v's, seventeen w's, fifteen x's, twelve y's, and one z.

(you have to compute the actual numbers of the occurrences of the letters, the above are just fake, dummy values), giving birth to and bringing home a new baby is no excuse, life cannot stop, and PizzaQs remain unsolved, because a baby is born.

It is a cute baby -- and a 9 on the Apgar Score, this child is going places!

The Amazing Occidental Mystic Mathematician RamanuJohn is lying low, not a peep from him, Abbas doubtless thinks it's obscenely mathematical and beneath him to waste time on it. I have alerted a Very Smart Teenager, but no response from him, either.

The US Government has cancelled the Toxic Poison Deadly Tomato Alert, so the Vleeptron Ministry of Pizza can return to offering red tomato-based Pizza. The Evil PizzaQ From Hell is worth an entire free Italian dinner (transportation & shipping not included).

more anonymous blotter art for Pastora* de Chile / millions of Castores march north to devour all Sudamerica / Art Crime / Me Gustas Tu!

Why yes, think seriously
about clicking on the image.

More blotter art, artist unknown, for Pastora* de Santiago Chile, who has a Blotter Art Blog, which is extraordinarily pretty, muy lindo. I don't know who actually makes the stunning kaleidoscopic blotter art on her blog, because the tradition of blotter art -- since some evil criminal first impregnated it with LSD-25 -- is that blotter artists are always anonymous. Because when the cops bust down the door and arrest the evil biochemical terrorist who makes the LSD (a Weapon of Mass Distortion, or WMD), a lot of times they also handcuff and prosecute and imprison the Art Nerd or Nerdeusse who makes the distinctive Blotter Art.

This is another one of those Fanatical Terrorist Art Crimes which are destoying civilization and must be stopped. Vleeptron will have more to say about the United States Government's vigorous efforts to put Blotter Artists in prison shortly.

I am very worried about Pastora*, because at any moment the pregnant beaver may successfully swim from Patagonia/Tierra del Fuego to the southern tip of the mainland of South America, which has no natural predators to keep the population of beavers in check, so soon Pastora* may be up to her fundijo (the Cubano word, ¿como se dice fundijo en Chileano?) in millions and millions and millions of beavers (los Castores).

This impending Beaver Doom, by the way, is not Chile's fault, but Argentina's, they got the bright idea to get rich by importing a few breeding pairs of beavers from Canada during the Peron era. They put the breeding beavers in the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego / Patagonia and encouraged them to be fruitful and multiply. In the last 50 years they have multiplied exponentially and killed every tree in Tierra del Fuego and turned the place into The Mother Of All Beaver Swamps.

I actually love beavers very much. They are hard-working, industrious, and have strong Family Values. They are Nature's Engineers. This is one Very Calvinist mammal/rodent.

In their proper place. Where they belong.

If this blotter art were somehow to end up impregnated with Dr. Albert Hofmann's Lysergic Acid Diethylamide-25, some young Sudamericanos might tear off a square and swallow it before they go to the Manu Chao concert, where he just might sing

Me Gustas Tu
de Manu Chao

Me gustan los aviones, me gustas tu
Me gusta viajar, me gustas tu
Me gusta la mañana, me gustas tu
Me gusta el viento, me gustas tu
Me gusta soñar, me gustas tu
Me gusta la mar, me gustas tu

Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais pas
Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais plus
Que voy a hacer
Je suis perdu
Que horas son, mi corazón

Me gusta la moto, me gustas tu
Me gusta correr, me gustas tu
Me gusta la lluvia, me gustas tu
Me gusta volver, me gustas tu
Me gusta marihuana, me gustas tu
Me gusta colombiana, me gustas tu
Me gusta la montaña, me gustas tu
Me gusta la noche, me gustas tu

Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais pas
Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais plus
Que voy a hacer
Je suis perdu
Que horas son, mi corazón

Me gusta la cena, me gustas tu
Me gusta la vecina, me gustas tu
Me gusta su cocina, me gustas tu
Me gusta camelar, me gustas tu
Me gusta la guitarra, me gustas tu
Me gusta el regaee, me gustas tu

Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais pas
Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais plus
Que voy a hacer
Je suis perdu
Que horas son, mi corazón

Me gusta la canela, me gustas tu
Me gusta el fuego, me gustas tu
Me gusta menear, me gustas tu
Me gusta la Coruña, me gustas tu
Me gusta Malasaña, me gustas tu
Me gusta la castaña, me gustas tu
Me gusta Guatemala, me gustas tu

Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais pas
Que voy a hacer
Je ne sais plus
Que voy a hacer
Je suis perdu
Que horas son, mi corazón

======================
translation by Geianne
======================

I like airplanes, I like you
I like to travel, I like you
I like the morning, I like you
I like the wind, I like you
I like to dream, I like you
I like the sea, I like you

What am I gonna do -- I don't know
What am I gonna do -- don't know anymore
What am I gonna do -- I'm lost
What time is it, my heart?

I like the motorcycle, I like you
I like to run, I like you
I like the rain, I like you
I like to come back, I like you
I like marihuana, I like you
I like colombiana, I like you
I like the mountain, I like you
I like the night, I like you

What am I gonna do -- I don't know
What am I gonna do -- don't know anymore
What am I gonna do -- I'm lost
What time is it, my heart?

I like dinner, I like you
I like the neighbor, I like you
I like her cooking, I like you
I like to flirt and woo, I like you
I like the guitar, I like you
I like reggae, I like you

What am I gonna do -- I don't know
What am I gonna do -- don't know anymore
What am I gonna do -- I'm lost
What time is it, my heart?

I like cinnamon, I like you
I like fire, I like you
I like to shake it, I like you
I like Coruña, I like you
I like Malasaña, I like you
I like chestnut, I like you
I like Guatemala, I like you

What am I gonna do -- I don't know
What am I gonna do -- don't know anymore
What am I gonna do -- I'm lost
What time is it, my heart?

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Sure, click.

asymmetrical warfare trading cards (no bubble gum) and board game / for longer play, pass token to child or grandchild

Clicking image strongly advised.

Spam forwarded to me today by my friend who lives in the USA state shaped like the palm of a right-hand mitten.

"TERRORIST ATTACK: America Fights Back" trading cards from 1986. Originally distributed by Piedmont Candy Co. in Detroit, Michigan USA. (The original cards did not include bubble gum.)

Khadaffy and the Ayatollah Khomeini are standard, familiar images, and you seen one terrorist guy in a hood, you seen 'em all, but I really love the suicide driver; here the artist had some wiggle room for imagination, and ran with it.
That, incidentally, was the exact same look on my face the time I pushed my 1969 Triumph Bonneville 650cc motorcycle ("World's Fastest Production Motorcycle," the decal on the forks said) to 105 mph / 169 kph, with me on top of it.

BOTTOM RIGHT: "War On Terror / Guerra al Terrorismo" board game from 2006, from Terrorbull Games, designed by Andrew Sheerin and Andrew Tompkins, U$33. Best with 5 players.

Maybe they sell the Español edition of the game so the FARC can play it on rainy days in the Colombian jungle.

But the big question is: Is the game rigged? Do the Christian Occupiers from the Military Superpower Post-Colonial Wealth Centers of the West win nearly all the time?

Or, dice roll after dice roll afer dice roll, do the Terrorists slowly accumulate and solidify significant gains of military, economic resource and political control over larger and larger portions of their homelands in Asia and Africa?

And how long does the game last? I've played Monopoly and Risk and Diplomacy games that lasted for 6 hours. How long does a session of "War On Terror" last before somebody clearly wins? 11 days? 5 months? 100 years?

Oh wait, I just found the instructions:

56. Without diplomatic and political initiatives, which "War On Terror" does not provide for, the game continues until all but one player die of old age or natural causes. The last living player wins.

If longer play is desired, a player may choose to pass his/her token to a child or grandchild.