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I received an email notification from the USNA Alumni group, me of course, being an alumni of the United States Naval Academy. Here is a screen from the email itself:

Of all the overt spam I receive from LinkedIN on a daily basis, this has been the only one to capture my attention because it was posted in this alumni group. Here is a direct link to the article that was posted by a proclaimed USNA Alumnus. (Keep in mind that there is no verification system on LinkedIn and that I can really just post whatever credentials I want, no questions asked.) This particular article caught my attention because of the headline and where it was posted, and by whom.

In short summary, the article accuses President Obama of heading up a Muslim conspiracy with which to forcefully subvert American citizens against their will into the religion of Islam. My outrage towards the lack of enlightenment was and is tremendous. This is a (supposedly) fellow alumni, who was brought into a world that believes in civic service, honor, and duty, accusing the President of the United States of this conspiracy. I have since removed myself from all LinkedIN groups because I don’t want to be aligned with anybody else’s ignorance, implied or not. Also, because I have removed myself from the group, I can no longer participate in the discussion that is currently unfolding after my comments but I still receive email updates on them. Way to be, LinkedIN. Ernest Young posted a comment on his own article posting stating “Is this true?”. So Mr. Young, an article, which is very accusatory and dire in nature, invoking a conspiracy at the highest levels of government and world leadership, and instead of rushing to, I don’t know, say GOOGLE, to even begin a preliminary search on any of the statements made in the article, your first response is to ask an unregulated, unverified alumni group towards its authenticity. Well, that’s one way to look at his actions. The other, is that he simply just does not know and will believe anything he reads, a la the recent Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) incident. In all fairness to Senator McConnell, it probably was just a staffer who err’d, and he/his office was doing a great service to their constituent. Bravo to them. But I digress, it’s not the first time we’ve seen that people are dumb, because in fact, we all are in our own ways.

This was my first response, but it wasn’t my final. Call me a softie, but I originally wanted to start a flame war on LinkedIn because I was really heated, but cooler heads prevailed. LinkedIn strikes me as the place where no matter what logic is presented in an argument, it would digress to rubbish very, very quickly.

Mr. Young, here is a direct quote from the article you linked:

“”We have a president that has such a deeply rooted hatred of America that it separates him from all other tyrants and who is allowing infiltration by Islamic influence at all levels of government,” says a patriotic poster. John Brennan’s nomination as CIA Director would clearly solidify Islam in the Oval Office as Brennan has been called a recent convert to the Muslim faith.”

My question to you, sir, as an apparent (as stated by your linked in profile) United States Naval Academy alumnus and what I would assume as somebody who values civic service to their country, is what in the world is wrong with you? What would drive you to post such a ridiculous, bigoted, faux journalistic article? And then, after the fact, have the stones to even consider any truth in those words?

You are free to post what you will, but for the sake of other military veterans and USNA Alumni who are leaps and bounds more enlightened than what you have demonstrated with your posting, I hope they are not judged by what you believe in or where your values are placed.

Disgusting.

Maybe my closing was a bit much along with my insults, but hey, I’m fucking disgusted that this un-enlightened garbage is being spread around from a (supposed) alumni who, quite frankly, should just know better and I’m passionate and emotional when it comes to the danger ignorance has on the forward profess our society has to have going into the future. No, President Obama is not involved in a Muslim conspiracy with which to forcefully subvert American citizens against their will into the religion of Islam. I don’t care to re-read the article, but I think it mentioned something about taking away our guns, too.

Alas, at the advice of a friend, I edited my response in the permitted time window and stated:

I debated how to respond, but no, this isn’t true.

Remember, Mr. Young’s original question was: “Is this true?” I researched the USNA Alumni group in question on linked in, and there are a few “USNA Alumni” groups, and this one where the article was posted had over 8,000 members. I would hope there would be more who agree with me. Then I get this email, an update from LinkedIN on the discussion thread where I no longer have access:

Now, I’m confused as to what Brian Cooper (a sergeant with the LinkedIn Discourse Police mind you) thinks is, his quote, “This is complete bullshit.” Is Mr. Cooper worried about the integrity of this LinkedIN group? Is he upset that I called out (whom I think is) an ignoramus in public, who, supposedly without verification, is a “higher ranking” Naval Academy Alum? (This really matters to some, so don’t laugh.) Of course, since I am opining on myself here, I think that my comment is a higher level of discourse than this ridiculous article or the utterly insulting comment of “Is this true?” posted by Mr. Young. I may never find out and really don’t care to.

I’ll keep this article updated as or if I receive more emails updating me on this discussion, which I’m surprised isn’t more heated or active. I honestly suspect that it isn’t because I’m not the only one who thinks LinkedIN is a fucking joke.

But then again, maybe Ernest Young just doesn’t know and was asking an honest to goodness legitimate question. More power to him for wanting to know the truth if the President of the United States of America is behind a Muslim conspiracy.

“For the past 35 years, one of my greatest pleasures has been to see Star Wars passed from one generation to the next,” said George Lucas, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lucasfilm. “It’s now time for me to pass Star Wars on to a new generation of filmmakers. I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. […]

Kathleen Kennedy, current Co-Chairman of Lucasfilm, will become President of Lucasfilm, reporting to Walt Disney Studios Chairman Alan Horn. Additionally she will serve as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disney’s global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Ms. Kennedy will serve as executive producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas serving as creative consultant. Star Wars Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015, with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga and grow the franchise well into the future.

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Safari -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Check “Show develop menu in menu bar”.​

Safari 6 also adds some nice firebug​-like features such as an on-the-fly element inspector. I code the old-fashioned way: point and shoot, so this feature is very helpful to me.

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“I was able to laugh at it right away,” Verlander said after leaving the game. “Obviously, you don’t want to go out like that, but I had fun. That’s why I don’t try to throw 100 (mph) in the first inning, but this is for the fans. It doesn’t usually work out too well for me.”

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Joshua Topolsky writing about Mike Daisey’s lies:

Daisey’s lies inspired honest questions about the gadgets in our pockets. Did he betray the trust of the public and journalists by lying? The answer to this question is easy: Yes. But were the lies necessary?

Topolsky never comes out and clearly answers that last question, but he does say this near the end:

Mike Daisey is not a hero, but I’m not sure he’s a villain either.
He leaned into his lies to sell tickets to a show, to get on network TV, to make money and get famous. But along the way — either on purpose or by accident — he opened a lot of eyes.

So I can only assume that lying, in Topolsky’s eyes, can be justified if it is done so out of necessity. That’s a good reason not to read a single word Topolsky writes.

I’ve always been annoyed by Topolsky. Not so much about what he does, but how he does it. Hey guys, we called it first: Apple is coming out with a new iPad! or Just like we predicted first, updated specs!

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It seems as though Gandalf is already coming to rescue and The Hobbit movie has not even been released yet! Hobbit news hit headlines this past week when a small pub in Southampton was threatened by legal action from Saul Zaentz Company for copyright infringement. The pub has been around for years and is a popular place that features music and drinks named after the Tolkien books.

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“This is almost the opposite of grassroots,” said Sunlight Foundation editorial director Bill Allison. “This is the very elite who tend to give to these organizations.”

“What really concerns us is all these people have issues before the federal government. This is a great way for them to get access, to get noticed, to get influence,” Allison said. “It’s not so much the giving to the super PACs and what they’re doing, it’s what happens after the election when these people come to collect.”

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Here’s the release we’ve been working on for nearly eleven months. I’ve tried to collect the major changes below, but it won’t be a complete list. I hope you enjoy the game!

• cities in adventure mode that have various buildings, dungeons, items, livestock, etc.
• protect your community from secret vampire dwarves or hunt them as an adventurer
• defend your fort during the full moon or risk a werewolf infestion — hunt/be hunted as an adventurer
• face armies of the dead in dwarf mode or visit their necromancers’ towers and learn their secrets as an adventurer
• evil regions where the dead and pieces of the dead can come alive, with evil mists and rain
• tombs built in world gen which can be visited in adv mode, either beneath towns or out in the wilds — beware the dead!
• revamped justice/witness/death notification system in dwarf mode
• immigrants to your fortress will now be historical figures whenever possible, which means more family relationships and history for each one
• dropped items/bodies tracked between plays in the wilderness anywhere in the world
• more battlefield information tracked/war dead raisable in world gen
• all sponsorship animals and their giant/man versions are in the game now
• various new abilities for creatures (see file_changes.txt for list and syntax)
• adventurers can use creature abilities/learned powers and they can be tested from the arena
• new site travel map to make navigating towns easier
• reading/swimming/observer (for traps) relevant in adv mode now
• established historical figures can lead bandits
• rivers block movement in adv mode travel
• eating/drinking required in adv mode
• ingested syndromes are now possible
• ability to make campfire (from ‘g’) and warm items at campfire/fire/magma (from ‘I’) in adv mode
• traps work in adv mode, once spotted they can be ignored
• gems now have different cuts
• necromancers can write books about various topics (all books are in their towers as it stands)
• moon phase indicator in fort
• alphanumeric world gen seeds and some more world gen params (see file_changes.txt)
• the legends xml has a lot of new info for historical figures
• buffer overload from aborted world gen fixed
• fixed cave-in-on-embark issue with hidden underground structure, and a few others
• designations over z levels all at once now possible
• unit screen divided into four sections
• rivers/pools have ramps now
• able to trade portions of stacks in both modes
• messed with adv mode currency trading and made items teleport to you
• tweaked how fire damage works
• made vision work through floor grates and bars properly
• fixed some road/bridge problems
• crystal glass items possible again
• tweaked adventure mode swimming and alt-movement readout (use alt-movement to get into a river you want to cross)
• skeletons/zombies replaced by animation effect
• demons masquerading as gods will try a little harder
• restricted mandates so they’ll be more reasonable
• stopped blank map from being exported when you back out of detailed map export

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Count me in.

The craftsmanship is excellent; I highly recommend Evan.

ThreeToe here. While Toady One is busy putting on the final touches for the next release, I thought I’d give you some details and impressions I’ve had while testing it.

Adventure mode is about 100,000x as fun. Huge cities with dungeons filled with loot and ancient pyramids crawling with undead. The new city maps are just awesome, and the fact that you have to eat and drink now really adds to the feeling of going on long journeys.

Dwarf mode is enriched as well. Most of the migrants you get now are historical figures, meaning they have their own skills and family lineage that goes back to the dawn of time. One thing I like doing is turning all the new rangers into marks-dwarves because they are already good at it. Another thing I noticed, but I hesitate to promise anything, is that the game runs way faster than before.

I caught a vampire too. A fisher-dwarf accused the expedition leader, who I knew was innocent of course. So I had my sheriff drag the fisher-dwarf to the dungeon. I had no hammer, so he had to wait to be executed while we forged one. After 50 hammer strikes I knew I was right, because he lived.

I think this release will be numbered among the mighty. And it’s coming right around the corner.

Can’t wait.

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