Having fun nuking the enemy.

Two of the most sobering media presentations regarding the insanity of nuclear war were the final scene from “War Games”

and the 1983 production, “The Day After.”

And, as primitive as it was, the old Macintosh game “Missile Command” put the fear of God into me as those incoming warheads began to MIRV, and I saw that no matter how many you took out, your cities would still be reduced to smoking ash.

missile
Thanks to Mark Pazolli for the image.

The effects of nuclear damage are horrifying. Eyewitness accounts, footage and images from Hiroshima and Nagasaki should have been enough to convince humanity that these weapons of mass destruction have no place anywhere on the planet, but unfortunately this was not the path we took. In fact, some people actually capitalized on the fun of using atomic bombs on your enemies.

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Atom Bomber Toy, above and below.

Bomber

Then there was the next level: Mutoscope’s Atomic Bomber arcade game.

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Images found at Pinrepair.com

Remember, the “Atomic Bomber is built for profits and pleasure.” Never mind the charred ruins of two cities and hundreds of thousands of lives ruined or shattered.

What the hqiz is wrong with people? One would think we as a species would have learned from the past, but it’s chilling to remember that there are certain factions and certain governments who would gleefully launch nuclear attacks on their enemies if they only had viable technology: North Korea and Islamic terror groups come quickly to mind. And sadly, it’s only the threat of massive retaliation that has kept our nuclear arsenals locked up.

My voice is only a small one, but the more people who call for peace and the abolishment of such engines of horror, the sooner we will live in a world worthy of being called human. For the sake of us all, I pray that it may happen sooner than later.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Block that App

The Goodwoman of the House just posted this on her Facebook page:

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If only it were just Candy Crush Saga. I think the mad rush for these online stupidities started around the time that Farmville became popular. Every time someone posted “A poor little lamb just wandered onto your farm,” I’d reply with something about dragging out the mint sauce. Old_Wolf_EvilGrin

I immediately block any request for an app or game so that I never see them again; just hover your mouse over a request in your notifications, and you’ll see a “turn off” option:

TurnOff

 

TurnOff2

Facebook gives you the option to see which apps you’ve blocked, and this made me curious. You can see your own as well. Below, my blacklist, sorted alphabetically:

★ Your Daily Photo
❤ SpeedDate App
21 questions
411.ca
Angry Birds
Anniversaires
Answers™ About Me
Are you my best friend ???
Atlantis Fantasy
Backgammon Live
Backyard Monsters
Badges
Badoo
Battle Pirates
Best Friends Forever
Bingo Bash
BINGO Blitz
Birthday Calendar by Davia
Birthdays
BranchOut
Bubble Island
Bumper Sticker (New)
c56
Caesars Casino
Café World
Calendarul Meu
Candy Crush Saga
Castle Age
CastleVille
Causes
Causes
ChefVille
Chirpme
City of Wonder
CityVille
CoasterVille
Compleanni
Crossword Buddies
Cumpleaños
Date New People
Empires & Allies
Family Farm
Family Tree
FARKLE
FarmVille
FBCredits Giveaway
Flixster
Födelsedagar
Food Fling!
Free Gifts
Friend Hug
Friends Albums
Friends Forever – You and Me
FrontierVille
fTalk
Fun Cards – New Year & More!
Gardens of Time
Get Revealed
Goodreads
Halloween Treats Old
Hidden Chronicles
Hidden Haunts
Hollywood Spins
Holy Town
Hotel City
Hugged
Il Mio Calendario
Indiana Jones Adventure World
Invite Your Friends Button
Jackpot Bingo
Klout
Knighted
Knighthood
Legends: Rise of a Hero
Likeness
Listia
Lost Bubble
LoVe to YoU ❤~
Lucky Slots
Mafia Wars
Mahjong Trails
Maine Stuff!!
Marvel: Avengers Alliance
Mastering the Joy of Chocolate
Middle Kingdom
Movie Blitz
My Calendar
My Calendar
My Friend Secrets
My Holiday Cards ★
My Tetris Friends
MyFamily
Ninja Saga
Organizing for Action
Pengle
PetVille
Photo Contest
Pink Ribbon
Pioneer Trail
Pool Master 2
Promo!
Promotions
PurePlay Casino
Question Party
Quien visita tu perfil?
Ravenskye City
Rich Schefren Endorses FBWebinars
schoolFeed
SimCity Social
Slingo
Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
Sorority Life
Stik for Small Business
Suggest This
SuperPoke! Pets
Talent.me
THE FRIEND FIGHTING QUIZ
The Guardian
The Only Government Approved Money System
The Sims Social
Threads of Mystery
To my Online Friend
Treasure Isle
TripAdvisor
Truth Game
Truths About You
TSO Atlantic City Flyaway!
Verjaardagen
Would you rather
Zoo World
全民捕魚
我的王國
誕生日

Every single one of these apps wants permission to access all my information, my friends list, my wall, and often requests permission to post on my behalf, including spamming itself to all my friends. To Pluto with that.

The Old Wolf approves the above sentiment.

Sharing a wonderful blog: Bad Postcards

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EXTRATERRESTRIAL SPACESHIP

Actual photograph of a Flying Saucer taken June 16, 1963 near Albuquerque, New Mexico. Learn about people from other planets! Subscribe to: UFO INTERNATIONAL. Six issues $3.00. Single copy—50 cents. Published by: AMALGAMATED FLYING SAUCER CLUBS OF AMERICA, INC. (AFSCA)…Los Angeles, California.


Discovered this lovely website through Glaserei and had to share it. So many wonderful, awful postcards… a glimpse into America’s cultural past.

Click through for hundreds more bad postcards.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

The weight-loss bra: is this breepy or crilliant?

131204110654-microsoft-smart-bra-story-topIn the “Stranger than Amazon’s Drones” department comes news of a new idea from Microsoft – a bra which monitors a woman’s vital signs and detects the kind of stress levels that signal overeating, then sending a message to the wearer’s phone telling her to stop chowing down.

Click through to the CNN article for more information if you are curious, but I have to say that this idea creeps me out on a number of different levels, all the while being intriguing.

People who want to release weight usually want all the help they can get, if they’re really motivated, so the idea of a biometric warning system is not bad in and of itself. It might actually give some people the extra incentive they need to watch portions.

But in a bra? Somehow, this seems to send a message that only women need to watch their food intake, or that only women have problems with excess weight.

Couldn’t one come up with a unisex band worn around the chest (below the bustline) that would accomplish the same thing, similar to the sporty heart monitors, or is Microsoft thinking about the weight loss jockstrap for guys, just to keep the playing field level? This device, of course, instead of sending a message to the wearer’s phone would deliver a good strong shock to the “boys,” because guys need extra incentive and they’re all tough as nails, right?

Whatever the case, they didn’t ask me. And while I love all things geeky, this one seems to cross the line from smart into disturbing.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Stupidity has consequences

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The beautiful, 160-year-old Lebeau plantation in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana.

Burned

The same plantation after a group of brain-dead “ghost hunters” invaded the place to investigate reports of the place’s being haunted. Finding no ghosts, they decided to get wasted on cheap weed and cheaper beer, and ended up setting the place on fire.

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No punishment meted out to these ragskulls will bring back the historic building which pre-dated the Civil War, but felony charges may deter the next group of morons. You can get a few more details at Fox8.

The Old Wolf is sad.

Killing us softly, Part 4

  • Women, watch this.
  • Men, watch this.
  • Share it with your children whom you think are ready to handle it.
  • And start teaching the principles in appropriate ways to the young ones from the cradle.

This is not radical feminism, it is the cold, hard, harsh truth – and as long as nothing changes, rape culture, image problems and relationship dysfunction will continue to have a fertile breeding ground. Sexualization and objectification in advertising affects us all, regardless of our gender, age, or body type. Spend 22 minutes listening to this powerful lady speak truth to the advertising world.

Thanks to Paul Taylor of Wapsi Square for pointing this out.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Marketing moves the goalposts again.

To start with, let’s take a look at this ingredient label for a Nestlé’s Toll House Cookie:

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Amounts per serving:

Calories 130
Fat Calories 60
Total fat 6g (9% Daily Value)
Saturated Fat 4g (20% Daily Value)
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 7g (7% Daily Value)
Sodium 100mg (4% Daily Value)
Total Carbohydrates 16g (5% Daily Value)
Fiber: Nothing
Sugars 9g
Protein 2g
And a few vitamins.
The DV (Daily Value) amounts are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Now, what you may or may have not noticed is that these values are for one serving. Well, there’s one cookie in the pack right? But many people will gloss over the fact that there are approximately four servings per package, and that one serving is calculated at ¼ cookie.

So let’s recalculate the information if you eat the entire cookie at one sitting, which the vast majority of people will do:

Calories 520 (about ¼ of your daily total)
Fat Calories 240
Total fat 24g (36% Daily Value)
Saturated Fat 16g (80% Daily Value)
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 28g (28% Daily Value)
Sodium 400mg (16% Daily Value)
Total Carbohydrates 64g (20% Daily Value)
Fiber: Nothing
Sugars 36g
Protein 8g
And a few vitamins.
The DV (Daily Value) amounts are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

So this monster accounts for a quarter of your daily intake of calores, almost all your allowance of saturated fat, 1/3 your allowance of total fat, and 1/5 your carbohydrate intake. In other words, it’s death for your health, and Nestlé doesn’t dare admit it straight up.

Question: How can you tell when a marketer is lying?
Answer: His lips are moving

I remember when I was a kid, the candy bars you bought started getting smaller and smaller, even though the cardboard trays that were wrapped around them stayed the same size – and that was in the 50’s. Since I’ve been alive, marketing has been a neverending race to the bottom in terms of morality, ethicality and honor.

An article on KSL today highlights how the marketing bar has been lowered at least another notch: A lady was delighted when shopping at a trendy jeans store to find she had dropped a size, but when she went to the website to order another pair, she followed a link that mentioned “updated sizes;” it turns out old size 10s were now 8s, the old 6s are now 4s, and so on. The author of the article makes some good points about how marketing drives consumer spending habits, among them:

I had let the label of an article of clothing dictate not only my spending habits, but how I felt about myself. Those moments when I congratulated myself over how I looked in those new jeans were false.

I’ve mentioned the tactics of persuasion elsewhere, but consumers who want to shepherd their dollars carefully need to be constantly vigilant, because the marketeers are right on their heels, looking for new ways to separate them from their hard-earned money. If we’re not careful, we’ll return to what must be the undisputed nadir of marketing ethics:

Hall of Shame Advertisement

 

In case you don’t grok why this advertisement is so shameful, here’s what it says in plain English

  • Throw away your old rabbit ears
  • Buy our rabbit ears, because they’re prettier!
  • You’re not getting satellite service, but in spite of our telling you that straight up, you’re still going to think you are.
  • We’ve told you nothing but the truth, but because you’re stupid and we’ve used a lot of weasel-words, you are getting a completely untruthful idea about our product.
  • Thanks for your money, suckers.

Be careful; it’s a jungle out there.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

You do *not* mess with perfection.

According to Variety magazine, William Goldman’s The Princess Bride is headed for the stage.

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This movie has long been enshrined in my mind as the perfect film. Even the actors have waxed eloquent about what an amazing adventure it was, that it was the summum bonum of their careers, that everything came together perfectly, that they were honored to be a part of such excellence, and on and on.

What the hqiz is Disney thinking? As well you might try to recreate the Mona Lisa, or Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6.

André Roussimov must be spinning in his grave right about now. This play is going to suck more powerfully than a Riccar vacuum. And the possibilty of a musical version? Utter blasphemy.

And yes, I’m being petty and closed-minded. Shtigin! Nobody’s hearin’ nothin!

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Old_Wolf_BrainNuke

 

Veteran’s Day, 2013

This post is dedicated to the memory of my maternal uncle, Courtney Rogers Draper, who lost his life on one of the Japanese “Hell Ships” in December of 1944.

Courtney Rogers Draper Obituary

Obituary from the Salt Lake Tribune of July 25, 1945. Courtney’s parents received the telegram the previous day.

EnouraMaru

Strike photo showing the sinking of the Enoura Maru in Takao Harbor (now Kaohsiung, Taiwan). The allies were unaware that the ship was packed to the gills with allied prisoners, as the Japanese ships were unmarked.

Ebara Maru (Enoura Maru Class)

Painting of the Ebara Maru, a ship of the same class as the Enoura Maru. The Ebara was not used as a Hell Ship.

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Monument in Memory Grove, Salt Lake City.

Courtney Purple Heart

A photo of Lt. Draper in the Philippines before his capture, along with his purple heart ribbon.

The official POW record reads as follows:

World War II Prisoners of War, 1941-1946
Name: Courtney R Draper 
Race: White
Residence State: Utah

Report Date: 7 May 1942
Latest Report Date: Jan 1945

Grade: First Lieutenant or Chief nurse or Head dietitian or Head physical therapy aides
Grade Notes: First Lieutenant or Lt. Jr. Grade
Service Branch: Army
Arm or Service: Air Corps
Arm or Service Code: Air Corps
Area Served: Southwest Pacific Theatre: Philippine Islands
Detaining Country: Japan
Camp: 502
STATUS: Executed, Died in Ship’s Sinking or Result of Ship Sinking, Shot While Attempting Escape
Notes: Enoura Maru
POW Transport Ship: December Sinkings: See code in previous field (REP). (B)DS=Brazil Maru; (E)DS=Enoura Maru; (O)DS=Oryoka Maru; (X) Died during transportation from Olongapo to San Fernando, PI.
Report Source: Individual has been reported through sources considered official.

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Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, also known as Fort William McKinley Cemetery, honors the American and allied servicemen who died fighting the Japanese in World War II. The Cemetery offers repose to soldiers who died in the Pacific theatre, which included the Philippines, New Guinea, and the Pacific islands. Courtney’s last official status is “missing,” his remains “unrecoverable.”

Courtney was a promising and rising young attorney in his father’s practice before his death; his siblings, including my mother, always told me what an outstanding person he was. I’m saddened that I never knew him, but I honor his memory, as I do that of all the honored dead. May they rest in peace.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Fail to stop at a stop sign; get repeatedly raped (legally)

This article is reblogged from TechDirt. Click through for the full article, including legal complaints and other documentation.

Edit: At least the poor guy was compensated to some degree. Hidalgo County and Deming coughed up $1.6 million to settle the suit. However, no disciplinary action was reported.

This is one of the most disgraceful abuses of power I’ve heard of in recent times, and some of them have been pretty bad.

I call for the immediate dismissal of the officers involved, and criminal charges to be filed against them, as well as against the doctors who performed these illegal, invasive procedures without the consent of the victim. Oh, and did I mention that the Gila Regional Medical Center is billing the victim for the invasive, non-consensual medical procedures and has threatened to take him to collections for non-payment?

By the holy skull of Mogg’s grandfather, this is beyond belief.

——————

Cops Subject Man To Rectal Searches, Enemas And A Colonoscopy In Futile Effort To Find Drugs They Swear He Was Hiding

from the a-vulgar-display-of-power dept

This post is going to be very short on commentary because the hideous abuse of justice has basically rendered me near speechless.

David Eckert, a resident of Deming, NM, was pulled over by police officers after failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. For whatever reason, the officers decided Eckert was hiding something, or perhaps they were unsatisfied that a routine stop hadn’t blown up into something bigger.

They asked him to step out of the car and then searched his vehicle (without his consent). Another officer brought in a drug dog which reacted (a relatively worthless indication of anything — drug dogs can easily be “alerted” by their controlling officers) to the driver’s seat. (Eckert’s lawyer calls into question this dog’s training, presenting documents that claim to show it hadn’t received the proper field training and recertification. See exhibits listed under docket item 27.) Then the officer “observed” that Eckert was standing “erect with his legs together” and his “buttocks clenched.” This was all the justification the Deming police needed to subject Eckert to the following horrific chain of events at a hospital in neighboring Silver City.

1. Eckert’s abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found.
2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert’s anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found.
4. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
5. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a second time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
6. Doctors penetrated Eckert’s anus to insert an enema a third time. Eckert was forced to defecate in front of doctors and police officers. Eckert watched as doctors searched his stool. No narcotics were found.
7. Doctors then x-rayed Eckert again; no narcotics were found.
8. Doctors prepared Eckert for surgery, sedated him, and then performed a colonoscopy where a scope with a camera was inserted into Eckert’s anus, rectum, colon, and large intestines. No narcotics were found.

At no time did Eckert give his consent to these searches. The police did obtain a warrant to rectally search Eckert but that warrant itself was problematic. For one, it was severely lacking in probable cause. For another, it was valid only for Luna County but the searches were executed inGrant County. Third, the warrant was only valid for four hours, up until 10 pm that night. Eckert was held for 14 hours and, according to medical records, prep for the colonoscopy didn’t even commence until 1 am the following day.

Why the venue shift? Because the doctor at the Deming hospital told officers the proposed search was “unethical.” Drs. Robert Wilcox and Okay Odocha of the Gila Regional Medical Center apparently had no qualms about forcibly “searching” Eckert eight times.

There’s more in Eckert’s complaint, including the fact that the second x-ray was of his chest, an area completely unrelated to the region where he was supposedly “concealing drugs.” In addition to what can be proven from medical records and police reports obtained by Eckert’s attorney, there are additional allegations that the officers Chavez and Hernandez mocked him and made derogatory comments about his “compromised position.” They also allegedly moved the privacy screen repeatedly to expose him to others in the hospital hallway. This verbal abuse apparently continued during Eckert’s ride back to the Deming police station. Understandably, Eckert now claims to be “terrified to leave the house” and does so “infrequently.”

There are many lawsuits filed where most details are alleged. This isn’t one of them. Most of what’s “alleged” by Eckert is documented by the routine paperwork that accompanies medical procedures and search warrants. And, to add insult to injury, KOB4’s news team states that the Gila Regional Medical Center is billing Eckert for the invasive, non-consensual medical procedures and has threatened to take him to collections for non-payment.

The only question that remains is why no one involved on the “law” side ever thought that anything past the first step on the list above might be excessive. These officers, along with two shamefully compliant doctors, went as far as they could to humiliate and violate someone simply because they could — in a collective effort that looks far more like making Eckert pay for the “crime” of making the cops look stupid than any sort of legitimate law enforcement effort.

The mind reels at the human corruption and institutional evil that allowed this travesty to take place.

Contact the Gila Regional Medical Center:

Complaint, send to our Patient Advocate: patientadvocate@grmc.org

Contact the Deming Police Department

700 E. Pine St. Deming NM 88030
Phone: (575)546-3012
Fax: (575)546-0503

Contact the Hidalgo County Sheriff

Saturnino Madero

720 E. 2nd Street
Lordsburg, NM 88045
575.542.3833
575.542.3143  FAX

The victim is suing for damages, and I hope he prevails beyond all expectations. A large settlement is the only thing that will make the various parties to this abomination sit up and take notice.

The Old Wolf has spoken.