Thursday, December 27, 2007

The New Adventures of Lupin III

I didn’t know they made this new Lupin series. I just watched the pilot which tells the “origin” of how the Lupin gang formed. It’s pretty entertaining. And I’m happy to see Yuji Ohno is doing the music again.

The fan subbers (subtitlers) did a great job. I love the internet.

UPDATE: The first three links are recent direct to video Lupin movies. The rest are from the 1978 TV series. I watched the first two OAVs and really liked them. There were classic Lupin. 

Guest House

Another cool Japanese Puzzle game.

Washington was the 8th President (or the 18th)

Was George Washington not the first President of the United States of America? The answer is no, he wasn’t. George Washington was the first president under the U.S. Constitution. Someone had to run the country before the constitution was ratified. The U.S. had a running government as early as mid-1774.

Yes, before George Washington there were as many as 17 other presidents. Did you know that? Now you do.

Outrage Dujour

Baltimore Chronicle gleefully predicts the destruction of millions of “bible bangers” and conservatives due to global warming. 

Say what you will about the looming catastrophe facing the world as the pace of global heating and polar melting accelerates. There is a silver lining.

Look at a map of the US.

The area that will by completely inundated by the rising ocean—and not in a century but in the lifetime of my two cats—are the American southeast, including the most populated area of Texas, almost all of Florida, most of Louisiana, and half of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as goodly portions of eastern Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. While the northeast will also see some coastal flooding, its geography is such that that aside from a few projecting sandbars like Long Island and Cape Cod, the land rises fairly quickly to well above sea level. Sure, Boston, New York and Philadelphia will be threatened, but these are geographically confined areas that could lend themselves to protection by Dutch-style dikes. The West Coast too tends to rise rapidly to well above sea level in most places. Only down in Southern California towards the San Diego area is the ground closer to sea level.

So what we see is that huge swaths of conservative America are set to face a biblical deluge in a few more presidential cycles.

I always knew AGW was a mostly left wing fantasy. But this is ridiculous. This writer’s delusion is only eclipsed by his stupidity. There is no evidence whatsoever that any such thing is going to happen. Aside from the fact that parts of the world have had record cold temperatures this winter, scientists aren’t predicting sea rises that severe. The most they’ve predicted is around a foot in 50 years. And they’re probably wrong. 

The Bhutto Bombing

Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was assassinated today.

Who takes credit for it? Why, Al Qaeda of course. They don’t like Muslim leaders who call for the end of the mujahadeen.

A spokesperson for the al-Qaeda terrorist network has claimed responsibility for the death on Thursday of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

“We terminated the most precious American asset which vowed to defeat [the] mujahadeen,” Al-Qaeda’s commander and main spokesperson Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid told Adnkronos International (AKI) in a phone call from an unknown location, speaking in faltering English. Al-Yazid is the main al-Qaeda commander in Afghanistan.

It is believed that the decision to kill Bhutto, who is the leader of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), was made by al-Qaeda No. 2, the Egyptian doctor, Ayman al-Zawahiri in October.

Death squads were allegedly constituted for the mission and ultimately one cell comprising a defunct Lashkar-i-Jhangvi’s Punjabi volunteer succeeded in killing Bhutto.

Pakistan is one of their last strongholds. Bhutto’s popularity threatened to get her back in power at some point. Al Qaeda are desperate to stay alive. If Pakistan wasn’t such a basket case they would be in a lot worse shape. They are running out of save havens. While the Musharraf is also opposed to terrorists, he’s been unable to squash them. I doubt Bhutto could have done a better job, but I think they want to get a more sympathetic politician in power.

That won’t happen now. They have turned a lot of Pakistanis against them. Al Qaeda has just shot themselves in the foot. Like they did in Iraq.

As sad as this assassination may be, it might have a good effect.