johnny brainwash

wilwheaton: jenniferdeguzman: He said Star Trek is too...

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:23:33 -0700

jenniferdeguzman:

He said Star Trek is too “philosophical”? Screw that noise.

mechcanuck:

I don’t know when this interview happened but I AM SAD AND ANGRY NOW

The philosophies in Star Trek are kinda part of the actual setting. If you don’t get that, why are you allowed to make Star Trek movies.

Sigh. The whole point of Star Trek is that it’s philosophical. If you don’t want philosophical Science Fiction, there’s plenty of that for you to enjoy, but Star Trek is philosophical. Philosophy is part of Star Trek’s DNA, and if you’re given the captain’s chair, you’d better damn well respect that.

I’ve been meaning to write up my feelings about the last Star Trek movie before the new one comes out, but this sums up exactly how Abrams went about taking a giant shit all over it. It was a good sci fi action-adventure flick, but it was terrible Star Trek.

Oh, good. My 500th post was calling out the US for supporting genocide. At least I’m doing...

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:58:29 -0700

Oh, good. My 500th post was calling out the US for supporting genocide. At least I’m doing something worthwhile around here now and then.

A Guatemalan court has convicted a former dictator of genocide involving Mayans. More details:

Fri, 10 May 2013 18:38:01 -0700

A Guatemalan court has convicted a former dictator of genocide involving Mayans. More details::

shortformblog:

A Guatemalan court has convicted former dictator Efrain Rios Montt on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity, sentencing him to 80 years in prison.

The 86-year-old former general is the first former Latin American leader ever found guilty of such a charge.

A three-judge tribunal issued the verdict after the nearly two-month trial in which dozens of victims testified about horrific atrocities.

Rios Montt denies having knowledge of the massacres that happened involving indigenous people while he was in power.

Gosh, I wonder if I can think of any North American superpower that was funding, arming, training and “advising” Guatemala at the time and for the next decade or more as the slaughter continued.

I might have to think about this.

fylatinamericanhistory: Today In Latin American History The...

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:28:52 -0700

fylatinamericanhistory:

Today In Latin American History

The Battle of Puebla, which has become a popular holiday in the United States under the name Cinco de Mayo, took place on May 5, 1862, when a Mexican army led by Ignacio Zaragoza (who was born in what is now the state of Texas) defeated a much larger French army during the time of the French Intervention in Mexico. A significant victory, it nevertheless failed to put and end to France’s designs on the country, and French military forces were able to take over the Mexican capital some time later. Napoleon III eventually installed the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph as Emperor Maximiliano I of Mexico in 1864. French involvement in the country would continue for the next few years, with a definitive end arriving with the ouster and eventual execution of Maximiliano I in 1867. Future Mexican president Porfirio Díaz was a military officer during the Battle of Puebla, and the holiday is said to have gained greater prominence in the country—and, eventually, in the neighboring United States—during his rule at the turn of the century, although the day is also said to have been celebrated by Mexican miners in California in the 1860s. The anniversary of the Battle of Puebla is currently considered a regional event in Mexico, celebrated in the state of Puebla. In the United States, the holiday is often confused with the date of Mexican independence, which is celebrated on the 16th of September.

Just because you really ought to know this kind of stuff.

"Neo-colonialism is also the worst form of imperialism. For those who practise it, it means power..."

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:08:59 -0700

“Neo-colonialism is also the worst form of imperialism. For those who practise it, it means power without responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress.”

- Kwame Nkrumah. “Introduction.” Neo-colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism. (1970)

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Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:18:58 -0700

gunsandposes: A happy historical birthday to pioneering...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 19:42:23 -0700

gunsandposes:

A happy historical birthday to pioneering actor-singer-activist Paul Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976), seen here in a publicity still for the 1933 film adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones.

(Doctor Macro)

Doctor Who Embodies Post-Imperial Britain

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:13:00 -0700

Doctor Who Embodies Post-Imperial Britain :

crave-the-creative:

Now there’s an article title you don’t see everyday…

Article doesn’t live up to its title, but the idea is worth exploring in greater depth. Keeping it here to revisit.

Maybe this post will also remind me to write something about how Star Wars is the first post-Vietnam space opera and what this means for representations of empire.

EDIT: But it probably won’t.

punk-to-funk: Thatcher’s Britain

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:18:12 -0700

punk-to-funk:

Thatcher’s Britain

algopop: Darius Kazemi recently launched Clickbait, a webpage...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:31:44 -0700

algopop:

Darius Kazemi recently launched Clickbait, a webpage that automatically creates listicle headlines, in response to his personal anger at an article that listed two of his friends under Complex Magazine’s 40 Hottest Women in Tech. The algorithm behind it appears to select a random number + adjective + noun and then find a matching image.

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Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:45:00 -0800

oldschoolfrp: turner-d-century: lost-carcosa: Emrikol the...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:29:03 -0800

oldschoolfrp:

turner-d-century:

lost-carcosa:

Emrikol the Chaotic (illustration from the AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide, 1979).

The Street of the Knights, Rhodes, Greece

Now there’s a place to do some authentic LARPing.

Perfect direct comparison of Dave Trampier’s illustration and the real location.

fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory: Zumbi dos Palmares (d....

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:28:19 -0800

fuckyeahlatinamericanhistory:

Zumbi dos Palmares (d. 1695)

Zumbi was the last leader of the Quilombo dos Palmares, an autonomous community of people of African descent, many of them former slaves, located in what is now Alagoas, Brazil, and which was once home to several thousand people.

Said to have been captured by the Portuguese and given to a Catholic missionary as a child, he was baptized with the name Francisco, was taught the sacraments, learned Portuguese and Latin, and helped with daily mass. Zumbi escaped at the age of 15, returning to his birthplace, Palmares, where he eventually became known for his physical prowess and cunning in battle. He practiced capoeira, a martial art developed by Black slaves in colonial Brazil and used by the people of the Quilombo as a defense against the Portuguese and Dutch colonists who ruled the area in the seventeenth century.

Zumbi eventually took on the leadership of Palmares after the Quilombo’s leader, Ganga Zumba, was offered a deal by the region’s colonial governor to bring the independent community under Portuguese rule, which Zumbi found unacceptable as it ensured the freedom of the Quilombo’s Black community but did nothing to end slavery elsewhere in the colony. The Portuguese eventually succeeded in destroying part of the Quilombo, ending over half a century of autonomous rule. Zumbi went into hiding after this great loss, but was ultimately captured and beheaded by the Portuguese on November 20, 1695. His head was taken to the city of Recife to be displayed to the public as a warning. Today Zumbi is celebrated as a hero in Brazil. and the date of his death has been proclaimed a holiday, the Dia de Consciência Negra (Day of Black Awareness).

"I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great,..."

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:27:41 -0800

“I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great, spectacularly prolific writer and scientist, Dr. Isaac Asimov in that essentially functionless capacity. At an A.H.A. memorial service for my predecessor I said, “Isaac is up in Heaven now.” That was the funniest thing I could have said to an audience of humanists. It rolled them in the aisles. Mirth! Several minutes had to pass before something resembling solemnity could be restored.”

- Kurt Vonnegut (via fuckyeahiasimov)

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Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:27:09 -0800

ragecabinet: we are the weirdos

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:25:36 -0800

ragecabinet:

we are the weirdos

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Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:23:03 -0800

gilsonic: It shall rise again.

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:22:49 -0800

gilsonic:

It shall rise again.

Don’t mind me. Just unloading a bunch of stuff from my drafts to remind me I should post here...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:22:23 -0800

Don’t mind me. Just unloading a bunch of stuff from my drafts to remind me I should post here now and then.

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Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:20:27 -0800