October 10, 2015

David Wright is a goddamned MAN

And he's from the hometown -- we're practically cousins

This has been another truth from brother blue_tires (you're welcome)

October 9, 2015

DC Lets Frank Miller Draw Superman's Penis for Dark Knight III

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--cMt_qkie--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/1461169581158421063.jpg



Hello. This is an actual comic cover drawn by legendary comic artist Frank Miller. It’s the cover to a companion comic to Miller’s upcoming Dark Knight III: The Master Race series, and it appears DC is actually going to publish it despite the fact that 1) it is horrible, 2) it is laughable and 3) you can clearly see the outline of Superman’s junk in his red briefs.

I’m basically speechless that this is happening. The only thing I can think of is that DC is so desperate for more Dark Knight Returns money that not only have they brought Frank Miller back, but been forced to accede to his obviously terrible demands, such as naming the third installment “The Master Race.” Given the horrible art of The Dark Knight Strikes Again, it made sense that DC would agree to a problematic title as long as Miller brought on board some decent collaborators. Which is presumably why Brian Azzarello is co-writing and Andy Kubert and Klaus Janson are taking the actual art duties, for the upcoming series.

But I guess Miller also demanded to be allowed draw something for his effort, and DC was forced to allow him to draw this cover to a Superman and Atom DK3 tie-in. And I have to assume they promised Miller they wouldn’t change it, because as much as I give DC crap for being obtuse, I can’t believe anyone in the DC Comics office right is looking at Superman’s face, his body dysmorphia and most especially the outline of his dick, and not praying they had the power to prevent it. And then to delete it and smash all the computers that had ever hosted the image with hammers.

http://io9.com/dc-lets-frank-miller-draw-supermans-penis-for-dark-knig-1734799042

October 9, 2015

It looks like active duty Russian soldiers shot down MH17 in eastern Ukraine

This report summarizes the open source investigations into the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) on July 17, 2014 in Ukraine. It draws on the work of Bellingcat and others who used open source information to uncover facts about the events that took place on July 17 and the origin of the Buk missile launcher that downed MH17.
The Buk Missile Launcher

After the downing of MH17 on July 17, a number of photographs and videos were shared online claiming to show the movements of a Buk missile launcher through separatist-controlled territory. It was possible to confirm the location where each image was recorded and discover additional information that further evidenced when and where the Buk missile launcher was on July 17. The following is an approximate timeline of where the Buk was and when:

10:45 am: Departed Donetsk eastbound along H21
11:00 am – 12:00 pm: Passed Zuhres and Shakhtersk en route to Torez along H21
12:00 pm – 12:45 pm: Entered and then passed through Torez (eastbound)
1:00 pm: Entered Snizhne
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm: Buk was unloaded from the Volvo low-loader truck in Snizhne; left the city (southbound)
4:20 pm: MH17 shot down

Before the first reports and images of the Buk missile launcher were recorded in Donetsk, communications intercepted by the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) provided information on the earlier movements of the Buk missile launcher. Intercepts include separatists discussing the arrival of the Buk,[1]and references to a location inside Donetsk known as the “Motel.”[2]

http://www.businessinsider.com/active-duty-russian-soldiers-shot-down-mh17-in-eastern-ukraine-2015-10



Anybody who's ready to apologize and admit I've been correct since day one, you just go right ahead...

October 7, 2015

Kremlin Sets out to Extend Control Over the Russian Internet

Galina Timchenko recalls how proud she felt when the Russian news website she edited reached 3 million users per day. When she reported the figures to the website's owner, he was horrified.

"At that moment something snapped inside and I understood that this is the end, because there cannot be such an influential resource that is not controlled by the Kremlin," Timchenko said.

A month later, she was fired and a more Kremlin-friendly editor was brought in to run the website, Lenta.ru.

The shakeup at Lenta.ru last year came as the government was pushing through a slew of new laws to strengthen its control over the Internet, which President Vladimir Putin has described as a "CIA project."

Some of the laws, including those giving the government broad leeway to block websites and blogs, have proven possible to get around.

"Putin and his people are sure that all things are constructed like a hierarchy, but the Internet is a net and everyone can participate in the process," said Irina Borogan, who co-authored a new book about the Russian Internet called "The Red Web."

Other measures may prove more formidable, including a law that came into force on Sept. 1 obliging companies to keep servers containing information on Russian citizens on Russian soil. Russian Internet companies also have been asked to provide information on users of social networks and online money-transfer services.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/kremlin-sets-extend-control-russian-internet-34305006


Too easy...

October 7, 2015

Paradox of the First Black President

There is a photo by Pete Souza, the White House’s canny and peripatetic photographer, that surfaces from time to time online. The setting is Marine One, and it features a modest cast of five. Valerie Jarrett, dressed in a suit of blazing pink, is staring at her cell phone. Barack Obama, twisted around in his seat, is listening to a conversation between his then–body guy, Reggie Love, and Patrick Gaspard, one of his then–top advisers. Obama’s former deputy press secretary, Bill Burton, is looking on too, with just the mildest hint of a grin on his face.

In many ways, it’s a banal shot — just another photo for the White House Instagram feed, showing the president and his aides busily attending to matters of state. Stare at it a second longer, though, and a subtle distinction comes into focus: Everyone onboard is black. “We joked that it was Soul Plane,” says Burton. “And we’ve often joked about it since — that it was the first time in history only black people were on that helicopter.”
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Souza snapped that shot on August 9, 2010, but it didn’t make any prominent appearances in the mainstream press until mid-2012, when it appeared in The New York Times Magazine. The following summer, July 2013, the president had a group of civil-rights leaders come visit him in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, and the optics, as they like to say in politics, were similar: An all-star cast of minorities (African-American and Latino this time) gathered in a historic place to which the barriers to entry were once insuperably high.

But this was not a meeting the participants laughed about afterward. When Obama opened up the floor, everyone spoke about what they’d witnessed in the 2012 election: how states that limited voter-registration drives and early-voting initiatives had left many African-Americans off the rolls; how strict new laws concerning IDs had prevented many minorities from voting and created hours-long lines at the polls. The answer was clear: legislation to restore the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court had just overturned a key provision of the landmark civil-rights legislation the month before.

But Obama’s response was equally clear: Nothing could be done. Not in this political climate, not under these circumstances. Congress would never allow it.

The group was stunned. As they’d stumped for Obama, one of the many talking points they’d used to turn out the black vote was the threat of disenfranchisement, the possibility that the Voting Rights Act was in jeopardy. Yet here was Obama telling them that a bill addressing this vital issue didn’t stand a chance.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/10/paradox-of-the-first-black-president.html

October 7, 2015

Remembering Anna Politkovskaya on the Anniversary of her Death

On the ninth anniversary of Anna Politkovskaya's murder, Freedom House mourns the courageous journalist and continues to demand full justice for the slain journalist.

"Politkovskaya's death will remain part of the present until the Russian authorities bring to justice the masterminds of her murder," said Mark P. Lagon, president of Freedom House.

"Politkovskaya is a symbol of fearless uncovering the truth, the golden standard of journalism. It is tragic that in modern Russia truth is so feared by the authorities that impunity became a policy on violence against government critics."

Russia is rated Not Free in Freedom in the World 2015, Not Free in Freedom of the Press 2015, and receives a democracy score of 6.46 on a scale of 1 to 7, with 7 as the worst possible score, in Nations in Transit 2015.

https://freedomhouse.org/article/remembering-anna-politkovskaya-anniversary-her-death

October 7, 2015

Inside the world’s only sanctuary for exiled journalists

PARIS, FRANCE—“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Voltaire never actually said (pdf) those words, but the great French writer would have understood how much they applied to the jokes made by the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo.

Voltaire, exiled from Paris for almost three decades for his ironic anti-clerical works, would have also understood the potential repercussions—he himself made Islam one of his targets in his 1736 five-act play, Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet. The deaths of the cartoonists at the hands of the Kouachi brothers earlier this year shattered some easy assumptions, perhaps the biggest being that we live in a world where you can’t be murdered over a joke.

Not far away from those bloodstained Charlie Hebdo hallways, on the other bank of the Seine, there’s a building that houses those who have experienced the alternative to death—exile. The men and women inside the Maison des Journalistes, the only refuge for threatened journalists in the world, already know how quickly a life can change over a few choice words.
The Rwandan journalist—not silenced yet.(Quartz/Kabir Chibber)

None are famous. They committed small acts of courage and were punished for it. Truth is, few in the real world even care about all they have given up. When Quartz visited the Maison earlier this summer, a Syrian photojournalist, who asked not to be named, spoke of living through the siege of Homs with no food or electricity for a year. His brother was killed by a missile; the rest of his family is still there.

There was an Algerian, Mourad Hammam, whose eyes filled with tears as he talked about the corruption under president Abdelaziz Bouteflika. He was threatened after writing about a young man who was shot to death in the middle of a bar brawl, caused by a fight between the local mafia over which song to play. Behind Hammam hung a tableau of cartoons to celebrate Freedom of the Press Day; one showed an militiaman forcing an anthropomorphic newspaper to dig its own grave. Among the signatories was a longtime supporter of the Maison: Charlie Hebdo’s Cabu, once described by Jean-Luc Godard as “the best journalist in France.”

http://qz.com/495602/inside-the-worlds-only-sanctuary-for-exiled-journalists/

What, you were expecting this story to be about somebody else?

October 7, 2015

McDonald's drive-thru oral sex couple 'turned their car into human zoo'

A couple who admitted having oral sex in a McDonalds’s drive-thru “turned themselves and their car into a human zoo,” a judge has said.

Lisa Victoria Gray, 28, of Pentrechwyth Road, Bonymaen, Swansea, and Rhys Higgins, 24, of Ravenhill, Swansea, “abandoned every shred of decency and respect they had” a judge has said.

They were caught at the McDonald’s in Foundry Road, Morriston, Swansea, in the early hours of May 6 this year, said Judge Paul Thomas QC at Swansea Crown Court.

He said their “animalistic lust” led them to commit the offence.

On Friday, Judge Thomas gave shame-faced Gray and Higgins four-month jail sentences suspended for a year after they both pleaded guilty to a joint charge of outraging public decency.

Craig Jones, prosecuting, said: “At 4.30am on May 6 this year Gray was driving a yellow Fiat car and Higgins was the front seat passenger.

“She pulled into the McDonald’s drive-thru and placed an order for a meal via the speaker system and proceeded to a delivery window.

“It was clear to the staff both Gray and Higgins were under the influence of drink at this time.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/mcdonalds-drive-thru-oral-sex-10133789

October 7, 2015

Russia Is Bombing Ambulances in Syria

Dr. Ammar Martini has a simple question he would like answered: “Why are the Russians bombing my hospitals and ambulances?”

One of the cofounders of Orient Humanitarian Relief, a nonprofit that provides medical treatment and educational services in northern and central Syria, Martini was recounting to The Daily Beast how Russian airstrikes in the Idlib countryside Saturday destroyed a part of his emergency ambulance center. “They destroyed four or five of our vehicles,” he said. “These attacks were specifically targeting Orient.”

Below is a video Oubai Shahbandar, a former Pentagon officials turned Orient employee, shared with The Daily Beast, showing the charred vehicles. “If the Russians think ambulances are legitimate terrorist targets,” Shahbandar emailed, “imagine what they’re going to do to the rest of Syria.”
On the same day the U.S. struck a hospital in Afghanistan, Putin’s pilots struck medical facilities and vehicles nowhere near ISIS.

It’s been a dark week for medical volunteers, all around. A Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, was struck repeatedly on Saturday by U.S. warplanes. Nineteen were killed, the majority of them hospital workers. Colonel Brian Tribus, the U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said that any powdered medical facilities constituted “collateral damage” against legitimate Taliban targets threatening U.S. forces in the area. Doctors Without Borders countered that there were no militants in or around its facility, and accused the American military of a “war crime.” That isn’t clear, at this point. But what is apparent is that the Kunduz hospital attack is a major violation of the standards U.S. forces have set for themselves. A military investigation is underway, and the Pentagon has now retracted its initial claim that American soldiers were under threat.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/10/06/why-are-the-russians-bombing-my-ambulances.html


I'll just leave this here....

October 7, 2015

4chan and the Oregon shooter: What the suspicious thread says about a horrifying subculture

It may have been a direct warning. It may have been just a coincidence. And regardless of which scenario is true, the fact we can’t yet be sure should tell you plenty already about the horrifying subculture of murderously angry young men out there.

As law enforcement and the press scrambled for information in the wake of Thursday’s mass shooting at Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, which left ten people dead and seven wounded, Federal officials announced they were investigating a recent 4chan exchange that appeared to predict the rampage. In a cryptic post on the /r9k board on Wednesday, an anonymous poster with an image of Pepe the Frog holding a gun reportedly posted, “Some of you guys are alright. Don’t go to school tomorrow if you are in the northwest. happening thread will be posted tomorrow morning. so long space robots.”

After the shooting, some users noted that a well-known figure on the board who goes by Eggman had in August posted a video declaring “I’m done with r9k” and on Wednesday had added another video saying, “Anybody in the Seattle area, the Washington area, and want me to come, like, couch surf at their house or whatever, just hit me up dawg. I’m going to be here a few days.” Predictably, speculation soon ran rampant that Eggman was the shooter. But the killer was later identified as someone else — 26 year-old Chris Harper Mercer.

Was Mercer the 4chan user who issued the warning? The timing is certainly eerie. But what’s demoralizing is that it could easily have been the rambling of just one more loathsome 4chan troll in an ocean of loathsome 4chan trolls. The post was immediately greeted with a Christmas Eve level excitement — the first reply was, “Is beta uprising finally going down? You might want to chillax and not alert police.” See, in the sad world of frustrated men who dwell in the lowest reaches of online community, males can divide themselves into “alphas” — self-aggrandizing, openly hostile followers of pick up artist culture, and betas, the poor misunderstood, passed over men who will have their glorious day of revenge. Does this talk of alphas and betas sound familiar? Maybe you remember getting the tutorial a year and a half ago, when another young man, Elliot Rodger, went on a deadly spree.

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/02/4chan_and_the_oregon_shooter_what_the_suspicious_thread_says_about_a_horrifying_subculture_of_young_male_rage/

Sadly, the people who need to read this the most, won't...