Ace of Spades HQ

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December 29, 2004

Updating the Blogroll...

Although I've got some people I *know* I need to link, there are others I should link but will forget to unless reminded.

If you want to be linked, please mention your blog's name and URL in the comments below.

I don't link everybody. But I just noticed, for example, that commeter Carin has a blog, but never mentioned it to me. So I definitely need to link people like her.

And, by the way: I know I have to update the links for Marcland and Dalek's Weblog. I've just not gotten around to it. I know in Marcland's case it was because he requested the change when I still didn't even have my blogroll back up yet, as I was still in the redesign phase.

posted by Ace at 06:30 PM

Comments

Ace,

The site formerly known as Thunder Monkey (url: noisyprimate.com) has been reborn, post Bloghosts.com melt down, as Wing Nut Echo Chamber (url: www.wingnutechochamber.com)

Thanks for the link.

Keggin.

Posted by: keggin on December 29, 2004 06:42 PM

Thanks, Ace. I've been missing the crazy blog traffic that you always send my way.

Posted by: marc on December 29, 2004 06:55 PM

Oh, Ace, you're too cool ;) Thanks.

Posted by: Carin on December 29, 2004 06:56 PM

How'd you miss Professor Chaos? You've been on my blogroll since I got it ...

http://1218.blogspot.com

Posted by: Leopold Stotch on December 29, 2004 07:26 PM

Ace,

You can blogroll me if you want; I don't want to seem pushy. Your call.

Posted by: The Colossus on December 29, 2004 07:30 PM

As the only Podcast with blog content, and one that reads your stuff regularly into my daily podcast feed, I'd love a plug. I create a daily MP3 file of the best posts on the most interesting 4-5 topic areas in the blogosphere. Listen to the MP3 from December 28th's post to hear me read the Ace of Spades comments on the left's silence over the Ukraine. Subscribe to the RSS feed and get every day's program automatically.

Posted by: Charlie Quidnunc on December 29, 2004 07:37 PM

I'm not proud; I'd be happy to accept a link.

Posted by: Andrew on December 29, 2004 07:40 PM

I'd love a link, but you'll remain on my blogroll whether I get one or not. Cuz you make me bust a gut on a regular basis.

Preston

Posted by: Preston Taylor Holmes on December 29, 2004 07:50 PM

And of course I would post this on the one rare time my webhost takes a dump on me. Typical.

Posted by: Preston Taylor Holmes on December 29, 2004 09:43 PM

Yo Ace

You've been on my Highly Irreverent list since inception. and will stay listed, reciprocation or not. Just keep posting stuff like the PETA/fish top ten list. Side-splitting howls.

Joust The Facts, at joustthefacts.typepad.com.

Regards,
Giacomo

Posted by: Giacomo on December 29, 2004 09:45 PM

Next to getting linked to by Drudge, getting onto your blogroll would seriously make my day.

Posted by: stevesturm on December 29, 2004 09:56 PM

Please put me into consideration. I'm Conservative AND abrasive...a rare combination.

Posted by: Nickie Goomba on December 29, 2004 10:25 PM

Hey Ace -- I started a blog, but I suspect it will be of interest to maybe .0002% of your readership. Seriously.

Posted by: someone on December 30, 2004 12:16 AM

I also forgot to enter the url. Heh.

Posted by: someone on December 30, 2004 12:17 AM

Hey Ace,

I would be honored to be on your blogroll. You have an excellent blog, which I've linked to as well.

Posted by: Zelda on December 30, 2004 12:49 AM

Hell, you've linked me a couple of times. Why not?

Nerf-Coated World. Or, alternately, Matt Howell. Or, neither! Take yer pick.

Posted by: Matt on December 30, 2004 12:57 AM

Love your blog, Ace. You're first on my blogroll! (Though I must admit that's mainly because it's in alpahbetical order ;-)

Posted by: Ed Mick on December 30, 2004 01:11 AM

link and I link back-

cheers

Posted by: HP on December 30, 2004 02:07 AM

Take a look to see if I'm worthy.

Posted by: Machias Privateer on December 30, 2004 04:20 AM

Woohoo! Link me! Link me!!!

http://kinskouch.virtualsushi.us

Posted by: Kin on December 30, 2004 05:47 AM

Here's to all the mad blog-money you are always ranting about.

Of The Mind

Posted by: Michael C on December 30, 2004 07:19 AM

Even though I'm going off Bolgger in the next couple of weeks and renaming my site, I'd love to be on your blogroll.

Posted by: superhawk on December 30, 2004 07:57 AM

Ace,
Please consider Cranky Neocon. If you link me, I can send literally tens of links your way on a daily basis.

Oh, and I'm funny. Damn funny.

Posted by: Gordon on December 30, 2004 09:12 AM

Hi Ace, I'd really appreciate the link, if it meets youir standards. I work hard on it.

Posted by: Bryan on December 30, 2004 09:15 AM

Ace, I'd love a spot on your blogroll. The site is Secure Liberty. You're my #3 referer (all time) already as it is and that is very much appreciated. In fact, you're one spot ahead of Instapundit!

Posted by: SteveL on December 30, 2004 09:29 AM

Heard Here is the blog and since I freely plagiarize you anyway, I though I might as well beg for a blogroll spot.

Posted by: Tom Heard on December 30, 2004 09:48 AM

Oh what the hell - I'm almost 4 weeks old today and already I have no pride left... :D

Posted by: Cassandra on December 30, 2004 11:20 AM

I'd be most appreciative of a link:

Memento Moron: Remember, Thou Art Stupid
http://www.mementomoron.blogspot.com

Posted by: Brian B on December 30, 2004 12:18 PM

Maybe I can be graduated from your "new blogger showcase" to your regular blogroll, but then I wouldn't be all exclusive-like.

Posted by: Digger on December 30, 2004 06:28 PM

Well, I'm Carin's Blogdaddy, whatever that's worth.

Posted by: spacemonkey on January 1, 2005 02:34 AM

Slowplay.com

http://www.slowplay.com

Posted by: Eric Anderson on January 4, 2005 01:30 PM

Hey, as long as you ask, I'll take a link: Desert Cat's Paradise

You've been up on my list for some time now.

Posted by: Desert Cat on January 5, 2005 12:39 AM

Amazon.com Widgets

Now Available!
The Deplorable Gourmet
A Horde-sourced Cookbook
[All profits go to charity]

Top Headlines

Kid punks CNN chump by speaking truth to retard

Podcast: CBD and Sefton talk birthright citizenship, the 14th Amendment and SCOTUS, no boots in Iran, Artemis II and refocusing NASA, the NBA's hatred of everything non-woke, and more!

In more marketing for Project Hail Mary, scientists say they've found the biosigns indicating life growing on an alien planet. It's not proof, just signatures of chemicals that are produced by biological metabolism, and it could be nothing, but scientists think it's a strong sign that this planet is inhabited by something.

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of scientists announced the detection of dimethyl sulfide (along with a similar detection of dimethyl disulfide) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet called K2-18b. This is actually the second detection of dimethyl sulfide made on this planet, following a tentative detection in 2023.
Tons of chemicals are detected in the atmospheres of celestial objects every day. But dimethyl sulfide is different, because on Earth, it's only produced by living organisms.
"It is a shock to the system," Nikku Madhusudhan, first author on the paper, told the New York Times. "We spent an enormous amount of time just trying to get rid of the signal."

He means they tried to prove the signal was caused by things other than dimethyl sulfide but they could not.

Artemis moon shot a go, scheduled for 6:24 Eastern time tonight
Great marketing arranged by Amazon to promote Project Hail Mary. Okay not really but it does work out that way.

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Good rickroll

What? Skeleton of the most famous Musketeer, D'Artagnan, possibly discovered in Dutch church closet.
Dumas picked four names of real musketeers out of a history book, D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos. So there was an actual D'Artagnan, though he made most of the story up. (Or, you know, all of it.)*

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan, the famous musketeer of Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV, spent his life in the service of the French crown.
The Gascon nobleman inspired Alexandre Dumas's hero in "The Three Musketeers" in the 19th century, a character now known worldwide thanks to the novel and numerous film adaptations.
D'Artagnan was killed during the siege of Maastricht in 1673, and there is a statue honoring the musketeer in the city. His final resting place has remained a mystery ever since.

A lot of Dumas's stories are based on bits of real history. The plot of the >Three Musketeers, about trying to recover lost diamonds from the queen's necklace, was cribbed from the then-almost-contemporaneous Affair of the Queen's Necklace. And the Man in the Iron Mask is based on real accounts of a prisoner forced to wear a mask (though I think it was a velvet mask).
* Oh, I should mention, Dumas says all this, about finding the names in an old book, in the prologue to his novel. But authors lie a lot. They frequently present fictions as based on historic fact. The twist is, he was actually telling the truth here. At least about these four musketeers having actually existed and served under Louis XIV.
Fun fact: You know the beginning of A Fistful of Dollars where the local gunslingers make fun of Clint Eastwood's donkey and Eastwood demands they apologize to the donkey? That's lifted from The Three Musketeers. Rochefort mocks D'Artagnan's old, brokedown farm horse and D'Artagnan is incensed.

A commenter asked which should be read first, The Hobbit of LOTR?
Easy, no question -- read The Hobbit first. It's actually the start of the story and comes first chronologically. It sets up some major characters and major pieces in play in LOTR.
Also, the Hobbit is Beginner-Friendly, which LOTR isn't. The Hobbit really is a delightful book, and a fast read. It's chatty, it's casual, it's exciting, and it's funny. In that dry cheeky British humor way. I love that the narrator is constantly making little asides and commentary, like he's just sitting next to you telling you this story as it occurs to him.
LOTR is a very long story. Fifteen hundred pages or so. The Hobbit is relatively short and very punchy and easy to read. If you don't like The Hobbit, you can skip out on LOTR. If you do like it, you'll be primed to read LOTR.
Oh, I should say: The Hobbit is written as if it's for children, but one of those smart children's stories that are also for adults. Don't worry, there's also real fighting and violence and horror in it, too.
LOTR is written for adults. (It's said that Tolkien wrote both for his children, but LOTR was written 17 years later, when his children were adults.) Some might not like The Hobbit due to its sometimes frivolous tone. Me, I love it. I find it constantly amusing. Both are really good but there is a starkly different tone to both. LOTR is epic, grand, and serious, about a world war, The Hobbit is light and breezy, and about a heist. Though a heist that culminates in a war for the spoils.

The Hobbit Challenge: Read two more chapters. I didn't have much time. Bilbo got the ring.
I noticed a continuity problem. Maybe. Now, as of the time of The Hobbit, it was unknown that this magic ring was in fact a Ring of Power, and it was doubly unknown that it was the Ring of Power, the Master Ring that controlled the others.
But the narrator -- who we will learn in LOTR was none of than Bilbo himself, who wrote the book as "There and Back Again" -- says this about Gollum's ring:
"But who knows how Gollum had come by that present [the Ring], ages ago in the old days when such rings were still at large in the world? Perhaps even the Master who ruled them could not have said."
In another passage, the ring is identified as a "ring of power."
I don't know, I always thought there was a distinction between mere magic rings and the Rings of Power created by Sauron. But this suggests that Bilbo knew this was a ring of power created by Sauron.
Now I don't remember when Bilbo wrote the Hobbit. In the movie, he shows Frodo the book in Rivendell, and I guess he wrote it after he left the Shire. I guess he might have added in the part about the ring being a ring of power created by "the Master" after Gandalf appraised him of his research into the ring.
I never noticed this before. I know Tolkien re-wrote this chapter while he was writing LOTR to make the ring important from the start. And also to make Gollum more sinister and evil, and also to remove the part where Gollum actually offers Bilbo the ring as a "present" -- Bilbo had already found it on his own, but Gollum was wiling to give it away, which obviously is not something the rewritten Gollum would ever do.
But I had no memory of the ring being suggested to be The Ring so early in the tale.

Finish the job, Mr. President!
Melanie Phillips lays out the case for the total destruction of the Iranian government and armed forces. [CBD]

TJM acts like he knows anything about John Wick and screenwriting. It's embarrassing, really.

Podcast: Sefton and CBD talk about how would a peace treaty with Iran work, Democrats defending murderers and rapists, The GOP vs. Dem bench for 2028, composting bodies? And more!

Oh, I forgot to mention this quote from Pete Hegseth, reported by Roger Kimball: "We are sharing the ocean with the Iranian Navy. We're giving them the bottom half."

Batman fires The Batman
Batman is disgusted by the Joachim Phoenix version of Joker
Batman tries to fire Superman
Batman is still workshopping his Bat-Voice

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click: Red Leather Suit and Sweatband Edition
And I was here to please
I'm even on knees
Makin' love to whoever I please
I gotta do it my way
Or no way at all

Tomorrow is March 25th, "Tolkien Reading Day," because March 25th is the day when the Ring is destroyed in the book. I think I'm going to start the Hobbit tomorrow and read all four books this time.
The only bad part of the trilogy are the Frodo/Sam chapters in The Two Towers. They're repetitive, slow, and mostly about the weather and terrain. But most everything else is good. Weirdly, the Frodo-Sam chapters in Return of the King are exciting and action-packed and among the best in the trilogy. (Though the chapters with everyone else in Return of the King get pretty slow again. Mostly people talking about marching towards war, and then marching towards war.)

Sec. Army recognizes ODU Army ROTC cadets for their bravery and sacrifice in private ceremony
[Hat Tip: Diogenes] [CBD]

TJM gives you a brief tour of his movie collection.

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click
One day I'm gonna write a poem in a letter
One day I'm gonna get that faculty together
Remember that everybody has to wait in line
Oh, [Song Title], look out world, oh, you know I've got mine

US decimation of Iran's ICBM forces is due to Space Force's instant detection of launches -- and the launchers' hiding places -- and rapid counter-attack via missiles
AI is doing a lot of the work in analyzing images to find the exact hiding place of the launchers. Counter-strikes are now coming in four hours after a launch, whereas previously it might have taken days for humans to go over the imagery and data.