Support.
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!
Contact
Top Headlines
You know we "joke" about the GOPe just "conserving" leftist things?
David French just posted:

Populists ask what conservativism has ever conserved?
Well its about to conserve birthright citizenship!
Posted by: 18-1

I couldn't hate this queen of the cuck-chair more if it paid seven figures and came with a corner office.
CJN podcast 1400 copy.jpg
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.
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]
CJN podcast 1400 copy.jpg
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."
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.)
Recent Entries
Holy Saturday and the world keeps turning
The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival-Happy Easter Edition
Daily Tech News 4 April 2026
One Small Step For The ONT. One Giant Leap For ONTkind.
Good Friday Cafe
The Week In Woke
Is This Something?
Health Hits
Religiosity Surges Among Young People, David French Says "You're Welcome"
Obama-Biden Have Implemented Stealth Communism
Plus: Hobbit/LOTR Reading Progress Thread

Recent Comments
Boss Moss: "Afyer they flipped the prime minister who reinstal ..." [view]

whig: "92 @75 whig- from what I understand Eisenhower tho ..." [view]

Boss Moss: "All innocent blood from Abel to Zechariah. ..." [view]

FenelonSpoke: "Posted by: Smell the Glove at Sorry for your b ..." [view]

man: "Thank you for the video. I'm generally a smarta ..." [view]

runner: "there is a lot more in the FOIA section....read it ..." [view]

vmom deport deport deport: "Great post The attached article is good ..." [view]

whig: ""Did CIA Restore the Shah to His Throne? (S) TPAJA ..." [view]

Rev. Wishbone: ">>>All that money spent on Artemis could have been ..." [view]

Boss Moss: "Sometime a ways before 1979 the US almost went to ..." [view]

runner: ""By August 1953, Mossadeq's support was vociferous ..." [view]

Smell the Glove: "Thx K.T. Handel's Messiah is perfect for this time ..." [view]

runner: ""Has CIA's Role Been Exaggerated? (S) If Mossadeq' ..." [view]

JROD: "@75 whig- from what I understand Eisenhower thoug ..." [view]

whig: "Posted by: JROD I read 20th century public affa ..." [view]

Search


Bloggers in Arms

RI Red's Blog!
Behind The Black
CutJibNewsletter
The Pipeline
Second City Cop
Talk Of The Town with Steve Noxon
Belmont Club
Chicago Boyz
Cold Fury
Da Goddess
Daily Pundit
Dawn Eden
Day by Day (Cartoon)
EduWonk
Enter Stage Right
The Epoch Times
Grim's Hall
Victor Davis Hanson
Hugh Hewitt
IMAO
Instapundit
JihadWatch
Kausfiles
Lileks/The Bleat
Memeorandum (Metablog)
Outside the Beltway
Patterico's Pontifications
The People's Cube
Powerline
RedState
Reliapundit
Viking Pundit
WizBang
Faces From Ace's
The Rogues' Gallery.
Archives
Syndicate this site (XML)

Powered by
Movable Type 2.64

« Judge Sides With Trump, Says Travel Ban Neither Discriminatory Nor Unconstitutional | Main | Overnight Open Thread (24 Mar 2017) »
March 24, 2017

Open Thread/Stories I Didn't Get To

Accused killer of two invokes "Islamophobia" as a defense. He also wounded three others by firing a gun at them in their van. None of the victims had a weapon. He claims now that they were possessed of a "Terrorist" intent to kill Muslims.

Here's a key sentence:

During the bond hearing, he asked an assistant prosecutor if he was a "Zionist Jew"

You gotta read this. And you gotta see his picture. He looks like Mongolian Pit Fighter #3 in Conan the Barbarian.

Twitter, which has made less money in its 11 year existence than most 11 year old children, is now considering a "premium Twitter" for which they will charge real money. LOL.

"Premium Twitter." Like "AIDS DeLuxe." It's not just AIDS -- you get the full "STD Rainbow Package," for just $6 extra per month, for the first six months, but then it costs $300 per week and they give you bonus drug-resistant AIDS. You also get a Free Landline you'll never use. But the real selling point here is all the AIDS.

John Nolte lays out the case that it has already been proven that Obama wiretapped Trump.

Video I haven't watched yet, but will do so shortly: Girl lost alone in the desert near the Grand Canyon for five days recorded her thoughts and fears into her iPhone.

Sad story. Very sad she didn't think to use the iPhone to call someone.

Just kidding of course. She had to hike 25 miles to get to someplace with cell phone reception.

This is nice:

During a solo trip to the Grand Canyon in which Amber VanHecke became stranded in a remote part of Arizona, she found comfort in a family of prairie dogs. The Denton woman said she and the animals became comfortable enough friends that the prairie dogs ate out of the palm of her hand.

"You have to entertain yourself in the dead hours," VanHecke said. "I honked my horn to make [coyotes] leave the prairie dogs alone."

The 24-year-old, who was stranded for five days, says she owes her survival to skills she learned as a Girl Scout in Plano, including how to shoot a signal flare.

Here's a longer compilation of her video journal.

It's really gonna suck when this turns out to be viral marketing for Prepper Pete's House of Canteens and Signal Flares.

I haven't read this one yet, but scientists are developing an artificial intelligence of synthetic neurons made of light. The light-based brain has already issued its first calculation:

MEN WHO GIVE WOMEN ORGASMS ARE SELFISH PATRIARCHS

So that's good.

On this one, I just can't even.

I can't even on this one, either.

Illegal immigrant accused of sexually assaulting a three year old.

Give him sanctuary, work papers, and his picture on a Cheerios box, stat! We need this guy. All depends on this.

This is kind of hilarious -- some members of the permanent bureaucracy upset that people outside the government are criticizing them. The poor dears!

I expect leaks and IRS audits to follow.

McDonald's is rolling out an experimental automated ordering system, which I expect will be "experimental" for about ten minutes before it's implemented as the entire industry's standard. It really makes no sense to have people, often with language-barrier problems, take orders and punch little buttons on a keyboard when customers can even more rapidly punch those little buttons themselves. I'm surprised it took the Fight for Fifteen wage hike to start this.

Well that's all I got.

GAINZZZ, brahs.

Oh: Below, video of the giraffe who won't foal. Or whatever you call it with a giraffe.

My ESP is telling me tonight is the night. She looks like she's finally gonna do it.


posted by Ace at 08:22 PM