This time, in Canada.

Cartoonist let go from N.B. newspapers days after Trump image goes viral

Quote:When he asked his editor whether it was a cost-cutting measure, or his online social media or even "gross incompetence," de Adder said, he was told no.

Michael de Adder Wrote:Cartoonists in the U.S. are painted as being from the left or the right. Some even as Democrat or Republican. Cartoonists are not partisan in Canada. We're not Democrat or Republican, we're just anti-stupid. We attack both sides. We just want to illustrate the stupidity.

POLITICO: Trump officials weigh encryption crackdown

Quote:Senior officials debated whether to ask Congress to effectively outlaw end-to-end encryption, which scrambles data so that only its sender and recipient can read it, these people told POLITICO. Tech companies like Apple, Google and Facebook have increasingly built end-to-end encryption into their products and software in recent years — billing it as a privacy and security feature but frustrating authorities investigating terrorism, drug trafficking and child pornography.

“The two paths were to either put out a statement or a general position on encryption, and [say] that they would continue to work on a solution, or to ask Congress for legislation,” said one of the people.

It's July 1! Happy Canada Day!

Let's also celebrate the anniversary of the independence of Congo Free State, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Maderia.

And let us commemorate the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of San Juan Hill, the Battle of the Somme, and the First Battle of El Alamein, amongst others.

Oh, and it's the 145th anniversary of the day the first commercially-successful typewriter went on sale, the 138th anniversary of the first international telephone call, the 116th anniversary of the first Tour de France, the 76th anniversary of the day that Tokyo stopped being a city, the 56th anniversary of the ZIP code, the 35th anniversary of the PG-13 rating, and the 28th anniversary of the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact.

And happy 67th birthday, Dan Aykroyd!

With all of that - and more - being commemorated today, anything happening later this week will be something of an anticlimax, right? (Of course I jest there. July 2 is the midpoint day of the year!)

Apparently, it's an end-to-end-encrypted messaging app. Does anyone here have any experience with it, or has anybody heard anything - bad or good - about it? https://signal.org/

If I wanted lots of light in the morning, even indirectly reflected off your very white vinyl siding would I have fucking chosen a north-facing room?

Now where did I put the roll of jumbo trash bags...?

This weekend you better read those ebooks you bought from Microsoft – because they'll be dead come next week

Quote:If you bought an ebook through Microsoft's online store, now's the time to give it a read, or reread, because it will stop working early July.

That's right, the books you paid for will be literally removed from your electronic bookshelf because, um, Microsoft decided in April it no longer wanted to sell books. It will turn off the servers that check whether your copy was bought legitimately – using the usual anti-piracy digital-rights-management (DRM) tech – and that means your book can't be verified as being in the hands of its purchaser, and so won't be displayed.

Even the free-to-download ebooks will fail.

Quote:You would imagine that Microsoft considered other options: figuring out how to remove the need for DRM validation for those books; seeing if it could provide a non-DRM version; selling its database of DRM books to another company; or keeping a skeleton DRM system in place.

The fact that it decided against all these options and to simply kill the whole thing off should be a very big warning sign to anyone who has bought, considered buying, or will consider buying an ebook in the future.

The truth is that most ebooks come with some degree of DRM. Amazon and its Kindle ebooks are the biggest in the market – nearly all of them come with Amazon's DRM system.

Quote:The though occurred to me that humans were programmed in the same way.

So far, it's driveable.  I'm enjoying it a lot, and yes Ops, I got Taunt.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Level 50 Technology Tanker
Primary Power Set: Radiation Armor
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Melee
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership

Hero Profile:
------------
Level 1:    Alpha Barrier    
 (A) Aegis - Psionic/Status Resistance
 (3) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
 (5) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance
 (11) Aegis - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
 (15) Aegis - Resistance


Level 1:    Contaminated Strike    
 (A) Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage
 (3) Might of the Tanker - Damage/Recharge
 (5) Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
 (9) Might of the Tanker - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (11) Might of the Tanker - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (15) Might of the Tanker - Recharge/Chance for +Res(All)


Level 2:    Gamma Boost    
 (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance
 (7) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
 (9) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb
 (13) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance
 (17) Doctored Wounds - Heal


Level 4:    Combat Jumping    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
 (7) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All)
 (13) Winter's Gift - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance


Level 6:    Proton Armor    
 (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance
 (19) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
 (23) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance


Level 8:    Fallout Shelter    
 (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All)
 (23) Gladiator's Armor - End/Resist
 (27) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Endurance
 (36) Impervious Skin - Resistance/Endurance/Recharge
 (37) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance
 (37) Gladiator's Armor - Resistance/Rech/End


Level 10:    Taunt    
 (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage
 (29) Perfect Zinger - Taunt/Recharge/Range
 (29) Mocking Beratement - Taunt/Recharge/Range
 (31) Mocking Beratement - Accuracy/Recharge


Level 12:    Beta Decay    
 (A) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage
 (17) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
 (19) Shield Breaker - Defense Debuff/Endurance/Recharge


Level 14:    Radiation Therapy    
 (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage
 (31) Perfect Zinger - Accuracy/Recharge
 (31) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
 (33) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
 (34) Fury of the Gladiator - Chance for Res Debuff
 (34) Fury of the Gladiator - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge


Level 16:    Super Jump    
 (A) Winter's Gift - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance


Level 18:    Particle Shielding    
 (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge
 (33) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge
 (45) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance
 (45) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime
 (45) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance


Level 20:    Spring Attack    
 (A) Fury of the Gladiator - Accuracy/Damage/End/Rech
 (21) Fury of the Gladiator - Damage/Endurance/Recharge
 (21) Fury of the Gladiator - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
 (27) Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
 (40) Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
 (40) Avalanche - Recharge/Chance for Knockdown


Level 22:    Radiation Siphon    
 (A) Hecatomb - Damage/Endurance
 (25) Hecatomb - Damage
 (25) Hecatomb - Damage/Recharge
 (33) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
 (34) Hecatomb - Accuracy/Recharge


Level 24:    Kick    
 (A) Force Feedback - Damage/Endurance/Knockback


Level 26:    Tough    
 (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance
 (46) Impervium Armor - Resistance/Endurance


Level 28:    Weave    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
 (46) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
 (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense


Level 30:    Ground Zero    
 (A) Perfect Zinger - Chance for Psi Damage
 (36) Perfect Zinger - Accuracy/Recharge
 (36) Perfect Zinger - Taunt/Recharge/Range


Level 32:    Meltdown    
 (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
 (46) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/RechargeTime
 (48) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance


Level 35:    Irradiated Ground    
 (A) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
 (37) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
 (40) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage


Level 38:    Atom Smasher    
 (A) Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage
 (39) Avalanche - Damage/Endurance
 (39) Avalanche - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
 (39) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Recharge
 (42) Absolute Amazement - Chance for ToHit Debuff
 (42) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge


Level 41:    Devastating Blow    
 (A) Gauntleted Fist - RechargeTime/+Absorb
 (42) Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
 (43) Gauntleted Fist - Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
 (43) Gauntleted Fist - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
 (43) Gauntleted Fist - Damage/RechargeTime


Level 44:    Hover    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
 (48) Blessing of the Zephyr - Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance


Level 47:    Maneuvers    
 (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed
 (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance
 (50) Luck of the Gambler - Defense


Level 49:    Tactics    
 (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up
 (50) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance


Level 1:    Brawl    
 (A) Empty


Level 1:    Gauntlet    
Level 1:    Prestige Power Dash    
 (A) Empty


Level 1:    Prestige Power Slide    
 (A) Empty


Level 1:    Prestige Power Quick    
 (A) Empty


Level 1:    Prestige Power Rush    
 (A) Empty


Level 1:    Prestige Power Surge    
 (A) Empty


Level 1:    Sprint    
 (A) Empty


Level 2:    Rest    
 (A) Empty


Level 4:    Ninja Run    
Level 2:    Swift    
 (A) Run Speed IO


Level 2:    Health    
 (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery


Level 2:    Hurdle    
 (A) Jumping IO


Level 2:    Stamina    
 (A) Endurance Modification IO


------------

The oldest ones I can find relate to a C&O Railroad steam turbine locomotive whose throttle reportedly had an "Eleven" setting.

Most pages keep referring to This Is Spinal Tap which was a product of the 80's.

There are no mentions I can find at all of any of the old WB/MGM cartoons - the only Looney Tunes cartoon attribution I can find is on TV Tropes, and regards a much more recent production.

Seriously, I KNOW there was at least one old cartoon where I saw the main character pencil in an "eleven" on a knob that only went to ten, and then insanity ensues.

Remastered, and on Blu-Ray. Out on July 16 from Shout Factory - USA and Canada only.

Pre-order here. First 500 Blu-Ray orders made directly from the manufacturer get an Eagle snowglobe - and they're still advertising that, so they probably still have them.

Just thought folks might like to know.