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[fullnachodonut]

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[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

I feel like we don't talk about the antisemitic implications of the reveal that Marc is "half demon" in Marc Spector: Moon Knight it's not just weird and not foreshadowed at all it's playing into the whole "Jews are children of satan" thing

I wanted to let you know that I'm not ignoring your ask, but I also haven't had the time to do a PROPER response. But trust me... You've given me something to think about.

It has been.... more than a few years... Since I actually read Marc Spector: Moon Knight. And I have to say, it is a difficult run to read for a LOT of reasons. And the main reason is the absolute butchering of character that is done and the loss of everything Moench worked to establish.

I peaked a bit at the section you are talking about to get a general idea. It's..... it's a wild read. Possession and blood lines and then there's the whole side plot with Frenchie and the desperate attempt to work in main marvel characters like Dr. Strange... Not to mention the massive in and out plot they kept imitating with The Punisher? What was that all about?

I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to review and read through this section. Let me tell you, I was tempted to skip it and get to the good stuff... But that wouldn't be fair to any of you.... Or myself... Who tries to make a claim to know all about Moon Knight and who has forgotten so much about it.

I have an idea on how to do it and it's going to take a lot of time and digging. I need to sit down and look up dates, a few historical events, and the writers (They could NOT get a solid writer for this run and it SHOWS).

Unfortunately (or fortunately?) My life is incredibly busy right now and I've been putting a massive amount of time and effort into something very big and this has left little room for Moon Knight things.

Once I am at a good relaxing point in this big life event and have some dates figured out, I plan to sit down and start digging into this nightmare of a run.

I can't say for sure about the antisemitic writing in this run, as there are SO MANY writers and special guests and plots and who knows what Marvel was doing at this point in history... (Cocaine. The answer was cocaine. It's the right time line for it and that is what I'm going with). But You absolutely have given me reason to look into this historically and check out Marvel as a company during this time and look into the story. Especially since I know this was right after the mass writer Exodus to DC and that Marvel was now splitting attention between building an animation industry as well as trying to build up a struggling comic mainstream production line.

(Fun fact, Moon Knight was one of the first widely distributed mainstream comics that was shipped to ALL comic stores on a regular schedule basis).

Anyways, thank you for the ask and thank you for giving me an idea on how to approach this... exciting....run!

[torque-witch]

Meet the Witch - 2024 Edition

Honestly I have not introduced myself in a LONG time because I've had this account since 2014 ish - so in case there are new people here this can be a good reference point.

So hi, hello - this is me in 2024. You can call me Cara but most people here know me as Torque! My pronouns are They/Them and I am currently 32 and married. I live in Pittsburgh, PA.

Most people know me for my devotion to Hel, Norse goddess of Death and my art of her!

(My hair is a bit longer so I just pull it back - but I barely take pictures anymore. Anyhow -)

What's new?

Still chronically ill and disabled; in 2024 we are still recovering from medical trauma that induced two phobias, POTS-like symptoms and a mystery digestive issue that is probably the severe IBS my meds that caused the trauma were controlling.

I am currently and hopefully to stay fully self-employed after finally getting off my feet from said trauma that left me pretty house-bound for a year. Somewhere in there I got a job with a catering company that truly was terrorizing, never reported me for taxes and therefore fucked up my finance history.

But, in 2024 so far I have done a good amount of shows and toured again briefly with the Oddities & Curiosities Expo group in cities outside of PA and that was incredible! I grew a lot as an artist, and it really helped me to work through some of my phobias and continue to stabilize.

You can find my Etsy here but I am focusing most of my efforts on shows! It would be best to follow my Instagram to keep up with events and new products!

Otherwise I've just been focusing on adulting and trying to fix our finances so that we can actually buy a house someday (hopefully).

A fun fact is that I started listening to ATEEZ in mid-2023 and got to see them in concert in DC this year as a bday gift to myself. It was absolutely the most incredible thing I've ever experienced. They are PERFORMERS.

If you're still on the fence about listening to Kpop, you're missing out! I poo-pooed it for a long time as cringey, but ATEEZ has very progressive lyrics and most of the fan-base in real life are alternative women and enby's in their 20's and 30's. Seriously the most fun I've ever had.

Other than that if I need to state it again, this page is for representation and acceptance of all forms and hate will not be tolerated. It's impossible to write out all the ways that people can be hateful but basically don't be a nazi or phobic in any way.

Not much else happened this year except a bunch of small-town drama associated with said catering company (story time?) and shit with our previous landlord (we moved). I made some really good local friends that I'm so appreciative of, and joined a DnD campaign for the first time!

My character is Ashaf Tendara, an Arcana Cleric archeologist who accidentally found some ruins of Ubtao and now unfortunately because of one of the sessions, their way of spell-casting is just screaming T-rex noises for ten minutes straight (Ubtao is related to dinosaurs somehow). We've finally emerged from the poop dungeons in said campaign, and some of those interactions I've wrote down are truly incredible. My Mage Hand is also a spectral sticky hand. My husband's steel defender's name is Duke Poop'em because of said poop dungeons.

I also read manga, watch anime and still read young adult fantasy at my big age (Adult SciFi is sooooo dense omg but it just takes me longer lol) and watch cozy game and horror playthroughs on YouTube. I listen to podcasts a lot about the paranormal, true crime and reddit readings.

Basically I'm a chronically ill and online shut-in artist with some witchy stuff sprinkled up in there.

I hope that was exciting and super informative. If you have any questions please send them in!

-Torque

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (October 15-21, 2023)

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #1 is metahuman-heavy, establishing how the Titans of the Monsterverse found themselves on the same Earth as DC's finest and ending with Superman flying off to face Godzilla. It's early days, but the conveniently deserted Skull Island base the Legion of Doom storms into makes me pessimistic that any of the Monsterverse's human characters will show up. Rodan is also absent from the Titan line-up, despite appearing via flashback in the short Godzilla: Fight or Flight comic included in the Monsterverse Omnibus earlier this year. (Toho must be overcharging for Godzilla's supporting cast again.) It should be fun watching D-listers like Behemoth, Scylla, and Camazotz tangle with some of the world's most famous superheroes though.

Sales data for DC comics is effectively unavailable now, but anecdotally this one is doing gangbusters. The downside of snagging it now over waiting for the trade paperback is that DC disperses ads throughout the comic, instead of just at the end like IDW.

Toho announced a ton of U.S. Godzilla merch launching in the U.S. on November 3. Your mileage will vary, but the most interesting baubles to me are the Godzilla Minus One promo cards from UVS Games (to be sold on TCGplayer.com) and the trading cards from Surreal Entertainment (to be sold at Five Below). Very few Godzilla trading cards have been produced in either Japan or the U.S. since 2006, and most of those have been cross-promotions with Magic: The Gathering and Battle Spirits. I have a small collection of random cards from older sets (a couple of them signed), and it'll be cool to expand it a little.

Toho's Godzilla Day announcement also included some news on Godzilla Minus One's U.S. release, which I thought deserved its own section. Tickets go on sale November 3rd—including for "special Early Access Fan Event Screenings on Wednesday, November 29, 2023, in IMAX and large format theaters across the country." So Toho International has outmaneuvered Beyoncé in the competition for IMAX screens, if only for one night.

In other Minus One news, a couple new TV spots are out (and translated by the GODZILLA OFFICIAL by TOHO YouTube channel). One shows off a new Godzilla ability, if you're wary of spoilers. Its world premiere was held beneath the Godzilla Head in Shinjuku on October 18, where the incredible Godzilla Attack Truck also debuted.

IDW's Godzilla Valentine's Day Special, due January 31, dares to ask, "What if the old 'kill the monster or study the monster' argument was foreplay?" Zoe Tunnell, who I suspect is a Godzilla 2000 fan, writes, and Dani Pendergast illustrates. I'd like to thank them both for making a comic specifically for me. The logline:

Is there anything as romantic as seeing the world together? Hopping from country to country to take in the sights and splendor in the fleeting seconds before Godzilla smashes the skyline? Truly, there's nothing like the thrill of an international game of cat and mouse between an intrepid amateur kaiju researcher and a global kaiju-response lieutenant. But when you're up against Godzilla, it's hard to have a bigger "CRUSH."

SRS Cinema has picked up War of the Ninja Monsters: Jaron vs. Goura, the latest no-budget spectacular from Shinpei Hayashiya. The two monsters are basically Godzilla and Gamera, one-upping Giant Monsters Appear in Tokyo, which never showed its Godzilla and Gamera expies outside of the poster. Hopefully it'll be less headache-inducing than God Raiga vs. King Ohga: War of the Monsters. SRS is aiming to release it on Blu-ray and VHS in early 2024, with a DVD to follow later in the year.

Hoshi 35, Megumi Odaka's return to live-action film, opened in Japan on October 21. A new trailer is out too. SRS Cinemas has an existing relationship with production company 3Y, which previously made The Great Buddha Arrival and Nezura 1964, so I'd expect them to license this one too.

This Netflix ad for an online convention of sorts includes the first snippets of footage from Ultraman Rising, the Tsuburaya/ILM animated film it's distributing next year. The animation is miles above the Netflix Ultraman anime, that's for sure.

[bumblebeeappletree]

In 1969, the Latino students of Crystal City, TX, staged a school walkout that sparked a revolution and changed history. The story inspired the play “Crystal City 1969” by Latinx theater company, Cara Mía Theatre.

Dulé Hill arrives in Dallas, Texas to learn more about the Cara Mía Theatre production, “Crystal City 1969.” The play was inspired by events that took place in the town of Crystal City, Texas in 1969. At that time, the town had a majority Chicano population, yet public school students faced discrimination in class, and were corporally punished for speaking Spanish. One of the students, Severita Lara, was beaten and suspended for passing out leaflets about Latino students’ unfair treatment. Meanwhile, the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO), began organizing school protests across the country in the spirit of civil rights. José Angel Gutiérrez, born and raised in Crystal City, was sent back to his hometown by MAYO to organize the students for protest.

The students’ activism sparked a revolution in Crystal City, and changed the political landscape in the town. They organized a school walkout that called for the right to speak Spanish, along with 17 other demands for equality and fairness. The students’ activism eventually brought them to Washington, DC, and inspired more Latinos to run for city government and the school board in Crystal City. In the end, all the students’ demands were met in a sweeping victory.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

WaPo: Democratic nominee Harris to deliver closing argument speech Tuesday on the National Mall

Ellie Silverman and Tyler Pager at WaPo:

Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to deliver her closing argument Tuesday in a speech on the National Mall, according to people familiar with the planning and a permit application obtained by The Washington Post.

The Harris campaign is still finalizing her message, but the vice president plans to present a final case to the American people from a place selected to emphasize a contrast between herself and Donald Trump, a candidate she has argued poses a grave threat to the country, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that were not yet public. As part of that, Harris is likely to mention Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol, but the speech is expected to be broader than just focused on Trump’s threat to American democracy. A spokesperson for the Harris campaign declined to comment. Harris officials have focused on finding symbolic venues for the closing days of the campaign in an effort to draw maximum media attention beyond rallies in traditional battleground state such as Pennsylvania, where she has at least three events scheduled this week. Harris is spending most of her time in those states, but the closing message of the campaign is designed to speak to the American people more broadly.

On Friday, for example, Harris is holding a rally in Texas, a state she does not expect to win. But aides say her speech will focus on abortion rights, with her campaign calling Texas “ground zero of the nation’s extreme abortion bans.” Harris plans to warn Americans in other states, particularly the states that will determine the outcome of the election, about the threat Trump could pose to their reproductive rights, should he win. [...] According to the permit application, organizers with Markham, a D.C.-based event management and production company that works with the Harris campaign, requested space on the National Mall between Seventh and Fourth streets NW and estimated roughly 7,750 people would be in attendance for the gathering.

The permit application does not include many details about the event, aside from describing it as “First Amendment Activity: Political Speech” with four to five people and elected officials giving speeches. The plans include a 40-foot stage, 5,000 handheld signs, 1,000 chairs, 25 tables and 50 portable restrooms, according to the application. Organizers requested the Mall from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the event, but did not specify when the speeches would begin.

Kamala Harris is set to deliver her closing campaign remarks next Tuesday at the National Mall in DC, one week before Election Day.

[usafphantom2]

Macchi Fighters Survivors

Luigino Caliaro

Translated into English from an original research by Luigino Caliaro

Precious few Macchi fighters have survived intact and are on display today. In total, just seven of these proud Italian fighters are preserved in museums- two C.200 Saetta, two C.202 Folgore, and three C205 Veltro. Of these, two aircraft were captured by American troops and are preserved in the United States while the other five are preserved in their home country. Macchi Fighters Survivors is part of a larger editorial work by Luigino Caliaro titled Macchi Fighters: C.200 Saetta, C.202 Folgore, C.205 Veltro. This stand-alone monograph covers the development, production, technical details, and operations of these variants.

C.200 Saetta MM 8146, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Dayton, Ohio

C.200 USAF Museum Photo Luigino Caliaro

This fighter belonged to the 19th series produced by Breda in 90 aircraft in 1942, it was delivered to the Regia Aeronautica Italiana (Royal Italian Air Force- RAI) in June 1942 and assigned to the 372nd Squadron of the 153rd Autonomous Group at the Turin-Mirafiori Airport and subsequently transferred to North Africa where it was assigned to various other squadrons and ultimately at K3 airfield in Benghazi, Libya in November 1942. Captured by the Americans, it was shipped to the United States and displayed at numerous events and exhibitions, towards the end of the 1940s the Saetta was donated to the city of Worcester, Massachusetts.

Photo Luigino Caliaro

The wreck was purchased by a private individual who exhibited it outdoors until 1964 when he sold it to the Bradley Air Museum (New England Air Museum today) in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. At the end of the eighties, for financial reasons, the museum sold it to Jeet Mahal, a collector of artifacts for US museums who in 1989 contacted AerMacchi (Now Alenia AerMacchi) for the restoration. Thanks to the support of the Italian association A.R.E.A, the Italian company began the restoration work on the fighter at the beginning of 1990, which proved to be particularly complex considering the condition of the aircraft. However, thanks to the availability of the technical documentation and with the enthusiastic support of other volunteers and associations the aircraft was officially presented to the public on December 12, 1991, at the Venegono airport, home base of AerMacchi. Nearly a year later, the Saetta was put on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Although slightly different from the original paint scheme, the aircraft was restored with the original codes of aircraft 372-5 MM (Matricolo Militare, Italian for Serial Number) 8146 aircraft, the same codes applied when it was recovered on the Benghazi field by the allies.

AerMacchi C.202 MM91981, National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

C.202 Folgore Smithsonian Photo Luigino Caliaro

Subject to a recent article by Adam Estes (click here), this Macchi C.202, which is on display at the National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian in Washington, DC, appears to be the world’s only completely intact and original C.202 Folgore.

Captured in Sicily by American troops, it was transferred to the US and subjected to a series of flight evaluations in September 1945 by the pilots of the Army’s Air Technical Service Command at Wright and Freeman fields. Thanks to recent research by Italian historian Giovanni Massimello, the true identity of this fighter has been documented.

The fighter is AerMacchi MM91981 which was assigned to the 356th Squadron of the 21st Fighter Group (FG) with the individual code 356-8 and was captured by the Americans in good condition at Sciacca airport. After being used and repainted with the upper surfaces in a sand color, the American badges and baptized as Wacky Macchi, by some pilots of the American 31st FG. Upon being shipped to Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio the C.202, coded FE300, was used with approximate Italian colors and insignia until April 1946 with the code FE300 (later FE498) before being placed in storage.

In 1974, the then curator Robert C. Mikesh contacted AerMacchi and the SMA to obtain documentation for its restoration for public display. At the end of the works, in 1975, the fighter was exhibited with the colors of the C.202 “90-4”, a fighter belonging to the 90th Squadron of the 10th Group, 4th Wing when it was operational in Libya in the summer of 1942. Bizarrely it was applied the MM9476 (belonging to a fighter of the IX Series assigned to the 54th Wing, while originally the C.202 90-4 had the MM7795 belonging to the II Production Series). Again, to read the story of this fighter, read Adam Estes’ “The Smithsonian’s Italian Thunderbolt.”

Breda AerMacchi C.200 “Saetta” MM 5311, MUSAM- Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare – Vigna di Valle (Roma)

Macchi C.200 Museo Aeronautica Militare Photo Luigino Caliaro

Preserved at the Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force Museum- MUSAM) in Vigna di Valle, this C.200 was assigned to the 93rd Squadron of the 8th Group and after the Armistice, the non-airworthy fighter was assigned to a technical school as an instructional airframe. A peculiarity of the aircraft is that it is equipped with wings with a sharp leading edge, typical of the first examples of construction. In 1961, the aircraft was recovered by the Air Force to be exhibited at various demonstrations and events organized by the Historical Museum. In September 1975 it was temporarily painted as 92-01 to commemorate the activity of the 8th Group on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the 2nd Wing.

C.200 Museo Aeronautica Militare Photo Luigino Caliaro

Subjected to a further restoration in Lecce at the III Aircraft Technical Department in 1976, it emerged with the livery of a C.200 used by the 359th Squadron of the 22nd Autonomous Group which operated in Russia. The paint scheme was only partially correct, but it was corrected it in 1995, thanks to the work of the personnel of the 51st Stormo that restored the aircraft by applying a faithful livery belonging to a wartime Saetta of the 369th Squadron of the 22nd Gruppo Autonomo.

Breda AerMacchi C.202 MM 9667 – MUSAM- Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare – Vigna di Valle (Roma)

Macchi C.202 Folgore Museo Aeronautica Militare Photo Luigino Caliaro

Also displayed at MUSAM, this second C.202 was delivered in March 1943 to the 86th Squadron of the 7th Group/54th Stormo and the 208th Squadron of the 101st Group 5th Wing of the Co-Belligerent Regia Aeronautica in spring 1944. In December 1946 this Folgore was assigned to the 3rd Group of the Flight School of Lecce, with the individual code “63”, until it was stricken in 1948. Subsequently, the aircraft was assigned, first to the Naval Academy of Livorno and then to the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Pisa. In the 1970s the aircraft was recovered by the Collection and Restoration Center of the MUSAM which sent it to Lecce to be restored by the III R.T.A. Today the Folgore is painted to represent the personal aircraft of Lt. Giulio Reiner, commander of 73rd Squadron of the 9th Group of the 4th Wing, based at Fuka Airport in July 1942.

Unfortunately, the various restoration tasks were not carried out with the utmost fidelity, and today the aircraft presents some substantial differences compared to the original fighter. One of the most visible defects is given by the propeller spinner which was poorly reproduced, thus altering the original sleek line of the fighter. Another problem is located in the wings, which were missing when the aircraft was recovered. To proceed with their reconstruction, a left-half wing of a C.200 was recovered at the AerMacchi factory which was used as a pattern for the reconstruction of the right wing. The rounded leading edge was correctly fitted but the ailerons were not modified and remained the ones of the C.200. Furthermore when reproducing the missing wing, it was not taken into account that originally the Macchi wings had different lengths to counteract the torque effect generated by the rotation of the propeller and therefore the current wingspan of the Folgore is about twenty centimeters shorter than to what it should have been.

C.205 Macchi C.200 Museo Aeronautica Militare Photo Luigino Caliaro

Breda AerMacchi C.202/205V “Veltro” MM 9546, MUSAM- Museo Storico dell’Aeronautica Militare – Vigna di Valle (Roma)

Macchi C.205 Veltro Museo Aeronautica Militare Photo Luigino Caliaro

The MUSAM is also home to one of the 100 C.202s that was subsequently converted to the C.205 standard. Originally in service with the 81st Squadron of the 6th Group, 1st Wing, this Veltro was taken over by the 155th Group of the 51st Wing following the Armistice. After various further assignments to squadrons of the Cobelligerent Air Force, it was damaged in Albania on September 15, 1944, with Sergeant Major Moressi of the 93rd Squadron of the 8th Group, 5th Stormo. Once repaired, it remained in service until May 1948 it was assigned to the 3rd Group of the Lecce Flight School, where it remained until December 1949, when it was sent to Macchi for conversion to a C.205 Veltro due to a possible acquisition by Egypt. When that order failed to materialize it was returned to Lecce where it remained until its retirement on July 1, 1952.

Exhibited at the Turin Flight Museum without livery and with only the tricolor roundels, it was subsequently transferred to Vigna di Valle, restored for the first time by the 3rd RTA of Lecce and in February 1994 by the specialists of the 4th RMV of Grosseto, who painted it with the livery of a Veltro of the 97th Squadriglia of the 9th Group of the 4th Stormo, with the codes 97-2 and with the original MM. 9546.

Breda AerMacchi C.202/205V “Veltro” MM 91818, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia – Milano

C.202 205 Musep della Scienza e della Tecnica Photo Luigino Caliaro

The C.205 exhibited at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia (National Museum of Science and Technology) in Milan also appears to be the conversion of a C.202, MM91818 to be specific. Following an initial posting to the 386th Squadron of the 21st Group of the 51st Stormo, it was assigned to various squadrons of the 4th Wing and then to the 209th Squadron of the 102nd Group of the 5th Wing. In 1946, it was assigned to the 3rd Group at the Lecce Flight School, where it operated until July 1, 1948. Like the previous C.205, this fighter was also part of the failed Egyptian order and was returned to the Lecce Flight School. After its retirement from active duty in the early 50s, the aircraft was assigned to the to the “Malignani” Technical Institute where the engine was reportedly run by students on a regular basis. In 1980, the aircraft was recovered by Macchi and turned over to a group of elderly specialists and technicians with the task of returning it to airworthy status. It was a particularly complex project where many components had to be built from scratch, but thanks to the support of other aeronautical companies such as FIAT Avio, which overhauled the engine, Oleodinamica Magnaghi, Itala and Secondo Mona, the dream of many enthusiasts finally came true when the Veltro took to the skies again on September 26, 1980.

C.202 205 Musep della Scienza e della Tecnica Photo Luigino Caliaro 3

The civil registration l-MCVE was applied to the aircraft and the camouflage chosen for the aircraft was similar to that of the C.205 of the 4th Wing which, piloted by Maj. Carlo Maurizio Ruspoli. In the following months the C.205 was proudly exhibited at numerous air shows in Italy and abroad by Macchi test pilots Cecconello and Durione, but unfortunately the fighter was seriously damaged in a take-off accident on July 23, 1986. The C.205 has been repainted as MM9327 (81-5) belonging to the 81st Squadron of the 6th Group 1st Wing in May 1943. However, the livery is not exactly correct, since that serial number corresponds to a Veltro of the 1st Series without the wing cannons.

AerMacchi C.205V “Veltro” MM 92166 – LEONARDO – Aermacchi -Venegono Superiore (VA)

C.205 Veltro Aermacchi Leonardo Photo Luigino Caliaro

This aircraft is the only original C.205 and it’s currently displayed at the entrance of the Aermacchi office building in Venegono (VA) now Leonardo. However, its true origin is in doubt since the fuselage denotes some characteristics typical of the C.202 Folgore, such as a fixed tail wheel and radio access panel of the same shape as those of a late C.202. Nonetheless, taking the serial number 92166 as valid, this Veltro was delivered to the Regia Aeronautica on July 15, 1943, and assigned to 360th Squadron and 378th Squadron of the 155th Group of the 51st Wing with the individual code 378-2. Historical research indicates that this C.205 shot down an American P-40 fighter on July 22, 1943, and on August 2, 1943, Lieutenant Dini intercepted a claimed B-26 Marauder off Capo Carbonara in Sardinia.

C.205 Veltro airworthy

After the Armistice, it was assigned to the 51st Wing until its transfer to the Lecce Flying School in the spring of 1945. Retired in 1959, MM92166 was exhibited at various airshows in a metallic finish without insignias. In 1973, the aircraft was sold to the National Museum of Science and Technology in Milan. It was preserved in the new Air and Sea Transport pavilion sporting the bare aluminum fuselage and still with the pods under the wings. In 1988, an agreement was signed between Macchi and the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia of in Milan, for the exchange of the museums’ respective Macchi C.205, with Macchi obtaining this only Veltro built at its factory. Following the exchange, the fighter was subjected to a thorough overhaul and restored to airworthy status, but it’s never again seen air under its wings.

AerMacchi C.200 “Saetta” MM not identified, Museo Aeronautico “Gianni Caproni” – Trento

C.200 Fusealage Caproni Museo Foto Luigino Caliaro

The Gianni Caproni Aeronautical Museum in Trento has a pair of fuselage sections, recovered from an aviation enthusiast in Bologna in the early 70s, having purchased them from the University’s Faculty of Aeronautical Engineering. After being offered to AerMacchi, the wrecks were purchased by the Caproni Museum.

Although the identity of the aircraft remains unknown, it is hypothesized that it could be one of the two C.200s of the 8th Group which were to be handed over to the Allies after the Armistice. It is presumed that during the transfer flight, one of the pilots made an emergency landing not far from his home in the Marche region. The dismantled fighter was hidden disassembled by the pilot and returned after the war to the Air Force which probably gave it to the local College’s Engineering Faculty. In 1992, in anticipation of its exhibition at the new headquarters of the Caproni Museum in Trento, an attempt was made to reconstruct the fuselage, but this was not possible due to the complexity of the work. The restoration work on the fuselage revealed the original codes of the aircraft, 91-4 relating to the 92nd Squadron of the 8th Autonomous Group in 1943. Further analysis revealed the individual number 86 which confirmed that the fighter was used by the 86th Squadron of the 7th Group of the 54th Wing. An important detail was the discovery of part of the 54th Wing’s badge, represented by a tiger’s head. After painstaking restoration work which started at the end of 2010 what remains of the aircraft was exhibited in the main hall of the Caproni Museum at the Trento Mattarello airport.

Museo dellaeronautica Militare Italian Air FOrce Museum Vigna Di Valle Phot my Museum Staff22

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[mariacallous]

When OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm last year, it caught many power brokers in both Silicon Valley and Washington, DC, by surprise. The US government should now get advance warning of future AI breakthroughs involving large language models, the technology behind ChatGPT.

The Biden administration is preparing to use the Defense Production Act to compel tech companies to inform the government when they train an AI model using a significant amount of computing power. The rule could take effect as soon as next week.

The new requirement will give the US government access to key information about some of the most sensitive projects inside OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and other tech companies competing in AI. Companies will also have to provide information on safety testing being done on their new AI creations.

OpenAI has been coy about how much work has been done on a successor to its current top offering, GPT-4. The US government may be the first to know when work or safety testing really begins on GPT-5. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"We're using the Defense Production Act, which is authority that we have because of the president, to do a survey requiring companies to share with us every time they train a new large language model, and share with us the results—the safety data—so we can review it,” Gina Raimondo, US secretary of commerce, said Friday at an event held at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. She did not say when the requirement will take effect or what action the government might take on the information it received about AI projects. More details are expected to be announced next week.

The new rules are being implemented as part of a sweeping White House executive order issued last October. The executive order gave the Commerce Department a deadline of January 28 to come up with a scheme whereby companies would be required to inform US officials of details about powerful new AI models in development. The order said those details should include the amount of computing power being used, information on the ownership of data being fed to the model, and details of safety testing.

The October order calls for work to begin on defining when AI models should require reporting to the Commerce Department but sets an initial bar of 100 septillion (a million billion billion or 1026) floating-point operations per second, or flops, and a level 1,000 times lower for large language models working on DNA sequencing data. Neither OpenAI nor Google have disclosed how much computing power they used to train their most powerful models, GPT-4 and Gemini, respectively, but a congressional research service report on the executive order suggests that 1026 flops is slightly beyond what was used to train GPT-4.

Raimondo also confirmed that the Commerce Department will soon implement another requirement of the October executive order requiring cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to inform the government when a foreign company uses their resources to train a large language model. Foreign projects must be reported when they cross the same initial threshold of 100 septillion flops.

Raimondo’s announcement comes on the same day that Google touted the release of new data highlighting the prowess of its latest artificial intelligence model, Gemini, showing it surpassing OpenAI’s GPT-4, which powers ChatGPT, on some industry benchmarks. The Commerce Department may get early warning of Gemini’s successor, if the project uses enough of Google’s ample cloud computing resources.

Rapid progress in the field of AI last year prompted some AI experts and executives to call for a temporary pause on the development of anything more powerful than GPT-4, the model currently used for ChatGPT.

Samuel Hammond, senior economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank, says a key challenge for the federal government is that a model does not necessarily need to surpass a compute threshold in training to be potentially dangerous.

Dan Hendrycks, director of the nonprofit Center for AI Safety, says the requirement is proportionate given recent developments in AI and concerns about its power. “Companies are spending many billions on AI training, and their CEOs are warning that AI could be superintelligent in the next couple of years,” he says. “It seems reasonable for the government to be aware of what AI companies are up to.”

Anthony Aguirre, executive director of the Future of Life Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to ensuring transformative technologies benefit humanity, agrees. “As of now, giant experiments are running with effectively zero outside oversight or regulation,” he says. “Reporting those AI training runs and related safety measures is an important step. But much more is needed. There is strong bipartisan agreement on the need for AI regulation and hopefully congress can act on this soon.”

Raimondo said at the Hoover Institution event Friday that the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) is working to define standards for testing the safety of AI models as part of the creation of a new US government AI Safety Institute. Determining how risky an AI model is typically involves probing a model to try and evoke problematic behavior or output, a process known as “red teaming.”

Raimondo said that her department is working on guidelines that will help companies better understand the risks that might lurk in the models they are hatching. These guidelines could include ways of ensuring AI cannot be used to commit human rights abuses, she suggested.

The October executive order on AI gives the NIST until July 26 to have those standards in place, but some working with the agency say that it lacks the funds or expertise required to get this done adequately.

[fredseibertdotcom]

Next New Networks, Part 3

I’m going to try, in as few posts as possible, to create a coherent timeline of the short, eventful life of Next New Networks, an early, consequential moment in streaming video history. 

From Part 1: Emil Rensing and I, with a huge assist from future Tumblr creator David Karp, stumbled into the brave new world of online video without much of a plan. 

From Part 2: Our friend –my former partner at Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, and our future Next New Networks partner– Jed Simmons introduced us to Spark Capital in Boston, who wanted to partner and fund Next New. 

Part 3: Late 2006 

What do we do now? 

Once Spark signaled their interest, we needed to get serious. I still had Frederator Studios, my successful and increasingly busy independent cartoon production company, but the excitement of this opportunity was overwhelming. Even if I was significantly older than the typical internet entrepreneur, I felt that my background in media and production could be meaningful. The first phase of the consumer internet required deep engineering skills because the infrastructure was still somewhat nascent. Web 2.0 had developed enough tools that even someone with my limited skills could participate. Besides, I had Emil on my side, someone who had a unique understanding of the state of the tech world. 

By summertime, after a variety of conversations and meetings, Emil and I settled on a co-founding team. Jed Simmons, of course. Emil had a start up friend –Tim Shey– who’d sold his DC based, interactive agency and moved to New York where he was consulting with some early stage video companies. I was stretched to thin to have an operating role in the joint, so we all agreed that my childhood friend and adult colleague Herb Scannell –former Vice Chairman of MTV Networks and CEO of Nickelodeon– would be a perfect CEO. Luckily, he agreed, and our management line up was in place. (David Karp would be our founding developer, until he launched Tumblr several months later, of course). 

We can leave the machinations of filling out the A-round of investment aside. Suffice to say, many venture capitalists were uninterested in any idea that didn’t have unique software attached –we didn’t– but we put together an investor group and board of directors that were excited with our vision. 

Next New Networks posters designed and illustrated by Frank Olinsky

Our vision? ah. yes. By the time we were on the road pitching our wares, we had taken the basics of VOD Cars and Channel Frederator and put together a plan that was based on “communities of interest,” which we felt would be the engines of viewership and growth. As Tim Shey later wrote: 

Next New Networks popularized the ideas of videoblogging and advertiser-supported online video, and pioneered the multi-channel network (MCN) business model and the concept of audience development, assembling a diverse and successful portfolio of original programming including hit channels Barely Political, VSauce, and ThreadBanger, and a network of independent creators such as The Gregory Brothers—racking up over 2 billion video views and thirteen Webby Awards, more than any online media company at the time.

Virginia Heffernan of the New York Times was probably the writer that caught onto what we had accomplished better than most.

By March 2007, we were fully funded with our first round, expanded past the Frederator/NY office into a larger space in the same building on Park Avenue South, and started to put together an amazing start up staff that could actually execute. At least, what we’d morphed our vision into.  Super distribution! 

(More to come.) 

[lboogie1906]

Cress Williams (July 26, 1968) is an actor, known for his roles in Prison Break and Close to Home. His most recent roles include Mayor Lavon Hayes on Hart of Dixie and Black Lightning. He is known for his recurring role as Terrence “Scooter” Williams on Living Single and as Inspector Atwon Babcock on Nash Bridges.

He was born in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany, to American parents. He took courses at Fullerton College and earned a BA in theatre from UCLA.

He acted in a 1990 Fullerton College production of Othello. He acted in another production in the same year at Fullerton College called Red Noses.

He has appeared on many TV series since 1994, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Beverly Hills, 90210, NYPD Blue, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, JAG, Nash Bridges, Providence, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Veronica Mars, The West Wing, Close to Home, ER, and Grey’s Anatomy. He portrayed Talak’talan, a Jem’Hadar leader in the Star Trek series, in a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “The Jem’Hadar”. He joined the Prison Break cast by playing The Company’s assassin, Wyatt Mathewson. He appeared in the final season of Friday Night Lights as Ornette Howard. He starred in Hart of Dixie as former football star turned mayor, Lavon Hayes.

He has ventured back into adaptations of DC Comics: As main character Jefferson Pierce / Black Lightning on Black Lightning (2018-21), which was integrated into Arrowverse’s prime Earth during Crisis on Infinite Earths, and as John Henry Irons in The Death of Superman and its 2019 sequel, Reign of the Supermen. After his Black Lightning series concluded, he reprised the role on The Flash at the start of its eighth season as part of its “Armageddon” event.

He married actress Simbi Khali (2000-11). The couple had two children. He married his girlfriend Kristen Torrianni (2013). They have two children together. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[violetren]

People keep talking about RWBY being doomed because there has been no word on Volume 10 yet, but like Crunchyroll cut a deal to host them or whatever, they got a Japanese made anime spinoff in Ice Queendom, DC has made multiple comics with RWBY in them, and along with Warner Bros signed on for a three movie crossover event in which they allowed a depiction of the Justice League including Batman. The CW hasn't been able to get permission for a Batman appearance for over a decade and they have had two shows set entirely in Gotham. I recognise that media production can and has been particularly mercurial in recent years and that Rooster Teeth's future resembles nothing more than a dumpster fire getting pissed on by a dog with mange, there are never guarantees, but like... As things stand RWBY as an intellectual property probably has more value than the company that spawned it and even if Rooster Teeth were to try and drag it down with them, there's a solid chance some other company with more money and better lawyers would snap it up in an instant. Companies love being able to trot out well established franchises that have already proven profitable instead of putting out anything new or original. My real fear is that Warner Bros or some animation company in Japan will buy the rights and just completely restart the series in their own signature style and work us back up to volume 10 instead of just giving us the end of the damn story.

[ectonurites]

I was just perusing tags on that post about Connor Kent being referred to as “the think of steel” and i saw your tags and now I have to ask, because I am relatively new to caring about DC at all, but does it Actually stand for Detective Comics?! this is breaking my worldview a little.

So the 'DC' did originally stand for 'Detective Comics' BUT by the time 'DC Comics' became the legal name for the company, the 'DC' was no longer really intended as an acronym.

The name 'DC Comics' started more so as a colloquial term (publisher called ‘Detective Comics, Inc.’ puts logo on their comics that just says ‘DC’ -> since ‘DC’ is the label on the comics, people start calling them ‘DC Comics’) that then eventually became official due to its wide use, but it’s not like ‘Detective Comics Comics’ was the company's intended name. It’s just a lil jokey joke some of us use that’s rooted in the true origin of the company’s name.

To back this up/build a timeline about this, I'm going to pull excerpts from some books i’ll link at the end!

So, years and events of note:

[Then] in 1935, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's National Allied Publications came out with New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1— the first time original characters and stories had appeared in a comic book format.¹

In 1937, Major Wheeler-Nicholson found himself financially overextended with his printer. In order to continue publishing, he had little choice but to take Harry Donenfeld on as a partner. Detective Comics, Inc., was formed early that year, with Wheeler-Nicholson and Donenfeld's business manager, Jack S. Liebowitz, listed as owners.¹

The new company's first production, Detective Comics #1 (March 1937) was the first true DC comic book. The character of Batman was introduced in issue #27 (May 1939) of that series.¹

[in 1938] Harry Donenfeld was now CEO of both National Allied Publications and its sister company Detective Comics, Inc. Liebowitz managed the offices, heading up accounting and the creative activities, while Donenfeld expanded the distribution through Independent News. Not long after that, National Allied Publications and Detective Comics were merged to form a new entity called National Comics. But even back then the company was known colloquially as DC.¹

Reluctant to add extra titles to DC's schedule, Jack Liebowitz and publisher Maxwell C. Gaines started a sister company called All-American Comics in 1940. Its roster of characters would include the Flash, the Green Lantern, Hawkman—and eventually Wonder Woman, the first major female superhero.¹

By 1940, a circular logo containing the letters “DC” (short for Detective Comics, Inc.) was appearing on the covers of the firm’s publications; from then on readers called them DC Comics, although decades would pass before the change became official.²

In 1944 Liebowitz merged All-American into National Comics. Then he organized National Comics, Independent News, and other affiliated firms into a single corporate entity, National Periodical Publications. This was the direct precursor of today's DC Comics.¹

In 1976, Jenette Khan became DC’s new publisher. […] One of her first decisions was to drop the euphemistic company name, National Periodical Publications. After all, she reasoned, “readers tended to refer to us as DC Comics.”²

—

¹ A Complete History of American Comic Books by Shirrel Rhoades, available free on The Internet Archive

² DC Comics: Sixty Years of The World’s Favorite Superheroes by Les Daniels, available free on the Internet Archive

[wispstalk]

this is wild speculation and based on nothing but my own opinions and limited observation of cultural trends, but there is something very interesting about the way Morrowind and Skyrim both feature the TES flavor of fantasy racism as central story elements but Oblivion does not. It's not completely absent, but it really does seem like there was a concerted effort to gloss over the previous game's (half-hearted) critique of empire, in favor of divine kingly pap.

In the late 90s and early 00s the dominant messaging of American cultural programming (school curricula, advertising, political rhetoric, etc) was that the world is a big ol United Colors of Benetton ad. I think by the time Oblivion was in development, that particular brand of reality denial had reached a fever pitch.

At first this didn't explain Morrowind, which came out in 2003, but bearing in mind that these games are years in development, it does track with something I have observed in my amateur studies of right-wing terrorism: the 2000s were a period when white nationalist blocs learned from incidents like the OKC bombing and Ruby Ridge and did all their recruiting and resource-gathering with a greater degree of subtlety and savvy. Those events would have been fresh in the public consciousness in the mid-late-90s when work on Morrowind began.

Skyrim is a product of the Obama years where *some* of the denial was peeled off but both-sidesisms held sway in the cultural discourse. Hence the "choose between two shitty factions" centrist messaging of both Skyrim and F:NV.

There's no real point to this other than the funnysad way that products of a company founded in the suburbs of DC follow the most boilerplate messaging of our political institutions. Whatever they've got cooking for TES:VI in the post-Trump era has got to be fucking insufferable. Using corporate advertising as a barometer, we're coming back around to another period of revisionism except even more bloated and stupid than it was in the Bush years when Oblivion came out.