Ironhold

My mom wanted to see "The Secret Life Of Pets", so I went with her and made it my weekly review.

Nutshell summation: Lord Greystoke is living in England alongside Jane, the pair having left Africa some time ago. He has no interest in returning, especially given that he is now a member of Parliament. This changes when the Belgian government invites him to come tour their colonies in the Congo as part of an obvious publicity stunt. He initially refuses, only to have a member of America's diplomatic mission to the UK point something out to him: "How can Belgium pay for everything when they're nearly bankrupt?". This question causes Lord Greystoke to relent, at which point he agrees to take Jane and the American ambassador with him. It turns out that the Belgian official in charge of the colony has been kidnapping locals for use as slave labor. When this ultimately proved insufficient, he made a deal with the Opar tribe. Lord Greystoke killed the chief's only son (an act of blind vengeance for the son killing someone dear to Lord Greystoke), and so the chief is more than willing to give the official his weight in the Opar tribe's especially pure diamonds if he can bring Greystoke back to Africa so that the chief can extract his vengeance. If the diamonds make their way to Belgium before the evidence of his crimes makes it back to the UK, he'll be able to afford enough soldiers and mercenaries to turn the Congo into a police state and potentially even invade the other colonies. The action is intense and even a bit bloody, but it's as close to the classic pulp as you're going to get in this day and age.

1. Make sure that the prospective missionary is actually going because they want to and not because they're being bribed or coerced. Sadly, both of these do indeed happen. 2. Make sure that the prospective missionary knows their material. They need to have a good grasp of the church's theology, history, and the scriptures. There are people who *love* destroying missionaries as human beings simply because they're missionaries, and so any missionary needs to know their stuff. 3. Sadly, it might also be an idea to encourage prospective missionaries to study self-defense methods due to how dangerous some places are.

The film didn't try to be anything more than it really was. It sold itself as an action flick, and that's what it was. The acting talent was well-cast, the pacing was the tightest I've seen in some time, and the film took a pragmatic approach to everything instead of moralizing. Each major character, and most minor characters, have clearly-defined reasons for doing what they do, and it's even clearly laid out why the good guys are so easily able to plow through the enemy thugs like they do; for example, the American ambassador is clearly stated as being a combat veteran with about 20 years' experience under his belt, whereas many of the Belgian soldiers seemingly have no combat experience at all. It's the kind of film where you just sit down, grab your snacks, and enjoy the ride.

"Legend of Tarzan". One of the better movies I've seen in a while.

There's a blogger known as the "Science Babe" who occasionally fact-checks claims about GMO foods and other such issues. However, she and her guest writers frequently end up so frustrated that they wind up swearing at the authors they're fact-checking, so I can't direct-link it.

Seems appropriate to be posting this here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/29/more-than-100-nobel-laureates-take-on-greenpeace-over-gmo-stance/?postshare=4251467543938729&tid=ss_fb-bottom 107 Nobel Laureates in science signed a letter asking Greenpeace to stop their opposition to a particular variety of GMO rice, only for Greenpeace to write back and say "We don't know what you're talking about."

Quoted for truth.

Each MRE is designed to provide 1,000 - 2,000 calories apiece. People need to remember this, and adjust their consumption to their activity level. Too much, and it becomes lead in your stomach. For most people, a single MRE with peripherals (like the Fig Newton bar) will suffice if spread out over a single day. The big thing is that you need a lot of water when you consume an MRE. The packets of instant coffee and beverage powder aren't there just as a lark; they're to help encourage you to consume fluids.

QFT. Standards concerning what does and does not qualify as "organic" vary so widely between jurisdictions and have so many loopholes that it's rarely worth the extra price.

Because sometimes, people don't think things all the way through... ** http://taskandpurpose.com/civilian-destroyed-eating-mres-21-days/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Military%20EBB%206-30-16&utm_term=Editorial%20-%20Military%20-%20Early%20Bird%20Brief Earlier in the year, the United States military put out a call for volunteers. These volunteers would spend 21 days living off of water and the contents of the standard-issue US military ration as part of a study. The main goal was to determine what such an extended period would do to the human digestive system, while a secondary goal was to develop new field-expedient recipes so that service members could mix & match bits from different ration kits for better eating while in the field (IE: rice side dish + chili & beans main dish + cheese sauce packet = queso dip). Well, a civilian news organization decided to do the same. Thing is, while military service members are trained in how to properly consume the rations, this guy wasn't. The end result is that he spent most of that time in considerable misery.

http://www.askamanager.org/2016/06/i-was-fired-from-my-internship-for-writing-a-proposal-for-a-more-flexible-dress-code.html A group of special snowflakes can't understand why they got fired from their internships...

Thing is, a lot of people who do violent video games do them to *relieve* negative emotions. If they get frustrated, angry, or what have you, they go take it out on non-existent zombies. Back when I was in junior high, it was pretty well understood that once I got home I'd go into the back and play a level or two of "Doom" until I had chilled out enough to be civil again; it was often frustrating dealing with some of the teachers and classmates I had at the time, and so I needed some space to vent. In that sense, we need to sit down and figure out why people do things instead of just jumping to conclusions.

The studio announced that they wouldn't be submitting it for screening in China, as by the time the Chinese censors were done there wouldn't be a movie left. What does that tell you?

Unfortunately, there were reports that he was heading down the same rabbit hole Alice Cooper went down in the 1970s. The original plan was for him to be Vincent Furnier in real life and Alice Cooper on-stage, but his sudden rise to fame and his growing alcohol problem meant that things got blurry even for him. He tried to clean up at one point (one of his albums was a giant metaphor for him saying that he'd have to leave for a while to seek treatment), but by the end of the decade he had relapsed so hard that he *literally* does not remember recording the four albums he did in the early 1980s. In fact, Cooper has reportedly said that "DaDa" - the last album he did with Warner Brothers - scares him because even he can't figure out what it's all about.

2003? Aerosmith was still getting a boost from their movie soundtrack work, helping to make them a big name again. KISS, meanwhile, was having issues. The "classic" line-up of Gene, Paul, Peter, and Ace had reunited for a world tour, but Peter and Ace were so devastated from years of substance abuse that they were barely holding it together. Ace in particular was so far gone that Black N Blue guitarist Tommy Thayer (who had once been in a famous KISS cover group known as Cold Gin) had to teach Ace all of his old parts just so he could even play live. Gene and Paul were so frustrated and worn out from dealing with Peter and Ace that they had originally been looking to wind things up. Instead, the pair made the decision to jettison the dead weight - that is, Peter and Ace. Former drummer Eric Singer (drummer #3, taking over after Eric Carr died of cancer) came back to the group, but both Mark St. John (guitarist #3) and Bruce Kulick (guitarist #4) were busy with their current bands; with nobody willing to trust Vinnie Vincent (guitarist #2) after his brief stints in the group, Gene, Paul, and Eric decided to offer Tommy the job. 2003 would have been about the time the world was having to adjust to the line-up being Gene. Paul, Eric, and Tommy and the line-up was having to adjust to being a coherent and cohesive unit. Interestingly enough, Aerosmith is playing it cool right now while KISS is back on top. The group even co-starred in a Scooby Doo feature-length animated number last year - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo!_and_Kiss%3A_Rock_and_Roll_Mystery .

When I was getting my MBA, I had to read a book about the rise of the "Harry Potter" franchise and how it became such a financial behemoth during its heyday. So yes, the "Harry Potter" franchise is, indeed, already being studied academically.

Saw the latest "Turtles" movie this past Friday.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/16/black-lives-matter-activists-destroy-blue-lives-ma/ Black Lives Matter destroyed a Blue Lives Matter shrine up at Dartmouth and then followed it up by either defacing or replacing with propaganda all posters on campus. Oy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/04/white-waitress-abused-by-rhodes-must-fall-activist-to-use-donati/ A black student activist boasted online about how he reduced a white waitress to tears by leaving her a political message instead of a tip. People from his home country responded by calling him out for his hypocrisy (he's attending school on a scholarship set up by the person whose statue he wants removed) and raising enough money for the waitress to put together a down payment for a house that's closer to her terminally ill mother.

Ratchet & Clank This one went in under the radar, with only dedicated sites like Box Office Mojo noting that it's coming out. It's got some intense moments since it's an action number, but at its core it's a kid-friendly slapstick number. You don't even need to be familiar with the games to get into it.

What not many people realize is that Al is, in fact, what society would consider to be a genius. Al graduated valedictorian... at the age of 16. His math scores were so high that his counselors recommended he major in a field related to math, and so he chose architecture. He went to a very reputable college, and paid his way through in part by working at the campus radio station. It was here that he earned the "Weird" nickname for his on-air antics, and he recorded his first official single - "My Bologna" - in the men's room because he liked the acoustics the tile gave off. This is on top of the fact that Al's first song, "Belvedere Cruising", was actually being played on the radio before he even got to high school. Dr. Demento received a copy of the song and loved it so much he put it into the rotation. This gave Al vital exposure he was able to capitalize on during the first part of his recording career (he did get his bachelor's degree, but chose music instead), and in exchange Al would allow Dr. Demento to cameo in most of his early music videos and other media ventures.

The description says that this trip covered 50+ meters of track. I see no evidence of it being edited in any fashion, and so I am inclined to believe it.

As a reviewer, if a Hanks film is the only number playing that week I'll see it and give it a fair review. As a person, I have no desire to ever see another Hanks project in my life. What's more, there's a part of me that would love to one day come into possession of the broadcast rights for "Bosom Buddies" so that I could broadcast it every day of the week just to spite him.

Yes, a heavy metal band covering a "My Little Pony" song.