General > Except for the Pig
Small Animal News
Sindobook:
1) Yes, it is believed so, 85% certain that was him. It's a pretty safe bet it was. When I saw the mask I was like 'hmm' and slightly after I also noticed a belt pouch. No idea what he was doing there, but when he (potentially) was sighted, the Lepus Alliance was notified. The bunnies who were assigned to monitor him did not note any suspicious behavior, the snake was probably just scouting or something like that.
2) My count (unique) UT 2/VO 32/TO 2. Roughly 2% or so.
3) Please refrain from using the local SA channel for non-emergency purposes. This means, for instance, NOT using the channel to call up your Panda UNLESS IT IS AN EMERGENCY. This was happening a lot this weekend, people were using the channel for chatter which is both annoying and dangerous. We like to keep this channel clear and open for emergency management.
4) It's not certain, and it's unlikely to ever be certain. Intelligence does indicate that the snake is one of those rather seedy individuals who is quite suspect and not to be trusted. Fortunately, he is largely incompetent, in the last campaign he tried extensively but was never able to achieve his any of his objectives.
5) After farther investigation, and consultation with several others who also observed the snake, Mikey has raised the determination of his identity to 98%, or 'near complete certainty'. Intelligence also indicates that his cohort was there along with him, though the Lepus Alliance did not report observing his cohort in their operational logs.
6) Yes, she wanted to take home the dress, but could not fit it in her carry-on bag (with the size limit they have for carry-ons these days) and she did not want to pay extra to check a bag (most airlines started charging for it years ago), so instead she wore the dress to the airport and the plane, and that's why the pictures from the airport all have her wearing a dress.
Sindobook:
Here's a short summary:
Jojo revealed in his most recent interview that he had talked with several members of the Lepus Alliance who were also supporting C's bunnies. They said that morale was high while the morale of 'that old kitty cat gang' was growing increasingly poor with every decision or step taken. Expenditures are also a problem, the gang is basically 'running on empty' and there is such a backlog that any funds are spent the second they come in.
According to Mr. Buns, a member of the Lepus Alliance, "Desertions and Defections are becoming increasingly common. While the cats continue to maintain their lavish accommodations at the expense of the gang, they are also increasingly dependent on newer kitties in order to replace those who have deserted since the troubles began. But from the way they treat them, it would be hard to conceive that. The new kitties are housed eight to a hutch, that is, eight adult cats housed together in a hutch that is designed for two adults and maybe a kitten or two. Nourishment and care are also quite substandard, if the owners don't forget to begin with, the cats may get a single bowl of dry food to share between the eight of them, and no other treats or anything like that to speak of. The cats are issued substandard equipment, and there simply isn't enough gear to go around (as many defectors and deserters have kept the gear they were given). In order to conserve the amount of gear that remains, new kitties are typically put into two or three feline teams, while being given only one of each piece of vital equipment like a single radio that they all must share. We are almost certain that, come this summer, the overall advantage that the gang had in terms of training and outfitting will have all but evaporated."
Mr. Sparkles said that several of the security volunteers who locally help the Lepus Alliance (in the absence
of the bunny brigade) are planning to hop on up north to join up with C's bunnies.
Defectors report that the upper leadership in the kitty cat gang is all but paralyzed and that Cat P is a weak and ineffective leader. "He prefers to sit around on his owner's lap and occasionally mewl out an order. However most of his underlings simply ignore him, they are doing their own thing and looking out for themselves or their own enrichment. Actual incidents of infighting are rare, but none of the cats in charge are on the same page either so it's rare for the whole gang to operate in sync."
On another note, all the small animal news posted on this topic so far is pretty well vetted. Granted you can never be completely certain when dealing with small animals. But by any measurement, it's up there, 95% or better.
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Her special item is an apple. Yes, she carries a WX5 in her pack, but that doesn't make it her special item. Any more than her pack or uniform is a special item.
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Mikey does not believe the incidents overall have been increasing, and I tend to agree. Yes, there are more in the news. But remember, it's basically a slow motion train wreck we're watching here. Much of what you see or hear irl happened several months ago, just that the news finally happened to filter out now. And, it's grown, so there can be more attacks, even with the overall percentage staying the same or dropping slightly.
When I say grown, two years ago it would operate maybe a fourth of the time, a year ago, about half to three fourths of the time, and by now basically all the time or every day. There is really no need to worrey about the attacks, it grows regardless and countermeasures have been in place as of more than several months ago. Every attack has not resulted in very much of anything.
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Load up the file in Handbrake and choose your desired profile. Typically I just use Regular->High Profile. Once you have the profile fine-tuned to what you want, in the text box at the bottom of the advanced tab, add the text ":keyint=NN" to the end of the text that is already there, where NN is some reasonable number of frames (ie. if you want edit points every second, set NN to your framerate).
http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/X264_Settings has a rather comprehensive list of options that are available for the x264 encoder. Don't count on handbrake to re-encode the audio, it tends to mess up the a/v sync, just set it to passthru and use something like avidemux to re-encode the audio to AAC as needed for the final output.
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I should almost certainly be there, but I never formally announce these things before the fact.
There are just too many stalkerz out there. Stay safe, and watch for snakes. (Intelligence doesn't indicate any known snakes in this area at that time, but you can never be too careful.)
And in all honesty, if you are looking for [deleted], I'm probably not the person you want anyways.
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To me, it is nothing to complain about. Personally, I find this current structure better than before. Perhaps it's just the natural evolution of things.
On another note, Mikey's intelligence was right. Which is true most of the time. No snakes.
Sindobook:
That's completely untrue, it was well documented as an 'April Fools' joke.
Honestly if she had really died how could she post a video on that same date saying she had died, saying goodbyes to everyone and telling people to pray for her. It should have immediately obvious even from the first glance that it was an April Fools' joke.
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Mikey said it is on pretty good authority that the purported "Mr. W" is a snake and can't really be trusted or taken at his word. "Dirty... the absolute worst kind. Plenty of chutzpah, a penchant for preying on small animals in plain view in front of his snake friends. Don't even think of listening to anything he says."
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This question gets asked a lot, and the answer is pretty complicated. So I haven't really tried to attempt answering it.
Cats aren't small animals. They don't necessarily stick to the pack/herd. While small animals all almost universally social, many cats aren't. They need a reason to stick with something, they are innately selfish, without some clear benefit to themselves, they simply abandon the gang and fall into 'doing their own thing'.
So when one cat begs another for help, that service always comes with a price. More often than not, these things happen in secret -- deals made between strays in foreboding dark alleys, while keeping on the lookout to ensure -- no other animal(s) are watching. Because when one cat begs another for help, neither the one asking or the one who would give help feels he would benefit from other animals finding out about that. Not to mention that these deals often involve shady things, ie. one cat allows another to eat portion of the food that his owner had intended for him, in exchange for service or loyalty of the recipient.
So going back to that day, when their fridge was raided by the Black Bunny Squad only to be found already totally emptied out; when the cat who had led the gang suddenly disappeared because his owner had moved out town; small animals knew this did not mean the gang was going to simply disappear. No one ever expected that it would simply disappear. It simply meant they would have to make a deal with another cat who was in a better position, basically a MM[1] type deal in order to survive.
[1] Madoka Magica
And that's where we are right now. Cats are said to have nine lives, but their gangs do not. Their second lease on life came with a cost, as do all deals made between cats.
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I would just relax, whatever happens happens. To small animals, this just isn't an A or B in terms of importance. Pretty much a C or C+. And intelligence is, at best, sketchy. There's nothing probable to report on at this point, any report would be guesswork at best.
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It's actually perfectly normal behavior. Remember this is a gang. A common saying among small animals goes like this: "Dog-eat-dog is the norm among cats." Don't think it's going to get any better or nicer.
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This isn't the easiest question to answer, but I do agree with Mikey's analysis. "They have anywhere from six months to three years of life left. With these trends, time is definitely not on their side. A very top-heavy leadership structure, absolute selfishness at every level, and few that can be relied upon to accomplish anything of import for the group other than some dead-enders. Morale is poor, and continuing to worsen over time. In terms of funding, they are running on empty; supply, logistics, mechanized transportation is basically nonexistent, lodging is overcrowded and substandard."
Sindobook:
All small animals are welcome. Please leave your cats, dogs, snakes, reptiles, etc. other animals at home. Small animal means mice, rats, gerbils, guinea pigs, bunnies (not jackrabbits), ferrets, chinchilla, etc. This is a social event, if your animal does not 'play well with others', please leave him/her.
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Basically Mikey has been shuffling the small animals around in order to best deal with actual threats. This is necessary because things are still running a bit short-handed with the bunny brigade in its entirety deployed to Japan. The bunnies that the Lepus Alliance have sent to assist are helping, but things in general are spread pretty thin. So for a C-class issue, there isn't a whole lot of coverage.
Mikey's direct response: "Not to mention that bunnies just don't want that job. It's compromised, all right, but it takes time to ferret everything out. Things lag by about 3-6 months. That's no way to run an operation, it's low importance so our job has just been to wait and gather information."
So honestly, if you want it, do it yourself. It's not that hard, really. They have big egos, and people with big egos love to talk about 'stuff', even to the point of becoming absolutely pedantic. Just get them talking, and occasionally give positive feedback. That's where these guys are an absolute disaster, they can't run their mouths without letting it all loose.
Once you have them talking, just listen for things that matter, steer the conversation with idiotic comments (force them to 'prove you wrong') and keep mental notes of what actually matters. Typically not a lot, but listening to idiots with egos is never the most time-efficient process.
Sindobook:
I said it already, all small animals are welcome at the meeting this Saturday. You can discuss it there if it really matters, b'cos I'm not going to say a whole lot more here. And let me warn you, there's not a whole lot of difference of opinion here. The bunny brigade isn't around, and almost all the small animals are still where they've been for the last couple of months.
Mikey says the bunnies are pretty sure that "that was it". It sounds like his policy of "observe only" was a good one. "You don't want to try to interfere in something like this, the affairs of cats are best left to cats." Of course everyone else was very talkative about this. Mr. Sparkles was quick to comment "Now we know what that was all about. Oh boy. Signed, in blood." Jojo's comments were similar, "My friend, your sacrifice will not be forgotten. However rare, even a cat can accomplish greatness."
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Not specifically, they were mostly speaking in terms of 'big picture'. Other than ferrets, most small animals have their eyes on the side of their head and little visual overlap. 3D only works because people have visual overlap between both eyes.
Then you have color problems, bunnies are largely colorblind (most can see different shades of green and blue but that's pretty much it). Pigs can see more colors, in many cases they can perceive as many colors as people can, but their vision tends to otherwise be rather poor. Rats see similar to bunnies, and are also able to see into the UV range. So to summarize most small animals aren't really prime candidates for '3D' viewing. Not to mention that in photographic terms, small animal vision generally has a very large depth of field, but very low resolving power.
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It's 'good' in that they can see in the dark and can resolve detail well up close. But the majority of Pandas are near-sighted, distant objects appear blurry and smaller animals may end up being ignored completely if they are downwind and far away.
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