Buck Hardcastle
Bio
Viscount of Hyrkania and private cartographer to the house of Beifong.
Stories (102/0)
The John Oliver Crypto Currency Bundle 2022
Last year did a piece on crypto currencies mentioned by John Oliver in a 2018 segment. In retrospect, the Last Week Tonight actually went to easy on crypto, describing them as hard to hack, which has shown to be untrue. Not only have thieves and conmen preyed on crypto bros, but the institutions that were supposed to be the bedrock of the industry have shown little regard for users.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in The Chain
Reality Is An 18-Wheeler Barreling Towards The Russian People
Russian forces have been shooting each other over looting rights. Wartime infrastructure deep within Russia, such as a vital chemical plant, have gone up in suspicious fires. Russia's presumed ally China has put out a map of how Russian territory might be divided up.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in The Swamp
The Enormous Frustration of THE BATMAN
Spoilers for The Batman (2022) follow. Good Batman stories have competing theories of justice. The villains have their theories of justice that put Batman's idea of justice to the test. In The Dark Knight (2008) this is explicitly stated: the Joker thinks justice is chaos, Two-Face thinks justice is chance. Everything they do is driven by these view points and it makes for a very compelling story.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in Geeks
To seek the peace and security of a world without Russia
Russia has been wrong footed in Ukraine. Its invasion plans were in disarray before it even started--its military forces simply weren't suited for the job . Half their budget is being spent on useless prestige projects like submarines and the other half is being lost to corruption. Sometimes both these factors come together disastrously for them: their advanced Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers are being blown out of the sky because they don't have the right type of bombs to be used like they're supposed to.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in The Swamp
These "Useful Idiots" Probably Aren't Compromised by Russia.
"Useful idiot" is a term apocryphally coined by Vladimir Lenin to describe Americans who would support communist causes without really understanding them. There seems to be a few useful idiots running around America today, siding with Russia over Ukraine in the current war. It's spurned chatter that maybe Russia is paying some of them off or has blackmail material on them, classic Soviet style kompromat. I don't have proof this is untrue, and I wouldn't be entirely shocked if one of the people below is compromised, but I doubt that's the core issue here. The thing is, when they see an authoritarian launch a war of choice on an peaceful democracy, they side with the authoritarian because that's where their sympathies lie. They are anti-democratic authoritarians.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in The Swamp
Why Sanctions on Russia Matter
Vladimir Putin is a delusional, narcissistic psychopath. Having power is a kind of degenerative disease: the longer you have it, the more it rots your mind and disconnects you from the lived experience of ordinary people. Putin has been the President or Prime Minister of Russia since 1999.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in The Swamp
My Time in Ukraine
Like many Americans, I had been hoping Russia's build up of military forces along the Ukrainian border would turn out to be a bluff. I was heartbroken when they invaded. For me Ukraine is not some abstract place, I lived there for over two years.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in Wander
Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into SLAM?
In 1989 an art collective known as the Guerrilla Girls put up ads on buses calling attention to a survey that found that at the NY Metropolitan Museum less than five percent of the artists in the modern galleries were women. Meanwhile eighty-five percent of the nudes in those galleries were female. They presumably limited themselves to the modern galleries as representation would be even poorer in classical art.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in FYI
- Top Story - February 2022
A Gross Simplification of the NFT Market: What You Need to Know NowTop Story - February 2022
At recent family dinner my mother told me she couldn't understand how these NFT's could be worth so much money. I told her actually she did understand: These hyperlinks to ugly cartoon apes seem like they should be worthless, because they are worthless. It's a scam.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in The Chain
5 Historical figures that school “forgot” to tell you were socialists
Schools have a lot to cover, they can't do it all. I'm sure that its a perfectly innocent mistake that they just keep neglecting to mention these important people were dyed in the wool socialists.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in FYI
The Lost Swimsuit Girls
After an analysis of swimsuit lists and then a list of babes missing from those lists, it seemed I wasn't quite done. I kept thinking "Oh, I should have included her." and "How could I not include her?" So apparently this is just what I do now.
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in Styled
Most Underrated Bikini Babes
There are numerous lists out there of the most iconic swimsuits of all time, in fact I recently did an analysis of them. It seems likely that there is some plagiarism going on as many of the lists are so similar. And is the one of the most iconic swimsuit scenes in film history really from Die Another Day?
By Buck Hardcastle2 years ago in Geeks