Friday Ephemera
How cats and dogs differ. // 2,000 ball bearings and one of these. // An en caul birth. // When patience is tested on British roads. // “The laws would allow people to ‘bequeath’ their dead bodies for necrophilic intercourse.” // Pilea involucrata.// Pictures posted on social media accounts cause cancer in children, says Islamic cleric. // It’s not paint thinner, it’s moonshine. // Issues of If magazine, 1952-1974. // First world problem. // Janice Fiamengo on so-called “structural violence.” // Trek enthusiasts convene, 1976. // Gershwin plays Gershwin, 1924. // A guide to British industrial history. // I question the geography. // What happens to marshmallows in a vacuum? // Vienna. // I’m pretty sure a thing like that shouldn’t be in there. // And great scenery + toilet = good times.
2,000 ball bearings and one of these.
I want one.
Hearing British people say the word “wanker” never gets old. Query, how many ways can one pronounce the f-bomb in the UK?
“First world problem.”
No. Bizzarro-world problem.
Why, would ya look at this? A “racial incident” that was the reverse of what (dumb) people would expect lately (and catch the defense lawyer’s claim about “social media”). http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/nyregion/racism-charges-in-bus-incident-and-their-unraveling-upset-u-of-albany.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0
Dammit, David covered this like, 3 posts ago! Where the hell have I been?
2,000 ball bearings and one of these.
That is “mad scientist” cool. :^)
When patience is tested on British roads.
—Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
I question the geography.
Among the commentary . . . .
Ben Stanley @BDStanley Mar 1
@TheMichaelMoran @chrisdeerin Only CNN could make a geography mistake in a headline about Slovenia and the mistake not be Slovenia.
There is a story of someone calling up the event HQ for the upcoming Grand Festival of the Sons Of Poland—or something like that—and requesting ticket reservations. She was asked what name the tickets should be held for, and replied Barbara Spoadjffcoa;ofjwiueyhpajfijd.
There was a moment of silence. “How do you spell that?”
“Ess Pee Oh Ae—”
“Oh, I can spell Spoadjffcoa;ofjwiueyhpajfijd just fine, how do you spell Barbara??”
. . . how do you spell Barbara??”
Keyboard sprayed; comment achievement unlocked.
Vienna.
Vienna waits for you . . .
I’m on a Janice Fiamengo binge. She’s a brave woman.
I’m on a Janice Fiamengo binge. She’s a brave woman.
Yes, she has a habit of saying things that are obviously, demonstrably true but unmentionable on a modern campus.
Incidentally, the unhinged Norwegian Marxist, Johan Galtung, mentioned in the video, was discussed here some time ago. When your feminism regurgitates the claptrap of an anti-Semite conspiracy theorist who never met a totalitarianism he didn’t like, it’s probably time to rethink your life choices.
Dammit, David covered this like, 3 posts ago! Where the hell have I been?
[ Tilts head, peers over spectacles. ]
First world problem.
“A man who did not claim to be a trans-woman just walked into the women’s locker room at a Seattle public pool and started changing and watching the women change. A woman reported him. Staff asked him to leave. He resisted, asserting he was allowed to be there. He went for his swim and then returned to the women’s locker room when he was finished. A girls’ swim team was using the facility. Mothers complained, and he eventually left. The police were not called because if he identified as a woman, then he was within his rights, and if he did not, then the staff preferred to settle the issue without involving the police.”
https://pjmedia.com/parenting/2016/03/01/moms-ask-man-to-leave-seattle-locker-room-while-their-swim-team-daughters-are-changing/?singlepage=true
Weren’t we told this was never going to happen?
[ Tilts head, peers over spectacles.]
At a certain age, reading glasses, over which one can peer, are a fine affectation. As we all know, they’re part of the Patriarchy Kit(TM) issued to males upon attaining middle age.
Keyboard sprayed; comment achievement unlocked.
Thank yew, thenk yew, yer a wunnerful audience.
How cats and dogs differ.
Oh, I still prefer the classics . . . .
When patience is tested on British roads.
Couldn’t look away.
Couldn’t look away.
It’s strangely compelling. Not just for the alarming near misses (and the occasional collision), but the dreary in-car radio and explosions of salty language.
“Shitting Peugeot!”
. . . how do you spell Barbara??”
Sorry but I have to follow up with my granddad’s favourite joke:
A not-too bright aspiring actor calls up his agent,
“Hey, it’s Moish, Moish Goldstein – great news – I’m changing my name!”
“Great news, what are you going with?”
“Shmuel!”
OT, but my other half insists this is right up your street:
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/03/pittsburgh-students-in-tears-and-feeling-unsafe-after-milo-yiannopoulos-event/
Karen, your other half is right. 🙂
See also this.
Dispatches from the front:
Donald Trump. Repudiated the Jeff Sessions Immigration Plan — which was the only reason to support him — by declaring he was “changing” and “softening” it because we need all these highly-skilled people to take our jobs. Then said he would be “flexible” on the wall and deporting illegals and pretty much admitted he’d said as much to the New York Times editorial board, and then, in case you were unsure if you’d heard him right, praised Marco Rubio’s Amnesty plan as “fine” and a good opening bargaining position.
Kept talking about his hand-size and then, just when you thought this was getting weird, brought it back into a more sensible area by assuring the world that his penis size was sufficient for most.
He then added some substance to his foreign policy platform by declaring that he would force American soldiers to break the law and murder children.
On other issues, he was less reassuring.
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=361934
PS: another view, and an interesting one:
http://conservativeminnesotans.blogspot.ca/
Kept talking about his hand-size and then, just when you thought this was getting weird, brought it back into a more sensible area by assuring the world that his penis size was sufficient for most.
The twenty-first century isn’t panning out quite as I expected.
they’re part of the Patriarchy Kit issued to males upon attaining middle age
But my wife does this to me all the time, usually when I’ve said something dumb, drank all the beer or eaten all the sprinkles. Sometimes I do all three, but not necessarily in that order.
The twenty-first century isn’t panning out quite as I expected.
Life is a long parade of surprises, the last of which kills you.
Someone on Twitter described the US of 2016 as like a long-running soap that has reached its final season and so the writers are just throwing anything on screen, resulting in increasingly berserk storylines.
The US is so huge that there’s room for pretty much anything. Different regions have different flavors and levels of weirdness/scariness/incomprehensibility, or used to. The joint’s a lot smaller now, thanks to technology. All swirling together like one of those old “flashback” movie sequences.
Trump has issued a(n) (umpty-)second opinion repudiating his repudiation, apparently: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-position-on-visas
(If the last period in that link breaks it, try here: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j%2E-trump-position-on-visas)
Here’s my view of Trump more generally – regardless of what happens, he has moderated the debate on immigration. Yes, moderated. There used to be a preposterous agreement between the White Guilt wing of the reds and the Cheap Labor wing of the blues (I hold that “reds” properly denotes the party of fellow travelers) that more immigration shall be the order of the day; and the will of the people be damned. Trump is moving the Overton window back to the point where it includes a lot of popular opinion that used to be unmentionable in public. The giant wall against Mexico is very unlikely to happen, but just enforcing American immigration law would lead to a lot of deportation and border security. And now that seems like it might be on the table once again, rather than the half a dozen amnesties and executive orders that have been the order of the day so far.
I don’t expect Trump to be a principled upholder of principles. But I do notice that he’s made the case, if not exactly in those terms, that the 1920s position on immigration to America is a reasonable and broadly-supported alternative to the 1960s position on immigration to America.
And why isn’t the State Dept. berating the Mexican govt about their horrendous abuse of the Guatemalans, etc. crowding over their southern border?
Trump is moving the Overton window back to the point where it includes a lot of popular opinion that used to be unmentionable in public. The giant wall against Mexico is very unlikely to happen, but just enforcing American immigration law would lead to a lot of deportation and border security.
Yes, I think that’s a big part of his appeal.
For non-Daily Mail readers out there”
“Hillary Clinton promises to ‘get to the bottom of UFO mystery’ if elected”
Someone on Twitter described the US of 2016 . . .
My read of the 2016 presidential election so far is of a nationwide madlibs tournament with two extra rules; A) Every contestant uses the same words—such as “conservative” or “liberal”—in every single madlib round, while not bothering to define what said contestant thinks the word actually means, and B) Every contestant insists that each round is always the same madlib, instead of the reality of a different one each time . . .
Since this seems to have become the “Make fun of the US” thread:
Second daycare worker convicted in “baby fight club” case
When male feminists attempt STEM studies:
That is just from the abstract, the whole paper is loaded with gems:
Explain that frostbite to the doctor.
Did the glacier consent ? If not it was glacier rape !
Read the whole thing, as the kids say, and then wonder how this guy takes himself seriously.
it’s moonshine
Holy Mary, mother of God, I need to get some of those.
Oh, not for me. I’m thinking of spiking the water cooler at work next week.
YOU try supervising 32 women after going into our third week of IT failure in the court … cattiness and pettiness is beyond 11.
Those British drivers…facking, fooking, fecking….wow.
But the ‘ice is just ice’ conceptualization contrasts sharply with conclusions
reached over a century ago: ice can have over a dozen crystalline structures
In Sheryl St. Germain’s (2001) ‘To Drink a Glacier’, the author interprets her experiences with Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier as sexual and intimate.
Gives me a whole new perspective on my poking the damn things with an ice ax to avoid disappearing into a crevasse. And, no, I didn’t seek consent.
And, via The Guardian, “heroism” on display.
In Sheryl St. Germain’s (2001) ‘To Drink a Glacier’, the author interprets her experiences with Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier as sexual and intimate.
It reminds me of Sandra Harding’s “feminist empiricism,” and her claim that Einstein’s theories of relativity are “gender-biased” and therefore disreputable. Dr Harding also insisted, based on nothing, that Newton’s Principia can be regarded as a “rape manual” and that rape and torture metaphors could be used to usefully describe its contents. She also claimed that “science is a male rape of female nature.”
And, via The Guardian, “heroism” on display.
Jones is, as usual, disingenuous and fairly obnoxious with it. But he’s right, in a way. The migrant situation does reveal the gulf between a realistic appraisal on the one side, and on the other, the pretensions of the Guardianista class, what might be called The Simon Schama Tendency.
When patience is tested on British roads.
Nice to see the language of Chaucer on display.
2,000 ball bearings and one of these.
What’s the betting he’s a bass player?
This made me laugh.
“Dr Harding also insisted, based on nothing, that Newton’s Principia can be regarded as a “rape manual” ”
When I first heard that I tracked down the book because I thought it must be a satire mistaken for reality. As I recall, she took the approach that inferences and metaphorical interpretation in literary criticism can be applied to everything. I don’t think there were any specific examples from Newton but if patriarchal science is generally described as unveiling mysteries of how the world works and seminal ideas penetrating the unknown to expose knowledge then these words have an additional, more sinister meaning when applied to the metaphorical Mother Nature. It isn’t based on nothing; it is based on nothing plus tedious bullshitting.
The Cat, The Bad and the Ugly…
Oh, well played, sir.
Well I flipped off my cat with exactly the same result. They seem to have a hair trigger.
When male feminists attempt STEM studies
I’m going to assume that is satire. Any other explanation is too upsetting.
It reminds me of ABC Radio National where every segment, no matter the topic, has to include a discussion of how it affects women and indigenous people. I can’t listen to it any more. The only show worth staying with is Counterpoint, so called I guess because the host is sane and rational. And despite being a woman the host doesn’t focus on how the current topic affects women and indigenous people if it does not have an obvious link to them.
I’m going to assume that is satire.
Alas, it is not, the whole paper is linked above, here is the lead author, and why people in Oregon can’t have nice things.
You can look through some of the other nonsense this guy has cranked out, (BTW, please note he is a warmist), in particular the Research Website, Glaciers and Society Website, and Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples Initiative links.
For your amusement, another abstract from “The History of Ice: How Glaciers Became an Endangered Species”:
“a feminist study of glaciers”
https://twitter.com/briandavidearp/status/706232808591790080
http://m.phg.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/01/08/0309132515623368.long (https://archive.is/ESVET)
And, apparently:
Um, even if the subject had nothing to do with feminism, there are grounds for investigating…
…the human-ice relationships. Glaciology as a field developed alongside colonialism.
…even without feminist approach, there is much to deconstruct about the way glaciology is studied
(https://twitter.com/ThylacineReport/status/706444481541890048)