Friday Ephemera
This really isn’t the time to be having trouble with your roof rack. // Erotic dining. // Edison films Twain. // Hamster-powered hamster-drawing machine. // Harryhausen’s Martians. // Queen of Mars, 1924. // Space dashboard. // Ooh, I don’t like that cracking sound. // This rarely works with cats. // Harry Connick Jr corrects audience clap-along. // A brief history of evil twins in soap operas. // “Scientists draw eyes on cow butts to protect them from lions.” // A brief history of the bra. // Bookstore. // Bananas. // How big is yours? // If architecture grew. // Recapping Thrones. // Razor-less post-mortem shaving powder has “no offensive odour.” // Miracle breakthrough in high-tech armpit cooling. // And finally, probingly, “Scientists have accurately recreated the feel of a rectum.”
Erotic dining.
Oh, that is an interesting idea—granting, while definitely agreeing with the comment of Don’t get how erotic it is, but what a clever idea!
This rarely works with cats.
Actually that does work fine with multiple cats—albeit the relative sizes do get reversed.
A brief history of the bra.
Just keeping abreast of things, there.
How big is yours?
Oh, that could get addicting, especially if they have variations, alternatives, alternates . . .
And finally, probingly, “Scientists have accurately recreated the feel of a rectum.”
. . . bringing whole new meanings to the idea of getting behind in one’s work . . .
The magazine history commentary in Razor-less post-mortem shaving powder reminded me of the Official Meeting Facilities Guide.
Do we get to brag about how big/large/gargantuan/enormous/brobdingnagian ours is?
The Queering of Pregnancy.
Somehow I don’t think the vocabulary test is quite accurate. Obviously I had a few lucky guesses.
@Ted
Check your privilege, bub.
This rarely works with cats
That’s how I sleep every night with my four cats. Works a treat !
I wasn’t so lucky.
Good thing I don’t write for a living.
Miracle breakthrough in high-tech armpit cooling.
“Lower the temperature by circulating air by making the airflow send the wind in the clothes, for us to suppress the sweat.”
Thank you Google translate.
This rarely works with cats.
Adorable (apart from the nappy licking).
Me, um, like, not good do on word thingie, only get 7.
How big is yours?
gibigulous as it turns out.
Ooh, I don’t like that cracking sound.
Does Trigglypuff live upstairs?
How big is yours?
A strange thing: Dearly Beloved and I have just done the test and both been told that our scores place us in the top *.27% of the population. Coincidence, or is there some reason for the .27%?
If you can’t tell it’s art… it’s probably not.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-15/elderly-woman-fills-out-crossword-artwork-in-german-museum/7632800
For confirmation, read what makes up the rest of the exhibition. Cuttings from the newspaper?
If you can’t tell it’s art… it’s probably not.
“an artwork in an Italian museum resembling the aftermath of a large party was binned after cleaners mistook it for actual rubbish.”
Everyone’s a critic.
“Mine” is 22350 (whatever the devil that means) or the top 6% of vocabulary test aspirants.
The downside is it renders me permanently ineligible to run for public office in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, NZ or Australia.
If you can’t tell it’s art… it’s probably not.
The caption implied that it was PARTICIPATORY art. She just took them up on it.
holy crap … they haven’t even finished removing the bodies from the street in Nice and this is a headline in The Guardian
Sympathy should be our only response to the Nice terror attack
and this is a headline in The Guardian
And then the word decadent sprang to mind.
The bookshop in Buenos Aires is marvellous. In this country I would rate Barter Books in the old station at Alnwick. Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
Afraid not. I haven’t been in a bookshop in close to a decade. I use Amazon.
So do I, but I still like to browse bookshops. There’s an excellent one in Bath with hand written recommendations and an area to sit and cogitate: Mr B’s Emporium. Also one filled with the sort of books for students and their studies.
there is no defence force on Earth that can defend a crowd from a madman in a truck
Well, a crowd with lots of guns might have a chance. Or a handy wall. Or another truck.
…there is no defence force on Earth that can defend a crowd from a madman in a truck…
One .50 AP round into the engine block stops them pretty fast, as will a LAW, or a Carl-Gustav. RPGs, AT4s, Dragons or Javelins, Mk. 19s, and the old standby, somebody who can shoot the damn driver. The windshield of that truck was well ventilated everywhere except in front of the driver.
there is no defence force on Earth that can defend a crowd from a madman in a truck
Only true if, indeed, he was “mad.”
However, if he was following a particular group’s ideology – crush that group and make being part of it way to expensive to pursue.
For instance … it is obscene that the San Bernardino Islamist terrorists are buried in a Muslim cemetery & were laid to rest with Islamic ceremony.
Every terrorist body should be confiscated by the Government and filmed while being fed to pigs.
If they aren’t “really Muslim” then the Muslims won’t care, right? And any terrorist who believes he/she is tempted to engage in martyrdom might think twice when they realize they aren’t going to get to heaven by way of a pig’s ass.
What Darleen said. Times three.
Just read over at Ace that the Nice guy was a common crook who the police blackmailed to spy on Islamic radicals. When the radicals found him out, they coerced him to turn terrorist. Not sure how accurate that is until I see it from a few other sources but it fits in with the profiles of some of the suicide types of the past.
there is no defence force on Earth that can defend a crowd from a madman in a truck
I think that it is outrageous that anyone can just walk into a motor dealership and buy a truck.
We need to make it difficult to buy trucks- especially the high powered ones.
How big is yours?
Surprisingly, 30150. Not bad for a high school education – just a once-voracious reader.
Farnsworth,
The windshield of that truck was well ventilated everywhere except in front of the driver.
I see I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Re: truck windshield
If I were planning such a crime, I’d hie me down to TAP Plastics or similar and order up a bunch of the thickest polycarbonate sheet I could get (1/2 ” thickness is trivial to find). A little bandsaw and glue-lamination work later – hey presto, bullet-resistant windows. Ugly, heavy, but effective against most ammo short of something like a .30 cal rifle hunting round.
Look at http://www.theboxotruth.com if you’re curious about ammunition and its effects. (See for instance “The Box O’ Truth #6 – Ballistic Resistant Glass Gets Tested”)
Fortunately I am not a psychopath.
(Good God. Seeing a photo of the victims laid out on the Promenade des Anglais froze my heart. I’ve been on that section and I have old friends in Nice.)
[ Rubs eyes, drinks coffee. ]
So what did I miss?
So what did I miss?
A bungled coup attempt in Turkey. Lesson 1 of couping: take control of the TV and radio stations.
A bungled coup attempt in Turkey.
Oh yes, that.
In other news, I can’t help thinking there ought to be a word for this.
I can’t help thinking there ought to be a word for this.
A rock star? On the basis that he is smothered in chicks.
>In other news, I can’t help thinking there ought to be a word for this.
Looks like a great place to meet chicks.
I can’t help thinking there ought to be a word for this.
#SignsOfTheApocalypse
Look at http://www.theboxotruth.com if you’re curious about ammunition and its effects.
Your point that a chunk of great thick polycarbonate is better than automotive tempered glass is accurate to a point, but it is hard to take seriously the tests (or anything else) of a website that advocates that the best method for ensuring a weapon is cleared by pointing the thing in front of your feet at a concrete floor.
That is just plain, “Here, hold my beer and watch this,” stupid.
@mike fowle
I highly recommend Scarthin Books in Cromford, just outside Matlock Bath, (North Derbyshire).
In fact, I prefer it to Alnwick’s Barter Books which I think is the second best bookshop in the country, with Scarthin being the best.
It’s a veritable maze inside. Even the door to the cafe is actually a hinged, curved book case.
http://www.scarthinbooks.com/
“I see I wasn’t the only one who noticed”
Even the driver’s side door shows bullet holes where the [expletive deleted] ostensibly wasn’t. But remember that the police were firing from an oblique angle, not standing directly in front of or orthogonal to the side of the truck.
[PP making up for size with ‘oblique’, ‘ostensibly’ and ‘orthogonal’]
But remember that the police were firing from an oblique angle…
Neither of us having been there that would assume you have cops shooting from the right front and left rear, IOW at each other which, while certainly possible, is not exactly the best plan. Regardless, if it is, in fact, what happened, they still managed to put rounds into everything but the driver.
Meanwhile, this will solve everything.
“Neither of us having been there…”
Well, there is video of them shooting, and they’d be fools or careless to stand where the [expletive deleted] could fire at them (they have to assume he is armed with more than just a truck). In the driver’s seat his center of mass is considerably above grade, so bullets are going to go over the heads of officers on the other side.
And they did manage to put at least one round into the driver. Eventually. It’s hard to imagine the chaos that goes on during these things and I’d guess that spraying and praying from cover is the best option.
Farnsworth: Ouch!
The site host usually seems so careful. I should check out who & where that pic and instruction comes from. Not that I care much as I have no firearms of my own to maintain.
Farnsworth: Ouch!
Ouch indeed. In another lifetime, one of our number who was having difficulty getting with the program performed this non-standard task to prove his weapon was cleared after entering the arms room after and having failed to use the clearing barrel outside. Needless to say, he received the benefit of “remedial training” as wall-to-wall counseling was frowned upon at that time. His push-up score did improve, though.
I think that it is outrageous that anyone can just walk into a motor dealership and buy a truck.
and
A bungled coup attempt in Turkey. Lesson 1 of couping: take control of the TV and radio stations.
Whatever you’re grilling this weekend: don’t do it in the bathtub.
Wildgoose. I have been there (Scarthin Books) funnily enough. I think it was also referred to indirectly in one of Stephen Booth’s books.
For those hard-to-reach places:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/328582971/bakblade-20-the-ultimate-diy-back-and-body-shaver/?
A couple over at Samizdata, here and here.
as will a LAW, or a Carl-Gustav
Or the legendary but mythical belt-fed Wombat.
Please don’t fret about Nice: group hugs and hashtags will make you feel better.
Maintaining the tenor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2gABYTmXos
Cheers