Friday Ephemera
One lucky dog. (h/t, Damian) // Public transport. // Christopher Lee reads five horror classics. // Can bats swim? // British artist stranded out at sea. (h/t, Albino Finger) // The unmaking of gelatin sweets. // The (post)modern scholar. // New York, 1940s. // Everything wrong with Citizen Kane. // Hong Kong density. // What dad did. // What cats do. (h/t, Julia) // Upscale fashion show of yore. (h/t, Coudal) // Refresh the ramsophone. // Ancient Roman dinner party etiquette. // The triggering. // Time travel radio. // Classic Trek antagonists, ranked. // Autonomous tractor. // Freediving under ice isn’t for the faint-hearted. // A dragon made of flowers. // And finally, on the art of choosing band names. I do like French Toast Emergency. And Librarians In Uproar.
That Michael Jackson cat had me LOLing.
I won the NY magazine competition with a band name: Big Women from Borneo.
Upscale fashion show of yore.
A different one keeps coming to mind.
Kim Jong-un suspects citizens are mocking him, reportedly bans sarcasm
AOL News
Oh, Hooray!!!!! Now we know that all parts of the internet will be serious and up to date!!!
And yes, one always goes to AOL for one’s news!!
“Can bats swim”? I don’t know but I have heard about Teaching Ravens to Swim Underwater.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhS35f015SQ
Oops. https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/773593614672916481
“Healing from toxic whiteness”
https://compassionateactivism.leadpages.co/workshop-healing-whiteness/
Any takers?
Ah, the irony of a history professor ripping down 9/11 Never Forget posters. And this public, taxpayer-supported college cancels a previously approved 9/11 memorial.
Oops. “>https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/773593614672916481
That’s funny, beats the MJ cat for me.
“Healing from toxic whiteness”
Any takers?
Well, I’m certainly sold. o.O
Healing from toxic whiteness
It’s funny until you realise that so far almost all of the retweets are actually endorsements.
It’s all a bit, “Come and play with us, Danny.”
Ah, the irony of a history professor ripping down 9/11 Never Forget posters.
A history professor with purple hair.
Clever cat.
Clever cat needs to have a word with lucky dog.
My band, which has so far played one gig, is called The Proposition Blues Band. Because, when I decided to (have a mid-life crisis and) start a blues band, I sent an email to a few people I knew who I thought might be interested in joining, with the subject line “Proposition: blues band”. One of the recipients said “that’s the name of the band”. And it was. Do I win £5?
Attention, credulous youngsters:
In other news, money can also be burnt by throwing it on a fire.
Kittens 360.
House for sale. Viewing essential.
Public transport.
It’s like an advert for Uber.
House for sale. Viewing essential.
Pity the estate agent.
Pity the estate agent.
Yes, I fear the décor isn’t helping. Imagine the viewings. “Here’s the bathroom, and here’s the room for murdering prostitutes…”
Horror and outrage when a writer for once actually dares to question the PC zeitgeist….
Regarding the B.A. in Social Justice, quoth the proponents:
Students have “expressed a desire to integrate academic work more deeply with anticipated career paths.
Somehow, I think they’re not speaking ironically. It calls to mind the unfortunate woman highlighted on these pages, I believe, who bemoaned the fact that her M.A. in Gender Studies together with a boatload of debt did not lead to lucrative employment and took to Instagram to publicize her plight.
Laurie “full communism now” Penny says she’s “suspicious of ideology”:
Apparently, this week she’s an “anarcha-feminist.” It’s so hard to keep up with fashion, isn’t it?
Janice Fiamengo on campus feminism as a kind of mass hysteria.
With respect to your “Moloch” post of yesterday, this seems relevant. Remember, the government only hires professionals to educate your children.
My favourite band names gleaned from the above comments:
That Michael Jackson cat
Upscale fashion show
Can bats swim?
Healing from toxic whiteness
Attention, credulous youngsters!
Kittens 360
Actual band names from the 80s: Half Man Half Biscuit, Policeman With a Loaf of Bread, and who can forget (I did try) Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine?
‘The Triggering’ would be a good band name. Also ‘What Dad Did’.
New York, 1940s.
In less depressing news, you will be pleased to know that McSorley’s is still open. Whether it has been overrun by hipsters or yuppies I don’t know, but if by some horrid fate worse than having to sit through the Toxic Whiteness Workshop you find yourself in NYC, it would be worth popping over to numb yourself to the fact that you were stuck in NYC.
“Clever cat”
I actually witnessed something similar in Toronto (actually Scarborough) in the 80s, but it was a dog at the crosswalk. In Ontario you are (or were, at least, back then) supposed to point to where you wanted to go while waiting for the cars to stop. The dog wasn’t a pointer, though.
Goodwood Revival live feed.
Meanwhile, back on dreary planet Earth:
http://nypost.com/2016/09/08/new-yorkers-back-from-burning-man-wont-stop-whining/
The biggest let down is that here, people server only themselves, not YOU.
Re New York, 1940s: I am struck by the quality of these pictures. Thank goodness Indiana University decided to keep them after almost tossing everything in the garbage. What really fascinates me is how good this obsolete analog technology was. Superior, in many ways, to current digital photography.
And as I look at these as a current denizen of New York City, I almost find myself wishing I was in the New York of the 1940s rather than in today’s version.
I haven’t clicked on the Star Trek link – I assume economic reality is the number one villain?
The Real Peer Review is a hoot. Well, the topics are. (Many papers are written in a language that defies even Google Translate.) Anyway, thus encouraged, my forthcoming magnum opus is: “The influence of Western white male privilege on the Oriental feminist perception of the macramé vs tatting disceptation with particular reference to macro vs micro aggression.”
My favourite band names gleaned from the above comments
I rather liked Teaching Ravens to Swim.
To be fair, Laurie Penny did particularise: she’s anarchist, feminist and socialist. It’s all the *other* ideologies that she’s suspicious of.
“Clever cat” – my second thought was that’s not Dartmouth. I don’t think there are any zebra crossings in Dartmouth. And with a little bit of internetry:
http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/30/30476/Fulwich_Hotel/Dartford
Or I could’ve just read the tweet below it.
Right. What’s all this then ?
Does this go for the henchlesbians too ?
said he would look into employing officers who wear the burka
Because police officers who look like an oversized, mobile garbage bag will immediately command respect. Might as well have officers dress as Napoleon or Daffy Duck. And then wonder why said officers aren’t taken terribly seriously. I thought the idea was for officers to be instantly recognisable as such and, while formal in appearance, also approachable in moments of crisis. Surely the purpose of the burqa is to suggest the opposite of being approachable. It positively screams, “Don’t talk to me, infidel.”
I thought the idea was for officers to be instantly recognisable as such and, while formal in appearance, also approachable in moments of crisis.
The mobility too, don’t forget how easily one could chase down a miscreant with a burqa on.
Where will the put the Sillitoe Tartan on the head, not to mention all the other kit, seeing as how you can’t wear a belt with the things ?
I imagine they would be quite attractive if covered in Battenburg markings like the police cars and motorcycles, though.
“Goodwood Revival live feed.”
Oh, wow. Thank you, old chap. (To get into the spirit of the thing.) Why didn’t I know about this already?
“Goodwood Revival live feed.”
Yes indeed. What a brilliant link. Watched spellbound. Thank you.
@Farnsworth
Loved the Goodwood link, though it did bring back memories of the MGB I owned in college, which would die for no reason at intersections just to remind me it was built during Britain’s flirtation with Harold Wilson.
Thank you, old chap.
Right-o ! To get into the spirit of the thing…
I learned to drive in a ’56 MG-TC, which my father sold to a collector when I was about 20 (sob!). I immediately turned around and bought a ’73 MG-B, which, mirabile dictu, NEVER LEAKED OIL. Nor did it ever fail to start on the first try.
However, I did not miss out on the MG experience – it did die on me in the rain one December 24 about 23:30. BUT, being knowledgeable in the ways of Lucas, Morris, et alia, I fixed it by drying the inside of the distributor cap with a sock from the boot kit, and wrapping the sock around the leaking heater valve (felicitously positioned right above said distributor). It started right up and off I went… (didn’t even have to use the spare points set I had.)
Lindy West on why political correctness is not about censorship:
Political correctness is, essentially, a family of suggestions: don’t talk over people who have been historically silenced; demand and make way for diverse representation; trust people to be authorities on their own lives; be cognisant and careful with other people’s trauma; listen, and be kind.
and:
The anti-trigger warning “coddled co-eds” narrative has a lot in common with the “false accusation” narrative used to derail discussions of on-campus rape. The first scoffs at people’s attempts to cope with trauma once they’ve already been traumatised; the second undermines their efforts to avoid being traumatised in the first place. Both are symptomatic of our culture’s deep investment in minimising and normalising sexual assault.
Maybe we can all get flippant and condescending about trigger warnings after we build a world where more than 3% of rapes lead to conviction, where we don’t shame and blame people for their own victimisation, where men don’t feel entitled to women’s bodies, and where millions of people aren’t moving through life yoked with massive, secret traumas.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/commentisfree/2015/aug/18/trigger-warnings-dont-hinder-freedom-expression
Forget about actually telling people if the movie is worth seeing or not:
Old white guys should just die and be forgotten already!
I was startled that every extra was white. Is this how Eastwood still pictures America? Then over the end credits, he showed the actual passengers. They were all white.
You’d think that detail regarding the film’s extras – factual accuracy – would kick the wheels off Ms Nicholson’s sneery, pretentious whinge, or at least give her pause… but no, she carries on regardless, sneering all the way to the end. Not just sneering at the film, which by most accounts is solid, but sneering at the idea of quiet competence in extremis as a thing one might deem valuable, exemplary, worthy of praise.
Kamikaze Tortoise.
BUT, being knowledgeable in the ways of Lucas, Morris, et alia, I fixed it by drying the inside of the distributor cap with a sock from the boot kit, and wrapping the sock around the leaking heater valve (felicitously positioned right above said distributor).
Oh, my. How I wept at the memories that sentence inspired. God bless British Leyland.
“Right-o ! To get into the spirit of the thing…”
Or, alternatively…
Artisanal Toilet Paper
R.Sherman: Glad to help.
add a bachelor’s programme in social justice to its list of degrees
All they’re doing is formalizing what they’ve been doing to all of the students anyway.
The mask comes off…
I haven’t seen the Sullenberger movie. However, there’s a line in the preview that drives me mad, where some official is saying to Sullenberger that “simulations show you can get back to the airport from there”.
I need to check, but I think it’s highly highly unlikely that “return to field” is in the op manual for any transport under the instant scenario. In practice, the loss of altitude making the more than 180 degree turn(s) required is usually prohibitive. Most serious attempts end in a stall-spin and crash before reaching the field.
I spent a long time practicing this maneuver in various lightplanes, trying to see how realistic the op manual numbers were. I concluded that if you did everything right with no delay at all, you had about a 50% chance. (I did all this at altitude over open fields. I am not insane. I also had a CFI in the right seat.)
Again I am sad my father is dead. I probably could not have got him to watch the movie, since he was a pro and hated fictionalized recreations of aviation accidents, but it would have been fascinating to discuss that incident with him.
R.Sherman: You’ll love this. Dad sold the TC because the right front wheel fell off. As in, the axle broke off the flange and the whole wheel plopped over on the driveway. We had just turned in after a little joyride in the hills.
Autopsy revealed an old machining mark in the radius where the flange and axle join, where a lathe operator had been a teensy bit sloppy. Bingo, stress riser. But credit due, though – it lasted about 25 years before it broke.
Dad became concerned that Mom and I maybe ought not to die in the TC just for aesthetic’s sake. We had rebuilt a lot of the car, but you can’t catch everything.
In the interest of factual accuracy, that TC was a 1949, not 1956, of course. 1956 was a year with a different historical import to me, hence the confusion.
Steve: Nice article about New Yorkers whining about traffic in NY after the peace and freedom of Burning Man.
?quality=85&strip=info&w=600
Check out this photo of departure day at Burning Man:
(for some reason I can’t post images in my comments. Sigh.)
(for some reason I can’t post images in my comments. Sigh.)
Hmmm.
< img src="pitchur address goes here between the quotes" >, and for actual use there is no space in front of the img and after the closing “, where I’ve added those two spaces so that the whole html comment will be visible . . .
Oh, and the preview button really is a useful test device . . . .
Fred the Fourth,
I need to check, but I think it’s highly highly unlikely that “return to field” is in the op manual for any transport under the instant scenario.
In the NTSB investigation of the Flight 1549 incident, they did indeed run simulations in which the pilots knew beforehand what was to occur, and the ALL successfully “returned to field”. However, these were not genuinely realistic simulations, as they made the attempt to return immediately after the engine failures. One pilot made an attempt after a 34 second delay (as happened when Sullenberger and Skiles went through the checklist on restarting the engines, as they were supposed to, and abandoned this effort once they realized they didn’t have enough airspeed). This simulation “failed to reach the airport”. In other words, he crashed.
Correction: went through the procedure, not “checklist”. They obviously knew what to do without looking it up.
This.
. I thought the idea was for officers to be instantly recognisable as such and, while formal in appearance, also approachable in moments of crisis.
Er….
I haven’t seen the Sullenberger movie. However, there’s a line in the preview that drives me mad, where some official is saying to Sullenberger that “simulations show you can get back to the airport from there”.
The thing I learned from the previews is that Capt. Sullenberger also solves the Dante Code.
(I’d rather watch the Robert Ryan Inferno again.)
“Sully is fascinating as a study of Eastwood’s persecution complex, his fear that not everyone in the world adequately worships an accomplished white man.”
In the reviewer’s feverish desire to smear Eastwood, she forgets the unfortunate Hollywood rule that every movie has to have a bad guy for the hero to fight. And so the NTSB had to be portrayed as a bad guys intent on railroading a good guy. But then, the sorts of people who work for MTV are unlikely to care about the truth, only how they can smear those they dislike.
Jonathan,
It is unclear whether your intent is that photo depict an easily recognizable officer, or an unapproachable one. Regardless, though I am not an expert on British popo, what you have shown is a member of the armed rozzers, who are the exception, not the rule. In the USandA, though, a cop kitted out like that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow except for the clunky way of carrying the equipment.
Identifiable and approachable:
Imagine this mess is a full burqa:
Identifiable and approachable:
Compare to:
This is what I remember Police looking like as recently as the 1980’s, now they look more like an occupying force.
Ah yes, Burning Man, I remember my old pal Angela rambling on incessantly about Burnign Man, and how “you such a wide range of people there, from hippies to corporate lawyers”. “Any Republicans?” I asked. “Erm, no” she said. From what I could gather, it most people went in order to say “look at me! Look how unconventional I am!” having never quite grown up. Having spent the last week in New York, holding down a well-paid corporate job here doesn’t necessarily mean you are not an overall loser or a complete twat. The number of middle-aged women propping up bars without wedding rings on is proof enough of that.
I assume economic reality is the number one villain?
For those of you into such things, and those who like quibbling about them, a ranking of the 100 best Star Trek episodes. By my reckoning, there’s a handful of nuggets in there, from various iterations, though possibly not in the right chart positions.
Ok, this made me laugh. TRANSformers!
…now they look more like an occupying force.
That might be a touch hyperbolic, Metropolitan Police:
Typical US cops carrying all the stuff as the officer in your first photo, only less stupidly:
Occupying force:
Occupying force?:
Occupying force?
Two cops with AR pattern rifles is hardly scary, let alone anything resembling an occupying force, most US police have the same (and/or shotguns) in their cruisers.
According to the article you got the photo from, those are specialist armed police, 4.3% of all UK police, and 7% of the Metropolitan police – compare that to 100% of US police. Again per the article the reason they are there is counter-terrorism. Granted, it may be different than the past, but then if there were these sorts in the past, perhaps the IRA and other splodydopes might not have been as sporty.
It all comes down to how hoplophobic one is, I guess.
perhaps the IRA and other splodydopes might not have been as sporty.
Hard to see how a bomb could be stopped from detonating by armed officers – that’s why we have Army, RAF and Royal Navy bomb disposal units.
Anyway, the UK is a country where guns simply aren’t seen in public – except when carried by police – and conditions for private ownership are very strict.
Oddly, although the Police are supposed to be ‘citizens in uniform’, I can’t find any law which allows them to carry firearms in public.
It doesn’t bother me when I visit the US but it’s not something I want to become normal here.
Hard to see how a bomb could be stopped from detonating by armed officers…
The intent is to deter the bomber to begin with, or failing that, to cause the bomber to blow up somewhere other than the intended target. Neither approach is foolproof, but the latter has had much documented success in the mid-East unpleasantness. Firearms are also much better at stopping people with meat cleavers than a stern, “What’s all this then ?”
…it’s not something I want to become normal here. Aside from that there is a hell of a long way to go before it became normal, given that the current threat is likely to get worse before it gets better, and given that I am assuming you want the police to serve and protect you, why would you not want them to have the same tools police the world over have ?
Occupying force?
At least in the US, the police are increasingly getting surplus military equipment.
The intent is to deter the bomber to begin with, or failing that, to cause the bomber to blow up somewhere other than the intended target.
I guess like US police stopped Tim McVeigh or the Orlando shooter?
Stopping terrorists is about intelligence work, and the Security Service and Special Branch have an excellent record in this country. The chances of an armed officer being at the site of an attack by chance are miniscule, and if it’s known about, it should be stopped before the public are endangered.
Aside from that there is a hell of a long way to go before it became normal,
Really, every time I go to the airport or train station there are armed Police. Even in the ’70’s when the IRA were bombing and shooting at their max on the mainland, it wasn’t like this.
The photo was originally linked to by Radley Balko, although that photo has since been taken down, presumably because the government was actually embarrassed. It’s still up at reason, who routinely cover the militarization of police forces.
I am assuming you want the police to serve and protect you
Then they ought to start acting servile, and not like they’re our bosses.
Hal: Thanks, but it turns out it was just my Kindle being “helpful” that was the problem with the image post.
Spiny Norman: Yes, timing is usually vital.
My dad flew re-creations of the DC-10 crash at Chicago O’Hare (AA flight 191, 1979) where the left engine “departed the aircraft” during takeoff, trashing the leading edge slats and hydraulics on that side in the process.
Turns out, if you do everything right, immediately, a DC-10 can be recovered and flown like that (just after unstick, transition from normal to: Full power on the right and tail engines, 0 on the left, takeoff flaps and slats on the right, 0 on the left, 0 hydraulics on the left) but you have less than 3 seconds to identify the problem and reconfigure the plane. Or else you die.
Band names:
Unsafe Space
Blood Lump
Laurie Penny and the Whiners
Jonathan “Stopping terrorists is about intelligence work…”
Do not forget those cases where terrorists were not stopped because the police on the scene were too lightly armed. There was such a case recently in Paris.
A more accurate characterization would be that stopping terrorists involves multiple layers of defense, including intelligence, border controls, and appropriate arms and training for police forces.
Jonathan “now they look more like an occupying force”
Why not a protecting force?
In Chicago there have been over 3000 shootings so far this year, with over 450 dead.
Just the other day there was a late-night shooting by feral youths very near Wrigley Field where the Chicago Cubs play, a supposedly nice neighborhood:
http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2016/09/gunfire-at-wrigley.html
The term “occupying force” would be more accurately used to describe these violent criminals:
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160907/marquette-park/activists-plea-marquette-park-residents-after-shooting-turn-them
I guess like US police stopped Tim McVeigh or the Orlando shooter?
Of course the Orlando shooter wasn’t a bomber and was ultimately stopped by being shot by armed police.
Stopping terrorists is about intelligence work, and the Security Service and Special Branch have an excellent record in this country.
Except, of course, for the over 60 IRA bombings in London alone (just since 1980) which included mortar and RPG attacks, and another 25 or so (it is hard to count them all) attributed to various other groups.
Then they ought to start acting servile, and not like they’re our bosses.
Even in God forsaken places north of the Line of Mason and Dixon, including NYC, I have yet to encounter a cop who has acted like my boss; of course if you cop an attitude with them or treat them like crap, YMMV. That is real cops, mind you, rent-a-cops and the TSA knuckle draggers are a different story.
Laurie Penny and the Whiners
Purple Haired Harpies.
“Except, of course, for the over 60 IRA bombings in London alone”
I’d like to add that when Canada was dealing with Quebec separatist terrorism, you would see police armed with military rifles in the Montreal subway stations. Those police were, of course, not an “occupying force” no matter what leftists said.
“Even in God forsaken places north of the Line of Mason and Dixon, including NYC, I have yet to encounter a cop who has acted like my boss”
To back this up: There has been a steady stream of news stories in which some badly behaved Person of Color is caught breaking the law, who then complains of police racism, only to have that story fall apart when dashcam videos are released to the public. This matches my experiences attending an urban public school: Black students would misbehave, sometimes grossly, and then cry “racism!” when caught and disciplined. Those of us who were not black had to be on guard against riots protesting these “racial injustices”, not to mention daily robberies and recreational assaults.
I am assuming you want the police to serve and protect you
Then they ought to start acting servile, and not like they’re our bosses.
Wait, I was once reliably informed here by a loud commenter that there could be no such problem with a virtual police state. Because rightism and law and order and such.
Do not forget those cases where terrorists were not stopped because the police on the scene were too lightly armed.
One of the wake-up calls in southern California was the 1997 North Hollywood shootout where two bank robbers, with illegal fully auto weapons and body armor outgunned the local PD … the running gun battle lasted about 45 minutes.
In the San Bernardino Islamist terror attack just last December, they were heavily armed (and luckily, left most of their bombs at home … and the ones they set up at the party & the floor above it did not work). The LEOs were now as equally armed and were able to take them out before more people were murdered. There is video of coverage available showing their tactics and I’m glad for them. That was a horrible time as no one knew at first where they had fled to, if they were on their way to other county facilities and if there were accomplices. My courthouse lobby and the parking lot was immediately covered with heavily armed LEOs.
There has been a steady stream of news stories in which some badly behaved Person of Color is caught breaking the law, who then complains of police racism, only to have that story fall apart when dashcam videos are released to the public.
Here’s a classic. Heh.
It’s amazing to see that every time I post stories about the cops that assiduously avoid the race angle, people’s responses basically boil down to, “But black people commit crime! So we can ignore the issue! And it’s good that the police thug against black people!”
This is why BLM has been such a terrible thing. After are, there are serious problems with police militarization and a double standard for the King’s Men. Consider this recent case of a state investigator using government credit cards for private purchases. (Well, OK, she’s technically not a cop.) Note first that the picture the newspaper used is not the mug shot, which is what media shows for any regular person arrested for a crime. And one lousy count for ~350 instances of the same crime? Do you think any regular person would be charged that lightly?
But I’m sure you’ll all say her victims were black so they deserved it.
Purple Haired Harpies.
Albino Chipmunk Liberation Front.
An occupying force is one that is present to enforce rules of a foreign society. A force that is present for the purpose of protecting you from a foreign society is not “occupying” except in the case of a totalitarian society where the police presence is actively engaged in repressing the local population. This seems quite obvious to me and I find it somewhat absurd that with all the real problems going on, we actually need to discuss it.
Weakness from within is what killed Rome. And it’s what is destroying us.
Also, WTH went on here the last couple days? I drop back in after a couple days away job searching and it’s almost like the wheels are coming off. Multi-multi-paragraph posts, folks getting CAPPED. Joooooos, of course, taking much of the heat. Wow.
Also, WTH went on here the last couple days?
It did get a bit lively.
“Purple Haired Harpies.”
The Shrills
An occupying force is one that is present to enforce rules of a foreign society.
From the Daily Telegraph:
Election candidate arrested over Churchill speech
European election candidate was quoting an anti-Islamic passage from Winston Churchill book when he was arrested.
Details here
I’m not on twitter, but:
@Police Scotland
Please be aware that we will continue to monitor comments on social media & any offensive comments will be investigated.
https://twitter.com/policescotland/status/549955567960465408?lang=en-gb