Friday Ephemera
Saucy. // At last, a sorting-Skittles-by-colour machine. // How large would a building need to be to store 7.4 billion human beings? // On the origins of tosspot, ramsquaddled and booze. // Bachelor pad. // When baby tortoises attack. // WWII aviation photographs. (h/t, Damian) // Fingers of steel. // Your fake tan is oppressing me. // Feminist fantasy and reality. // Reading room. // “For readers who disagree with the message, the comics portray them as the enemy.” // Improvisation. (h/t, dicentra) // Have you met my eleven puppies? // Cover version of note. // Single-use shaving cream sachets. // Steam turbine of note. // Good deed. // I suspect his dog is better behaved than yours. // And finally, via Obo, if you laugh at this thing here, then there’s something wrong with you.
I didn’t get past the “Dry January” in the BBC tosspot link.
Fuck these people shit me with their special nagging days, weeks and months. (First they came for the smokers … etc.)
Was the rest of the article any good?
Sorry about the swearing.
Luckily it is now after lunch on Friday so I can alleviate the slightly foul mood this has put me in to go start on some mood lightening beers at the world sheering champs in town.
Beer, sheep, fit blokes in wife beaters – something for everybody.
Also I put 10.10 in your pot to celebrate the 10 years.
Great outfit this and great guests – thank you.
“On the origins of tosspot, ramsquaddled and booze”
So that’s where “shit-faced” comes from?
Well fuck me rigid.
There has also been reaction from some fan communities and retailers to these kind of stories as having no place in superhero comics, despite all the many examples that have preceded it.
What they seem to have missed is that going all the way back to Hard Travelling’ Heroes, every time a comic book has pulled this stunt it’s killed sales.
This doesn’t matter too much, because neither DC Comics nor Marvel Comics are profitable themselves. They’re run as idea factories for the much more lucrative TV and movie franchises. But so far the SJW stories have been restricted to the comics that only the SJW scolds read – the tone hasn’t found its way into the other media yet.
I wonder if this is a deliberate ghettoization by the studios. They have to know that this kind of politicization doesn’t put butts in seats either at home or in the much more lucrative Chinese and foreign markets, but they can still claim to be “progressive” by pointing to the comics.
Feminist fantasy and reality.
The Randi Lee Harper one wins.
They have to know that this kind of politicization doesn’t put butts in seats
Well, it seems they’re belatedly finding out that alienating and insulting half, or even most, of your readership is probably a bad idea. I haven’t followed the comics closely for years, but I’ve seen enough recent examples of identity politics and “social justice” posturing to register just how clumsy and dogmatic some of the writing has been. And how even the most minor challenges to identitarianism have been met with outrage by a small but vocal subset of left-leaning readers.
I suppose what jars is the conceit that it’s meant to be grown-up and sophisticated, at least in comic book terms, when in fact it’s generally artless and inept. Much more so than many stories with no overt party-political axe-grinding. By deforming the characters and stories to comply with a “social justice” worldview, the comics have become more ham-fisted and juvenile. Whether it’s female heroes complaining about “mansplaining,” or portraying Trump as a staggeringly racist supervillain, complete with references to “Red Pill MRA Meninist Casual Racism,” (while Obama was invariably portrayed in the most flattering, cloying terms). The general message seems to be that if you don’t vote Democrat, and aren’t enthralled by race, “privilege” and intersectional feminism, then you’re one of the bad guys.
Oddly enough, the comparison that springs to mind is with the latest season of South Park, which emphasised one long story arc, an ongoing parody of current political events. Instead of real-world politics being an astringent detail it became the whole shtick. And it failed miserably, it just wasn’t funny or remotely interesting.
[ Edited. ]
if you laugh at this thing here, then there’s something wrong with you.
There’s something wrong with me.
“New male birth control is injected into the scrotum”
http://nypost.com/2017/02/08/new-male-birth-control-is-injected-into-the-scrotum/
New male birth control is injected into the scrotum
There’s a marketing challenge.
This, via Damian.
“I didn’t get past the “Dry January” in the BBC tosspot link.”
A better site for that kind of thing. (One of the oldest websites still going, actually, having celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. David’s a noob.)
“Feminist fantasy and reality.”
They don’t often, but words fail me.
“if you laugh at this thing here, then there’s something wrong with you.”
The spirit of Termite Terrace lives. And there’s something wrong with me.
Frozen cars.
http://www.neatorama.com/2017/02/09/Photos-Of-Winter-Weather-Turning-Cars-Into-Works-Of-Art/
Loved the WWII aviator photos. My dad was a Navy electronics officer with a patrol squadron in the Pacific. He had quite a few photos which none of us saw until we found them after he died. He was not a line officer, but a technician who flew on occasional missions. He didn’t talk about it much, other than to say it was a 50/50 proposition whether they’d find their way back “home.” A link. Another link.
“One of the oldest websites still going, actually, having celebrated its 20th anniversary last year”
Hey, I still have my domain from 1998, so there!
[ Initiate Four Yorkshiremen-type escalation of, “Oh, yeah? Well, mine…” ]
It always saddens me when I suddenly remember that I’ve forgotten once again to participate in “Dryanuary”…
… but then I feel better when I realize I can make up for it by participating in “FeBEERary”. 🙂
This is how the Great Donkey Uprising begins.
The link to the winter-art-cars reminded me of the “if you’re cold, they’re cold: bring them inside” meme, so I did a search.
From the first decade thread, a tangent by Spiny Norman:
Here’s a data point on that score: http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Do-Non-Citizens-Vote-in-US-Elections-Richman-et-al.pdf
There’s been a arseload of opinion and editorializing about its meaning, validity and relevance which I don’t think I can add much to. I’d rather prefer to highlight the 2014 date for what that’s worth.
Sad news to add, if someone hasn’t beaten me to it:
http://www.tmz.com/2017/02/10/shia-labeouf-he-will-not-divide-us-protest-ends/
What a shame. Zombie-watching was entertaining. I’d drop in once or twice a day for the laughs.
Shia leaves with a snort-worthy farewell, though:
http://hewillnotdivide.us
WWII aviation photographs
I will acknowledge the privilege of having never been tasked with shoveling the snow from the deck of an aircraft carrier.
Incidentally, for those who missed the second update to this post on the UC Berkeley riots, here’s Ms Yvette Felarca, one of the riot organisers, getting ‘hands-on’ with a lone Trump supporter. And again, watch the police.
Ms Felarca, you’ll recall, is employed as a middle-school teacher.
And again, watch the police.
F@ck da police. Some people in Berkeley should be asking for refunds on their taxes.
OK, did a little more research as the guy getting his ass kicked seemed a little off, he is a white supremacist who brought his white supremacist flag to the protest. This was back last year in Sacramento. Not that such justifies the cops not acting.
http://vidmax.com/video/142345-New-Video-shows-leftists-including-an-8th-grade-teacher-assaulting-far-right-protesters-while-cops-just-stand-by-in-Sacramento
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI5fzwTkh5A
+, I maybe should have added, a shearing Prime Minister.
He did well, speech lengths kept to the absolute minimum.
The “steam turbine of note” is, of course, the volute intake casing of a “Francis water turbine”.
Cheers
this was back last year in Sacramento.
Thanks for the additional context. Ms Felarca and her goons are obviously quite well rehearsed. Her tactics in particular caught my eye. Small woman backs into the taller target, shoulder charging him, then, hidden by her comrades, the repeated punching. And then the evident delight.
Small woman backs into the taller target, shoulder charging him, then, hidden by her comrades, the repeated punching. And then the evident delight.
Yes. Momma used to say that when women run the world there will be no more wars. Hahahahahaha. Momma…
it’s generally artless and inept. […] By deforming the characters and stories to comply with a “social justice” worldview, the comics have become more ham-fisted and juvenile.
I am still convinced that Gail Simone has been pulling a decade long troll job on the comics industry. Her New 52 Batgirl was a parody of the most clueless, posturing “grrrl powah!” Tumblr feminism imaginable. It cannot possibly have been by accident.
Her New 52 Batgirl was a parody of the most clueless, posturing “grrrl powah!” Tumblr feminism imaginable.
It’s easy to dismiss the “social justice” contingent as merely future baristas or the future unemployable, which many of them are. But some of them do get a foothold in the culture, degrading it, souring it, making it neurotic. Hence Gawker, Mic, Everyday Feminism and all the rest. And as noted in the previous thread, some of them become TV writers, like this chap here.
a foothold in the culture, degrading it, souring it, making it neurotic
And infuriating the general public: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN9iJCZ5Il8
This.
Haven’t been keeping up with Twitter…..sorry if you’ve already seen it. Found this on Obo link. Nazis everywhere says Sarah Silverman:
https://twitter.com/SarahKSilverman/status/830923187479277568
The vintage air photos were very moving. My father was a B-17 bombardier (30 missions).
As to Vasalgel: it works, it really does. It is just about perfect. Turn it on, it is 100% effective and stays. Turn it off, fertility is 100% restored. The technology has been around for over 20 years. The only problem is “marketing”.
Maybe if more men really had to worry about paternity suits…