Friday Ephemera
Early bird. (h/t, Damian) // Hardcore bee porn. // Don’t stare, it’s what they do. // Star Trek: The Motion Picture – the re-scored, much shorter, 22 minute cut. // Meanwhile, in Korea. // Duck vacuuming. // She makes things with cardboard better than you do. // His carved wooden lion is way better than yours. // Another day at the office. // Night bus. // Because some people really want to analyse the complexity of pop lyrics. // Prosthetic ovaries. // One for the ladies. // Click farm. // Clouds and rock. // Get low-slung and groovy with Nuthin’ But An Alien. // “The woman has a weapon and appears to be mentally unstable.” // Back when TV logos were physical objects. // Terrarium lamps. // An athlete in action. // And finally, a modern twist on when hubris meets nemesis.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
aka Star Trek: The Motionless Picture, also, Spockalypse Now.
Meanwhile, in Korea.
South Korea, presumably. North Koreans would have the immediate and obvious deduction, following which several would get shot.
Prosthetic ovaries.
As noted a bit back, one can grow sheep too.
Time is now MAD.
Click farm.
I found the recent ransomware eruption to be relatively a bit of a yawn . . . after all, the standard awareness among all actual I.T. professionals is that one never uses Microsoft when real software is available, and in the instances when something MS has to be put in, then all the patches and locked down settings are put in place, and such is still trusted about as far as one can throw the NSA building . . . .
25 years ago today (May 19, 1992), Amy Fisher shot Mary Jo Buttafuoco.
Does that make anybody else feel old? Was it a story in the UK?
An athlete in action.
While prolly apocryphal, there is a story of a meth cooker whose idea of confirming that he was still in good health and excellent running shape was to get to the poison gas generating stage of creating meth, where he would use a large bathub that was off somewhere outside, dump the chemicals in the bathtub to trigger that next phase, and then sprint like hell to outrun the rapidly expanding cloud of gas.
Time is now MAD.
What, me worry?
Ted, do you remember the SNL skits with Danny DeVito as Joey Buttafuoco? I think they were entitled, “The House of Butta-foo-oh-kohhh.”
“Early bird.”
I denounce such breedist behaviour.
“Meanwhile, in Korea.”
See, I’d take the escalator every time (even though I normally prefer the stairs). Don’t try to manipulate me with your smart-aleck puh-syko-loggy, you bastards.
“She makes things with cardboard better than you do.”
Can’t argue with that. I can’t even wrap presents.
“His carved wooden lion is way better than yours.”
Now, this is getting spooky. Because, again, that statement is literally true. (Although, to be fair, I didn’t actually make mine myself. It’s rather good, though. Just not that good…)
“Because some people really want to analyse the complexity of pop lyrics.”
Gotta say, using LZ compressability as a metric for repetetiveness is pretty darned smart.
“Back when TV logos were physical objects.”
Before I even clicked, the Anglia TV ident was already running through my head. And they didn’t even have it! Philistines. All together now… “And now, from Norwich! It’s the quiz of the week!”
Combining two of your links, here’s instructions for how to build a bee vacuum, useful for when a bee swarm lodges itself in an undesirable and hard-to-get to location.
Back when TV logos were physical objects.
Back when a lot of titling was chroma-keyed Letraset on mounting board, the promo for a Clint Eastwood movie got more than a few prime time runs before someone noticed the lack of spacing between the L and the I.
Laci Green goes rogue.
As Laci states at the very beginning of her video, her red pilling has centered on “feminism and social justice warriors.” Most significantly, and why this video deserves particular attention, is that Laci has built her enormous online following in part by being “the pinnacle of a social justice warrior, my SJWness has been memified.” Her conversion or evolution or whatever you want to call it “has apparently really confused people, there have been thousands of tweets and emails of people freaking out, like what is going on.”
I have a few more quotes from the video that I think are particularly salient and that I will discuss further down, but first I want to take a moment to clarify what this essay is about. My intention is not to debate the merits or concerns of either side of these polarizing feminism/SJW arguments, but rather focus on the implications of Laci’s revelations. Specifically, in her video, she finds herself walking a very fine tightrope between appealing to the fan base she has spent so many years of hard work cultivating and the need to feel authentic and congruent with her current views, and then wonders what the future holds in store. It’s a very difficult transition, but one that would normally hold very little interest or value to a general reader, except that it perfectly illustrates the cultural tensions permeating through our society today.
Letraset
I have a font for you.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture – the re-scored, much shorter, 22 minute cut.
Vast improvement. Can it be trimmed a bit more? About 20 minutes more?
Vast improvement. Can it be trimmed a bit more? About 20 minutes more?
In retrospect, the original is actually quite bizarre. The premise is an impending cosmic disaster of planet-shattering proportions, and yet the film is almost entirely devoid of momentum or any sense of urgency. Everything seems to happen at a glacial pace, presumably in an attempt to evoke some artistic high-mindedness. There’s what feels like half an hour of alternating between the passing scenery and innumerable reaction shots. “Kirk looks on, agape.” “Uhura looks on, agape.” “Kirk looks on, agape, again.” At times, it’s almost surreal.
I have a font for you.
Heh. That’s evil genius. I’m slightly aggravated already.
the standard awareness among all actual I.T. professionals is that one never uses Microsoft when real software is available
The only people who say this are non-“actual IT professionals”.
See also the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Get low-slung and groovy with Nuthin’ But An Alien.
That one fixed my crappy mood. Thanks, David. 🙂
That one fixed my crappy mood.
Happy to be of help.
Mark Kermode on Alien Covenant-
“A rabbit hole of self-importance… I thought it was silly.”
https://youtu.be/b79aw9dZLfE
A rabbit hole of self-importance
Yes, the unhappy mix of portentousness and schlock writing was what bugged me about Prometheus.
I think Kermode nails it in his comment about the backstory that’s currently being mined, badly, as being essentially disappointing, cheapening, just stripping away the mystery but adding little to replace it. The implication of previous events – the first film’s unexplained ‘space jockey’ – is much more effective than a car crash of discontinuities, abandoned storylines and clunky exposition. In much the same way that I don’t think John Carpenter’s The Thing would be improved by spelling out, ham-fistedly, where the Thing came from or what it had been doing prior to its entombing in the ice.
The mystery, not knowing, is sort of the point.
No, I don’t remember those SNL skits, but then I never watched much SNL.
Wishful thinking.
Wishful thinking.
One more time:
Because they never learn. Or just don’t care.
I think Kermode nails it in his comment about the backstory that’s currently being mined, badly, as being essentially disappointing, cheapening, just stripping away the mystery but adding little to replace it.
Exactly, and that’s what is worrying me about the forthcoming Blade Runner sequel and the Twin Peaks reboot.
The Owen Jones headline evinces a deft sleight of hand. Criticizing socialism generally with reference to Venezuela’s current situation says nothing about democracy, though it’s hard to fathom how things like attempting to dissolve the national legislature, constantly diddling the nation’s constitution and tossing political opponents in prison are “democratic” in any meaningful sense.
As for the “wishful thinking,” perhaps if we just add a few more eyes of newt, the magic will work this time.
“tossing political opponents in prison”
Yes, but isn’t this EXACTLY what Trump has done with Comey?
/sarc
One for the ladies.
If someone holds the lighter I’ll give it a try.
If someone holds the lighter I’ll give it a try.
Do let us know how it goes.
If someone holds the lighter I’ll give it a try.
This, I believe, was the very first thing I learned in college. My college roommate was a scandi descendant originally from Minnesota.
As for the video itself, I’m curious as to the methodology leading to the statistics the 77% of Nigerians, 34% of Norwegians, and 34% of Minneapolitans(?) have methane in their farts. Not questioning it, mind you. Just an awkward curiousity about how such things are done.
Just an awkward curiosity about how such things are done.
The important thing to take away from it all is, of course, this.
Hey, it’s basic science, people.
Behold: progressive manliness. “I worry that we’re not worth the effort.”
Women’s farts consistently smell worse than men’s.
I assume the above was not a solicitation for anecdotes from your commentariat. Although kudos to Joan for wanting to take one for the team.
Related. Sort of.
Because, life is nothing if not a series of trade-offs.
an athlete in action
There are a few of his type around my manor… http://bit.ly/2cGPpYK Ouch.
Although kudos to Joan for wanting to take one for the team.
Maybe we she should send someone to check she’s okay. I have visions of her sitting in a police cell with a blackened arse, after accidentally setting the curtains on fire and alarming the neighbours.
“Alien: Covenant creates a major plot hole”
http://screenrant.com/alien-covenant-plot-hole-prometheus-derelict-xenomorph/
the standard awareness among all actual I.T. professionals is that one never uses Microsoft when real software is available
The only people who say this are non-“actual IT professionals”.
See also the Dunning-Kruger effect.
A perfect example of Microsoft FUD(1), that.
Etc.
See also the Dunning-Kruger effect.
———————————————————————————
(1)
Fear, uncertainty and doubt – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
Jump to Microsoft – Microsoft soon picked up the art of FUD from IBM, and throughout the ’80s used FUD as a primary marketing tool, much as IBM had in …
Fear, uncertainty and doubt – RationalWiki
rationalwiki.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt
Apr 29, 2017 – Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (or FUD for short) denotes a deliberate … every employee’s desk, Microsoft became better-known for FUD due to …
Beyond fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) – Chief Marketing …
chiefmartec.com/2009/03/beyond-fear-uncertainty-and-doubt-fud/
Mar 16, 2009 – Beyond fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) … By the 1990’s, however, Microsoft had become the primary FUD-slinger in the industry, ironically …
What is FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt)? – Definition from WhatIs …
whatis.techtarget.com › Topics › Computer Science › Computing fundamentals
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) is the term for any strategy intended to make … (ICOMP) is a Microsoft-sponsored lobbying organization for companies and .
What is FUD
http://www.cavcomp.demon.co.uk/halloween/fuddef.html
FUD sands for Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt.It is a … Microsoft soon picked up the art of FUD from IBM, and throughout the 80’s used FUD as a primary marketing tool, …
The Newbie’s Guide to Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt – Attrition.org
http://www.attrition.org/~jericho/works/security/fud.html
Aug 6, 1999 – The Newbie’s Guide to Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt … and examples of Microsoft using a FUD campaign against the Linux Community.
Et cetera, et cetera.
As all actual I.T. professionals will point out, along with quite a few others; Don’t do that.
I have visions of her sitting in a police cell with a blackened arse…
And to think, when I started visiting these pages some years back, I was afraid to comment because I feared I wasn’t sophisticated enough.
when I started visiting these pages some years back, I was afraid to comment because I feared I wasn’t sophisticated enough.
Heh. Yeah, I get that a lot.
[ Lifts nose, runs fingers through hair.]
And put a coaster under that beer.
when I started visiting these pages some years back, I was afraid to comment because I feared I wasn’t sophisticated enough.
Heh. Yeah, I get that a lot.
Here, have a wedding announcement to spruce things up.
which targets computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system
Which plays to the Willie Sutton line about why he robbed banks. Look, I agree in general regarding some of these OS war arguments, and more so to the unix/linux/wtf superiority over Windoze, however to say that “real IT professionals do” this, that, or the other thing is pushing the argument. Windows on the desktop is what it is because that is what people wanted and if Mac or wth the Linux desktop is/was (lost track of that handle years ago and too old/lazy to look it up now) the largest target, the vulnerabilities of those platforms would be exploited. Given the choice for server type deployments, the unix family(ies) win(s) hands down. But that’s simply not the real world. Sometimes due to stupid decisions made elsewhere, usually by some bean counter, you get stuck with Windoze Server platforms. Real IT professionals just deal with it.
As for FUD specifically, Applebots love to play that game as well. MS won the desktop (originally) because they were far more willing to prostitute themselves to their customer base, thus they created the DLL hell, etc. world that they and the rest of us now suffer from. I could argue this ad infinitum from either side, to be honest. Real IT professionals and such.
See also the Dunning-Kruger effect .
See also the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Ah yes. The key of H.
Ayup!
I have a easy suspicion that a few hundred thousand copies of the same memo have gone out recently;
Dear _)#*$&_)*#&$R*(_!!!
We hired you to be an actual I.T. professional, and now our systems don’t work.
—(signed) Your former source of a paycheck.
Such as a cousin of mine who reports that he runs his Unix systems remotely, and for those clients who insist on MS, he has Macs running a variety of virualization to do the MS stuff, where overall I rather expect that all such is bloody well patched and up to date—then again, my cousin is an actual I.T. Professional, been running his own ISP and working with clients for a good couple of decades . . .
Ayup;
We can’t win on skills of any sort, so we’re going to scream really loudly and hope no one looks up the actual facts. Also, there is a hipster born every minute, anyway.
Quite.
Don’t stare, it’s what they do.
Phrasing.
Fatty Jr.
Ah yes. The key of H.
Indeed. And the hits just keep on coming.
See also the Dunning-Kruger effect.
Hmmm…. a room of Dope trim in Dorkwood might actually be quite nice.