Friday Ephemera
Why dogs don’t rule the Earth, part 2. || Kid’s got skills. || Lucas wants to warm his legs. || Liverpool’s public wash-houses, 1959. || Feminist scholarship, part 209. || The future is now. || 30 Die Hard factoids. || On stealing Einstein’s brain and keeping it in a beer cooler. || Bunny Lewis in A Couple of Beauties, 1972. Also starring Bernard Manning. || “Radio broadcasts leave Earth at the speed of light. Hear how far the biggest hits of the past have travelled.” || The Hubble advent calendar. || Three-player chess. || The medical effects of Marmite. || Grand Canyon time-lapse. || Disrespected pizza. || Snow in Amsterdam. || John McWhorter on the modishness of Ta-Nehisi Coates. (h/t, Damian) || Hats. || Rokshok. || An oral history of Viagra. || And finally, a short story featuring cats.
I was glad to see this come up; when you were later than usual I feared you’d been attacked by Chinese food again.
Hubble
Sigh. Way way way back I made and used my own Newtonian telescopes, and currently own a modest Celestron-8. But it’s hard to be bothered to admire the stars with my own gear, when modern tools splatter images like these all over the net.
If you were smart enough to understand the complexities and nuances, you’d be smart enough to realize why we eliminate certain fundamental rights. It’s for your own good, don’t you know?
R. Sherman :
Whenever I read an article that starts with “As an X, Y, Z that 1,2,3, I…” my eyes just glaze over. I know exactly what I’m in for.
The future is now.
“the San Francisco SPCA adorned the robot with stickers of cute kittens and puppies… as it was used to shoo away the homeless from near its office.”
I laughed. I denounce myself.
John McWhorter on the modishness of Ta-Nehisi Coates.
That. Looks like he’s having a breakthrough. 🙂
‘Morning, all.
This.
And this too.
Via Obnoxio.
Looks like he’s having a breakthrough. 🙂
It’s quite funny, watching the full video, how often McWhorter, a Democrat who lectures in comparative literature at Columbia, teeters on the edge of the obvious before finally saying it. The academic environment seems terribly inhibiting. There seems to be a list of things you aren’t allowed to discuss in a remotely realistic way, at least on campus, among your peers.
Also starring Bernard Manning.
You’re spoiling us with this quality material.
You’re spoiling us with this quality material.
Heh. I imagine the makers of it had visions of Some Like It Hot, but the result is bewilderingly awful. It makes the 70s Carry On films seem polished and upmarket. I’d forgotten just how bad a zero-budget early-Seventies British comedy about a female impersonator on the run from gangsters could be.
“50 Unfashionable But Brilliant* 80s Bands That Time Cruelly* Forgot”
http://www.nme.com/photos/50-unfashionable-but-brilliant-80s-bands-that-time-cruelly-forgot-1408481
*YMMV
50 Unfashionable But Brilliant* 80s Bands That Time Cruelly* Forgot
Oh no. I’m having an 80s flashback. I believe that at some point I owned records by at least four of those happening beat combos.
Dang. The Frank Chickens, I’d forgotten all about them, until now, thanks John D. The dulcet tones of Fujiyama Mama are ear worming their way through my brain.
I love these articles because it never fails that they’ll mention the band’s one big ‘hit’ and I’ll think, I’ve never even heard that one, I know them for ‘X’. Case in point, Roman Holiday, who I know for Stand By because it received some airplay on WLIR, the local New Wave station in the 80s and for the video which was in minor rotation on the nascent MTV, which would play anything just to fill airtime in the early days. The article lists Don’t Try To Stop It which I have never heard.
I think “as an X, Y, Z that 1, 2, 3…” could be a fun game.
“As an African violet that often forgets to start the dishwasher…”
“As a heterosexual henchlesbian that rides a pogo stick to work…”
“As a werewolf-American that feels nerfballs are sacred symbols of blah blah blah…”
Try some yourself!
David bought records in the ‘80’s? Over here you couldn’t even get them, except used. For new music you had to buy CDs or cassettes. I even have a couple of those stupid cassette singles around here somewhere.
“As a fashionably gay blogger that bought unfashionable records in the 80’s…”
Hats.
Everyone who thinks that antifa bandanas and hoodies are “libertarian”, and that hipster douchbag fedoras are “libertarian” and “economic-right”, please raise your hand.
If you raised your hand, you are dismissed. Carry on.
Some bozo proves repealing “net neutrality” destroyed the internet by tweeting a picture of his phone.
OK.
Some bozo proves repealing “net neutrality” destroyed the internet by tweeting a picture of his phone.
And it’s only the beginning.
I was curious about girl band We’ve Got A Fuzzbox And We’re Gonna Use It!! but was disappointed to find out the the mentioned fuzzbox was apparently referring to a hair modification apparatus.
And as we’re being forced to revisit the music of the 80s, it’s only fair that I torment you with this again.
A Couple of Beauties, 1972.
Oh! to be back in 1972. I’d happily swap intersectional QWERTYdom for power strikes, nylon underpants and Stork margarine.
50 Unfashionable But Brilliant* 80s Bands That Time Cruelly* Forgot”
Rip Rig and Panic and Linx were pretty good but will we ever again see the like of this?
but will we ever again see the like of this?
It’s a wonder anyone survived that decade.
It’s a wonder anyone survived that decade.
It would appear we colonials missed a lot. BTW, didn’t all that arise during the height of “Thatcherism?”
Asking for a friend.
Although in fairness, this beast made an occasional appearance once or twice during those times. I had a roommate who obtained a copy in order to attract co-eds to our abode where prohibitions against pre-21 age drinking were normally honored in the breach thereof.
Although in fairness, this beast made an occasional appearance once or twice during those times.
I’m guessing you eschewed the eyeliner.
Having following the links above, my YouTube recommendations are now filling up with 80s electropop. Of varying quality.
Although in fairness, this beast made an occasional appearance once or twice during those times.
The jokes, as the kids say, they write themselves…
I’m guessing you eschewed the eyeliner.
Quite. I generally stood in a corner wearing sunglasses indoors and sporting an ever so slight head-bob and waited for the decadence to come to me. Thus was Mizzou in the early ’80s.
I generally stood in a corner wearing sunglasses indoors and sporting an ever so slight head-bob and waited for the decadence to come to me.
Happily, I’ve always generated an aura of intrigue and mystique.
Or mistake, as The Other Half likes to correct.
The Pizza-Burger actually looks quite appetizing, though I’d want the top pizza bun to be face down so my fingers wouldn’t get quite a greasy eating it.
The Pizza-Burger actually looks quite appetizing,
I think you’ll find your coat on the pavement outside, and possibly on fire.