Friday Ephemera

Who knew that Merkel was bringing in a million Ghandis?
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/immigrationmuseum/whats-on/mahatma-gandhi-an-immigrant/

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/inclusive-workplaces-for-better-organisational-outcomes-tickets-44429423602
Do you have Shona Barrett on your books Mr Thompson? She does enjoy cocktails you know. So perfectly able to demand organisational change for inclusvity yo.

“You know, for kids.”
“Not suited as a toy ! Nicht als Spielzeug geeignet !” WTF?
“Edinburgh, 1920”
Captioned with the modesty for which Edinbuggers are renowned, I see.

How did that happen, then?

I found an alternative to the blogging thong!

º|º

You’ve been doing it wrong forever.
https://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/

Hmm.My link to the shoelaces site was there, then not. Is it my first time in the Trap?

David R. Click — Sept. 2, 1928 – April 17, 2018

Fort Ord, CA, 1950

This thing here is one of these.
That’s lovely.

Ok…what crap is photobucket pulling?
I go to sleep for a few hours and Darleen gets drunk and trashes the place.

Chillin Harlem. Click for the interesting pic. Scroll down into the comments, for raging flame war about comma usage.
Sounds like fun, especially when the Oxford commantery comes in . . . Only all I see ranges from rent control to cars of the era . . . It’s the Harlem picture you’re finding the comma war below?

Who knew that Merkel was bringing in a million Ghandis?
Ghandi wasn’t exactly complimentary about the indigenous population he found in South Africa.

Batvan.

a jumpsuit that flashes and vibrates whenever asteroids approach the Earth.
When S.M.O.D. arrives I don’t want to be seen wearing that thing.

Is the most beautiful thing in the world.
It does have aesthetic properties, which is something that sets it apart from many contemporary offerings.
True, yet western cultural classicism risks rejecting too much of the art world that doesn’t hew to a certain of its acceptable intellectual structure. It tends to predicate itself on its membership: The Dutch realists were among the greatest artists … despite being the photographers of their time. The Greek or Roman classisists were likewise, provided there was some spiritual or preferably religious import. Norman Rockwell, now there was an artist because traditional Americana, and so on. But you can keep those hippie Impressionists. And like that.
This Thing Here is living, organic, primal, surreal, original, and has elements of abstract and natural beauty to awe (which it did me). How they did it is unknown, probably technically highly astute, and bleeding edge. Computer-driven, it gives no reference to the mechanical or programmed at all. The whole thing instead speaks to some ancient genesis – original earth or the voice on the water – which grants it a creative sense that to me at least transcends the structuralism that restrains art more than it should.
That comes off like one of them damn fool progressive liberals I realize, yet that’s part of the point. Predictability never cuts it, classical or otherwise, and we’ve abhorred the great bulk of the modernist movement for decades. The same is true in music – there’s nothing worse than novel and abstract for its own sake, but surely there’s nothing better than paring down an original piece to its elements. Consider Bach, who only embellished and filigreed themes as simply elegant as they were elemental. (Or good jazz; the art of the missing notes.) I’ll take a Bach over the official voices like Handel ten to one.
It is possible to create new genres not for the aimless point of doing so – as this blog uniquely documents – but to knock the artistic element out of the park. This Thing Here does that, and without a classic architectural spire or a romantic 18th century figure or a member of nobility in it…

If you happen to work for the New York Times and have a book out, your book is more likely to stay on the [bestsellers] list longer and have a higher ranking than books not written by New York Times employees… If you happen to have written a conservative-political-leaning book, you’re more likely to be ranked lower and drop off the list faster than those books with a more liberal political slant.

Here.

a jumpsuit that flashes and vibrates whenever asteroids approach the Earth.
I think the vibration function could be situated much more, erm… internally. Then, when the sweet meteor of death arrives, the wearer will race to a truly cataclysmic orgasm, or orgasmic cataclysm. Either way, when the world ends, you won’t mind a bit.

Meanwhile, in the world or art, Male artists wonder whether they can work with the female form, while the world questions what their intentions were in the first place.(Illustrations possibly NSFW)

…And the question of the moment has become: Is it still an artistically justifiable pursuit for a man to paint a naked woman?…Brooklyn-based painter Kurt Kauper found out how tricky painting the female nude is earlier this year…The website Artsy quickly sized up the problem he might encounter in an article called “The Perils of a Man Painting Naked Women in 2018.” The perils soon became real when critic Brienne Walsh reviewed the show for Forbes…To Walsh, Kauper demonstrated a “white male” viewpoint of art history, “full of gaping holes.” [Now there is a poor choice of words] She also ruminated on “how disturbing a shorn vagina [another anatomy class failure there] looks — to me, it implies acquiescence to porn culture, to a patriarchal society that prefers that women not smell, not offend, not grow up beyond little girls.”

Of course. RTWT – there is a quiz at the end where you must guess whether a man or woman painted the picture – trust me, it is easy.

my condolences, and hand salute to SFC Click.
Thank you, Farnsworth. It’s one of my fave pics of my dad — the man who always made sure there were no monsters under my bed and made sure the closet door was tightly closed.

Darleen, my thoughts are with you and your family. That was a time when men were men. I recall in the 60’s, all of my friends’ dads, not to mention my own dad and uncles were veterans of either WWII or Korea. On one hand, they were “just” our dads. On the other, they were larger than life, having shared something we never would. Still, they came home, married their wives, loved them, worked hard, raised their kids, wanted something better for them (us) and made sure we achieved it.
Thank God for them.

my condolences,
Mine too. Only just noticed the second date above the photo.
Have a large one on the house.

The students also think the university should refrain from punishing them, because any punishment would contribute to their mental health problems.
Apparently, they will be “traumatised” by their actions having the customary and foreseeable consequences. Consequences to which they agreed, in writing, on arrival at university.
The word unfit comes to mind.

My condolences, Darleen. A good life well lived, by the sound of it. Although I didn’t know your father, I shall raise a glass of something in his memory.

A large what? Given the bar snacks, the mind boggles.
Condolences.

Meanwhile in Uganda…
http://www.okayafrica.com/ugandas-president-wants-to-ban-oral-sex-museveni-says-the-mouth-is-for-eating/

Am I a bad person for laughing at this headline?

Meanwhile in Uganda…
Apparently the president of Uganda is unfamiliar with English slang…

David, sorry about the lack of a space between the italicized quote and my comment.

To be honest, I’m still puzzling over this part:
NDTV reported that China has few regulations for its zoos and wildlife park,
Quite. Reading assorted news, one keeps getting an impression of China having plenty of restrictions, but zero regulations.

a jumpsuit that flashes and vibrates whenever asteroids approach the Earth.
I just got around to watching this, and I’m baffled. For a startup’s first prototype, I was expecting something a little more…actually wearable. What they’ve got there I could knock together out of an off-the-shelf Arduino, Raspberry Pi and a couple of programmable LED strips and a cell phone vibrator off of alibaba, in the same form factor. There’s no reason the “puck” needs to be that big, they should be able to minimize it to a flat panel similar to those sound-sensitive LED Equalizer T-shirts.

David, sorry about the lack of a space between the italicized quote and my comment.
[ Notes date and time, laminates, files away for later use. ]
Be honest, you find the overalls rather fetching.
Have you tried the, er, savouries?

They’re best downed in one.

Am I a bad person for laughing at this headline?
No, you’re a racist because something something something. But that doesn’t make you a bad person. Or did you mean bad like “good”?

Britain’s first specialist engineering university will take school-leavers without A-level maths or physics…

Elena Rodriguez-Falcon, 46, the university’s provost and chief academic officer [the WTF ?], said that she would welcome students with three arts A levels.
Given what passes for “art” these days, that is even less reassuring.

She said that Britain was the only country to insist that engineering students had maths and physics qualifications.

Except, of course, every other country in the Western world:

Examples of high school classes in the math and science fields needed for engineering are:
Math: Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Probability & Statistics, Calculus I, and Calculus II.
Science: Physical Science, Biology, Applied Biology/Chemistry, Advanced Physics and Chemistry.

Note to self: avoid British aircraft in the near future.

It depends on whether the math sequence at the university level is then dumbed down in order to get a degree.
Short answer – what math ?

Its students will be called “learners” because there will be no lectures, studying or traditional exams and they will not graduate with an honours degree. Nor will they specialise in a particular type of engineering, such as mechanical or electrical. Instead they will work on real projects in groups of five, for nearly a month at a time, and build up a portfolio proving their skills, leaving with a pass or fail in a masters degree.

She doesn’t look the type.

On the various, rather desperate attempts to smear Jordan Peterson as a racist monster.

Palm Beach County tried the waterless urinal and found it to be a piss poor alternative.
Perhaps the multimedia part might be enough to distract from the rivers of urine encountered by students.

I can’t tell you how glad I am that mainstream commentators are finally saying this. It’s been obvious to me for almost thirty years.
Ditto. Like being gaslighted by the gaslighted.

Historical competition.

Hmmm. . .

Being an atheist on a college campus isn’t rebellious; it’s one of the most tedious forms of conformity. A real rebel talks out loud in an Ivy League classroom about how Jesus Christ is his or her personal savior. For today’s kids, it’s okay to have weird, eccentric, or oddball ideas, so long as they don’t rub against the grain of what Everyone Is Supposed to Believe. I mean, we live in an age where Satanists don the mantle of rebellion but are quick to clarify they’re not crazy like — you know — those whacky Christians.

Ehn, that’s a lovely bit of pontificating there, but singing a very pretty song is definitely the only thing going on in that statement.
Lesseee . . . Being an atheist . . . .
Being an atheist is just as much a statement of mere faith as any other statement of mere faith. As a form of mere faith, atheism also has absolutely nothing to do with genuinely personal religious experience and practice. The demonstration that atheism is faith is simple; Demonstrate as fact, and not merely by absence, that there is no god or gods or supernatural forces. When an atheist is thus unable to prove . . .
A real rebel talks out loud in an Ivy League classroom about how Jesus Christ is his or her personal savior.
Ehn? Why bring up chanting about Jesus, except to signal the exact same total conformity with the local flavor of mere right wing? The exact same right wing result is achieved by chanting Mohammad!! Mohammad!! Mohammad!! or by chanting Krishna!! Krishna!! Krishna!! or by chanting Odin!! Odin!! Odin!! because right wing demand of faith is indeed mere right wing demand of faith and thus remains mere right wing demand of quite mere faith.
—Leessee . . . do a quick bit of Googlemancy and Yes, Indeed, even the practicing Christians will instead cite Matthew 6:5-15 as a Christian religious practice.
. . . an age where Satanists don the mantle of rebellion but are quick to clarify they’re not crazy like — you know — those whacky Christians. . . . Except, of course, that Satanists, quite by definition and practice, are those whacky Christians absolutely as much as all the other Christians. Does Satan come out of Shinto or Buddhism, just to grab a couple of handy examples? No, Satan is not found there. References to “demons” do turn up, sort of like large termites or wasps, and they’re dealt with in about the same manner. In Judaism, “Satan” is, at most, a stock variety of quite godly angel from heaven with a license to annoy. So again, that statement is merely standard and empty right wing cant as opposed to genuinely conservative religious observation, on several levels.
Sooo . . . if the fellow wants to piss off the left wing—and prolly piss off the right wing as well—with a practice that is openly, clearly, and genuinely conservative as opposed to being merely left wing or merely right wing, he can have a look at a fellow named William Swing, and an actually religious and conservative practice called a Cooperation Circle.

CCs are groups of seven or more individuals representing three or more different faiths or spiritual expressions (including atheists and agnostics).

And

This mission is carried out through local and global initiatives that build the capacity of more than 800 member groups and organizations, called Cooperation Circles, to engage in community action such as conflict resolution and reconciliation, environmental sustainability, education, women’s and youth programs, and advocacy for human rights.

Of course, if being genuinely religious is too much of a cross to bear, there is an easy way out. Remember, in the Americas and Europe, being a Christian on a college campus isn’t rebellious; it’s one of the most tedious forms of conformity.

Oh, and for that Financial Times link noting right wing against religious, I’m not an FT subscriber. I just pulled the complete article up out of Google, except that apparently getting the article instead of a subscription demand may be a matter of the whims of your local browser while supplicating the kami of Javascript and Adblock . . . .
Going with this alternative and selecting the first result seems to be a workaround . . .

lmao rofl

Hal: so you are saying that true Christianity is socialism?

…healing the sick, caring for the poor, feeding the hungry…
Hal, are you unaware that Christians give much more to charity than do atheists and leftists?

And also as pointed out, which of whom? Are you asking of the leftist Christians, the rightist Christians, or the religious Christians?
“Rightist Christians” are indeed among the Christians who give much more to charity than do atheists and leftists.
It has long been a favored meme on the left that Christians–and especially “rightist” Christians are lacking in charity, but it’s not true.

It has long been a favored meme on the left . . .
‘k, but what does anyone left wing have to do with this discussion???? While quite true that I, for one, am quite conservative, as opposed to left or right wing, there is no particular political orientation implied when simply noting that political reality consists of the mere right wing, the conservatives, and then the mere left wing—Or the other way ’round, to taste . . .
. . . but it’s not true.
What would help with that claim is stating actual numbers and citing a source—you may be perfectly correct, but we have no idea . . .
As noted, you will also need to cite the numbers for the actual religious Christians and their contributions, as contrasting with the rightist Christians.

Re: there is a reason why California has only 12% of the national population but 33% of welfare recipients and 1/5 of the nation’s homeless.
Yeah, it’s called weather.
And while attempting to stir in scattered numbers, the other reason is that California is physically the third largest state, after Alaska and Texas. Consider Rhode Island, which doesn’t have the room.

‘k, but what does anyone left wing have to do with this discussion????
Because it seems that many British conservatives have in recent years assimilated the anti-Christian calumnies of the Left. I was, in fact, quite struck when I realized just how vicious the hatred could be.
What would help with that claim is stating actual numbers and citing a source
There have been studies of charitable giving here in the United States. It would be difficult to cite the various sources that I read years ago, but I’m sure that Google would be your friend here.

Wherein Hal loses the plot again…
Yeah, it’s called weather.
California does not equal Los Angeles, or the narrow strip of the state that has mild weather most of the year. Obviously you have never been to Ft. Irwin either in January or August. Except for the humidity, Tupelo, Mississippi, has a better climate than most of California.
…the other reason is that California is physically the third largest state, after Alaska and Texas…
I see, that explains why Texas and Alaska are overrun with welfare recipients and homeless, well their size and the various notoriously leftist Texan policies.

Wherein Hal loses the plot again…
Siiigggghhhh . . . really, when proclaiming totally random and vague selections from the nearest dictionary or phrase book, actually having a context and citing examples does help y’know.
Have an example: California does not equal Los Angeles,
Darleen’s statement was Re: there is a reason why California has . . .
Darleen did not state . . . Los Angeles, or the narrow strip of the state that has mild weather most of the year.
In turn, another example of my remaining quite correct:
…the other reason is that California is physically the third largest state, after Alaska and Texas…
I see, that explains why Texas and Alaska are overrun with welfare recipients and homeless,
. . . where the weather in Alaska, once you get there, rather tends towards zero, be it Fahrenheit or Celsius, where Texas rather tends towards 100 Fahrenheit . . . while sometimes also hitting zeroIsh.
So I remain quite correct in reminding that the majority issue is the weather