Friday Ephemera

our host’s stated fondness for The Blacklist,
I’m assuming the rest of you don’t have guilty pleasures…?

Also, I knew when my parents were planning a dinner party — Sister and I were being shipped out to the grandparents’ for the weekend and mom would be getting out the ashtrays with the barely naughty cartoons on them from the back cabinet.
Great memories.

The envy of the world.

I believe the phrase “aspiring rapper” has become a meme.
As has his momma claiming “he din’ do nuffin”, aka Dindu Nuffin as a catch-all name for thwarted thugs.

“Continuing the toilet-related motif:”
This is why I don’t worry about AI. There’s a good little passage in Neil Stephenson’s The Diamond Age that mirrors my feelings about it, in fact:

Supposedly Finkle-McGraw still kept up with things and would recognise the abbreviation for pseudo-intelligence, and perhaps even appreciate that Hackworth had made the assumption.
Finkle-McGraw brightened a bit. “You know, when I was a lad, they called it A.I.: artificial intelligence.”
Hackworth allowed himself a tight, narrow, and brief smile. “Well, there’s something to be said for cheekiness, I suppose.”

“I’m assuming the rest of you don’t have guilty pleasures…?”
I’m sure I’ve mentioned these three oriental ladies before.

I think someone needs to cajole the spam filter for me.
Freed.

“Why are cyclists in London typically white?”
So apparently it’s “strange” and problematic that human beings aren’t entirely interchangeable or equally distributed among all possible activities. And it’s “strange” that members of some immigrant groups tend to regard cycling as an indicator of poverty, not status. And it’s “strange” that Muhammadan women in shrouds don’t regard cycling as terribly practical, assuming they’d be allowed to attempt it by their equally Muhammadan husbands. And so, for reasons that aren’t made clear, London’s “cycling boom” can’t be considered a “success” until it “becomes more representative of London’s population.” Because people must be made to behave in accord with baseless leftist presumption.
Such are the agonies of the New Statesman readership.

“Why are cyclists in London typically white?”
This came to mind. There seems to be some overlap in basic assumptions.

Oh dear. For reasons beyond my control, I’m about to watch The Hurricane Heist. It looks every bit as classy as you’d imagine.

That was quite a trailer.
I think it’s safe to say it’s not the pinnacle of cinema. I’ve now retreated into another room.

“…did I go to school too long?”
It’s quite funny to watch professed egalitarians instinctively and repeatedly using arguments from authority as a kind of mic drop, by invoking the status of institutions that their own politics have rendered worthless and absurd. As if the Clown Quarter were the measure of probity and intellectual heft.

As if the Clown Quarter were the measure of probity and intellectual heft.
Well, there certainly appears to be a surfeit of heft in the Clown Quarter, but “intellectual” doesn’t enter the picture.

Heh. Quite.

When 1960’s Leftists are confronted by their heirs
Well, leftism does have dysgenic effects.

When 1960’s Leftists are confronted by their heirs.
At some point, these institutions of higher learning will be forced to face the fact that Grievance Studies departments are cancerous. Unfortunately, when it comes, it will almost certainly be too late to save them.

This
The comments below that video review reaffirms my belief that YouTube has the worst and most idiotic commentary on the entire internet. Seriously.

The Brawndo gag was funny enough, but not nearly as funny as the internet meme of it. Oddly.

Cribbed from the AoSHQ ONT:
http://cheezburger.com/5263365/21-people-who-are-having-a-rough-one
Some of those are funny, some of those are (O_O)

Ephemeral:
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”

“Promising footballer”
Regarding our deceased burglar, the story gets more bizarre. A cousin of Mr Vincent is quoted as saying, “He was such a loving person… he shouldn’t have died out of it.” “It” being a long career of thieving, violence and criminal predation, such that the Vincent family’s unfortunate neighbours lived in fear of being targeted next. Some might argue that Mr Vincent’s death should have happened much sooner, say, during his very first attempt to violate someone’s home.
And of course the police have issued the usual statement implying a perverse moral equivalence. It’s “a tragic case for all of those involved,” they say. Apparently, the “thoughts” of the police also extend to the family of a thug who preyed on the elderly with – wait for it – the assistance of his father and other family members. Some of whom were also arrested in 2003 for thieving, burglary and conning pensioners out of their life savings.
It’s almost funny. But I can’t help thinking a little shame might be in order.

Promising footballer. Aspiring rapper.
Tragic – and indeed remarkable – that the violent gangsters murdering these prodigies don’t pick on their own sort. Instead they’re always going after good boys who love their Mum. And Dad presumably, although he never seems available for comment…

Beware: local weather can be dangerously capricious.
I’ll grant that this is an election year, with the situationally requisite speeches, but it is still a little early.