Friday Ephemera

“Our betters”…
‘The group had plotted to close Heathrow with up to 800,000 passengers due to travel over the Bank Holiday weekend. But the demonstration fizzled out without any flights cancelled. An Extinction Rebellion organiser insisted the group had still caused “emotional disruption”…’
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8896401/extinction-rebellion-protesters-fail-delay-heathrow-flights/

Ruh-roh … James Damore is going to have company in the unemployment line.

The posts were written by a female Microsoft program manager. Quartz reached out to her directly for comment, and isn’t making her name public at this point, pending her response.
“Does Microsoft have any plans to end the current policy that financially incentivizes discriminatory hiring practices? To be clear, I am referring to the fact that senior leadership is awarded more money if they discriminate against Asians and white men,” read the original post by the Microsoft program manager on Yammer, a corporate messaging platform owned by Microsoft. The employee commented consistently throughout the thread, making similar arguments. […]
“We still lack any empirical evidence that the demographic distribution in tech is rationally and logically detrimental to the success of the business in this industry….We have a plethora of data available that demonstrate women are less likely to be interested in engineering AT ALL than men, and it’s not because of any *ism or *phobia or ‘unconscious bias’- it’s because men and women think very differently from each other, and the specific types of thought process and problem solving required for engineering of all kinds (software or otherwise) are simply less prevalent among women. This is an established fact. However, this established fact makes people very uncomfortable, because it suggests that the gender distribution in engineering might not actually be a problem (and thus women can no longer bleat about being victims of sexism in the workplace), these facts are ignored in favor of meaningless platitudes our SLT [senior leadership team] continues to shove down our throats – e.g. ‘We’re not doing enough’ and ‘we clearly have a long way to go.’”
“We MUST immediately cease the practice of attaching financial incentives and performance metrics to ‘diversity hiring’ – as long as we give more money and higher annual reviews explicitly for NOT hiring/promoting white men and Asians, this will continue to be a serious problem at the company.”

The Microsoft author echoes former Google employee James Damore, who in 2017 wrote a memo that went internally viral at Google, leaning on pseudoscience to argue that women aren’t cut out for the tech industry.

What a surprise.

Ain’t she adorable?

leaning on pseudoscience to argue that women aren’t cut out for the tech industry.
Which is totally unlike misrepresenting facts while presenting oneself as some sort of journalist.

Peterson Zizek debate from last night in Toronto.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78BFFq_8XvM
What? It’s only 2 1/2 hours….

Happy Easter everyone. Had some of the last of the Christmas Stollen for breakfast – there’s still a few slices left, but I can’t promise they won’t be gone by Memorial Day.

Stodgen is the work of the devil.

Nothing personal to y’all over on the far side of the pond, but given some of the abominations ruining the London skyline, not to mention the proposed Dildo Tower, I think a hard pass on “sharp British ideas” is in order.

Stollen is the work of the devil.
Do not listen to Trevor Screwtape. Stollen is ambrosia.

A sharp “British” idea is a minaret?
That ranks up there for brilliance with the glass roof “to illuminate the space below” which would be the top of the stone ceiling that kept the burning timbers from falling further into the cathedral below and I am guessing, not that I am a professional architect, would also keep photons from falling further into the cathedral below.
One would think an architect would have an idea how buildings they are proposing to rebuild are actually built, but maybe that is not a requirement these days.

They’ve done more harm to the cause of ecomania in the last week than climate sceptics have in three decades.
I’ve yet to see evidence of any swell of public sympathy, at least among those whose travel plans were “emotionally disrupted.” It seems that the would-be eco-warriors are so morally incompetent that their efforts to raise awareness, as they put it – to “throw all of our energy and intelligence at something that could change the planet” – have chiefly raised awareness of the protestors’ own vanity and hypocrisy. They remain centre-stage in their own drama.

That ranks up there for brilliance with the glass roof “to illuminate the space below” which would be the top of the stone ceiling that kept the burning timbers from falling further into the cathedral below and I am guessing, not that I am a professional architect, would also keep photons from falling further into the cathedral below.
You have eyes, but no vision!
Obviously the stone ceiling has to go!
I think that we are going to hear a lot about “re-imagining” what a medieval Catherdral might be, in a modern, vibrant multi-cultural secular age.

I think a hard pass on “sharp British ideas” is in order..
A shame since many were so looking forward to just how natural light from the proposed new glass roof would illuminate the space below.
Through the solid stone canopy.

Mebbe some bits of interior cross bracing, mebbe, but there seems to have been no “canopy”
Once again, weighing in on something you have no clue about, here is are before and after for you.

More here with details of the ceiling construction. The main hole in the ceiling from the fire was caused by the collapse of the 1844 spire leDuc added.

The ceiling certainly looks like vaulted stone construction.
As indeed it is (he said having been there), but it is a testament to the builders that it withstood the weight of the burning timbers and lead roof tiles falling on it.

Once again, weighing in on something you have no clue about, here is are before and after for you.
. . . . . . ?????????
My guess for that there is that you mumbled instructions to and for yourself and then also typed them out . . . . but that’s the guess.
In the meantime, regarding Notre Dame, from the source you cited, you might be trying to refer to;

. . . But principal parts of the vaulted ceiling have collapsed onto the church floor, . . .

Yes, as you’ve noticed, unlike you, I actually read stuff.
A more detailed description might be;

Within an hour of flames being seen, the roof and spire were fully engulfed and collapsed onto the stone vaulting that formed the ceiling of the cathedral’s interior. Some sections of this vaulting collapsed in turn, allowing debris from the burning roof to fall to the marble floor below, but most sections remained intact, greatly reducing damage to the cathedral’s interior.
Around 23:15, officials reported that the fire had weakened and that both towers were safe. Both towers and one-third of the roof, remained standing.

So. I read that an entire two thirds of the former roof has indeed hit the floor after falling all the way down, apparently there is indeed a good deal of open sky visible from the ground, and next will be the decisions of what to repair entirely or what to replace entirely.
And so, one version can indeed be to fill back in that two thirds that has fallen down, and then prolly build in steel over that. And yes, another version would indeed be to yank the remaining one third, the assorted parts that haven’t fallen, and again while prolly building with steel, etc, indeed put in a front door throught altar length clear roof.

Hal, your first comment was “…as far as I can tell, what ‘solid stone canopy’??”
Quite.
Farnsworth replied with evidence that the ceiling is indeed vaulted stone.
No, Farnsworth replied with evidence that the ceiling was indeed vaulted stone. Apparently some approximate two thirds of which are now lying on the floor.
How is your latest comment any sort of reply to what Farnsworth wrote?
Hmmm. Well, there is this practice that I and others do called reading. We find it quite useful and informative. Have you ever encountered this practice before?

PST314 – Code 9000, it is Hal, the only guy who can look at a photo he himself posted of rubble lying on the top of the vaulted ceiling at the level of the tops of the flying buttresses, and imagine it to be the ceiling itself lying on the floor of the cathedral.

You at 0256:

Within an hour of flames being seen, the roof and spire were fully engulfed and collapsed onto the stone vaulting that formed the ceiling of the cathedral’s interior. Some sections of this vaulting collapsed in turn, allowing debris from the burning roof to fall to the marble floor below, but most sections remained intact, greatly reducing damage to the cathedral’s interior.

You also at 0256:

So. I read that an entire two thirds of the former roof has indeed hit the floor after falling all the way down…

You misspelled “imagined” as “read”. It doesn’t say either your Wiki link or the original NYT reference that two thirds of of the former roof had hit the floor, nor could it as debris from the apse and nave at the west end wasn’t all going to fall through two holes 80-100 feet away absent someone picking it up and shoving it through.
The mainly uncollapsed ceiling.
One pile of debris from the hole at the transept, one pile of debris from the second hole, in the otherwise largely intact interior.
Neither of those piles of debris, individually or collectively, are “two thirds of the roof”, that would be the debris in the first link, the black stuff on top of the vaulted ceiling.
What we have, then, aside from your non sequiturs, is your false contention a) “but there seems to have been no “canopy”, just the roof that burned”, b) your bogus contention, upon learning that there was indeed a vaulted ceiling, that it too collapsed, c) your denial of plain photographic evidence that “two thirds” of the roof did not collapse through two holes onto the floor of the cathedral.
I realize that your posting of gibberish and the replies to it are probably the only attention you get, but nobody is laughing with you, unless your goal is to play the fool, that you do well.

You at 0256:. . . . You misspelled “imagined” as “read”.
Uh huh.
What you apparently still don’t comprehend is that text doesn’t just miraculously shift and change for everyone just because you wave your hands. And I’m sure David has much better things to do than doctor text for you.
The reality remains.

The only possible way for you to get what you’re demanding is if indeed ‘1984’ is filed in the ‘practical advice & self help’ section of [your] bookcase.
Myself, I have read 1984, but I don’t consider it a personal guidebook.

What you apparently still don’t comprehend is that text doesn’t just miraculously shift and change for everyone just because you wave your hands.
Projection, it is not just for breakfast anymore.

Projection, it is not just for breakfast anymore. . . .
. . .Hypothesis:
Heh!!
You do remind one of a pair of flat earthers sitting at the children’s card table and frantically screaming The Wall Of Ice Is Real!! The Wall Of Ice Is Real I Tell you!!!!
Yes dear, how does your kind say it, Yes, Winter is Coming!
—Oh wait, that’s the wrong trope, whatever, have some more cranberry sauce with your stuffing . . . .