Don’t Oppress My People With Your Comprehensible Sentences
Another great moment in Clown Quarter contortion:
“How to assess writing without judging its quality.”
We’ve been here before, of course.
Also, open thread. Feel free to share links and bicker.
We’re in the wrong timeline.
We’re in the wrong timeline.
Perhaps someone clicked on ‘Dystopian Clown Show’ by mistake.
If quality is irrelevant, why do they bother to assess writing at all?
This is cargo-cult education, but paid for as if it’s real.
This is cargo-cult education, but paid for as if it’s real.
Ah, but grading a student’s ability to convey their thoughts in writing – and to formulate thoughts by writing – is a manifestation of “white language supremacy,” a “racist practice,” and therefore to be abandoned in the name of “inclusive excellence.” You see, we mustn’t “kill our students” with even rudimentary standards or expectations of competence.
I have been advocating for some time now, that in fact all Anglosphere universities, especially “universities”, ought to be temporarily shut down for a good, detailed, rigorous and deep inquisitional delve into their vitals. I include places like “The Two British Universities” and also the finest and most revered American ones, since these should know better and be setting a global example. So, not just the 4,265,897 other institutions.
Any departments whose titles or courses contain the words “studies”, “colonialist”, “gender”, “social”, “intersectionality” “climate” etc, or that use the noun “foreground” as a transitive verb for example, would need to be permanently shut down. Ideally, all their records would be burnt, and their archived digital storage devices placed gently into the arc furnace of a steel-foundry. The “academic staff” and “administrators” of these would be of course summariliy fired. Their students would be free to take their chances applying for unskilled jobs of some sort.
Proper science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics departments would all be interviewed at some length. Some aspects of their work, such as those that find out stuff to help people and make their lives better, would be allowed to remain operating in open departments.
Previously sound technical colleges – such as many in the UK – that were magically re-morphed into “unis”, may occasionally be allowed to fully revert to “tech” status, refocusing their reformed departments into “workshop machining”, “mechanical drawing”, “physics”, “agronomy”, “bricklaying”, “electrical training”, and the like.
I have been advocating for some time now, that in fact all Anglosphere universities, especially “universities”, ought to be temporarily shut down for a good, detailed, rigorous and deep inquisitional delve into their vitals.
David, you are right… except that such enquiries would be run by those involved, and would doubtless conclude that we need more of this stuff, not less.
(This is not a joke, by the way. This is what would happen. The only people capable of running such an enquiry properly, such as Roger Scruton or Toby Young, have been hounded out of public life, or will be if they were given such an enquiry to run.)
…and to formulate thoughts by writing – is a manifestation of “white language supremacy,” a “racist practice,”…
Except, of course, if one is studying a Language of Color, in which case any error is a manifestation of white supremacy even if the offender is a POC (who obviously is suffering from repressed yte oppression).
Proper science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics departments would all be interviewed at some length.
Especially medicine, it has been infiltrated, particularly the shrinks, family practice (formerly general practice over here, even the name is moonbattery), preventive medicine, peds, and ob/gyn, as well as the administration, by moonbats for nigh onto 40 years.
I like this idea. In fact, I think we should embrace it. No need for judging anyone, no need for arbitrary hierarchies of value as perceived by (mostly) white academics. Let’s create a cargo cult tradition of just giving everyone a college degree just as soon as they pop out of the womb. Then we can close down all these senseless universities. Think of the billions, nay trillions of dollars that we can save? Not to mention the “learning” that later has to be un-learned in order for there to be any real progress. Everyone can just go out and get a job and learn there. Pretty much what we’re doing now anyway, but we will no longer be burdened with detoxing the SJW crap that young people picked up in universities and such. I’ve learned much, much more from libraries, periodicals, and now the internet than I ever learned in those four years of college. And I went back when there was still some net value to be gleaned. I really think this could be a net gain for society.
Ah, I see David Davis already proposed similar. Though DD didn’t quite go far enough in MNSHO. But that’s the general idea. Great minds think alike and all that.
Oh, good Lord. I’m moving to Boise next week.
I’m moving to Boise next week.
I hope you’ve interrogated your whiteness and those seething racial biases. Two weeks of howling and prostration should do it.
Ah, but grading a student’s ability to convey their thoughts in writing – and to formulate thoughts by writing – is a manifestation of “white language supremacy,” a “racist practice,” and therefore to be abandoned in the name of “inclusive excellence.”
AKA black privilege.
“The Woke 8-year Old Manoeuvre” returns:
https://twitter.com/DrJaninaRamirez/status/1184943340485333000
She’s an Oxford academic, you know.
AKA black privilege.
Faculty must, we’re told, “foreground diversity and inclusion in considerations of assessment and grading practices.” Which, as someone noted on Twitter, sounds like the modern, woke equivalent of the so-called ‘Gentleman’s C,’ whereby the ungifted children of statusful parents could expect to be indulged with an unearned pass grade. In short, a kind of corruption.
I have been advocating for some time now, that in fact all Anglosphere universities, especially “universities”, ought to be temporarily shut down for a good, detailed, rigorous and deep inquisitional delve into their vitals.
Just stop funding them. Cease government support for student loans. Maybe keep a few quid for scholarships in areas where we have skills shortages.
This reminds me of when I had to write mission statements for some departments in a Fortunate 500 company.
Mission statements should be fairly straightforward. They should be short, unambiguous, and should answer the employee’s question of “what am I doing at this company?”. Too often, though, they become arcane, obtuse, buzzword-laden gibberish.
The mission statement for our technology group was “To research and investigate new technologies, determine which can be used in our business, and implement them for internal use within the company”. Every member of my group knew it, could recite it, and it really did describe what we were doing.
And that was the point. They could recite it because it described what we were doing. Remembering it wasn’t a chore; if it is, then your mission statement is wrong.
In contrast, when we asked one of the business types what their mission statement was, he had to walk us over to a plaque on the wall, where there was a 300+ word explanation of strategic values, empowerment, customer satisfaction, and the like. What this had to do with the business guy, he couldn’t say, and I doubt one in a hundred of the business guys even knew what their mission statement was.
Scott Adams of Dilbert fame mocked this mission statement fad. To show just how absurd it was, he convinced a group of executives to come up with a mission statement that was not only completely unintelligible, it was actually meaningless. Not one person had any idea what their “core values” were, despite them being the cornerstone of their business.
Well, when you judge the content of your output by title and branding, and consider the actual content to be irrelevant, then of course you’re not going to care about the quality of that content. So why bother pretending?
Twenty years ago, Scott Adams was a parodist. Looking back, he was more of a prophet.
“The Woke 8-year Old Manoeuvre” returns:
Heh. That’s nothing. You should hear the things my neighbor Sam’s dog tells me. Well, not so much tells me. They’re more like instructions. Demands, actually. Fortunately I bought a white noise device that cancels him out.
Actually, I’m less bothered by these idiots engaging in stupidity than I’m agog at the idea that “ridicule” is actually a criminal offense.
[Jeff:] I’m moving to Boise next week. … [David:] I hope you’ve interrogated your whiteness
Umm, David, he said he was moving to Boise, so a bit superfluous no?
Attended a friend’s wedding. Cishet male (Jewish) and cishet female (fashionably atheist), mid-30’s, tastefully progressive politics, guy’s in tech and girl is a freelance writer.
Best part was all the little quirks they felt the need to throw in, such as:
– Father and Mother walking them down the aisle (Jewish father was visibly displeased)
– Presided over by groom’s sister, who said “by the power vested in me via three clicks on the internet”
– She also said in a mocking tone, “They take these vows in front of their family, and god – or whatever.”
– “You may now kiss the husband”
– Flipped a coin at the end to decide on their new last name*
I love these people but Christ Almighty it was cringe-inducing to see how hard they were trying to be “cool” doing the most mainstream, traditionally conservative thing imaginable. The bride didn’t forgo the pretty dress, or the event itself, or shy away from talking about having kids and staying home, but TAKING HER HUSBAND’S NAME?!? What is this, medieval times?
*The Jewish parents finally convinced the groom to keep his name and pass it on to the children. Maybe something to do with the family name surviving numerous horrors only to have the last son bearing it treat it like last year’s fashions.
to see how hard they were trying to be “cool” doing the most mainstream, traditionally conservative thing imaginable.
A friend of mine attended a wedding last week where the reception served broccoli tacos & vegan donuts on paper plates. Also paper straws for the cold drinks. Cuz vegan and plastic-is-bad.
The modern day academy; where Idiocracy meets Atlas Shrugged.
No good will come from the current educational system, but that is the point, isn’t it?
but TAKING HER HUSBAND’S NAME?!? What is this, medieval times?
The complications that can ensue have been touched on here before.
She’s an Oxford academic, you know.
And yet she confuses ridicule with hate and vitriol. Bubble dwellers aren’t used to being the butt of the joke.
Scott Adams of Dilbert fame mocked this mission statement fad. To show just how absurd it was, he convinced a group of executives to come up with a mission statement that was not only completely unintelligible, it was actually meaningless. Not one person had any idea what their “core values” were, despite them being the cornerstone of their business.
Many years ago, when this thing was a fad, Adams’ Dilbert web site had a mission statement generator. For my performance evaluation/summary one of the things they required of us that year was a personal statement of value or some such. I went out to the mission statement generator and hit it a few times until one came up that I could easily wordsmith into applying to an individual. Thought only my boss would read it. Unbeknownst to me at the time, these things were being read and evaluated by the several managers in our whole department. After that meeting, my boss came back to my cube and congratulated me on what a fantastic statement I had made. All of the other managers were very impressed. When I told him what I had done, he was even more impressed that I hadn’t wasted valuable time on it. IIRC, that was one of the best ratings (ratings were done by the whole department, not just your manager within his staff) that I ever received. While I had worked rather hard that year it wasn’t what I would consider as my hardest, best work. For my hardest year, under a very different manager, I got one of my worst reviews. They had abandoned the individual value statements by then. That first manager still brings that up when ever we get together for lunch a couple times a year.
Cuz vegan and plastic-is-bad.
Plastics are derived from petrochemicals, and petrochemicals are liquified dead dinosaurs. QED. 😀
“The Woke 8-year Old Manoeuvre” returns:
Right, totally believable, because in these days eight year olds are totally familiar with the concept of white noise and the sound of static one gets while turning a knob to tune stations on an analog radio. Happens every day as long as they don’t have to go out and get some new tubes (valves, I think you heathens call them) for the Philco..
Just as believable.
When I told him what I had done, he was even more impressed that I hadn’t wasted valuable time on it.
At one job, I did something similar when I asked what my objectives were, my first week there. “Define them yourself“, I was told.
Okay.
So “game the system to do as little as possible” was my short-term goal, “implement a coupe, and seize control of the means of production for the proletariat” was my long-term goal, and “evolve into self-aware retrovirus, traveling the galaxy at a frequency of 22.9Mhz” was my very long-term goal.
Those were my formally submitted objectives.
A co-worker read it, and was horrified. He said I’d get fired for submitting something so flippant for approval.
“Don’t worry“, I said. “$BOSS will read it, see it’s a joke, and tell me what sort of things he actually wants me to put in there. I’ll update it, and that will be the end of it.“.
I was wrong.
$BOSS didn’t tell me to change them.
At the next team meeting, $BOSS berated the group, instead. “Everyone was supposed to submit their objectives by last Friday. There are nine people in this group, and only one submitted them. And that was the new guy! Finally, we have someone who knows how to follow process, around here“.
Meanwhile, horrified co-worker is trying to get $BOSS’ attention, saying “psst.. have you actually read those objectives you’re complimenting him for submitting?“.
Was anything learned here? Yes. My co-worker realized that I wasn’t wrong when I said that nobody ever reads those objectives, let alone care about them.
and petrochemicals are liquified dead dinosaurs.
Actually, that’s not true (though perhaps you know this). Bacteria, plankton, mostly much smaller life forms. Dinosaur fossils are often found near deposits of crude oil. I think the association had something to do with the Sinclair oil company’s marketing campaigns. Not positive though. You can find much conflicting info out there and no time right now to sort it all out. I cringe a little bit (I’m getting better at this) whenever I see that association with dinosaurs or even the term “fossil fuels”. Though the latter can be justified in the broadest, though least popular, sense of the word.
Heh. Barman, please Beer Mr. Bill on my tab.
Mum of the year: https://twitter.com/_SJPeace_/status/1186654340087533569
Damn it, my eyes are damp. Someone’s been dusting the bar again.
Barman, please Beer Mr. Bill on my tab.
[ Cranks enormous, hitherto-unnoticed winch, raising equally enormous ledger into view. ]
And yet she confuses ridicule with hate and vitriol. Bubble dwellers aren’t used to being the butt of the joke.
Quite. It’s the bubble dwellers who’re usually the ones making the jokes about “gammons” or “deplorables”. I’d suggest to them that if they can’t take it, they shouldn’t dish it out, but as such people tend not to have anything approaching reciprocal principles, the endeavour would be pointless.
hitherto-unnoticed winch
That reminds me…whatever happened to that hitherto-unnoticed wench? Sigh…I guess that’s a dumb question. I thought she was rather cute, however.
such people tend not to have anything approaching reciprocal principles, the endeavour would be pointless.
As a longtime occupant of the copy desk, I have found newspaper reporters to be cut from the same cloth. They are also the most incurious bunch of people, which is curious considering the point of their profession.
And yet she confuses ridicule with hate and vitriol. Bubble dwellers aren’t used to being the butt of the joke.
She confuses nothing! She knows exactly what’s happening, but her desperate need to protect her brittle ego and reputation cannot allow the possibility that she’s been caught out saying something stupid in public and having the lumpenproles direct their righteous mockery at her.
They only option that allows for maintaining a semblance of self-worth is to pretend that she’s under attack and claim victim status, so that’s what she does. In the end, she’s not only foolish and weak, but also deceptive and manipulative. I just hope that a few members of that great pile-on decide to stick around and haunt her for weeks and months to come.
The BC Human Rights Tribunal rules against Jessica Yaniv. Odd to be cheering a common sense decision.
https://www.jccf.ca/aestheticians-justified-in-refusing-to-handle-male-genitals-against-their-will-bc-human-rights-tribunal/
For those unfamiliar with Yaniv. She’s the transexual who has been harrassing independent, immigrant estheticians for refusing to wax her bollocks.
The BC Human Rights Tribunal rules against Jessica Yaniv.
For that comment, anyone want to make book that even as we speak hate crime complaints are being filed against Mr. Cameron, and protests outside his house being organized ?
Woke pumpkin carving, both the stupidest and funniest twit threat of the day.
“Woke pumpkin carving”
And I thought those pussy hats were stupid…
Farnsworth – her bio lists “sexologist” and “certified sex coach” (produce your certificate madam! lol). Have you noticed how many people who purport to teach sex wear bangs, the least sexy hairstyle?
…the least sexy hairstyle?
Depends on the woman, depends on the bangs, our alleged sexpert OTOH…
I was certain that the first link would bring up Bettie Page. But no, that would be too cliche.
Well played, Muldoon.
Actually, that’s not true (though perhaps you know this)
Yes, but it sounds funnier my way, and that’s what’s really important. What?
Proper science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics departments would all be interviewed at some length. Some aspects of their work, such as those that find out stuff to help people and make their lives better, would be allowed to remain operating in open departments.
Also known as the Japanese Model.
The “academic staff” and “administrators” of these would be of course summariliy fired.
I likes the cut of yer gib. But I’d like it even more had the final word been ‘executed’.
Hmmm…
…sounds funnier my way…
True. Just a tic that I get. Kinda like when someone says girls in bangs ain’t sexy. Per Muldoon, I also searched out pics of Ann & Nancy Wilson and Chrissie Hynde. Had them embedded but I musta hit reload on a preview instead of a post. As Stevie Nicks might say, oh well…yeah, I know. Funnier (barely) my way.
Here’s some bangs for you…
https://youtu.be/tC1xr44Ow5U
Here’s some bangs for you…
I really wanted to see them that year but they didn’t come to Toronto. Had to wait until ’78 when they played the CNE Grandstand. Shitty venue but I really wanted to see them. That summer I drained my car battery playing Dreamboat Annie in a loop over night on a camping trip.
Woke pumpkin carving,
She’s a little brittle, isn’t she?
Though the pattern is familiar. A feminist lacking in self-awareness, a self-styled “educator,” proudly announces the doing of a juvenile and trivial thing while assigning immense significance, and intimations of personal daring, to said trivial thing. Passers-by point out that said thing is not in fact of immense significance and is, to boot, done badly, such that the intended, allegedly radical message is not entirely obvious and is at best an invitation to parody. Feminist is immediately hostile and starts barking juvenile insults at anyone who fails to appreciate her self-imagined radicalism. This is followed by cries of “harassment” and accusations of misogyny.
It’s practically a template for feminist behaviour.
“She’s a little brittle, isn’t she?”
I wonder if she frequently accuses others of White Fragility.
and is at best an invitation to parody.
*applauds*
*applauds*
You’ve got to admire the craftsmanship.
The Seattle school district is planning to infuse all K-12 math classes with ethnic-studies questions that encourage students to explore how math has been “appropriated” by Western culture and used in systems of power and oppression, a controversial move that puts the district at the forefront of a movement to “rehumanize” math.
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/10/11/seattle-schools-lead-controversial-push-to-rehumanize.html?cmp=soc-edit-tw-teach
Performance artist of note: https://unimelb.academia.edu/LaraStevens
Lara is described as “…an ecofeminist and research fellow in theatre and performance studies from the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne.” Lara wrote and starred in “Not now, not ever”. https://www.artclimatechange.org/2019/event/not-now-not-ever/ Shame we missed it.
A lot to unpack. Instead I’ll have a vodka on the rocks please barman.
A lot to unpack. Instead I’ll have a vodka on the rocks please barman.
I think we’ll need something stronger to get through that one.
[ Starts chopping out fat lines of coke. ]
It’s mostly bathroom scouring powder. Except for the grey bits. We’re not sure what those are.
It may sting a little.
The PX and BX, guardians of health and safety.
It may sting a little.
Is the blindness permanent?
Is the blindness permanent?
No refunds. Credit note only.
“Not now, not ever.”
My thoughts exactly.
Just another day in Tokyo: tentacle drones.
Via: Arthur Kimes.
““Woke pumpkin carving”
And I thought those pussy hats were stupid…”
I thought it was a silhouette of Obama. 🙂
It’s that time of the year again! Policing Halloween Costumes.
tentacle drones
A Japanese remake of The Prisoner?
Hokusai’s little known The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife Who Woke Up in the Village?
Caroline Cirado Perez is asking if high speed trains discriminate against women.
https://mobile.twitter.com/garethdennis/status/1187048041200738304?s=12
Short answer is no, longer answer is “Stop making women into victims of every circumstance!”
I really wanted to see them that year but they didn’t come to Toronto. Had to wait until ’78
Saw them in (I think) ’81. One of the Rock Super Bowls (aka Rock Stupor Bowl) in Orlando. UFO, Firefall (why, I’ll never understand), Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, and then Heart as headliner. Problem was Cheap Trick was so loud (excellent though) my ears were ringing. Also, had to pee like a race horse but knew if I left I’d never get back to the spot on the field we had worked so hard to get to. And the bass line from Cheap Trick resonated with the exact frequency as my bladder. Fortunately due to the excellent bladder training I had from family road trips (thanks, Dad!) I was able to hold out. Did make the whole Heart set a rather anxiety driven affair, however.
What, TMI?
The BC Human Rights Tribunal rules against Jessica Yaniv.
“The Tribunal ordered costs against Yaniv in the amount of $2000.00 payable to each of Ms. Benipal, Ms. DaSilva, and Mrs. Hehar Gill.”
I was hoping for another couple zeros before the decimal point.
What, TMI?
Perhaps. But the Heart can make you do anything. ;-p
I have a Chryssie Hynde story too. I had bought Pretender tickets (Front Row!) at the beginning of the year for a summer concert. I went to Europe for two weeks before the concert date to visit my mother who was working on an armed forces base there. When I returned the day before the concert I found my grandmother had visited the house and decided that my room was too messy (I kept all my concert tickets and stubs stuck in the frame of my bedroom mirror). She had thrown away all the tickets and stubs. I couldn’t replace the ticket on such short notice. My friends went to the concert without me. The drummer tossed his drum sticks into the crowd. One landed on my seat. My friend still has it.
How’s that for TMI?
Did you just call me b*tch, b*tch?
Was anything learned here? Yes. My co-worker realized that I wasn’t wrong when I said that nobody ever reads those objectives, let alone care about them.
Faculty members of my department were once asked by the administration to list all the grants they’d held in the previous N years, the grantors, the amounts in total (broken down by year), the dates, etc. My colleagues took most of a day looking up all the required information.
It took me about about 20 minutes. Why? Because I just made up the information. It was generally correct, insofar as I remembered it, and I just roughened up the numbers to make them plausible (e.g., not $500,000, but $497,219). My reasoning was that if the administration had to ask me, then they must not know the answer, and so could not realize I was guessing.
I never heard another word about it.
Did you just call me b*tch, b*tch?
Even if this weren’t laughably unconstitutional on its face, the population would simply borrow a page from our overseas cousins and start calling everybody a c*nt. I’m certain that our lawmakers would be delighted at this development, given how much culture our overseas cousins are reputed to possess.
The Seattle school district is planning to infuse all K-12 math classes with ethnic-studies questions…
If this proposal turns into policy and curriculum, which is the more likely outcome:
A) Students from the Designated Victim Classes will have an epiphany, realizing that mathematics has a powerful role to play in their lives, or
2) Students with an aptitude for mathematics will be turned off and bored to tears at having to sit through yet another hour of SJW nonsense every day.
I know which way I’d wager.
I’ve just watched the BBC’s version, or revision, of The War of the Worlds. I can’t recommend it. While being alternately bored and faintly irritated, I kept wondering how the Martians – who are portrayed as featureless sofa-sized lumps on three rudimentary legs, with no discernible hands or any kind of dexterity – managed to build machines of any kind, let alone space vehicles and heat rays.
sofa-sized lumps on three rudimentary legs, with no discernible hands or any kind of dexterity – managed to build machines of any kind, let alone space vehicles and heat rays.
Do they wear pants? Maybe they have prehensile tails that you just can’t see. Or possibly other prehensile…umm…parts?
Do they wear pants?
You’re making it sound much more interesting than it was.
Well, you know what they say. The best horror flicks never show the real monster until the very end. They give hints, vague references, shadows, etc. Perhaps there were bulges? Did you watch it to the end?
Perhaps there were bulges?
This is why I have to water down the booze.
Perhaps there were bulges?
Perhaps there were, and white after Labor Day.
I was rather taken with Spielberg’s ‘War of the Worlds’. He *did* reveal the alien, a very good scene that was both terrifically tense and yet with an alien that seemed in the moment curiously whimsical and playful. Not so much ET, but ET’s fascist vampire cousin, perhaps. And a scene later it was back to the Death rays and big explosions, I’m sure.
And while this may infringe the horror rule of describing the monster only in vague detail, it is very much in keeping with the SF rule, in which there is never too much detail.
The Seattle school district is planning to infuse all K-12 math classes with ethnic-studies questions…
I can see the segment on vector analysis now:
“Tyrone be rollin’ with his homies when he spots Jamal a mofo from a rival set, standin’ on a street corner. If Tyrone be goin’ 25 mph, the mofo is 20 feet away, and the muzzle velocity of his gat be 800 ft/sec, where do he have to shoot to hit the mofo?”
Did someone say bulges?
“Tyrone be rollin’ with his homies…
I was imagining something about “Jew landlords” and “Korean store mofos”–reminiscent of word problems in Nazi textbooks since the attitudes are so similar.
the BBC’s version, or revision, of The War of the Worlds
My impression of Wells, mostly through Chesterton, is of a utopianist, world-government, I-fucking-love-science type who would be a regular panelist and presenter on today’s BBC, and entirely on board with revising his story to insert a black STEM grrl or a lesbian steampunk collective into Woke-ing, Surrey in the 1890’s.
managed to build machines of any kind, let alone space vehicles and heat rays.
Telekinesis.
I can see the segment on vector analysis now:
“Tyrone be rollin’ with his homies when he spots Jamal a mofo from a rival set, standin’ on a street corner. If Tyrone be goin’ 25 mph, the mofo is 20 feet away, and the muzzle velocity of his gat be 800 ft/sec, where do he have to shoot to hit the mofo?”
I actually give my students questions that are like that. Actual examples include:
“Shaquille and Latoya are moving hood in a hurry, and need to hire a van …”
“Arielle, Bambi and Cindi are hard-working, independent businesswomen. If Arielle charge ten dollars for every six minutes, and Bambi charges $20 plus $20 for every twenty minutes …”
“Bill goes to South America and buys some Peruvian Marching Powder. He cuts it in the ratio 2: 1 …”
The kids barely notice. It’s Maths class. It’s boring by nature.
My impression of Wells, mostly through Chesterton, is of a utopianist, world-government, I-fucking-love-science type who would be a regular panelist and presenter on today’s BBC
I suppose what irks is that the revisions were so predictable, all but predestined, and so clumsily done. The BBC seems unable to make dramas, even supposedly ‘faithful’ versions of 19th century science-fiction novels, without shoehorning in modern left-leaning assumptions, all declared in a heavy-handed way and at wearying length. And so, inevitably, we get a feisty female lead who doesn’t feature in the novel at all, an improbably modern woman with terribly modern lifestyle choices, and who is depicted as much more capable than the men who bumble and bluster around her. Because anything else would apparently be unthinkable.
I was rather taken with Spielberg’s ‘War of the Worlds’.
It had some alarming, and rather haunting, scenes, and the first tripod appearance was suitably grotesque. Though I found the children aggravating, and more so as the film went on. Telling the story from the limited viewpoint of one family was an interesting choice, but the family we were given was much less interesting. There’s also the basic problem of the story, which has become harder to fudge with the passing of time. It’s now very hard to believe that an alien intelligence “vast and cool and unsympathetic,” one studying the Earth and its lifeforms for decades, and capable of mastering interplanetary travel and high-tech instruments of destruction, would somehow have no inkling of bacteria.
Telekinesis.
Heh. It seems more likely that if your species doesn’t have hands, or something very much like hands, then you don’t have any technology to speak of. Dexterity seems a prerequisite.
Felicity above mentioned Lara Stevens:
I recently made the mistake of listening to a podcast featuring her on the ABC’s Philosopher’s Zone. A ludicrous series of non sequiturs and tendentious claims (left entirely unchallenged by the host) condemning men, the West, civilization in general, capitalism, … That’s our ABC.
Accessible here, but do not consume while driving or operating heavy machinery. Keep away from children.
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/philosopherszone/feminism,-ecology,-motherhood/11590230
A ludicrous series of non sequiturs and tendentious claims (left entirely unchallenged by the host)
As noted a while ago in this thread, the BBC’s Thinking Allowed uses the same smug and insufferable template, in that it’s largely a platform for a narrow and uniform subset of middle-class lefties to congratulate each other, and thereby themselves, for sharing leftwing assumptions. And so instead of widening the listener’s horizons with its intellectual daring and sophistication, as it claims, it actually feels claustrophobic and parochial.
I can’t help feeling that yesterday’s Dilbert cartoon conveys the effect of a lot of stories covered by this blog on the vast majority of people.
Heh.
The comments at SteveGW’s podcast link are horrifying. Nothing witty can help.
A ludicrous series of non sequiturs and tendentious claims (left entirely unchallenged by the host)
Speaking of the ABC’s Philosopher’s Zone, where our moral and intellectual betters chat among themselves.
The BBC seems unable to make dramas, even supposedly ‘faithful’ versions of 19th century science-fiction novels, without shoehorning in modern left-leaning assumptions
Not just the BBC, and not just science fiction. I recently caught a trailer for a film called The Aeronauts, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. It’s based on the 1856 attempt of two eminent (and originally male) scientists to explore the upper atmosphere in a balloon. Naturally one of the male scientists has been removed, and the role given to a fictional female character, albeit one based on two genuine female balloonists from the 19th century. One of the things that irks me is that by doing this, not only is the original achievement by those two scientists diminished, but two genuine female “trailblazers” (for want of a better word) have been airbrushed out of the picture.
Naturally one of the male scientists has been removed, and the role given to a fictional female character,
It seems to be part of the wider trend, most obvious on campuses, according to which we must no longer be allowed to experience the past unedited, as it were – uncorrected by whatever sensibilities prevail in the current year. With lots of tweaks and deletions and pre-emptive tutting.
Jay, Chester, for your perusal (versions of it have been going around at least since the ‘90s):
http://www.ahajokes.com/f006.html
Sample:
5. Willie gets $200 for stealing a BMW, $50 for a Chevy and $100 for a 4×4. If he has stolen 2 BMW’s and 3 4×4’s, how many Chevy’s will he have to steal to make $800?
…would somehow have no inkling of bacteria.
By way of non-communicable analogy, we have malaria pretty much doped out, can send troops educated on the threat, prepared with all kinds of preventive measures, put them on the highest tech transport made to an endemic area, and it is dead certain somebody is going to do something stupid and get whatever form is endemic to the area. Back on the first world home front, nigh every day there are reports of outbreaks of foodborne illnesses because some bonehead didn’t wash his hands after visiting the can.
Meanwhile, back at the mothership, Private Major 2nd Class ◄♠╩░ⱷ₴ of the Martian Imperial Tripod Hussars is tired after a hard day of mutilating humans and forgets to put his blood soaked Discombobulator 945X through the Decon-o-Mat, and the rest is history.
“There is no such thing as Soldierproof.”
My impression of Wells, mostly through Chesterton, is of a utopianist, world-government, I-fucking-love-science type
It’s been quite a few years now, but I retain a suspicion that, for all his smiling face and Fabian gradualism, in the end Wells would have been on board with the “liquidation” of those who opposed his totalitarian socialist utopia.
Tune in for the next exciting episode of “All The The Things Are Racist”, today, Black Pumpkins !
BRB, have to go plant some of these*.
*(Yes, I know there are really just very dark green, but on your porch at night, I don’t think anyone will be pulling out a Pantone chart)
“anything in blackface is offensive”
So when will they go after balaclavas?