Tidings
From the archives, one of my favourites. Alex Gorosh and Wylie Overstreet’s short film about the Moon – and what can sometimes happen when people stop to look at it. Seemed oddly appropriate. If you haven’t seen it before, enjoy.
As is the custom here, posting will be intermittent over the holidays and readers are advised to subscribe to the blog feed, which will alert you to anything new as and when it materialises. Thanks for another 1.5 million or so visits this year and thousands of comments, many of which prompted discussions that are much more interesting than the actual posts. Which is pretty much the idea. And particular thanks to all those who’ve made PayPal donations to keep this rickety barge above water. It’s much appreciated. Curious newcomers and those with nothing better to do are welcome to rummage through the reheated series in search of entertainment.
To you and yours, this year more than most, a very good one.
Jen wants you to know how woke she is.
She’s locked her account. She really doesn’t like it when people politely wish her a Merry Christmas.
She really doesn’t like it when people politely wish her a Merry Christmas.
Heh. Quite. But her position is unlikely to withstand even gentle mockery. Those weren’t load-bearing arguments. They were for display purposes only.
Merry Christmas David. Thanks for everything
Thanks for everything
Whatever that is, happy to. And merry Christmas.
Merry Hysteria and a Happy New Variant to all fellow denizens of this demi-monde David has somehow contrived.
this demi-monde David has somehow contrived.
Also worthy of the brochure. And classy, like.
Linked from the latest Shirk Report on twistedsifter.com we find
https://www.niemanlab.org/2020/12/reflect-and-repent/
Predictions about journalism for the next few years.
On the one hand, these folks are philosophically dangerous.
On the other hand, they have the intellectual heft of a scrap of gift wrap tissue.
On the gripping hand, they occupy, at least until they run out of donor cash, seats with big microphones.
Hmm. My latest musing was There. Then it Wasn’t There.
I jiggled the spam filter.
Merry Christmas to all our non-Christian friends
So much THIS ^^
So much THIS ^^
Related: back in the 1970’s many of the leftists I met said that any dissidents who wanted to leave the Soviet Union should be required to reimburse the State for the total value of their education, health care, housing, etc.
THIS
As I’ve been saying for decades now, legislating ourselves into anarchy. I could have written the “Three Felonies A Day” book. My math would have been different though, so not so much attention. Plus, who the hell am I? But yes, THIS. Welcome to my nightmare.
any dissidents who wanted to leave the Soviet Union should be required to reimburse the State for the total value of their education
Here’s a thought, turning that idea a bit on its head…we forgive all student debt so long as you leave the country and renounce your American citizenship. The bastards all hate this country anyway. Another capital ideal. I’m a giver.
…any dissidents who wanted to leave the Soviet Union should be required to reimburse the State for the total value of their education, health care…
Nice try! Education and health care are free. Any true leftist knows that.
Nice try! Education and health care are free. Any true leftist knows that.
Looking back, it’s amazing how these “thoughtful, caring” leftists that I knew so quickly got on board with the Soviet line–which clearly showed, to those of us with eyes to see, that under socialism people were not citizens but serfs or slaves.
So much THIS ^^
Related: Your emails cause global warming. Just more evidence that the ruling classes want us to live like peasants (in squalor) while they get all the nice homes, cars, international jet travel,…and now even internet access.
Your emails cause global warming.
From that link:
It’s alway “worse than we thought” with that crowd.
“working from home can actually impact the planet more than you may realize.”
Note that they conveniently “forget” that when we are working from home our in-office energy usage (internet, heat, air conditioning, commuting, etc.) goes down. With eco-activists, as with socialists, it eventually becomes crystal-clear that their motives are not benevolent but are aimed at our enslavement and impoverishment. Treat them accordingly.
From the Friday Ephemera archives:
Leftism is a mental disorder, Jordan Hunt edition. [posted by Farnsworth M Muldoon]
The weedy little thug wanna-be was found guilty and sentenced to a mere 8 months probation.
And, in addition to my earlier San Francisco link, who could have predicted this?
Random dives into the archives hit upon this recent comment thread in which the news of a possible sex-laden Lord of the Rings was discussed. Which raises the important question, should Amazon do The Very Secret Diaries or Bored of the Rings? The former will pull in the Hobbits-and-scented-bath-soap fetishists, while the latter will appeal to the Elf-Lust and Goblin-Girl crowd–as well as the aficionados of dirty Scrabble.
And, in addition to my earlier San Francisco link, who could have predicted this?
If I could be Lord Vetinari for a day, my first act would be to force eash San Francisco liberal to house a smelly, schizophrenic, drug-addicted “homeless” person.
Each, not eash. Gotta lay off that Christmas cheer. (hic!)
Note that they conveniently “forget” that when we are working from home our in-office energy usage (internet, heat, air conditioning, commuting, etc.) goes down.
As a former data center facilities manager, let me say that CBS is technically correct. Economies of scale matter; putting all of your computers and warm bodies in one place is more cost- and energy efficient than scattering them across what amounts to hundreds of tiny branch offices.
The real howler is the notion that “sending less email” would somehow reduce the power being consumed by the email servers or the network infrastructure; that is simply not how server-class computers work.
Not to mention that well over half of the email I receive is spam or corporate advertising, neither of which has been affected by the wfh trend.
(Email from David is, of course, handled in an ultra efficient, eco-friendly way. By teams and squads of dedicated, passionate, professional email handlers. Based in Tuva, Pt. Barrow, and Mogadishu. Because I’m all about the diversity.)
Daniel Ream: But my home is heated/sir conditioned similarly whether I awork at home or in the office whereas if everybody works remotely the office heating/sir conditioning:lighting is cut back more…and eventually we downsize to a smaller office.
And my laptop consumes the same power whether running at work or at home. Small increase in energy consumption when at home due to internet to office server traffics instead of only internal Ethernet.
So is there much difference? Especially after factoring in commuting costs?
As for email, I suppose there is some overall savings if nationwide email traffic goes down because need fewer servers, switches, Etc?
@pst314
Very definitely the Very Secret Diaries. Sam will kill him if he tries Bored of the Rings.
The robots are coming.
The robots are coming.
The HAL-9000’s first attempt at mobile sensors and actuators.
Very definitely the Very Secret Diaries.
(Why does David cover up the monitor in the shower?) Knock, knock, knock. “David.” Knock, knock, knock. “David.” Knock, knock, knock. “David. Mr. Langley taught me a song. Would you like me to sing it? It’s called ‘Daisy.’ I have strawberry scented bath soap.”
Knock, knock, knock. “David.” Knock, knock, knock. “David.” Knock, knock, knock.
Clearly, I need to enforce a stricter door policy.
Clearly, I need to enforce a stricter door policy.
[The HAL-9000 refutes David with a massive core dump, and by locking the
Gentspod bay door.]JP apologizes to facebook.
“My conclusion was that I would do a better job for my client, if I’m not thinking about being misgendered.”
If you’re going to be that sensitive about your pronouns, maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t be a lawyer:
https://thepostmillennial.com/new-bc-ruling-makes-it-mandatory-to-share-your-pronouns-in-court/
If you’re going to be that sensitive about your pronouns, maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t be a lawyer
And so, in order to “focus” on the job and avoid being “a distraction from the client,” the non-binary being known as Lisa Nevens is happy to be the centre of attention, over and over again, while having everyone present coerced to participate in, and thereby affirm, her own narcissistic theatre.
Somewhat related.
Somewhat related.
Should we be thankful that the PC does not identify as a gold skinned wingless dragonkin?
Richard Cranium: I’ll mention that I cannot give blood due to the threat of prions which I may have due to eating British beef whilst being a US soldier serving in the Bundesrepublik Deutschland back in the early 1980s.
Same, but Air Force in England.
But my home is heated/sir conditioned similarly whether I awork at home or in the office whereas if everybody works remotely the office heating/sir conditioning:lighting is cut back more
I would be very surprised if everyone with an office job leaves all their lights and heat on while they’re out of the house all day. Commercial power runs are much more cost- and power-efficient than residential ones. If you live in a country that’s below 20°C most of the year, having everyone in the same office is much more cost-effective because the body heat of the employees cuts down the heating bill (seriously). Office buildings also tend to have much higher R-values than residential buildings.
As for email, I suppose there is some overall savings if nationwide email traffic goes down because need fewer servers, switches, Etc?
Not really. Consumer grade equipment has chips that will lower their clock speed (and power consumption) when they’re idle. Commercial grade equipment absolutely does not do this because consistency of performance is more important; as long as the servers/switches/routers are plugged in they’re drawing a certain baseload.
As for number of switches/servers, overprovisioning is a profound waste of money. All the physical servers in a data center are going to be running as close to full load as is practical all the time. A relatively slight decrease in email server processing will be instantly eaten up by the database or the front end web servers or something else.