Friday Ephemera
Unforeseen consequences. || My money’s on the little guy. || He made his own. || New neighbours detected || Forming spheres. || Fun with sand, some rubbing. || Electro-pop. (h/t, Dr Westerhaus) || Today’s word is suboptimal. || She’s an educator, you know. || Modernity is a hell of a thing. || See also. || Screams stopping abruptly, a thread. || Reverse your videos. Or pretty much any video. || “Very disturbed people.” || Branding, baby. || Being woke, she is of course enraged. || Eye-catching, yes, but a bugger to dust. || A collection of found paper aeroplanes. (h/t, Things) || Today’s other words are lubricant and pen torch. || A love like no other. || Clouds. || And finally, some behavioural correction.
Today’s word is suboptimal
Ties in nicely with the last thread. Not Newfoundlanders, the accent’s not strong enough. Sounds like Nova Scotia or eastern New Brunswick.
Screams stopping abruptly
The “please, I’m just a little goblin” post reminded me of the anime Ashes of Grimgar.
An annoyingly common trend in anime right now is “OMG we have been transported inside our favorite MMORPG!” Generally these are played for fairly pathetic teenage heroics, sometimes for laughs; the writers of Grimgar apparently watched way too much Gantz back in the day because they treat the whole premise straight up seriously. The only way to make any kind of money is to kill monsters, and without money you starve. After a week of starving, the 14 year old protagonists venture into the forest, find some goblins who aren’t doing anything more threatening than eating around a campfire, and attack them; since everyone involved is basically level 0 the fight drags on for minutes and culminates in the group holding the goblin down and smashing its head open with a rock while it pleads piteously for its life.
They get 3 gp out of it, though.
suboptimal
Yeah, can’t watch that one again.
Sweaty palms, indeed. And elevated respiration, and palpitations.
“Today’s other words are lubricant and pen torch.”
Hmm. Should I click the link? Ah, what the hell… it’s probably just some engineering thing.
[clicks, sees title card]
Aaaargh. Damn you, Thompson!
[shakes fist in vaguely Southerly direction]
A love like no other: Awwwww.
For paper planes I recommend the Nakamura Lock
Fairly easy to make and works well.
Today’s other words are lubricant and pen torch.
Lol. The models are good. 🙂
Morning, all.
Lol. The models are good. 🙂
Yes, absolutely. During the, er, cupping and squeezing, for instance, the object being scrutinised is remarkably convincing. Good use of materials there.
Should I click the link? Ah, what the hell… it’s probably just some engineering thing.
Well, in a way, it is. See above.
Aaaargh. Damn you, Thompson!
No refunds. Credit note only.
Dear lord, NOT parody.
Dear lord, NOT parody.
Tongue-bath detected.
And finally, some behavioural correction.
Genius.
CLEAN UP YOUR DOG POOP
CLEAN UP YOUR DOG POOP
The makings of a ringtone, surely? And as someone notes in the thread over there, the woman in question actually has bags with her – she just couldn’t be arsed to use them. And so, a rather hearty shaming does seem in order.
#MaximumDad
CLEAN UP YOUR DOG POOP
Someone should auto-tune that.
Modernity is a hell of a thing.
There’s something almost perfect about that clip that I just can’t quite put my finger on.
But whatever that perfection is it will inevitably soon get lost as the waves of memes roll in to take control.
There’s something almost perfect about that clip that I just can’t quite put my finger on.
Yes.
By the way, seasons four and five of The Expanse have been good.
Just sayin’.
Also rewatched the 1980s mini-series of Porterhouse Blue – which is about as far from The Expanse as you can get – and still found it funny. It occurred to me that the unflattering depiction of Lady Mary and her Guardianista politics would be a much rarer sight now.
Dear lord, NOT parody
Just threw up in my mouth – there should have been a warning attached.
Also not parody, I received notes from some bogus online “Professional Development” that I didn’t attend.
Is it a STEM – HASS dichotomy?
No!
Read this article – it answers the question well: Focus on humanities to stop spread of Trump style misinformation.
https://amp.theage.com.au/national/focus-on-humanities-to-stop-spread-of-trump-style- misinformation-20210201-p56yc6.html?btis=&__twitter_impression=true
This is from an official departmental ‘future directions’ document. Luckily, the link to the article is broken.
@Felicity – One would think, were one to ignore abundant evidence to the contrary, that we would have little to fear from cretins too technologically challenged to copy a url. From the New Age article in question:
“The humanities and social sciences offer … the ability to learn from history and have empathy for others.”
Ummm. Citation required?
What election rigging?
https://twitter.com/whitesundesert/status/1357671211770257409
Sounds like Nova Scotia or eastern New Brunswick.
They could be Capers. Capers are often known as Newfies with their brains kicked out. They are also known to frequently get stuck under moving trains.
Yes
Starting to think it might be because it’s an example of life spontaneously imitating an Adam Curtis documentary.
By the way, seasons four and five of The Expanse have been good.
OK. Though I’m slightly nervous – I’ve got two episodes of season 5 left to watch and I’ve been putting them off after finding myself actually having to fast-forward through much of Naomi’s tedious and angsty relationship drama with her son.
I think I prefer robots.
Mind you, Westworld turned to shit too 🙁
after finding myself actually having to fast-forward through much of Naomi’s tedious and angsty relationship drama with her son.
Yes, she and Holden are still the weakest links in the show – their characters just aren’t particularly interesting, or well-written, or well-acted. Amos and Avasarala are more engaging. But the season finale gives Naomi a pretty good scene and is entertaining overall, with BAD THING HAPPENING, and OTHER BAD THING HAPPENING, just before OMINOUS HINT OF SERIOUSLY BAD THING LIKELY TO HAPPEN SOON.
Westworld turned to shit too
Once upon a time, the economics of syndication meant that you would see a marked shift in tone and quality between season 3 and 4 of a genre series – the writer/director contracts were usually limited to three years.
With streaming changing the way TV is produced, funded and consumed, contracts are now limited to a single season, so things can waffle all over the place. This is exacerbated by seasons being only 10-13 episodes now.
Re: The Expanse, there’s been a bit of a resurgence of interest in what might be called “blue-collar” or “industrial” SF – movies like “Outland”, “Alien”, “Total Recall”, &c. The Expanse tries to do this, but quickly veers off into traditional action rayguns territory. Personally I hope we see more stuff in this vein, it’s an underused premise.
The Expanse tries to do this, but quickly veers off into traditional action rayguns territory.
Recent episodes have had their emphasis on ‘local’ difficulties.
The Naomi-stuck-on-the-spaceship bit went on for like 76 minutes too long.
Recent episodes have had their emphasis on ‘local’ difficulties.
Yes, I really enjoyed the grand sweeping vision of the first 3 seasons – designed alien viral infections which build grand alien machines from the living flesh they consume, using them to open intergalactic wormholes to mysteriously emptied new (old?) planetary systems. Great stuff!
Then season 4 was all about a bunch of earthers and belters squabbling over a lithium (or something) mine.
Quite the disappointment.
Mind you, Westworld turned to shit too…
Amazon has a 2019 three episode BBC version of “War of the Worlds” set in the late 1800s which has the twist that the Martians are really terraforming (Marsaforming) Earth and is not bad till episode three where the protagonist goes off on an SJW rant about “What if the we are the Martians ? We go into foreign lands with backwards people, shoot and kill them, put in railroads and things to make them like us” and so on.
I may have slept through that part in world history class, but I don’t recall where Britain set out to colonize anywhere to completely change the atmosphere and surface of the country, and eat the inhabitants they didn’t kill outright, but other than that the similarities are uncanny.
These idiots just cannot avoid having to stick this crap into everything.
I’m surprised it took as long as episode 3.
Unusual self-restraint by bbc standards.
Fun with sand…
I know that the double-slit experiment is the standard example (and rightfully so), but if I wanted to teach particle-wave duality to people outside the Physics nerd world, those vibrating tables would be the way to do it. You can’t say where any single grain of sand will go, but you can predict pretty well where the whole collection of them will wind up. (And the 99% of people who aren’t grabbed by the profundity of this will at least think the pretty colors were neat!)
Also rewatched the 1980s mini-series of Porterhouse Blue…
Never heard of it. Sounds like fun. Placed interlibrary loan request. Thank you, David!
…which is about as far from The Expanse as you can get.
Still haven’t seen even one episode, as was put off by the fanboy enthusiasm of the people I know locally. Someday, someday.
Today in racism – chicken soup.
Re: The Expanse, there’s been a bit of a resurgence of interest in what might be called “blue-collar” or “industrial” SF…
I could enjoy that. I just hope Hollywood doesn’t discover, say, Benford’s Against Infinity and screw it up.
What election rigging?
I still retain a smidgen of a glimmer of a quantum of hope that my fake conservative friends will wake up to what’s been going on.
Today in racism – chicken soup.
If only the writing on SNL were as good.
Never heard of it. Sounds like fun.
The final episode feels a little rushed – I suspect five episodes would have worked better than four – but it’s engagingly grotesque. Not least the full-figured Mrs Biggs and her squeaky raincoat.
Capers are often known as Newfies with their brains kicked out.
The more polite description is Newfies who ran out of money on their way to Toronto.
I really enjoyed the grand sweeping vision of the first 3 seasons
Given that I didn’t find the first few episodes of interest – I abandoned it after 30 minutes on first attempt – I did come to like the way each season expanded the scope of the drama, at times quite wildly. From a fairly dull missing-person storyline to alarming alien technology and very-large-objects-doing-impossible-things.
I think Daniel prefers the in-system politics and squabbling over resources and such. Whereas I’m still trying to get past the Belter patois, which I just find distracting.
Today Iowahawk crowdsources Bulwer-Lytton fiction.
In answer to a question that arises therein, finally, the spork vs. splayed conundrum is addressed.
Today in art news.
The more polite description is Newfies who ran out of money on their way to Toronto.
Does this explain why Stan Rogers sang of Toronto’s “scummy lakes” and of the pleasures of “watching the apples grow”?
Electro-pop.
David I’ll have another drink. This time without the acid.
David I’ll have another drink. This time without the acid.
It’s the pitch bending and vibrato, isn’t it? The icing on the cake.
And I think you’ll find there’s acid in all the beverages. Has been for nearly fourteen years.
Electro-pop
Singing Tesla coils are a novelty which quickly wears off: “The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all.”
each season expanded the scope of the drama, at times quite wildly
It was the pregnancy. The swollen expectation. The looming certainty that something gravity-bending was about to emerge that I particularly enjoyed. Science Theatre at its best.
It’s just sad when the writers reveal they have no grand play to offer at the denouement (cough Lindelof cough).
They should read more Vernor Vinge.
And I think you’ll find there’s acid in all the beverages. Has been for nearly fourteen years.
That explains it. Creeping sausage rolls, laughing gas, klaxons, strobe-lights, sirens, branding irons, need to get out of town for a while, take a trip? C’mon down to David’s Floating Bar and Grill Emporium located on the High Street right next to the Soma factory.
That explains it….
Psst. [opens coat] Would you like a bottle of this fine Bordeaux?
They should read more Vernor Vinge.
Everyone should read more Vinge. I owe a great debt to a college roommate who insisted I read his copies of Marooned in Realtime and Fire Upon the Deep.
I’m pretty sure they were the literary equivalent of what our host would call “a proper regrooving.”
What election rigging?
I also was holding out hope that they would “catch on”, but at this point I can only sadly assume they do know. This is a more depressing state of affairs.