Friday Ephemera
A keyboard drama unfolds. || Cheeeldren of the night. || Heat conductor of note. || Today’s word is Italian. || News to me. || Spare room. || An inexpensive scientific demonstration. (h/t, Noah Carl) || A stretching definition. || The jeans you’ve always wanted. || Just like normal people, a thread. || “Of the 86% of white liberals that have heard at least ‘a little’ about Antifa, 59% think it’s been a ‘somewhat’ (41%) or ‘very good’ (18%) thing for the country.” || Somewhat related. || Bling. || Big leggy. || The displays of Infinity War and The Expanse. || A present for doggo. || Pig versus vacuum cleaner, the eternal struggle. || Meanwhile, in fashion news. || And finally, if they learn to make fire, we’re, like, totally screwed.
*Now with functioning comments.
Woohoo ! US Math Team beats China !
Apropos of nothing, A Passage to India is pretty lame, almost stupid film. Odd that I never knew that until watchingit.
. Dammit…fixed?
At last. The site was down for hours.
And… we’re back.
Afternoon, all, and apologies for the outage. A Typepad-wide issue. Been kicking my heels all morning. I ended up reorganising the bathroom shelves and binning expired medicines.
#MyGlamorousLife
How I feel when David’s site is down.
And finally, if they learn to make fire, we’re, like, totally screwed.
LOL. And that reminded me of a famous sf novel.
A present for doggo.
That *almost* makes up for the outage.
*wipes eye*
Educators, baby.
Via Darleen.
‘Flattering’ is possibly not the best term.
“The displays of Infinity War and The Expanse.”
Looks like they could have saved themselves a fortune and just used this instead.
If only this had been the UK entry in the Eurovison Song Contest.
Pig versus vacuum cleaner, the eternal struggle.
If they learn to make fire…
If they learn to make fire…
Advertisement of note.
*Now with functioning comments.
Thought the patrons seemed unnaturally quiet this morning, save for Muldoon of course.
Pour one for yourself and pop this behind the bar, would you?
In his new book Fake History, the anti-Brexit firebrand Otto English [ … ] explains, history “has been written by white males, about white males, for white males”.
You’ll no doubt be simply shocked and amazed to discover that this gentleman here is the very same ‘Otto English’ who so fulminates against everything white and male.
Fake History is one of the worst books about history I’ve ever read [ … ] It’s so shoddy, so abject I feel a bit guilty even writing about it, like a grown man punching a toddler. Yet it’s important not to let it go.
Indeed.
Pour one for yourself…
Bless you, sir. May your bathroom floor mat be spared the toothy attention of a certain aforementioned hamster.
and pop this behind the bar, would you?
Vanity is a powerful drug.
Words fail me…
3….2….1….back in the room!
Not clicking on ‘Big leggy’! It might be a spider!
Found this in the ‘doggo’ thread….
https://twitter.com/ginacarano/status/1397616171642363907
That.
I ended up reorganising the bathroom shelves and binning expired medicines.
*checks bathroom cabinet*
*checks bathroom cabinet*
As I was rooting through the long-expired tinctures and salves, and attachments for shavers I haven’t owned in over a decade, I half expected to find the Ark of the Covenant. It looked like a scene from one of those when-hoarding-goes-too-far reality shows.
binning expired medicines.
I have been told that many medicines retain their potency long past their printed expiration dates. (Although this depends on storage condition.
Educators, baby.
When I was a teenager my mother volunteered with the school board, which meant I encountered a fair number of teachers, all female, usually at the elementary level. Their contempt for parents and the parents’ desires/opinions for their children was palpable and vocalized regularly. That was 30+ years ago and its only gotten worse.
the long-expired tinctures
For some reason my sleep-deprived brain parsed that as “long-expired triremes“. Which, of course, aren’t they all?
Not for as long as you might think.
Which, of course, aren’t they all?
Ha! Regressive! Triremes are the Green sea-power of the future!
Not for as long as you might think.
The website notes that the Trireme Trust had decided to close its doors due to the deteriorating condition of the ship, even though it still exists and is being maintained. You can even volunteer to row it a bit, which is pretty cool.
More worthy of note, this is probably the first organization in the history of the world to decide “we’ve fulfilled our mission, we’re out.”
More worthy of note, this is probably the first organization in the history of the world to decide “we’ve fulfilled our mission, we’re out.”
But not their full and proper mission, which includes Golden Fleece, fair maidens, gods, and monsters.
Advertisement of note.
Another advertisement of note
Another advertisement of note
This is quite common in SE Asia; Hitler and WWII simply don’t have the same cultural resonance to them.
In the 1990’s, a Chinese-owned whitebox PC components store near my university stirred up quite the controversy by advertising that its OEM PCs were built “to strict Nazi standards”. The owner legitimately did not understand the vehemence of the reaction.
Another advertisement of note
The Buddha nature cannot be captured by yes or no questions.
Today’s word is Italian.
Well, in fact it is physically accurate if over enthusiastic about performance.
Which came first, the size or the personality ?
Which came first, the size or the personality ?
Both, in a positive feedback loop?
due to the deteriorating condition of the ship
Well, if you leave the thing beached on the shores of Ilion for ten years the hull’s going to need some work.
… beached on the shores of Ilion…
What ? They got there by way of the Erie Canal ?
Village of Ilion
Where the ratings buster of the year will be;
National Water Main will be lining & televising the sewer pipes thoughout the Village.
Well, as a male, I can tell you that there is no guarantee that anyone whom you would want to do so will find you attractive.
In some cases, you can remove the “[…] anyone whom you would want to do so […]” bit as well, and the result would still be true.
YMMV.
Indecisive.
Well, the dog drifted towards the one that probably fed it more often.
According to Imdb the series Fringe is either amazeballs or typically shallow Jar Jar Abrams garbage.
I don’t want to actually go to the trouble of watching it to find out, so … opinions?
@Karl: it’s in my top ten of ‘Series I rewatch periodically’ and I’m actually doing so now – half way through season 3. Unlike some long running series (Yes, ‘X Files’, I’m looking at you..) it never loses its way, right up until the end.
And you never get the feeling that the writers didn’t plan the ending, unlike other shows (yup, ‘Lost’ you too..).
“Well, as a male, I can tell you that there is no guarantee that anyone whom you would want to do so will find you attractive.”
In my experience, it’s more or less guaranteed that they won’t. How our species has managed to survive for so long is nothing short of miraculous.
What ? They got there by way of the Erie Canal ?
And on to Sunny Ithaca, too.
the size or the personality?
A warning to feminists that while the sighing, eye-rolling, “mommy is tired of always having to explain” tone gives a rush of moral superiority and of putting someone in his place, it can be addictive for that reason, and this is what a late-stage addict looks and sounds like.
See also Caleb Moonsize…
And on to Sunny Ithaca, too.
Greece is the word.
Pronouns, inevitably.
Because the game must never end.
Maybe it’s just me…probably just me…but the back and forth between black men and black women on this thread is absolutely hilarious. Seems a few black men getting woke to the woke. Swap female/male for black/white…heh. Though tbf it is possible a number of these black men, and maybe a woman or two as well, understand this. The odds being ????
Greece is the word.
The Peloponnesian War, coming soon.
Because the game must never end.
I won’t take her seriously unless she uses a perpetual Julian calendar, AD, Hebrew, Chinese, and Islamic years, and all time in Zulu.
I won’t take her seriously unless she uses a perpetual Julian calendar, AD, Hebrew, Chinese, and Islamic years, and all time in Zulu.
I’d assumed there would come a point at which the status-seeking contrivance, the game, would be hard to miss and prompt some friendly mockery. Then I realised that her Twitter feed is almost exclusively populated by eerily similar people, all sharing their parallel-universe hot takes, also eerily similar, and declaring their pronouns to the world. And so, the whole thing has an insular, vaguely co-dependent air, in which no-one dares challenge anyone else’s pretensions lest they return the favour.
On banning Memorial Day.
If I’m formally discussing a deadline with higher-ups, I use standard calendar dates, not seasons or moons or harvests or anything else.
But if I say to my co-workers that I think we can get this finished before summer, it’s because it means more than estimating a finish date of ISO8601 week 27. In a European or American context it means we’ll be able to enjoy summer, sit in the beer garden without having this thing over our heads. That does assume European cultural expectations of work-life balance and summer festivity. I wouldn’t hesitate to say the same sort of thing to Australians, because there’s a shared cultural understanding there, an understanding that includes the chi-acking about our seasons being different. I might not say it, for example, to a Bangladeshi contract programmer, if I’m not sure what his situation is.
I’m sure all of this walking on eggshells is worth while when you see the smiles on faces of the differently-latituded. But I wonder in who else’s interest it is that workers use an impoverished language with standardized corporate measures of time, stripped of seasons and festivals and references to a shared culture outside of work.
no-one dares challenge anyone else’s pretensions
Folie à duh.
Thanks @JuliaM, sigh, looks like I may have to give it a shot. I think I’ll need another lockdown for all the serieses I’m accumulating!
A damn fine question.
the back and forth between black men and black women on this thread is absolutely hilarious
I shall have to take your word for it, since I don’t seem to speak whatever language they do.
I don’t seem to speak whatever language they do
*insert “oh stewardess” line here*
“Zulu” time is cultural appropriation.
Report to Shaka’s kraal for reeducation.
Folie à duh.
See also, associate professor P. Khalil Saucier.
As noted in that thread, it’s hard to believe that our educator’s peers have ever seriously challenged his pronouncements, despite them veering into the absurd, before exploding in a cloud of woke sparkles.
“Jive-ass dude don’t got no brains anyhow! Shiiiiit.”
😀
I think I’ll need another lockdown for all the serieses I’m accumulating!
I’m currently working through Chicago Fire. I originally started as research for the Fight Fire RPG, but now I’m hooked. I haven’t seen anything like this on TV in years.
The cast is almost entirely male. The themes of honour, sacrifice and brotherhood are standard in every episode. The drama comes not from petty interpersonal conflict, but the conflict between the demands of duty and family, success and honour, or noble values that cannot be reconciled. Characters will struggle with the same issue across multiple episodes. They occasionally fail, but are supported by their brothers no matter what. The female characters are portrayed with realistic physical capabilities, but no less strong and worthy for it, and they support the men in their lives without fail.
It’s like the Hallmark Channel for men and I’m loving it.
Because the game must never end.
And if no one else congratulates her on her high-mindedness, she’ll just have to congratulate herself.
Swedish behavioral scientist Magnus Söderlund says we should seriously consider cannibalism to fight climate chang. He blames the taboo against cannibalism on “conservatism” and “capitalist selfishness”.
Söderlund may have finally found a use for leftist intellectuals, but it cannot be considered sustainable given the number of years of schooling required to produce an educated jackass.
Söderlund may have finally found a use for leftist intellectuals
Soylent Green is people.
Just like a leftist to read dystopian literature as a how-to manual.
A damn fine question.
Truth be told, I’ve been watching old episodes of Countdown on Youtube and have been caught out by their dictionary not having any number of perfectly good Scrabble words, like the time DISTORTER was hiding on the board. And yet they accept wacky non-words like RORTIEST.
At least the numbers games are the same regardless of language.
“A teeny-tiny inclusive language thing I’ve tried to get better at this past year is avoiding northern hemisphere-specific seasonal language. Like instead of “this summer,” I say the months I mean, or Q3.”
Cricketers have been talking about the “northern summer” or “southern winter” for decades.
The point being, when it’s necessary, rather than being about sparing the oversensitive from minor offence, this stuff already happens.
“Truth be told, I’ve been watching old episodes of Countdown on Youtube”
Yeah, not a huge TV drama fan myself. Apparently there’s a new series of Shed & Buried starting next week. I can hardly wait.
Hilarity and infighting on the Left:
Our friends in Full Stop Affinity, a youth liberation anarchist environmentalist affinity group of trans people that organises under the Green Anti-capitalist Front and the Youth Liberation Front, have sent us their final statement previous to their disbandment as a group.
…
The London leftist scene has repeatedly treated us like shit. We were not welcomed, only attacked. We called out many groups in the U.K. leftist scene for their shitty behaviour only for us to be attacked and ignored because of it. The left has made it clear that they do not care for us.
We quickly recognised that our politics are quite different from the other groups in the U.K. left. We have stated many times throughout this project that we are not a revolutionary group. We do not care about the revolution. The world around us will be dead before we reach our thirties.
It gets even better…
https://greenanticapitalist.org/fsa-final-statement/
A present for doggo.
There’s that damn salty discharge from my eyes again!
And David the picture of that box you posted the last time did nothing to help stop it, no matter how long or often I looked at it so….
It gets even better…
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit popcorn.
cannot be considered sustainable given the number of years of schooling required
Cut out the schooling for likely candidates – roast sucking longpig
Full Stop Affinity
Their (correct pronoun?) Final Statement is hilarious.
I was reminded of a quote from Christopher Brookmyre’s Country of the Blind
One Trot faction sitting in a hall
One Trot faction sitting in a hall
If One Trot faction should have a nasty squall
There’ll be two Trot Factions sitting in a hall
…and so on
Conflating resistance to eating human flesh with capitalist selfishness, the seminar’s talking points ask…
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasie, or a ragoust.
Hilarity and infighting on the Left
It’s quite funny when these awful, neurotic people complain about how intolerable other awful, neurotic people are, as if they had nothing whatsoever in common that might explain their awfulness.
Speaking of funny, I’d forgotten about this.
Again, you’d think they might have some qualms about their chosen peer group.
I’d forgotten about this
It’s kinda like how nuclear power works, isn’t it? One neurotic canons into a faction knocking a couple of other neurotics free and so on.
It’s kinda like how nuclear power works, isn’t it?
Heh. You’d think there would come a point at which some of the gathered people, a few at least, might notice the high concentration of twitching bonkersness, and then wonder if they’d taken a wrong turn somewhere.
I’d forgotten about this … God help us, there’s more.
It’s a well that never runs dry.
there’s a new series of Shed & Buried starting next week
Sadly, Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson is probably no longer with us.
Right, off to a family bash to be fed and corrupted with oversized glasses of wine.
Play nicely. Use coasters.
Posted by: Jonny S”
Tom Swift > Johnathan Swift…
🙂
One Trot faction sitting in a hall…
I continue to marvel that Christopher Hitchens could, to his dying day, admire and defend Lenin and Trotsky. It greatly undermined his credibility as a genuine defender of human rights and the dignity of the individual.
While only a casual observer of CH, it seemed to me his intellectualism was driven by a craving of attention. His interest in pursuing the truth was secondary. JMNSHO.
While only a casual observer of CH, it seemed to me his intellectualism was driven by a craving of attention.
Alternate hypotheses (I’m not saying you are wrong):
1. He sincerely wanted universal human rights but was too proud to admit that his youthful embrace of communism was a serious moral error which was inherently in conflict with that support for human rights and the the well-being of all people.
2. He really saw nothing wrong with Lenin and Trotsky’s reign of terror, and his stance as a defender of universal human rights was in large part a pose: He attacked religion, especially Christianity and Islam, because religion is a competitor to communism. It is certainly true that communists in general have a long history of pretending to embrace human rights as a cloak for their totalitarian goals.
His interest in pursuing the truth was secondary.
His attacks on public figures involved sloppy research or outright dishonesty. Note that Lenin’s “scholarly” writings were dishonest polemics. Trotsky’s too, I suppose, although I do not know for sure.
Main video via Andy Ngo.
BTW, Andy Ngo, wearing full black bloc, apparently tried to infiltrate an Antifa riot in Portland Friday night.
Although he was not physically identifiable, someone recognized his voice. A mob pursed him, tackled him, slammed his head into the concrete and beat him. He escaped, and ran to a hotel several blocks away, pursued by the enraged mob. The mob was blocked by hotel security, fifty cops showed up to keep the mob from overwhelming hotel security, and Ngo was taken from the hotel in an ambulance.
He has not been heard of since – he has not posted on Twitter, and his usual media outlet, the Post-Millennial, is unable to contact him.
Portland Antifa is rejoicing over their administration of “revolutionary justice” to the hated Ngo, of course.
https://www.wweek.com/news/2021/05/29/portland-protesters-chase-tackle-and-punch-someone-they-believe-to-be-andy-ngo-until-he-hides-in-the-nines-hotel/
A mob pursed him, tackled him, slammed his head into the concrete and beat him.
All communists are vermin. All. Not just the thugs, but also the oh-so-smooth communists you meet in faculty lounges.
While only a casual observer of CH, it seemed to me his intellectualism was driven by a craving of attention.
Theodore Dalrymple has said something to that effect about George Bernard Shaw.
Classics majors at Princeton University will no longer be required to learn Greek or Latin while studying Ancient Greece and Rome.
That seems a bit odd – one would have thought a minimal requirement for the study of a foreign culture would be an understanding of its language?
Director of undergraduate studies and professor of classics Josh Billings said “…we think that having those students in the department will make it a more vibrant intellectual community.”
Well, I think we can certainly anticipate two of those three.
Classics majors at Princeton University will no longer be required to learn Greek or Latin while studying Ancient Greece and Rome.
“School officials cite the purported need to combat racism.”
Because it would be raacist to hold black kids to the same standards as white and Asian kids. Leftists ruin everything they touch…as do black “anti-racists”.
Because it would be raacist to hold black kids to the same standards as white and Asian kids.
Yeah, but think how vibrant those angry, resentful, thick black kids are going to be!
Classics majors at Princeton University will no longer be required to learn Greek or Latin while studying Ancient Greece and Rome.
That’s nothing – just wait until they announce that English majors will no longer be required to learn English.
That’s nothing – just wait until they announce that English majors will no longer be required to learn English.
One example of that ship having left the dock.
We’ll ignore that there is damn little literature in that era that “relates” more than tangentially to that nonsense.
one would have thought a minimal requirement for the study of a foreign culture would be an understanding of its language?
At some point, invoking some nebulous “systemic racism” will no longer be an adequate fig leaf for the actual causes of the disparities that they’re pretending to solve. But by then, the entire institution will be so badly degraded, so farcical, it may be irretrievable.
Is there a word for something that has the power to shock while simultaneously being completely predictable?
Need to to describe 90% of replies to this post. (Awful lot of pronouns on display).
Unrelated:
I’m here to interview the cast of Channel 4’s new musical comedy, a six-part series following the exploits of an anarchic all-female, all-Muslim punk band setting out to make some noise [ … ] The series is loosely based on screenwriter Nida Manzoor’s own life navigating the diverse creative collectives of London.
Makes me wonder what the qualifications are for becoming a producer at Channel 4 (UK).
English majors will no longer be required to learn English
Yes, and people who cannot even speak English will criticize the English of people who do. Unless they are Wokels, in which case all massacring of the language will be OK, even praised.
From a discussion about plant based “milk”, which is why I put vodka on my cornflakes.
all-Muslim punk band
few of the cast actually identify as Muslim or have Muslim heritage
So that’s a double whammy for the Sharia court.
So that’s a double whammy for the Sharia court.
The Sharia court will have difficulty passing sentences for each defendant: Chop off head? Throw off building?
@JuliaM: So these Fringe agents. Do they ever figure out that if they all run together into one entrance of a building their suspects will just run out of another?
a minimal requirement for the study of a foreign culture would be an understanding of its language?
It’s so you can read the original works in the original language (which is why Classics majors learn koine Greek rather than modern Greek). This is important; I own three different English translations of The Iliad which are so different from each other as to be equivalent to the difference between Mallory’s Le Morte d’Artur and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
This is important; I own three different English translations of The Iliad which are so different from each other as to be equivalent to the difference between Mallory’s Le Morte d’Artur and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I used to be jokingly paranoid about this but as censorship ratchets upwards and the information space has exploded with the internet and given how much outright lying goes on, well has been going on in journalism for decades, how words get redefined, often maliciously, and thus what that means when translations of even contemporary communications are done, I begin to wonder at what point it all breaks down. The biblical story of the Tower of Babel haunts me in a number of ways.