Friday Ephemera
If at all highly-strung, maybe look away now. || He builds kalimbas. (h/t, Things) || Big cat diary. || Entirely for the benefit of pedestrians. || Today’s word is broken. || Crab treadmill. || Yes, but are they me…? || Riverside living. || Rome’s imperial poisoner. || Pondering canine head-tilting. || Upscale advent calendars. || “It should be really proud of itself for trying on these new pronouns.” || Pies of note. || Parenting of note. || Possible explanation detected. || The thrill of pumping. || The thrill of tea-bagging. || The Nor-277 tapping machine. || Rock, hard place. || It seems health “equity” requires a little contrivance. || An interesting choice of words. || And finally, wings made of water (and a little detergent).
An interesting choice of words.
“And how many camels have you spotted so far?”
“Almost…one.”
monkey belonging to football coach’s stripper girlfriend bit a kid who was trick-or-treating on Halloween.
A new Zionist plot.
Why Modern Movies Suck
crab treadmill
I made the terrible mistake of scrolling down and reading the comments on that.
Re blonde babbling about it, itself, etself…
Why, why, why do they always quack like talking ducks? Is there a school of ducklicution somewhere?
Oops, ducklOcution. I fat-fingered. Sorry.
Here’s a takedown of Richard Dawkins by a fellow atheist that is unknowingly as pious as any believer in a more everyday faith (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc).
“…being a cautious man, Claudius always had a feather on hand. In the event he suspected poison, he could use the feather to tickle the back of his throat and make himself vomit.
His plan failed.
Because Locusta saw to it that the feather had also been soaked in poison.“
Always cover all contingencies!
The thrill of pumping. || The thrill of tea-bagging. || The Nor-277 tapping machine.
I see what you did there.
Special Assistant to the Imperial Giraffe Trainer.
Sounded like a fun job.
Wasn’t.
Morning, all.
Here’s a takedown of Richard Dawkins by a fellow atheist that is unknowingly as pious as any believer in a more everyday faith
I’m no great fan of Mr Dawkins, but as several readers point out in reply, the author, Hemant Mehta, seems determined to be pissy and indignant. He invokes Dawkins’ “ignorance” and dufferdom, and confidently alleges “bigotry” and scandalous anti-trans wickedness, but the actual quotes he chooses to prove this point don’t suggest anything of the sort. In fact, they sound quite indulgent. Idiocy and shocking moral wrongness are declared, with some agitation, yet what and why remain mysterious. It seems we must take these things on faith. I suppose denouncing people is so much easier that way.
I see what you did there.
This is my innocent face.
[ Holds up picture of adorable puppy. ]
Possible explanation detected.
Bam.
Don’t do this.
Bam.
There’s a clip from a few years ago – which, annoyingly, I now can’t find – in which another professed misandrist is asked a similar question. Her reaction, and subsequent screeching meltdown, is quite extraordinary.
The death of liberalism?
https://twitter.com/antoniogm/status/1456324135861342212?t=t61UrwLh5-qnq62IsIhQ6A&s=19
The death of liberalism?
If it’s for blind people, why would a blind person care what race you are or what colour top you’re wearing? Can’t blind people tell the difference between men and women’s voices?
He builds kalimbas.
They’re lovely. I want one.
They’re lovely. I want one.
They are rather charming. And they are for sale. The ones with tiny chains can produce some surprisingly complex sounds.
Today’s word is broken
The way he speaks reminded me of somebody. I had to cudgel my brains for a while until I remembered who it was.
Riverside living
I lived on a barrier island for a few years so, much like that city, it was rather linear. While in my locale there were plenty of stores, restaurants, facilities and such, over time it was a bit of a mind f***. Conceptually things seemed like any other similar area, yet it seemed it took forever to get anywhere to get things done. Traffic wasn’t heavy yet it was bloody annoying when the lights weren’t synchronized. It took me a few months to realize what the problem was and after a couple years I was happy to move to a more two-dimensional town. I can’t imagine living it a city that large and linear but maybe in that case the density, and it possibly being more two-dimensional in the vertical axis, would put more necessary stuff close by.
I had to cudgel my brains for a while until I remembered who it was.
Ha! Great show. And note how long that joke runs, over two minutes, which seems much longer than jokes in current TV comedies–perhaps because today’s viewers have the attention span of a toddler on crack.
“Remember, remember the fifth of November…”
Seen on the intertubes today:
It took me a few months to realize what the problem was…
Old farts from New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey in Continentals, Crown Vics, and Coupe de Villes who couldn’t go over 20?
How long, O Lord, how long?
Before the transits try to take over the pantomime season?
Just imagine, a man pretending to be a woman playing the role of Principal Boy which, traditionally is a woman pretending to be a man.
Then add in the Ugly Sisters, women pretending to be men playing the part of men pretending to be women.
Happiness is made of this.
Interesting choice of words
The next thing we know, the mainstream media will be telling us that just under a majority of Americans preferred Trump to Biden.
Or perhaps not.
Nick Filingham, who requires others to use he/him pronouns is a Caucasian man with a beard who wears glasses and is a Security Evangelist at Microsoft.
He should also mention that he speaks English, has slightly better sight in his right eye, and is developing arthritis in his right thumb.
WTF is a Security Evangelist?
“Ha! Great show”
Marilu Henner…
*BRB*
I think anon a mouse has gone toobin.
…the author, Hemant Mehta…
Well, that’s a blast from the past. Back when I was but a wee freshman of a physics major (and had not yet found religion), I sometimes read his blog, The Friendly Atheist. It was ostensibly devoted to a less confrontational and strident non-belief than was becoming popular in those days of the “New Atheism.” Apparently, Mr. Mehta has since been made to see the error of his accommodationist ways and has joined himself to the warm embrace of the greater screeching lunatic mass.
Oswald Bates loses his mind over the fact a black conservative woman was elected Lieutenant Governor.
WTF is a Security Evangelist?
Good question, security and Microsoft are two words not often seen together unless the “Security” is modified with a pejorative.
Parenting of note.
The little girl has more sense than her dad. The neighbours should make him famous.
The little girl has more sense than her dad.
On one level, it’s fairly trivial – it’s a bowl of sweets. On another, it’s quite dismaying in its implications. The girl, bless her, repeatedly refuses and voices concern for other trick-or-treaters, who, she fears, will now go without. But dad, if such he is, has no concern at all. Clearly, he feels entitled. It’s sociopathy writ small.
The neighbours should make him famous.
It wouldn’t be unfair.
Oswald Bates loses his mind over the fact a black conservative woman was elected Lieutenant Governor.
Michael Eric Dyson lost his mind a very long time ago. But still, the race grift has been good to him.
WTF is a Security Evangelist?
Seems likely that this is a person whose job is to constantly tell everyone how important security is, and to give Powerpoint talks about what they should and shouldn’t do. Presumably this would be a person who does not have the technical training and smarts to implement security-related technology, but who is able to talk and talk and talk and talk….
Remember Apple Evangelists, whose job was to tell everyone how wonderful Apple products were? And to shout over anyone who pointed out problems and defects?
“It should be really proud of itself for trying on these new pronouns.”
It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.
canine head-tilting.
I’m pretty sure Twitter libs do the same head-tilting thing because they want to be as lovable as a clever dog.
It seems health “equity” requires a little contrivance.
There’s a commercial from the University health center that gets shown at halftime of every Loons match. It talks about health equity issues in Minnesota, mentioning at one point that your health outcomes can depend on your ZIP code.
The regulars at the bar are growing tired of my reflexive suggestion that maybe those people should move to another neighborhood if they don’t want to get sick.
Some days it pays to not even get out of bed.
Parenting of note.
Palate cleanser
It seems health “equity” requires a little contrivance.
It has been some time since I last saw the Ascian language in print.
It has been some time since I last saw the Ascian language in print.
It has been a long time since I have seen even a reference to the Ascian language.
“Why Modern Movies Suck”
The Drinker just gets better. Absolutely bang on the money here.
“The death of liberalism?”
I had that one lined up for this thread myself. Note the comment by Yascha Mounk:
No it does not. In what way is this “context” helpful? To whom is it helpful? To what end? Because I can only think of one, and it isn’t good.
“I remembered who it was.”
If only it ended the same way: “Forget I said anything. I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
Marilu Henner…
*BRB*
Mmm. Strongly vied with Lynda Carter (the standard by which all women are judged; I would say “Fie on Gal Gadot”, but she’s actually quite a – heh – gal herself) and Erin Gray from Buck Rogers for my budding affections as a young lad.
PS: I don’t suppose anyone knows why the X.org GB keymap recently moved the quote marks one key to the right? It’s driving me nuts. I think I’ve caught all the wrong ones, but if I ever end up posting something like “this“, you’ll know why…
Pew Research Center brings the Peter Griffin chart to life.
And they are for sale.
Also at Amazon.
Loyal to the Group of Seventeen
Tell us a story of your people.
It has been some time since I last saw the Ascian language in print.
Gene Wolfe was prescient, making the Ascian invaders from North America resemble Maoists but even more insane.
Tell us a story of your people.
“In times past, loyalty to the cause of the populace was to be found everywhere. The will of the Group of Seventeen was the will of everyone.
Let no one be idle. If one is idle, let him band together with others who are idle too, and let them look for idle land. Let everyone they meet direct them. It is better to walk a thousand leagues than to sit in the House of Starvation.
One is strong, another beautiful, a third a cunning artificer. Which is best? He who serves the populace.
Let the work be divided by a wise divider of work. Let the food be divided by a just divider of food. Let the pigs grow fat. Let rats starve.
The people meeting in counsel may judge, but no one is to receive more than a hundred blows.
How are the hands nourished? By the blood. How does the blood reach the hands? By the veins. If the veins are closed, the hands will rot away….”
“And note how long that joke runs, over two minutes”
This one’s only 1:10, but it seems longer: “What does a yellow light mean?”
I miss comedy like this.
Dr. Talos whispered, “Look about you—don’t you recognize this? It is just as he says!”
“What do you mean?” I whispered in return.
“The castle? The monster? The man of learning? I only just thought of it. Surely you know that just as the momentous events of the past cast their shadows down the ages, so now, when the sun is drawing toward the dark, our own shadows race into the past to trouble mankind’s dreams.”
Apparently, Mr. Mehta has since been made to see the error of his accommodationist ways and has joined himself to the warm embrace of the greater screeching lunatic mass.
Yes, this atheist is so ‘friendly’ he’s even compiled a list of other atheists who don’t share his zealousness for the trans person cause. All friendly, like. It is nice to encounter blogs one used to read though.
The Gene Wolfe love-fest has convinced me that once I’m done re-reading Dune I’m going to go back and do The Book of the New Sun series. It’s been too long. I’ve heard his Roman fantasy novels were very good as well. Can anyone confirm?
Can anyone confirm?
Yes.
The Gene Wolfe love-fest has convinced me that once I’m done re-reading Dune I’m going to go back and do The Book of the New Sun series. It’s been too long…
“Such a child eventually discovers, on some low but obscure shelf, The Book of Gold…it is a remarkably lovely book…Then the librarians come—like vampires, some say, but others say like the fairy godparents at a christening. They speak to the child, and the child joins them. Henceforth he is in the library wherever he may be…”
…I’ve heard his Roman fantasy novels were very good as well. Can anyone confirm?
Greek, actually. You are thinking of the Soldier series: Soldier of the Mist, Soldier of Arete, and Soldier of Sidon. It is about the wanderings of a mercenary soldier who, receiving a head injury at the Battle of Plataea, loses his long-term memory and thus his knowledge of where his home and family are. But he gains the ability to see and talk with the Gods. It is written as a diary and begins “Read this every day.” Now that I am pretty much retired, I should re-read them.
Mother of Loudon County Bathroom Rapist Blames Victim: ‘You’re 15. You Can Reasonably Defend Yourself’
And of course she looks like this:
…and it’s time to return to my usual nom de blog for all subsequent comments.
How much stupider will this country get?
https://mobile.twitter.com/L0m3z/status/1456276894664384523
And of course she looks like this:
Throw her in the shark tank. She’s fat enough to defend herself.
And of course she looks like this
Beware of that which seems too good to be true – I’ve seen comments that this is merely an incidental image of someone who attended a school-board session, chosen to accompany the original story in the absence of a picture of the boy’s mother.
Beware of that which seems too good to be true…
Good point. And it is true that I took what appeared on Instapundit as verified.
As Abraham Lincoln himself said, don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
Beware of that which seems too good to be true…
Good point. I verified that the person is NOT the mother, but someone commenting before the school board.
The original story is from the Daily Mail.
As Abraham Lincoln himself said, don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
Indeed, that was Teddy Roosevelt.
The original photo Pst posted seems to have come from here. What happened is that someone probably linked to the site, and because her photo was at the top, the Twitter link creates the impression that’s she was the mother.
Gazer and Uma, thank you for that.
Farnsworth, for your enjoyment:
TIL the Biggest Little City in the World was named after the guy who invented the escalator‘s dad. Also that the word “escalate” apparently derives from “escalator”, and not vice-versa. (Although Abraham Roosevelt’s nostrum applies. I should probably look it up in the OED.)
Also also that their family name was originally Renault.
l’esprit de l’escalator: the thrill I felt as a tiny child when I first navigated an escalator without fear that I might lose my balance.
Depressed Elderly Chicken Wishes to Retire as Indoor Pet Chicken.
I vote the chicken an honorable retirement as a pet.
Tell us a story of your people.
Eric Zemmour’s speech in Béziers is one of the best political speeches I’ve ever heard.
I’ve translated it into stilted English here. The literary quality is entirely lost in my translation, but some of what he’s talking about might get across.
He’s being presented as a French Trump. He’s not a Trump, he’s a Laurence Auster or a Chesterton. He’s expressed some admiration for Trump as a provocateur, but what he says in that speech about right wing intellectual lightweights who campaign like gangbusters but have no idea what to do once they’ve gained office, who bend like reeds to left wing provocations and moral blackmail … Trump may not be the guy he has in mind, but the brutal evaluation applies.
“Until this summer, I questioned my identity multiple times a day (exhausting and not affirming)…”
I sometimes wonder if someone’s writing these to the ‘Guardian’ to see what they’ll actually publish. ‘Fess up, if it’s one of the patrons!
This is one of these.
Via Holborn.
The death of liberalism?
Trolling Microsoft.
when the left is in power, it applies its ideas; and when the right is in power, it applies the left’s ideas, because it is completely indoctrinated by the cultural power of the left.
That describes many of the self-described conservatives and liberatarians I have known, especially the ones who were fans.
Golly. Now that my eyes have been opened to the reality of climate change I am for sure going to go glue myself to a road now.
“Elite” Ivy League University.
one of these.
I don’t know what movie Day 239 is from, but I hate it. I hate every single person in that frame. I hate the waiter standing by the wall. I hate the clothes they are wearing. I hate the beer they’re drinking. I hate whatever cigarettes/cigarillos/fags that they are smoking. I hate the ashtray AND the box of matches. I hate the color of the paint on the wall. I hate the black stovepipe next to the waiter, I hate their wrist watches. And I’m not too crazy about whatever that business is across the street whose sign you can almost read through the window. I’m OK with the bear so I think that’s it. Again, I’m not sure why…
It’s probably just the haircuts. But they’re contagious.
Day 224 is particularly fine.
…one of these….
If the guy really wanted to be clever, he’d photoshop the bear into something with Jeremy Clarkson.
WTF is a Security Evangelist
It’s easy for people who know nothing about the computer industry to bash on Microsoft; after all, it’s the only computer company they’ve ever heard of.
The truth is that security is not only not the first priority in any company making hardware or software, security never even makes it on to the road map. Take a tour through the various reports of web sites getting hacked and their user databases stolen and decrypted, and the scale of the apathy/incompetence on display is breathtaking. Passwords stored as simple reversible hashes because the user code hasn’t been updated since 2003. Smart home appliances that can’t use anything stronger than WEP. Database connection strings stored in plain text in a web.config file that can be downloaded at http://www.sitename.com/web.config. Databases exposed to the Internet on the default port with an sa password of ‘Passw0rd’. The massive financial and reputational damage from a security breach isn’t motivating people to change their behaviour, so maybe a bit of evangelism is worth trying.
The Drinker just gets better
Ehhh. He’s really just recycling Red Letter Media’s schtick, which itself is not much more than Prisoners of Gravity applied to film. Modern movies suck because most movies have always sucked. Geek movies today are the equivalent of 1980s action movies or 1990s SNL spinoff films. The difference is that the audience will direct brobdingnagian amounts of nerdrage at any film that doesn’t precisely tickle every single one of their dysfunctional coping mechanisms masquerading as geek hobbies. People like the Drinker and Mr. Plinkett are just applying first year film school to popular movies. Good on them; they’ve found an underserved niche and are making a nice little side hustle out of it, but people really need to let this “Disney/Fox/Lucas/Marvel/DC RUINED MY CHILDHOOD” nonsense go. The studios can’t go back in time and change your memories or steal your DVDs off your shelf. The only way they could have “ruined your childhood” is if you’re still in it.
I sometimes wonder if someone’s writing these to the ‘Guardian’ to see what they’ll actually publish
In the salad days of Canada’s National Post I had a running bet with several friends that “Rebecca Eckler” was not a real person, but rather a game amongst the paper’s more acerbic columnists to see who could write the most ridiculously Torontonian column without anyone noticing.
Many moons ago I house-shared with a sportswriter for a big city newspaper. He he used to bring home occasional letters “to the editor” too surreal to print. But there was also an ongoing betting pool among the staff to see who could write and get printed the most ridiculous letters. Their main target was “Dear Abby” (what I think y’all call an Agony Aunt?). Sex perversity was always the underlying theme.
(Of course, that stuff gets printed as straight news these days…)
Knowledge of the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect is your friend.
The massive financial and reputational damage from a security breach isn’t motivating people to change their behaviour, so maybe a bit of evangelism is worth trying.
Meanwhile in a boardroom in Redmond, Washington…
That same day, down on the factory floor, the millennial and Gen Z nebbishes put the final touches on
PintoYugoWindows 11…The only way they could have “ruined your childhood” is if you’re still in it.
[ Slides free napkin along bar to Daniel. ]
Prisoners of Gravity
I see where some episodes are posted at YouTube but links to the full series at TVO archives appear to be dead.
“Rebecca Eckler” was not a real person,
Oh she’s a very real person and even more insufferable in person than in print–think Canadian JAP. These days she’s reinvented herself as the doyenne of motherhood. Once again, we live in an irony free zone.
WTP: I don’t know what movie Day 239 is from, but I hate it.
As soon as I saw it, I said, “That must be a Wes Anderson movie, but which?”
Google Images reveals it as from “The French Dispatch,” his newest movie. Now in theaters.
It’s promoted as “a love letter to journalism.”
You are correct in your hate, and that guy’s brilliant.
The only way they could have “ruined your childhood” is if you’re still in it.
Didn’t “ruin my childhood” because I was never into comic books in the first place, my childhood having been almost entirely comic-book-free. Thus, the characters and themes were new to me when I saw the movies. My annoyance was that geek friends kept saying “lets go see this great new movie” which turned out to be crap made by children for children, and my friends could not understand my reaction.
News of the weird: Man bursts into flames after officers use Taser on him
More weird: German man runs up enormous water bill by letting taps run for a year. This is merely a much more extreme form of wasteful behavior I have seen, such as turning up the heat in the winter and then leaving a window open.
Man bursts into flames after officers use Taser on him
Oh dear, and in my hometown of all places.
“a love letter to journalism.”
There are these things. I feel them in my bones. I cannot explain these things. This is why I have trouble sleeping at night. OTOH, the batteries for the remote on our Sleepmaster Adjustable Bed died and the setting went from 95 down to somewhere south of 50 before we noticed. So maybe that was it. If I had to bet though, I would say it’s that first thing. Assuming an objective observer exists somewhere. Aaaand we’re back to square one. And the bottom of this bottle.
Posters saying “It’s okay to be white” have sparked a police hate crime investigation. Are England and America going mad? Or only our ruling elites?
German man runs up enormous water bill by letting taps run for a year.
Well now, that’s not very German.
“Are England and America going mad?”
The police will whine and wriggle and claim their hands are tied by ‘hate crime’ legislation, and they have no choice if someone makes a complaint.
And it’ll be a bald-faced lie, as anyone putting up a poster saying ‘It’s OK to be black’ and then getting a friend to put in a complaint about it could prove in an instant.
How not to elicit acceptance.
Truths that liberals refuse to see: They’re homeless because they’re clueless: Homeless man sprays puppy with bleach to clean it.
Well now, that’s not very German.
Only insane or criminal Germans do that, but perfectly sane immigrants from Third World countries sometimes do that, because they do not understand modern plumbing and see water coming out of a spigot as sort of magical.
@pst314: I thought cases like that poor pup was why US cops kept a ‘throwaway’ gun on hand at all times. The temptation would be too great for me.
The temptation would be too great for me.
I’m guessing that the perp has an IQ of about 65 and a drug problem too. Not evil per se but too stupid to be allowed on the streets. If my supposition is correct, our hatred should be directed at the Wise and Caring activists who prevent such people from being institutionalized.
Professor has thoughts: But God forbid you say that programming is hard. Because that would be racist.
A Twitter thread ranking all known surviving Imperial Faberge easter eggs:
https://twitter.com/grnpointer/status/1457097340788121600
Your own rankings may vary.