Tidings

David, is there something I need to know before I next visit the UK?
Yes, pst, there’s something you should know.

I saw an eight-foot tall Krampus yesterday on the way to the grocery store.

Yes, pst, there’s something you should know.
But it’s a secret – video unavailable

Yes, but how do you properly and safely dispose of the leftover liquid?
[ Leans on bar, smiles knowingly. ]

He returned, eventually, looking shell-shocked
Things are bad everywhere. Spent all day yesterday in a fruitless search for Christmas frogs. Nobody had them. And they must be tired of people asking because three stores threatened to call the police if I didn’t leave immediately.

The video of New York’s dark, cold, wet “Xmas” streets could really benefit with a soundtrack of Irving Berlin’s classic “Silver Bells” as only Bing Crosby can sing it, with somebody’s thumb on the edge of the album to give it that dismal, deranged, dystopian “je ne sais quoi!” Merry Christmas to those who live far from the crumbling Democrat cities and their Marx Brothers-quality fascism that currently passes for governance there. May that very real plague end someday soon!

Merry Christmas to everyone here, and may your days be merry and bright.

Today’s lesson at Agronomy for Urban Hipsters is about cowseeds.

Today’s lesson…
December 24, 2021 at 02:32
Can’t even make it 24 hours without a rerun these days…

Neil deGrasse Tyson being a joy-killing Grinch.

Neil deGrasse Tyson being a joy-killing Grinch.
Smoka-de-grass Tyson again demonstrates how his personal beliefs overshadow actual science. The Geomagnetic North Pole or dip pole is not a fixed location. It has moved over time and there have been times when the pole has been over land. Since Santa has been around forever, chances are he built his workshop and facility when the dip pole was over land. Since it would be impractical to move his operations every few years, he has remained at the original land based location and continues to call it his North Pole Workshop. Smoka-de-grass is an asshole.

Merry Christmas, everyone. A pleasant day to you all.

And a narcissist living in abject fear of irrelevancy.
I hear that he has done very, very little actual astrophysics (and nothing of note), instead being a planetarium popularizer until he got “discovered”. I wonder how much that accounts for his personality: I once knew someone like that who worked at a planetarium and wondered if it accounted for her short temper.
(Side comment: Note how universities turn out more people with degrees than there are good job openings. Ideally students should be counseled on their prospects so that mediocre students do not waste years on a hopeless dream but instead refocus their efforts on something with better prospects.)

[ Slurps coffee, chomps on crumpets. ]

[ Slurps coffee, chomps on crumpets. ]
Did you sleep late, or is that Second Breakfast?

Sleeping late is indeed a pleasure.

Seen on the intertubez: “Today my daughter called me ‘Birth Person’. I replied ‘Yes Financial Drain.’ “

Or, as Mike Rowe says “Don’t follow your passion.”
Yes indeed. I like to give examples of writers and artists who first established themselves in careers that paid a decent wage, and “followed their passion” in their spare time: Some of them eventually became good enough to quit their day jobs and become successful, full-time writers. For others it remained a life-long “hobby” which gave them some satisfaction.

Philosophers, managers, priests, poets, politicians, and other such busybodies should not be trusted until they’ve held a real job
Note that most college professors fit that category: They spend their entire lives in the education industry and can avoid ever learning what the rest of the world is really like. What’s more, from early childhood they are teacher’s pets–they learn to get their sense of self-worth from the praise of educationists and what’s worse they learn to look down upon those who are not so favored. This goes part-way towards explaining the monstrous arrogance of creatures like Fauci.
Evergreen: “Personally, I liked the University. They gave us money and facilities, we didn’t have to produce anything! You’ve never been out of college! You don’t know what it’s like out there! I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results.“

Evergreen
I’ve heard similar statements, usually couched in the-only-acceptable-quality-is-perfection excuse from people in the defense and space biz. While one might argue that perfection is necessary there, not to the degree in the contexts I heard it. And generally I found the quality in the private sector to equivalent if not somewhat better. And for much lower costs. When I left my just-sitting-around-waiting-for-launch job in the space biz, I was “warned” how hard it was, how I was going to find out how tough it was in the business world and come crawling back when I left KSC. This was after the Challenger accident and I saw what BS much of what people believed was. How people could lie to themselves so well about what they did all day. Not that much of the “real” world doesn’t have some of the same problem. Just on a different scale.

Says the liberal quoted in David’s post…
As noted in the comments there,

Surber is both condescending and parochial, as if a mental life was for His Tribe Only. Despite telling us at some length just how clever he is, and how clever leftist academics are (compared with Sarah Palin), Surber doesn’t actually provide much of an argument. He just tells us, repeatedly, that his tribe has the only view worthy of respect…
Note Surber’s sole contribution to the discussion following his article, in which he depicts his numerous and varied critics (from across the political spectrum) as “those who merely want to posture, pontificate, ‘conserve’ the status quo, turn back the clock to some imagined ‘better time’ – or whatever other aims fuel their obvious passion.”
The framing of his critics (whether ‘conservative’ or not) as “want[ing] to turn back the clock” is simply evasive and disingenuous. It’s a tribal cartoon – one that undermines his own claims of “complexity” and “nuance.” And this is Surber’s very first manoeuvre, one he repeats several times, and on which he hangs his credibility. Also disingenuous is the reference to his critics’ “obvious passion,” which implies, sneerily and dishonestly, that no serious and rational points were awaiting his reply.
Surber’s dismissive comment and failure to engage with criticism suggests he’s unable to step outside of his own conceits, even when pressed repeatedly, which isn’t an ideal trait for a professor of philosophy.

And as we’ve seen in the years since, this behaviour is in no way unusual among Professor Surber’s peer group.

Reminds me of the story of the music professor who was asked by a student if she had the talent to make it as a singer.
Sounds like an unusual professor.

It’s not the fault of the car thieves, it’s the fault of their victim.”

*throws quids in tip jar*
Merry Christmas, gracious host.

*throws quids in tip jar*
Bless you, sir. Should you find yourself, one morning, wiping droplets of wine from the front of the washing machine, may you at least enjoy the interrogation of a Beloved Other regarding how said droplets got there, mysteriously, during the night.