Friday Ephemera
Nest relocation of note. || Things girls don’t often do, a possible series. || A feel-good ass-kicking. || Grandma’s still got it. || How to test goggles. || Today’s words are bat genitals. || His is bigger than yours. || How many atoms are in your body? (h/t, Elephants Gerald) || Skills detected. || Dall-E 2. || Ladies at large. || Department store scenes. || 10 hours of New York penthouse ambience. || The progressive retail experience, parts 423, 424, and 425. || Act casual, say nothing. || “Do not open the window or sing.” || Somewhat related. || Assorted structural shortcomings. || You can’t say that. || You must affirm toy’s toyself. || Font crisis. || And finally, when your opinions are fashionable, but not load-bearing.
|| A feel-good ass-kicking. ||
I need to keep this handy for the next time one of my drinking buddies says we need to defund the police. This may not be what they have in mind, but it’s fer damn sure what they’ll get!
Automated ordering popped up in several fast food places (US) just before covid. When the pandemic started, they shut them all down because of germs–they would have to go out and sanitize them all every time used, which defeats the purpose. Still not activated.
Looks the same as usual to me.
That’s what you said about the bar snacks. ?
The font does seem somehow different, but it’s possible my judgement is affected by a lack of coffee.
7 buttons
The only button I’d be interested in would do a cold boot.
I would say the goggle testing is also things girls don’t do often.
Probably not. But as tomboy in my youth back in the days when summer meant being outside all day with you neighborhood friends, unsupervised by adults, it was bike riding, tree climbing, fort building, dirt clod fighting, games of tag/Red Rover/baseball, drinking-from-hose when thirsty. Only running inside the house for lunch or money for the ice cream man.
And somehow, I never ever wanted to be a boy.
And somehow, I never ever wanted to be a boy.
Next thing you’ll be telling us is that you never worried about pronouns. ?
Those who cannot create, steal and destroy.
Why draw the line at addition?
That’s some straight-up, BladeRunner dystopia shiznitt.
I had the exact same reaction. I was already looking for the movie footage when I saw you beat me to it. “A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies!”
I gotta confess, if the woke anti-colonialists refused to participate, I’d be sorely tempted to board a colony ship today.
“How many atoms are in your body?”
I’be been trying find a video of the sketch where Gregor Fisher (of Rab C. Nesbitt fame) plays an Aberdonian scientist to post here on a Friday for years. “Noo, ye tak’ yer wee aatom there, an’ ye split it in twa’…”
“Dall-E 2.”
Well, there’s a coincidence. In the abscence of that video, imagine the “Teddy bears mixing sparkling chemicals as mad scientists, as a 1990s Saturday morning cartoon” in an accent halfway between Groundskeeper Willie and the Swedish Chef.
That’s going to have interesting ramifications for copyright.
“You can’t say that.”
From down the thread:
Precisely what crosses my mind whenever I see this kind of thing.
On a vaguely related note, instead of teaching kids how Roman slavery, while still abhorrent, differed from the American variety, let’s just pretend it never happened instead.
Oh boy, that brings back some memories, though. Caecilius in triclinio sedet. Cerberus est in horto.
Darleen,
I engaged in all those activities–plus snake and insect catching. About the only thing I didn’t do was seek out fights. Even today, at 60 years old, I head off on solo runs that last 6 hours, stop to pick up non-rattler snakes on trail, take pictures of the scat I find (bear? fox? coyote?), pee in the woods, pick up and inspect dead animals…
And yet, like you, I never wanted to be a male. I sure do like hanging out with them, though.
Governor Squid — Here you go, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZNzz4SaTYk
addition: she uses the Historical % of black judges (when yes things were racist) to condemn today. Then admits that 80% of judges are white–a slight over representation, but remember most judges went to law school before affirmative action.
Innumeracy is handy when you have an agenda.
My apologies to Lady Theo and Darleen: there weren’t many girls doing those things that I saw as a kid. No aspersions on girls who do. But still less likely.
The almost entirely unreported arrests and unsurprising identities of the Sacramento mass murderers (for that is surely what they would have been called over and over again on each and every news site had they been white) is similar to the Oberlin ruling whereby incontrovertible facts which go against the narrative never make it to the mainstream media.
On a far more important note the kitchen in the “girls don’t do this often” post with its unfinished chipboard units and vomit green paint has appeared on here before – it’s not a sight anyone is likely to forget.
I have more or less mastered the self-checkout stations at my local supermarket, but there are defects that cannot be escaped, such as the robotic “please put the item in the bag” voice when you scan an item which weighs so little as to not be detected by the scale under the bag.
The key is to push down in the bag with your hand or fist as you put the item in. The scale registers force, that’s it.
I do it often when I have large items that I want that won’t fit in a plastic bag. Scan it, press down on the scale with my one hand and just put the item on the floor or shelf with the other. The scale doesn’t know the difference and the bored pink hair teenage girl at customer service never looks up from her TicTac videos.
On media distortion: somewhere I saw side by side pics of Lia Thomas from his win (wet, in the water) with the version that appeared in print: they air brushed his pic to look more feminine. ugh
Making Beethoven Woke
But, of course, he is deaf to all entreaties
The font does seem somehow different, but it’s possible my judgement is affected by a lack of coffee.
My browser upgraded itself last night. Perhaps it’s reading the html differently, or changed its base fonts, or is now using the font it should have been using all along but couldn’t render. Who knows? But it’s definitely different
I don’t so much mind the self-check if I have only one or two items. But even with a line, I’m going to a cashier every time I buy soda (I buy it rarely, but in bulk). There are no baggers in most of the checkout lines, and I’ve resigned myself to doing it on my own most of the time, but there simply isn’t enough space to put the contents of a full grocery cart in even if I weren’t being forced to do the work of two potential employees.
On the other hand, I am firmly in favor of the kiosk method of ordering fast food. I can order in a language I don’t speak, have no question whether the cashier took my order correctly, and all I have to watch for is my number coming up. The receipt is printed in the local language and my own, in the same order, so I can clearly point to anything that is incorrect. And the menu is so simple that there really is almost no room for ambiguity.
It does seem that black lives don’t matter all that much to black people. Life is cheap in the ‘hood.
Relevant.
when you scan an item which weighs so little as to not be detected by the scale under the bag
I’ve always thought that was an odd error condition. Oh no, you scanned something, paid for it and then failed to remove it from the store! Uhh….darn?
Relevant.
I hope it makes a difference, but consider this key quote:
“I’m not gonna be a part of killing somebody that looks like me…”
How about vowing not to kill people who aren’t black, either? That “looks like me” part is certainly attention-getting, but it reminds me of the black radicals of earlier decades who were fine with killing whites and Jews and so on.
By “attention-getting” I meant effective way to propagandize the target audience. Unfortunately, the target audience has strong racist tendencies.
Relevant.
Followed the map app to somewhere north of here, and the route took me right through a more vibrant side of town I generally avoid. Granted, most of this city is vibrant – we even had a local rapper killing not too long ago – none of which makes the news. Just ho hum another day in the neighborhood. But on a street corner in this vibrant section of town was a sign similar to this one, although it was more of a plea – something along the lines of “please stop killing each other”, and was posted by a local church.
That “looks like me” part is certainly attention-getting, but it reminds me of the black radicals of earlier decades who were fine with killing whites and Jews and so on.
True, but given he got the idea while praying, that may not have been the guy’s intention, even as the wording choice was rather poor. The black radicals tended to gravitate to the religion of peace if they were religious at all, I thought. Nation of Islam and all. But maybe there are some black churches preaching hate whitey.
True, but given he got the idea while praying, that may not have been the guy’s intention…
I agree. I do not question his motives.
…even as the wording choice was rather poor.
And that can lead to the painful question, how can you reach these people? They are already so badly damaged, individually and collectively, that it seems virtually impossible to find words that will move them. But perhaps the answer to that is that one should not dwell on reaching everyone but just think about reaching individuals and hope to slowly make a difference, like the metaphor about the raindrops that slowly wear away a hill.
Would that be with fava beans and a nice chianti?
For some authors this might be a very suitable bookmark. (Via the often funny Mike’s Towing.)
Somewhat related.
For the best cyberpunk dystopia experience, dress appropriately.
In the supermarket where I shop, the self-checkout is a group of kiosks with no conveyor belt, and a sign that says “Express Self-Checkout”. The traditional express lanes (sometimes open) have a sign adding “14 items of less”. Unfortunately, the express kiosks don’t add that, so way too many people try to go through with a lot more than 14 items, and worse, a bunch of produce that needs to be weighed.
If everybody followed the express rule, the kiosks would work great. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen, and it’s frankly enraging. (I stop off at work one or two days a week and usually use the kiosks since I have half a dozen items. When not all of the kiosks are occupied, it’s so much more convenient.)
It is understood that prison bosses are treating the demands seriously…
Here you go; “Protocol For Dealing With Prisoners Who Decide They Are Babies: 1) Just Say No.”
No it isn’t, Helen Keller could see it is the latter.
Please send 15,000 Imperial Dollars for the consultation to the Better Optimal Outcomes Towards Increasing New Justice Of Criminal Knowledge foundation.
It is understood that prison bosses are treating the demands seriously…
Perhaps because they know there are “human rights” lawyers eager to file lawsuits on behalf of the criminals.
The traditional express lanes (sometimes open) have a sign adding “14 items of less”. Unfortunately, the express kiosks don’t add that
I strongly suspect that is because the supermarket wants as many people as possible to use the self-checkout kiosks regardless of how many items they have.
I’ll bet this thing has tentacles.
Making kids do homework is just like being Derek Chauvin and George Floyd.
The comment box font disease has also affected Tim Worstall’s blog. Must be a WordPress thing (if this blog is based on WordPress).
Harsh but sadly true.
The comment box font disease…
The least of our problems, fortunately.
I’ll bet this thing has tentacles.
I won’t take that bet. 🙁
Yeah, that’s what the people of Ukraine need right now:
A Canadian leftist wants to teach a class on “social justice and collaborative conflict resolution.”
It’s okay. Another leftist imbecile just vowed today to send Zelensky another $100 million Canuckistani kopeks. And unfortunately this one is in charge of the national cheque book.
His second in command is an odious little toad with dubious Ukrainian family roots.
For fun type “Freeland Nazi grandfather” into duckduckgo.
All the news that’s fit to suppress.
Harsh but sadly true.
When you stop listening to the self-deluding justifications and just look at the etiology, things become much clearer.
“Russia is a diddle, wrapped in a misery, inside an enema.
–author unknown
He just assumed he had fell on hard times . . .
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=911801555943392&id=712622129194670
Adbusters presents how to get a beatdown.
Adbusters presents how to get a beatdown.
They are the shitty little brats in the checkout lane of life.
Adbusters presents how to get a beatdown.
Be careful with that beatdown thought…
I had a solicitor come to my house during dinner the other night. I told him I wasn’t interested, this is a posted “no soliciting” neighborhood. He would not go away, questioned why I did not like the company he represented, and started to get pissy with me as I increasingly got irritated that he would not leave. I finally came out of the house and marched him, Sgt. Carter/Goomer Pyle style to the street. At which point he threatened/dared me to step out into the street for physical altercation. Since I had already made my point and my pierogis were getting cold I ignored him. When I was out for my morning walk it occurred to me that such a person might have domestic issues or such and maybe I ought to report it. Yes….no..maybe…no…meh. As luck (?) would have it a couple cops were two houses down the road this afternoon and as I was a bit on the fence about it I thought maybe it was a sign that maaaybe I should ask Officer Friendly his thoughts. Rather stupid of me in retrospect. Officer Friendly went into robo-cop mode and fed me the story that I was wrong to do such a thing and the proper way to handle these things is to shut your door, close your blinds (we don’t have blinds on the windows in the kitchen table area where we happened to be eating that night) and call the police. Yes. We should hide in our houses, clear the dinner table and run to another room, and call Big Brother to handle all our issues. What a sad pussy-ass world we live in.
David, are you still watching Picard? Because you’re in for a real treat.
I cringed so hard I think I pulled a muscle in my back. Double martini please and don’t spare the olives.
David, are you still watching Picard?
Dear Lord, no. As discussed at the time, the first season was bewilderingly bad. The writers seemed to keep forgetting whether one character was human or not; other characters made bizarre decisions in practically every episode; objects of plot importance given to one character inexplicably appeared in the possession of another, despite the two being separated by 40,000 light years. I have no confidence whatsoever in Mr Alex Hilary Kurtzman and his woke-but-incompetent writing staff.
And from what I’ve heard of season two, and the clips I’ve seen, the standard of writing has not improved significantly. But I see the ham-fisted, obnoxious, and immoral politics has been brought to the fore. So there’s that. And it’s interesting how the more they try to make a grittier, more grown-up Star Trek, one more attuned to the modern progressive mentality, the more it feels delinquent, nihilistic and psychologically adolescent.
the more it feels delinquent, nihilistic and psychologically adolescent
So, are you going to tell us what you really think of it?