Friday Ephemera
Hardcore cleaning. || All you have to do, they said, is keep very still. || Well, I suppose they’re quite big, yes. || Boat legs. || AntGame. || Gratuitous drama detected. || What are the odds? || “They took what was already there and claimed it as theirs.” || Sprites. || The joys of public transport, parts 4,863 and 4,864. || Add pants, should they be needed. || Sponsor Block, for skipping the ever-lengthening sponsor segments in YouTube videos. || Musical interlude. || The last one. || Discussion point. || Discussion point 2. || Fashion for him, and for her. || Four legs good. || How to fail a drug test. || She’s winning at fatness, so there’s that. || And finally, with some effort, when you really do want your towel back.
“All you have to do, they said, is keep very still.”
Oh, come on… that can’t be good for you.
“Gratuitous drama detected.”
Makes this chap look like an amateur.
“They took what was already there and claimed it as theirs.”
Ah, but it’s only bad when you do it to black and brown people. (And there are none of those in Seattle. Right?)
Anyhoo… This bloke turned his leaf blower into a jet engine. On purpose.
I’d chip in for a deprogrammer team to rescue purple-hair’s kid.
What are the odds?
“I need help…”
You sure do, but it isn’t money you need.
What are the odds?
It’s child abuse.
“…when you really do want your towel back.”
Even Ford Prefect can’t be that fond of a towel!
Sponsor Block, for skipping the ever-lengthening sponsor segments in YouTube videos.
Thank you. 🙂
Morning, all.
I’d chip in for a deprogrammer team to rescue purple-hair’s kid.
Lyric – our “31yo queerdo(he/xe/him/xem) Queer + polyamorous parent” – does seem, shall we say, keen for her son to have the same issues she does. Despite all the rainbows and jolly hair colours, I doubt there’s a happy story there.
Discussion point 2.
MI > Bond.
MI > Bond.
At present, yes. Skyfall was entertaining – I saw it twice, which I almost never do – but the last two Bond outings have been utterly disappointing. As many have quipped, No Time to Die, which I gave up on after an hour, should have been titled No, Time to Die.
Whereas the last three Mission: Impossible films have been great fun.
Sponsor Block, for skipping the ever-lengthening sponsor segments in YouTube videos
“It also supports skipping other categories, such as intros, outros and reminders to subscribe”
It amuses me that we’re apparently going to continue trying to make ad-supported media work despite a couple of decades worth of evidence that consumers hate it.
How to fail a drug test
Mythbusters did this once, and although I wouldn’t take any of their experiments seriously they claimed all it took was two poppy seed bagels in the morning to trip a positive result on an over-the-counter drug test.
when you really do want your towel back
I’m more curious what fooled the snake into thinking the towel was food. Was it heated or something?
It amuses me that we’re apparently going to continue trying to make ad-supported media work despite a couple of decades worth of evidence that consumers hate it.
As I’m sure I’ve said many times, online adverts feel much more intrusive and aggravating than, say, TV ads or newsprint ads. I suspect it’s partly because the interruptions are happening on your laptop or phone or whatever, which just feels rude somehow, and also because internet time runs much faster, as it were, and so any delays feel amplified. A four-minute ‘sponsor segment’ feels like an eternity.
[ Added: ]
Presumably, this place has readers who find the quarterly fundraisers tiresome, and I still feel some trepidation each time I announce one. One doesn’t like to be a bother, as they say. But the alternatives – massive amounts of advertising, of things over which I would have no influence – strike me as worse.
Empowerment detected.
“Don’t be ashamed…”
“Don’t be ashamed…”
Even junkies must feel validated! ?
Even junkies must feel validated! ?
Well, I’m guessing the thinking is that shame – recognising one’s moral squalor and unhappy trajectory – may prompt depression and even more ruinous fentanyl use. But as supposedly uplifting messages go – messages seen by children on public transport – it’s quite a thing: “Just keep on doing whatever is ruining your life and degrading the social environment of those around you. Everything is fine.”
The joys of public transport, parts 4,863 and 4,864.
Jesus wept.
Jesus wept.
Well, quite. The second video is arguably the more disturbing. The woman being menaced and assaulted mouths the words “help me.” And nobody does. Instead, those nearby pretend it isn’t happening.
As I’m sure I’ve said many times, online adverts feel much more intrusive and aggravating than, say, TV ads…
The main reason is that commercial TV TV shows are built around ads – X minutes of show, Y minutes of ads, so the ads are inserted at logical breaks, e.g., scene changes. Much the same is true when non-commercial TV (e.g. BBC shown over here) TV shows or movies are shown on commercial channels.
YouTube ads, OTOH, are seemingly at random and will pop up in the middle of someone speaking or doing something. That coupled with the distracting idiocy of a 30 second ad you can punch out of after 5 seconds (why bother?) is why they are more annoying.
What are the odds?
My son wants to be mentally ill just like me! Help me destroy his life before he changes his mind.
So sad. And infuriating.
Fashion for her, Spongebob Edition
If you skip the ads the person whose content you are enjoying doesn’t get paid anything.
I watch some guitar lessons online and I purposely let the adds run. Otherwise the content will probably disappear after a while. The creator would have no incentive to keep posting new content.
Won’t you help? For just pennies a day you can help with life saving medical care.
If you skip the ads the person whose content you are enjoying doesn’t get paid anything.
I mute the ad and do something else until it ends. That way the creator gets paid, and I don’t get annoyed.
Some of those ads use images that seem designed to disgust you (the foot fungus ones). I don’t know why anyone would do that.
The joys of public transport, part 4,865
The joys of public transport, parts 4,863 and 4,864.
The moment when a bystander should have hit the assailant in the face as hard as possible. May I use the left’s favorite slogan, “by any means necessary”?
And finally, with some effort, when you really do want your towel back.
“Bill Rogan’s snake was feeling fine, ate three red shirts from off the line…”
Won’t you help? For just pennies a day you can help with life saving medical care.
“You can mutilate this sick puppy, or you can turn the page.”
May I use the left’s favorite slogan, “by any means necessary”?
Needless to say, being menaced by a lunatic is not a pleasant experience. The victim’s realisation that her fellow passengers will not help will most likely have compounded the distress considerably and may have been more upsetting than the assault itself.
Well, quite. The second video is arguably the more disturbing. The woman being menaced and assaulted mouths the words “help me.” And nobody does. Instead, those nearby pretend it isn’t happening.
Part of the problem is that most people are not physically fit and do not know how to fight. The larger problem is that there is no shortage of “human rights” lawyers and “progressive” district attorneys who will sue or prosecute the hero who gives that thug what he deserves. And this ties into my contention that leftists should be treated as existential enemies.
The victim’s realisation that her fellow passengers will not help will most likely have compounded the distress considerably and may have been more upsetting than the assault itself.
Yes indeed. The realization that liberals will protect those who harm me while depriving me of the legal right to defend myself was part of what radicalized me.
Heroin addiction — it’s empowering!
The larger problem is that there is no shortage of “human rights” lawyers and “progressive” district attorneys who will sue or prosecute the hero who gives that thug what he deserves. And this ties into my contention that leftists should be treated as existential enemies.
This is the first thing that pops into my mind whenever something like this happens and then people ask the ‘Why did no one do anything?’ question. It is valid, and people with intact morals should and would be outraged, but I’ve seen too many cases where it goes wrong for the person trying to do the right thing.
There’s also a small part of me, that I’m not very proud of, which thinks that the people affected most likely support and vote for the politicians that allow this stuff to go unpunished. Maybe negative reinforcement will wake them up, nothing else ever seems to.
Fashion for her
Haute Couture meets the Outer Gods
but I’ve seen too many cases where it goes wrong for the person trying to do the right thing.
Do you mean “goes wrong at the scene” or “goes wrong in the courts”?
The second video is arguably the more disturbing.
As disturbing as it is, it’s equally disturbing that people film it in a detached manner as if it were some form of street theatre put on for their benefit. This is the very real performance art offered in big cities that puts in perspective the hollowness of the work of people like Sandrine Schaefer who David has highlighted many times in this space.
Fashion for her
They usually travel in pairs.
Do you mean “goes wrong at the scene” or “goes wrong in the courts”?
I’m not sure that’s an ‘or’ question.
it’s equally disturbing that people film it in a detached manner as if it were some form of street theatre put on for their benefit.
And frequently laughing as they film it. My personal ideal would be for a few people to film the attack while others prepare to engage and neutralize the attacker.
May I use the left’s favorite slogan, “by any means necessary”?
Watching the thing for a second time, I imagined something analogous happening in, say, a 1950s cowboy film, and what we, the audience, would be expected to make of it. What lessons we might draw.
Drama detected in context:
Couple leaves house to drive to an event. Starts to cross bridge:
She: I don’t have my hand creme! We have to go back!
He: Can’t you pick some up at a store on the way?
She: It’s the only brand I like. Anyway, it’s just back at the house.
He: Well, okay (negotiates death-defying u-turn)
She: Never mind! It was in my handbag the whole time!
If you skip the ads the person whose content you are enjoying doesn’t get paid anything.
I pay for YouTube Premium (no auto-inserted ads) since I use it a lot and of course now the channel owners are inserting *their own* ads into the content.
Re: What are the odds:
Whatever happened to making kids work to earn money for themselves?
If you spoil a kid by giving him money for his gender transition, she’s never going to learn to stand on her own two feet and protest until government provides whatever she demands. She’s going to expect a politician to always be there to promise to meet every need, not realizing that politicians don’t grow on trees. They needs lots of tending and lots of money.
Descartes doubted the testimony of his senses because of the likelihood of illusion. He realized that in the act of thinking and awareness, he had discovered a source of truth: ‘Cogito, ergo sum.”
Skip forward three centuries and we see his error.
“Who gave this White Man the right to tell womxn, POC and LBGTQ+ how to be? Now, We tell You! An’ you ain’t all that! No more!”
Just pointing out that according to her own chart, she is not winning at fatness, she is coming in second place at a mere 5x.
Ramming speed!
Don’t you dare call it grooming.
.
Speaking of Libs of TikTok, Mercedes Lackey says that this either does not happen or happens but is a good thing.
When your pilot and copilot are both affirmative action hires.
Name That CRT Burn-In, fun for all the family. Providing the family is entirley comprised of middle-aged videogame nerds.
(Pretty sure #3 is fake, because it’s an urban legend. Or used to be, at least.)
CRT Burn-In? Is that where neural implants are used to permanently alter our thinking to conform to the State’s wishes?
Pastel is now going by “Paint/Paintself” new phony “pronouns”, but please don’t be mean to this made up DID “alter” or whatever the kids are calling their imaginary friends these days.
Have I committed a blockquote overflow?
Well, I’m guessing the thinking is that…
One should have doubleplusgood bellyfeel for wearing hearing protection while playing Russian roulette.
One should have doubleplusgood bellyfeel for wearing hearing protection while playing Russian roulette.
Again, I’m assuming the thinking is that fentanyl users won’t respond to the reality of their own self-inflicted degradation, and that, if told obvious truths, will get depressed and degrade themselves further. And so, the result is to prioritise the junky’s hypothetical self-esteem – a self-esteem that would be unearned, indeed perverse – and to publicly validate choices and behaviour that are antisocial and destructive, not least to the fentanyl user. And this message is seen by children.
prioritise the junky’s hypothetical self-esteem – a self-esteem that would be unearned, indeed perverse etc.
yes. I am fortunate that my exposure to junkies is 2nd and 3rd hand.
However in almost every case that I have seen, as with most addictions I suppose, self-pity features.
Telling such persons that their heroin use is fine is simply, as you say, perverse.
At an event in my childrens’ school 20+ years ago I made a passing reference to drug abusers. One parent took offence and corrected me: “‘Scuse me- they are drug users not abusers”. He and his partner then sat back as if they had smote the ignorant and stood up for the righteous.
All delivered in that stoned drawl of the junkie, crumpled tracksuits and yellow/grey pallor.
An advertisement for the empowerment of heroin (and assorted substitutes) and legitimate lifestyle choices.
blockquote overflow
Band name. But gets gigs only at IT conventions and near college campuses.
blockquote overflow
[ Adds to list of outrages to which I am subjected. ]
Another “trans” person truly broken beyond repair.
Apologies since this is not technically an open thread but I hope the voters of Bristol make sure that this ill-educated, hypocritical, fucking grifter’s feet do not touch the ground on his way out of office.
Bristol mayor flies nine hours for TED climate conference
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-61596817
And with a writ to claim back all the salary and expenses he has been paid.
Thank you Mr Thompson for your forbearance (I hope), I feel better for that rant.
“Not my job to protect their profit margins.”
Apologies since this is not technically an open thread…
Well, this is the Friday Open Thread. And what’s more, we can hope that the Bristol mayor’s political career is ephemeral.
Well, this is the Friday Open Thread
Yes, I guess so but today’s edition doesn’t actually say so. Never mind, my disclaimer…
I have no connection with Bristol, I don’t think I have ever been there, except a youthful dalliance with Mr Harvey’s excellent range of dry sherries.
Meanwhile this tickled my guffaw response: https://twitter.com/GoodReddit/status/1530202956922077186/photo/1
Good News Everyone! A new pride flag has dropped!.
After much pop-up importuning, I once decided to whitelist a site I visit fairly regularly. I was promptly inundated with a sidebar full of animated monstrosities, including one with chattering teeth straight out of the Uncanny Valley. I returned it to my adblock list, where it has remained ever since.
I whitelisted a site like that, and after recoiling in horror, enlarged the font with Ctrl+ until the sidebar was invisible. Now I read without being annoyed and the creator gets the ad revenue.
When reading the Ace of Spades blog on my phone: When I click “continue reading” on one of the longer posts, I get redirected to some random commercial website. I had been thinking of donating to Ace, but that is the sort of shit behavior that persuades me otherwise.
I laughed. Link via EBL.
When reading the Ace of Spades blog on my phone:
No ads with DuckDuckGo browser on Lineage, YMMV on googlized Android or iOS. Is free, try and delete if you don’t like.
No ads with DuckDuckGo browser on Lineage, YMMV on googlized Android or iOS…
That doesn’t surprise me. I don’t have the problem on my laptop. But that a blogger would implement such sh*t persuades me to refrain from giving him money.
The Turtle moves! No turtle-denying heretic can hide.
But that a blogger would implement such sh*t persuades me to refrain from giving him money.
A short while back Ace had a post requesting donations so that he wouldn’t have to go to ads, so I am guessing things didn’t go to plan.
I have no clue what Ace may do for a living and whether donations are really important (I get unlimited bandwidth/storage hosting for about $125/year) but if it is, it is not unlike the youtube argument, if you like the content, the options are block, donate, or put up with the ads.
How to fail a drug test
Umm…did he really fail that test? The “C” is the control isn’t it? That shows the test is working. The “T” is the actual test. At least that is how Covid tests work. In passing… I just took a Covid test on Wednesday, the second one of these I had administered, and the instructions had incomplete sentences and missing a step, which was easily figured out but still. Made in China of course. What puzzled me was, as opposed to the previous test I administered, the “T” line showed up immediately and the “C” gradually filled in over the 15 minutes. The first test I had administered two months ago was negative, BTW.
Also, a little benefit of our experience as I have seen some discussion of this over the last two years or so…granted our sample size is only two but we had tremendous success (well we’re still on the top side of the earth anyway) using a simple mixture of vodka and orange juice. Hopefully others will find this information useful and we can all get back to normal.
Ace can put the ads in the sidebar. Launching pages belonging to advertisers is unacceptable, especially since that is a serious security risk.
The larger problem is that there is no shortage of “human rights” lawyers and “progressive” district attorneys who will sue or prosecute the hero who gives that thug what he deserves.
Nah, bro. The larger problem is that when persecuted by said DA’s and “human rights” lawyers, and actually even before, the hero will be treated by friends, neighbors, colleagues, and even employers as a person who “did not act wisely”. Therein lies the real problem. The cowardice is thick in or society. On a broader note but in my mind quite relevant (call me crazy, I’m getting used to it) people, especially “experts” like doctors, who are too chickenshit to even speak up when the mutilation of children’s sexual organs is becoming a more and more common thing cannot possibly be expected to take physical action against a thug. What would the neighbors think?
School massacre: when we praise and honor cops, they are more likely to act like heroes. If we demean them, cut their funding, and let the criminals go, why should they risk their lives for us? Incentives people, incentives.
Heroin poster: this just continues the “no-one should ever feel bad about their choices” trend–even if their choices will kill them.
School massacre:
I think Ace nailed it yesterday.
The woman being menaced and assaulted mouths the words “help me.” And nobody does. Instead, those nearby pretend it isn’t happening.
Odd, from listening to conurbation dwellers, the cities produce nothing but the best and brightest, literal heroes and giants among men.
Odd, from listening to conurbation dwellers, the cities produce nothing but the best and brightest, literal heroes and giants among men.
With even the most basic coordination, those present could, I assume, have overwhelmed the lunatic. Several of those present were fairly strapping chaps. But no-one bothered. As if any kind of intervention would be a breach of New Yorker protocol. As if it were understood that one simply doesn’t bother.
Well, you might say, not everyone is cut out to be a hero and not everyone wants to risk it. But not risking it has consequences too, one of which is that you get to feel like a shitty human being. Which makes me wonder why someone would choose to remain in a place where the opportunities to feel like a shitty human being are commonplace and inexhaustible.
Launching pages belonging to advertisers is unacceptable, especially since that is a serious security risk.
Having a googleized Android or an iOS phone is a self-inflicted serious security risk. Use a different browser, Win or Linux on a variety of browsers I only get sidebar ads, the phone, nada, zilch, nichego, bupkis. If you have a gripe, shoot Ace an e-mail, for all you or I know, he may not know what you describe happens on some browser OS combos.
Killer is not only a habitual criminal, he looks like an internet meme.
Almost as bad as Yoko Ono.
Which makes me wonder why someone would choose to remain in a place where the opportunities to feel like a shitty human being are commonplace and inexhaustible.
Lots aren’t.
“It’s far more likely that basic quality of life issues are prompting people to leave. Rampant crime has made the city an increasingly dangerous place to live, particularly in the subways. The streets are overrun by the homeless and “aggressive panhandlers.” The cost of living is through the roof and affordable rental rates are nearly impossible to find.”
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/05/27/the-escape-from-new-york-is-accelerating-n471845
When reading the Ace of Spades blog on my phone: When I click “continue reading” on one of the longer posts, I get redirected to some random commercial website. I had been thinking of donating to Ace, but that is the sort of shit behavior that persuades me otherwise.
At the end of my desktop flaneurring online, I would find a popup ad underneath my browser. I thought my computer had been hacked, so I spent two days running virus and malware checkers and came up clean.
Turns out Ace had installed something that worked around my popup blockers. Fucker.
There was an incident a few months back in which a couple of groups of thugs got to shooting one another in the street and a homeless woman was killed in the crossfire. She had apparently been a regular fixture in that area for years, so one of the local rags did a story on her, interviewing some of the non-homeless people who lived and worked there. The descriptions ran to adjectives such as ‘eccentric’ and ‘sassy,’ which is don’t-speak-ill-of-the-dead for ‘an entrenched psycho who would scream profanity at anyone she felt had dissed her.’
Don’t get me wrong, her death was as tragic as it was pointless, but I have an allergy to smarmy euphemisms.
There’s quite a lot to process here.
There’s quite a lot to process here.
Wow. 🙂
Wow.
And yes, it’s real.
The publication is based in India and I’m guessing that something went awry in translation. It seems ‘cyclist’ and ‘racer’ somehow fused into ‘racist’… I quite like how the error overshadows what would otherwise be the, as it were, meat of the story.
…the, as it were, meat of the story.
Oh. Minor detail.
“Can’t beat ’em, join
’ema group you can”Don’t get me wrong, her death was as tragic as it was pointless, but I have an allergy to smarmy euphemisms.
Especially when they are spouted by the news business.
A crime even more heinous than aggravated mopery.
It seems ‘cyclist’ and ‘racer’ somehow fused into ‘racist’…
“Rincewind had always been happy to think of himself as a racist. The One Hundred Meters, the Mile, the Marathon — he’d run them all. Later, when he’d learned with some surprise what the word actually meant, he’d been equally certain he wasn’t one. He was a person who divided the world quite simply into people who were trying to kill him and people who weren’t. That didn’t leave much room for fine details like what color anyone was.”
–The Last Continent, by Terry Pratchett.
I always regarded that and similar passages in his other books as clumsy flaws, mini-lectures injected into the story. Pratchett would have done better to be more subtle and just show us how people who are not racists behave.
On the same general topic, puts Michaelangelo to shame. (It is art, but maybe NSFW.)
On another, so much money wasted on tiktok dancing nurses, the NHS has had to cut its budget for emergency services.
A crime even more heinous than aggravated mopery.
Note that the story is about Fairfax County, Virginia. It and the other counties that border Washington DC are among the wealthiest counties in the entire United States. (Funny, isn’t it, how those with political power manage to acquire so much money. But I’m sure it’s all an innocent coincidence. /sarcasm)
The guy discovers a surprising fact about The Vatican.
The guy discovers a surprising fact about The Vatican.
[ Pictures Cardinal Fang and his Flying Squad of inquisitors speeding through the streets of Rome on motorcycles, red robes streaming behind them. ]
Bridges: always attracted to boys. Well. There seems to be a failure of logic on a massive scale. A boy attracted to boys is not a girl. Wait, there’s a word for it….Sorry slips my mind.
Statue: so Freud was right about penis envy? I was unaware that my arch enemy when surfing porn– “chicks with dicks” –was now a hero of some sort.
“we men need to look in the mirror”
“Once the equality of all human groups is accepted as a given, any facts that make a minority or foreign group seem worse than the majority native group must be either covered up or blamed on the majority.”
What is three times three times three? How many are in a dozen? What is the capitol of the United States of America?
Pictures Cardinal Fang and his Flying Squad of inquisitors speeding through the streets of Rome on motorcycles…
I, for one, was surprised that the Cardinals and other sundry clerics aren’t barreling around Vatican City in lifted diesel F-250s rolling coal.
Healthy Routine, well, except for the blown cervical discs, but OK.