Friday Ephemera

Korean cinemas knock it up a notch.
Alamo Drafthouse, San Francisco and elsewhere . . .

It’s a quaint Swiss villa and also a bunker.
Ehn, because it keeps coming to mind, Mr. White should have had one . . .

Why crashing into the Sun is harder than you think.
My mind can cope with Newtonian orbital calculations and Charles Mingus bass lines.
But that just made me feel dizzy.

And finally, make your own sperm fitness videos:
I know how healthy my sperm is feeling by how much he pulls on his lead when I take him out for a walk in the morning.

Chester, thank you, you’ve triggered an idea.
I’m off down to my basement, I may be some time…..
PS. Does anyone have any spare extra-large elastic bands I can borrow?

Laurie Penny:
https://medium.com/welcome-to-the-scream-room/im-with-the-banned-8d1b6e0b2932#.7i9c95vcv
I wonder why it’s on Medium. Didn’t a newspaper want it?

I mean, that’s a good paragraph.
Did our host just compliment Laurie Penny? *rubs eyes*

“Morning, all.”
That has been happening much more ever since the demise of the drafting table and it became “easy” to make changes with CAD.
“If you put tomfoolery into a computer, nothing comes out of it but tomfoolery. But this tomfoolery, having passed through a very expensive machine, is somehow ennobled and no-one dares criticize it.”
– Pierre Gallois

You use a nearby planet to brake your speed relative to the sun in a “slingshot” which points you in the right direction
Yeah, but “Set the controls for a slingshot that points us to the heart of the Sun” doesn’t have the same ring to it.

*faints*
It was a very small compliment. Let’s not go crazy.

Shot:
I’m a radical queer feminist leftist writer burdened with actual principles.
Chaser:
He thinks that’s funny…
So do I. Actually, I think that is a) delusional; b)as rare as a real hippogriff.

So do I. Actually, I think that is… delusional
I wonder if Laurie ever considers the possibility that the people and cultural phenomena she says she despises – Milo, Trump, a rejection of political correctness, etc. – are in part a reaction to, and fuelled by broad resentment of, the influence of people very much like herself.

Laurie clearly likes Milo despite herself.
Cue flatshare comedy.

No refunds, credit note only.

“This can be done without getting semen on the phone.”
Now you tell me.

A bit of music for you.
I see the joy of the weekend is upon us, then.

Cognitive dissonance is Milo’s thing. It’s how he’s able to provoke American college students into such extraordinary paroxysms just by showing up on their campus.

That’s one for your collection, isn’t it, David?
It’s practically a punchline.
What’s interesting to me is how Laurie appears baffled that anyone could be in favour of Trump or his pronouncements, even as a last resort, while many of her own statements reinforce the fears and suspicions voiced repeatedly by his supporters. As, for instance, when she says, “Donald Trump has just been confirmed as the presidential nominee, to the horror of… 15,000 members of the international press.” That many voters might regard such a uniform political inclination, or presumed inclination, among the media as a bad thing, a dangerous thing, doesn’t seem to occur to her. I’m no great fan of Trump, but his willingness to accuse the media of being baldly partisan, and to press that point, is, I’m sure, part of his appeal.

“This can be done without getting semen on the phone.”
Yeah, how many times have I heard that?

JerryC: There is. Try “Saving Face”. I recommend seeing it with children of Chinese immigrant parents.

Heh.

“radical queer feminist leftist writer burdened with actual principles”
I think that she now realises that most of her peers have not got “actual principles” is a significant improvement. Add a bit of self-knowledge and we might be getting somewhere.

That Roman shoe is infinitely more interesting, and stylish, than either Laurie Penny or Trump.

Re: Roman shoe – it is a tragedy that The Manolo of The Shoe Blog is retired.

“Man” quits his job to play Pokeman Go full time.

“I wanted to have an adventure,” Currie told The Guardian. “I have been working for six years and I was desperate for a break. And Pokemon gave me the chance to live that dream.”…“Tom is a very spur-of-the-moment, independent kid, he always has been,” Tania Dobbs said. “His nana and I don’t understand the game but I remember him loving it in his childhood…”

Lives at home with mom and granny, quit job as a barista after 6 whole years, you couldn’t get more stereotypic if you tried.
Read the whole thing including the comments to see how many people think this is swell (OK, it is PuffHost) and for some historical insights such as:

Ashley Jones · Customer Service Assistant – Drug GM at H-E-B
I consider building Pearl Harbor just as much a threat as the attack on it. If someone built a naval base off the coast of an island you lived on, would you not be threatened.

…but apparently they’ve got their share of morons.
Alas, this one is handing out medications – that or doing, shall we say, quality checks on the stock. Either way, I wouldn’t recommend getting your prescriptions filled at H-E-B.

I chose not to reveal Jessey’s sex on his birth announcements because I wanted to share my excitement in welcoming this new baby into the world, not as a baby whose sex would be synonymous with girl or boy but as a baby who had yet to be named. I waited to name him because I felt he needed time adjusting from existing in utero to living in the wide open world. There needed to be a pause to give him the opportunity to make himself known — to try out different names and gauge his response. I felt and still feel similarly about gender.

Reading further, one gets the distinct impression that this really is not about Jessey at all.

Re Ashley Jones…Y’all did read the other comments there which were not too much further afield? This isn’t about H-E-B (wtf that is) or little blueberry-Austin, this is the default setting for America’s youth. Not so much the geographic ignorance, though there’s much of that as well, but the idea the EVERYTHING America has done, is doing, or will do in the future is evil, wrong, bad. Even defeating the Axis powers in WWII. I see it in the conservative-leaning college grads that I have worked with in software in the defense industry. I see it in the mentality of many younger libertarians, even some older ones. I even saw it in my youthful self to a smaller degree for a short while, ashamed to say. It is ingrained in the culture. It’s a educational stain that you cannot reason them out of. It will require considerable work and, I hate to say it but peer pressure. They have all now “been to college” and are thus quite confident in their education.

This isn’t about H-E-B (wtf that is)…
A very large supermarket chain in Texas. However, regarding the default setting for America’s youth, it is not just the ignorance, but the overwhelming slacktivism, the utter disregard for responsibility, and the notion that it is fine and normal for a 24 year old unemployed nitwit to piss about playing a game on a cell phone.
Matthew from Boise State U:

If he’s saved up enough to take a couple months and catch Pokeman, great. People should enjoy life when they can. Sure, it seems like a frivolous passion. But in the grand scheme of things everything is trivial. Whatever makes you happy is the most import thing for each person.

Yes, everything is trivial. These people have no clue.
Ashley again:

So just because his vacation involves a game he’s boy? Can’t stand people who don’t understand gaming culture.

Jay Ayy from somewhere (this isn’t just a US thing):

What’s wrong with someone living at their mom’s house anyway? It’s not affecting you or your life. Is it envy? You wish you can have that life, but you have to work? 🙁

Heather Lynn from Long Island:

At least he’s happy!
Most countries other than the US know how to take a vacation! Now THAT’S living a dream. His dream is his dream, and no one can take that away! The envy and jealousy here is crazy

Lots more of that “vacation” yammering. A) Quitting a job is not a vacation, it says he quit, if he was doing this on a vacation, that would be one thing entirely different, people do weirder things, but then they go back to work; B) his great dream in life is to play a game on a cell phone ? Not develop a game, just play it, and if he catches all the Pokemon, it is done, dream over. Now what for our plucky “adventurer” ?
Finally, the voice of sanity from one Henry C Norcom

The forever children generation will never get it.

Regarding Ashley’s comment about Pearl Harbor, I can’t help being reminded of this* when I read some factual idiocy in comment sections.
*Posted to maintain the general frivolity for which this blog is justly renowned.

David:
Laurie Penny has penned a piece attacking gay conservative blogger and speaker Milo Yiannopoulos:
https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/239510/#respond

Penny:
The gang kills time by asking if I’d rather shag Boris Johnson or Nigel Farage.
Bwahahahaha!

I wonder if Laurie ever considers the possibility that the people and cultural phenomena she says she despises — Milo, Trump, a rejection of political correctness, etc. — are in part a reaction to, and fuelled by broad resentment of, the influence of people very much like herself.
The fact that she characterizes herself as principled relative to Milo the “sociopath” is highly revealing. Mao-lings never see their opposition as having a valid point — the tyrant’s motives are pure and beyond reproach; ergo, any opposition must be pure, distilled evil.
So yeah, she knows that she and her tribe are resented and rejected, but only by horrible people.
Heads she wins; tails you lose.

I wonder if Laurie ever considers the possibility that the people and cultural phenomena she says she despises — Milo, Trump, a rejection of political correctness, etc. — are in part a reaction to, and fuelled by broad resentment of, the influence of people very much like herself.
No, she doesn’t. And it’s not limited to her and her ilk. I see it every day in the people I work with. All educated, white-collar, left-leaning, bien-pensant individuals who can’t for the life of them comprehend why there is a certain amount of dissatisfaction with the global elites among the hoi polloi. If there’s one reason why I want to see Trump get elected (besides the fact that he hasn’t sold access to the State Department for speaking fees), it’s to see the look on their faces the day after the vote. I’d venture to say that there’d be a lot of Pauline Kael moments in offices across the land.

From Laurie’s article:

That’s why I’ve always refused to debate Milo in public. Not because I’m frightened I’ll lose, but because I know I’ll lose, because I care and he doesn’t — and that means he’s already won. Help and forgive me, but I actually believe human beings can be better than this.

This is a bit I don’t quite understand. When confronting her political opponents, Laurie has been willing to ambush them, interrupt them continually (to the point of having her microphone cut off by an exasperated moderator), and has been happy to lie repeatedly about her opponent’s motives and private affairs, as seen, for instance, in her now-famous exchange with the historian David Starkey. So how would being sincere, as Laurie claims she is, be such a crippling disadvantage?
It sounds like an excuse. Sort of, “Milo often wins debates with people like me, almost identical to me, because he doesn’t care about the issues, he just does the research and remembers facts.” Or, “I can’t make Milo pretend the way I do, therefore I will lose.” Or, “I don’t need to actually win a debate to prove that I’m right, and righteous. I just am. Because I keep saying I care.”

It sounds like an excuse. 
Like how Venezuela is only suffering because of the weak oil market? Or that that country has run out of toilet paper because of something Kimberly – Clark did? Yeah, like that.

wtp: re whistling past the graveyard. I certainly don’t disagree with you about the general deterioration in our culture. Still, I think college grads have indeed always been like that, meaning stoopid. It’s the nature of college grads. I don’t think I was any different, at any rate. And look at me now (he says).
I do think that our culture is doomed. That, too, is the nature of cultures. And leftist ideology will have a lot to do with that outcome. But again, that’s the nature of leftists. The ones we see in our institutions nowadays are not that different from at least some leftists in the past. The drive to completely remake society, along with the destruction of everything that has gone before, is not peculiar to them. The fact that it always ends in tears isn’t going to deter them this time around, because they always know better, and their indignation never knows any bounds. Just look at the French revolution, or the Russian revolution.
I just hope I live to see the counter-revolution.

because I care and he doesn’t
Ah, modern liberalism crystallized in all of its adolescent, narcissistic glory. Penny could’ve stopped right there.

For all the good of modern communications they are also a megaphone for the stupid, amplifying the infection, and thus where we are today.
Yup. Thirty to forty years ago, the idiots were merely holding forth on street corners. Now, they Tweet and blog to their hearts content and to an every more amplified chamber of like-minded doofus-es. Modern communications have allowed the lunatics to congregate in packs, God help us.

Piper, wtp:
Engineering interning is certainly different than when I started back in the 70s, but that’s hardly all there is.
I have a niece, for instance, who is “interning” at Macys supposedly to help with a training program but actually spending time on the sales floor doing actual retail sales. A real eye-opener for her, I’m sure. She’s a daughter of the 0.1%.
I worked as a carpenter’s mate & maintenance gofer at a lodge / summer camp in the Sierra – that job, I’m 100% sure, was not offshored (though it may be filled by an illegal these days.)
There are few I despise more than the person with no real-world experience who is in, or wants to be in, a position to influence public policy. Folk like Bernie and Hillary. And, no doubt, Laurie P.

But I don’t think I have ever seen one where the child whose gender is being concealed is a girl.
Attempting to unmake boys does seem to be a more popular entertainment.

wtp:
I am a member of an investment club. We are entirely voluntary, are not incorporated, are not an LLC or similar. We wanted to have a person who was not eligible to be a full member (under SEC rules) participate as an unpaid intern, basically to hand-hold guests at our quarterly meetings.
However, since we charge a small fee for attendance at various seminars we give (just covering costs), some of our lawyer members advised us that, under California’s rococo labor laws, we would have to pay any such intern. That would also require us to incorporate or create an LLC, which we don’t have the money for. So, impasse. No intern.

For all the good of modern communications they are also a megaphone for the stupid, amplifying the infection, and thus where we are today.
Yup. Thirty to forty years ago, the idiots were merely holding forth on street corners. Now, they Tweet and blog to their hearts content and to an every more amplified chamber of like-minded doofus-es. Modern communications have allowed the lunatics to congregate in packs, God help us.
Which god?
—‘k, I’m Buddhist . . .
Two plus two will still equal four.
$14M subtracted from $3M will still result in bankruptcy as the project is just getting ramped up, if it even gets that far.
A stage manager—regardless of the type and nature of the stage—will still be needed to run the traffic, barring the occasional extremely polished and well trained company . . . which solves its own issues anyway.
A plumber will still be needed when the pipes break, and will still need to be an actual, capable, competent craftsman . . . regardless of what kind of pipes . . .
Lunatics being able to scream loudly only means that they’ve discovered karaoke . . . .

I’ll admit there are problems, but this crap of 4-6-8 years of college before being viable for work is ridiculous. Where once a bachelors degree was sufficient, a masters is now desired. For the same reason what once required a high school education, now requires an AA or BA.

The title of this paper might seem a bit pretentious until one considers what is laughingly referred to as education in the early 21st century. In the early 1970s, one could pick up some near random comic book or two, and one would soon find an ad proclaiming that one could indeed get one’s very own High School diploma, and thus achieve social success, peace of mind, and lots of money.
In 2011, a very real assessment of exactly the same educational network can be made by observing that there is just one primary difference between any random print shop and a masters degree program—particularly one of the uber-mega-executive-deluxe-hyper-masters-in-business-administration varieties of program—The very clear and ascertainable difference is that the print shop doesn’t charge five to seven figures and take one to three years to print out the exact same piece of paper.

A megaphone is a megaphone. Why can’t it be used just as well to refute the stupid/encourage the smart?
That requires thought.
Rather than pick up a megaphone and waste time and energy and time, and energy, the much easier and more effective option for the smart is to assess a workaround that can just sidestep and continue on around, past, utterly ignore the loud and unthinking, and Just do that workaround . . . .
—Yes, in place of a megaphone, one certainly can use such useful tools as the WWW to leave assorted notes parked here and there, and let those present the commentary . . . .
When the loud and unthinking finally notices being ignored, mebbe there will be silence as the LaU finally wanders over to what works, or if instead there are further objections and protests, the LaU can just continue to get ignored and remain a live and audible exercise in what to sidestep and continue on around, past, otherwise utterly ignore . . . . .

I do think that our culture is doomed. That, too, is the nature of cultures. And leftist ideology will have a lot to do with that outcome.
Um, no.
We fought off economic Marxism, despite its backing of a superpower. We’ll fight off cultural Marxism too, because it doesn’t work.
The people doing the shouting have megaphones, but they don’t get many votes. Yes, the Democrats and Labour are heavily into identity politics, but that isn’t making them any more popular. In British Labour’s case (and NZ Labour’s too) it is one reason that they struggle to win anymore.
Attempting to unmake boys does seem to be a more popular entertainment.
No it’s not. It’s vanishingly rare.
In NZ the single sex boys’ schools are becoming so popular that they are starting to reject boys. Far from the cultural Marxists winning this campaign, they are very obviously losing.
Even my Teachers College, a veritable bastion of Leftism, had no time for pretending boys and girls were the same. It’s a hard line to justify when the evidence is in front of you every day.

What’s deeply annoying is the craven bias and sheer sloppiness of the so-called trusted sources, the NYT et al., CNN,…”network news”, etc.
There is why the megaphone of instant world wide communication doesn’t work for the smart. As hackneyed as it may sound, the vast majority of the MSM is so in the tank for anything leftist that it is a microphone and bank of Marshall stacks for the megaphone.
A case in point is the global cooling global warming climate change climate disruption nonsense. There are plenty of smart voices actually looking at and showing data that shows it is a seriously overblown issue, but that which gets parroted is crap like the SoS’s latest idiocy that air conditioning is a greater threat than ISIS, or that the Arctic ice cap is vanishing while the fact that a bunch of “researchers” are stuck in the ice is on page 78D below the fold. Same with the “rape culture”, “Hands Up Don’t Shoot”, or damn near any other thing that has the left exercised these days.

The only solace is dear, hardworking David.
David: Well, that’s a worrying thought.
Many many moons ago my manager told me a story. He had previously worked for Ball Computers [aside: Yes, this was the same Ball as the company that made all those canning jars your grandmother had on her shelves. Seems there was a theory that expertise in mass production of glass objects could somehow be translated into computer production, since (in those days) computers inevitably came with a big heavy glass thing in the kit.]
Now, Ball Computers was on one side of a street which dead-ended at a brewery. Across the street from Ball was a Delicatessen. So an advanced bit of management theory was therefore developed which went like this: “Do you have Beer Truck Insurance?”
I.e. can your project survive the untimely demise of a team member (due to said member being run over by a speeding beer truck while on the way to get a lunch sandwich)?
So, David: What assurance can you offer us, your more-or-less loyal readers and partners in crime? (And no, I won’t be fobbed off with a “credit note”, so don’t even try…)

There is no reason a young man or woman of 18-20 can’t be interning at an engineering firm
Well, we had an 18 year old intern at our major oil company a couple of summers back. They filled her head with plenty of woolly corporate guff but after a month in our department she confessed she had no idea what we actually did. I told her not to worry: it took me several months to figure our what our department did as well, and after that I realised what we did was pointless and we ought not to exist.

“A case in point is the global cooling global warming climate change climate disruption nonsense.”
Don’t forget “climate chaos”.

Waterloo!
It just struck me that for a Frenchman this exclamation probably has another connotation than the one that is intended.