Friday Ephemera

Sweaty vest and power loader not included.
Reebok?? Oh, Dear.
Well, yes, I was already expecting the worst anyway, aside from the cinematography, of course.

200-watt laser bazooka brings instant death to cardboard and balloons.
Scientists switch on the world’s largest ‘artificial sun’

On earworms and chewing gum.
Eight, sir; seven, sir;
Six, sir; five, sir;
Four, sir; Three, sir;
Two, sir; one!

Anamorphic sculptures.

I was alone on Jinx two years later, waiting for the next ship to Earth. As it turned out,
Lloobee’s latest works were there, too, on loan to the Institute of Knowledge. To the Institute I
went, to see what my protege had produced.

Seeing them was a shock.

That was the first shock: that they should make sense when seen. Touch sculpture is to be felt:
it has no meaning otherwise. But these were busts and statuettes. Someone had even advised Lloobee
on color.

I looked closer.

First: a group of human statuettes, some seated, some standing, all staring with great intensity
at a flat pane of clear glass.

Second: a pair of heads. Human, humane, handsome, noble as all hell, but child’s play to
recognize nonetheless. I touched them, and they felt like warm human faces. My face and Emil’s.

Third and last: a group of four, a woman and three men. They showed a definite kinship with the
ape and a second admixture of what must have been demon blood. Yet they were quite recognizable.
Three felt like human faces, though somehow repellent. But the fourth felt horribly dead.

The kidnappers had neglected to include Lloobee in their contract. And Lloobee has been talking
to newsmen, telling them all about how his latest works had come to be.
—Larry Niven, Grendel, from Neutron Star.

” And what was with that Franco family?”
They were lgbqrtxyz before it had this name. Then they were just freaks in a freak show.

Is it green energy?
I suppose the chap doing the filming might have explained to his neighbour that electric lawn mowers tend to require electricity, but it’s hard not to share his amused disbelief.

SJW’ers win over Facebook-hatred!
Actually, this is Facebook owning up to a misgendering-mistake and taking corrective action like any good social citizen should. Kudos to Facebook.
http://twitter.com/polNewsNet/status/857338701915070464
Hugs,
-S

SJW’ers win over Facebook-hatred!
I’ve often thought that prolonged exposure to Facebook was a bad idea.

That would have been a disaster.
There’s a kind of quasi-treasonous sentiment that, among some, is becoming commonplace.

I think it may be time to demolish the offices of the New York Times and build something more useful, like a car park. Or a brothel.
?????
Oh. A bunch of people chattering on Twit.
Sooooooo . . Is there an actual NYT article to point to and thus see what the chattering is about?
Apparently yes and it’s a complete reverse of the chattering.
People chattering on Twit gets a lot of “Conservatives are putting themselves into volatile situations on college campuses.”
A basic bit of Googlemancy does finally get a bunch of articles.
Where looking at those articles, one does find repeated instances of the same NYT attributed quote:

“Without uttering a word to students at the University of California, Berkeley, Ann Coulter on Wednesday made herself the latest cause célèbre in the rapidly escalating effort by conservatives to fight liberals on what was once the left’s moral high ground over free speech on campus,”

Ah, so apparently NYT did actually have a particular article, and the article opens with an observation that Ann Coulter is a posturing blowhard.
However there is the rest of that NYT article, including bits such as . . .

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-described democratic socialist, this week scolded anyone who would shut out Ms. Coulter. “What are you afraid of — her ideas?” he asked.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, argued that the controversy only handed Ms. Coulter the big platform she craved. “If you don’t like it, don’t show up,” she said. Even The Onion weighed in with a satirical blurb about Berkeley being on police lockdown after loose pages of The Wall Street Journal were abandoned on a park bench.

. . . . So, while the NYT is the NYT, the actual NYT article reads to me as quite benignly conservative—as opposed to mere right wing liberal or left wing liberal . . . Where genuinely conservative being utterly separate and quite distinct from mere right wing liberal is a familiar situation.
As far as Coulter . . .
Ah, yes, Coulter.
Heh!!

Ah, Dear Ann . . . .
It’s rather a pity you clearly don’t know that much about America and of American history and culture. If you did actually learn something of America and Americans and how we think and work and feel, you might possibly, mebbe, just possibly, have run across to a reference to some fellow named Patton.
George Patton.
United States Army General George Patton.

Oops.

I’ve rigged the liquor cabinet with explosives.
Drat. I was going to have some dinner and needed something for the marinade.
What? Don’t you have cooking vodka?
Fine, I’ll have some tea and see what else to arrange . . .

Hard leftists campaigning to purge people for wrongthink – have they any idea what they look like?
Yes.

Swedish gymnastics
In the handstand pic, her T-shirt is pinned to the knickerbockers. In 1905 even the knickerbockers would’ve been thought outré. A glimpse of midriff would’ve been beyond shocking!

There was a request for the NYT article which inspired the Tweets, so here it is.
The relevant text appears in the third paragraph:

But across the country, conservatives like her are eagerly throwing themselves into volatile situations like the one in Berkeley, emboldened by a backlash over what many Americans see as excessive political correctness, a president who has gleefully taken up their fight, and liberals they accuse of trying to censor any idea they disagree with.

I haven’t read the rest of the article.

A little more about Pharmacists Mate Hitler, a millennial of last century who evidently eventually found his way.

Right, I’m off to see Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2,
Any good?

I’ve always believed that women would be happier if they got in the habit of leaving the toilet seat up after they were done using it.
The reason is because I’ve heard complaints — justified complaints — of having to use public bathrooms previously used by women who were too dainty to touch a public seat, and so apparently just hovered over the toilet, letting their urine fall all over the seat.
If women were in the habit of putting the seats up after using them, these “dainty hoverers” wouldn’t spray all over the seat, because the seat would be in the upright position, with the part that you sit on facing towards the wall.

If you liked the first one, you’ll probably like this one, just not quite as much.
I think that’s a persistent problem with sequels to films that are less “good on their own merits” and more “good because they’re simply unlike anything that’s come before”.

Heh!

Another modest feminist proposal which sounds completely reasonable and will in no way contribute to the scurrilous myth of radfems having daddy issues and the emotional maturity of 14 year-olds:

Well, now I’m going to have be a little tough myself. If our marches are pointless and our workplace aspirations without worth, what should we do instead? She can’t be allowed to get away with writing a feminist manifesto with no plausible suggestion for the society of the future.
“You can start by all divorcing your husbands!” she says. For a moment, I wonder if she’s joking. But, no. “There does have to be a process of understanding the way you participate in these systems of oppression. Marriage’s history is about treating women as property, and by being married you’re legitimising that history.” Another good start would be to remove your money from the big banks and put it in a small, local credit union instead, “even if you only have $80”. Above all, maybe women should start listening to one another again.

the second one is more visually outlandish, practically soaked in colour.
That’s a direct result of the modern tendency to shoot all action films through a desaturated blue filter, a habit which is a staple of the DC cinematic universe and the Captain America franchise. Compare the first Avengers with Civil War and you’ll see it.
For that matter, compare Thor: Dark World with the trailer for Ragnarok. I think it’s interesting that Marvel’s cinematic universe is going through exactly the same Silver Age – Iron Age – Bronze Age stages the comics did, and for much the same reasons.
I joked with a friend that I could tell whether Justice League was going to suck from watching a half second of the trailer. They’re using a desaturated blue filter. They’re not learning.

Battle of the sexes
Somewhat related:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl26Xgbltvs
Funny to see women athletes clearly unhappy but too cowed to say anything.

You’re welcome, David.
I really should pay more attention to what goes on around here.

I really should pay more attention to what goes on around here.
That way lies madness…..

Appropo of nothing, but really neat. Via Mick Hartley.
http://mickhartley.typepad.com/blog/2017/04/the-chaos-game.html

wtp: How odd that you should mention the H-L. Tucked away in a forgotten corner of the liquor cabinet, cleverly hidden under a grubby jar labeled “Marmite / Vintage: 1956”, was what turned out to be a spare key to the upstairs hot tub & spa suite. Where I am presently relaxing with an 18 year old MacAllan in one hand, and a 20 year old [ reception failed at this point in the transcript. ]

WTP: Did you just assume my gender and/or sexual preference/spectrum location? Huh? You troglodyte!
And to think I was told this was a classy joint…

Fatty III

Where I am presently relaxing with an 18 year old MacAllan in one hand, and a 20 year old . . .

It’s official DC canon that Superman wasn’t born until he emerged from the gestation matrix in the pod that carried him to Earth, therefore making him born on US soil and eligible for the Presidency.
What?

So there was a commie Superman. Doesn’t surprise me. Never trusted that SOB.

Sweaty vest and power loader not included.
Of course, there is also one’s point of view.
No, not about the surreally silly things that must be claiming to be shoes merely because they’re placed around feet, but rather . . .