Attempting flight. // Tooth, claw and torpedoes. // About 40 seconds in you’ll spot what’s gone wrong. // Trees and fog. // A bunk bed for dogs. // “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Jaws, short version. // Jazz computer. Full-fat cheesy noodling. // Caterpillars, baby. // Abandoned Chinese fishing village could use a woman’s touch. // Jellyfishies. // Caution, wet floor. // Students, check your leftist privilege. // Up, up and away. // To lift a big helicopter you need a bigger helicopter. (h/t, drb) // First swim. // Leafcutter ant farming. “They’re using the leaves to grow something else.” // Maps on demand. // Dickens World and other theme parks. // Vertical turntables. // And finally, “obtain alluring slim loveliness” with bust-reducing cream. Works in weeks. Also enlarges bust. 

What, you didn’t know? 

Remember, Laurie is a fearless feminist warrior, a Wadham College “riot girl,” a communist, a revolutionary, a self-described “rebel” and “troublemaker.” One whose world is “on fire.” She and her radical friends are going to bring the whole patriarchal capitalist system crashing down. 

But life without Facebook isn’t worth living. 

The Guardian’s Jonathan Jones has been busy enthusing about the new mascot for Partick Thistle Football Club, created by Turner Prize nominee David Shrigley. The mascot, funded privately and described by Mr Jones as the creation of “a tough and honest artist” and “art at its best,” can be seen and studied here, no doubt at great length. However, in championing Mr Shrigley’s handiwork, the Guardian’s art critic inadvertently makes an argument for ending taxpayer subsidy of so-called “public” art: 

Populism and good art are incompatible… Good artists… don’t please crowds… That is why most public art in modern Britain is awful… Good artists cannot and will not provide what the public wants. They need to be edgy, challenging, otherwise they will become sell-outs.

Note Mr Jones’ unironic use of the word edgy. 

An example of Mr Jones’ idea of that rare thing – great, edgy public art – i.e., paid for coercively by extorting the taxpayer, in this case to the tune of £95,000 – can be found here. Mr Jones described said object as “a very elegant work… redemptive, joyous, liberating.”

Katherine Timpf on a “white privilege” conference for teachers and school administrators: 

“Many white people in Oregon have no idea that our schools and state are immersed in white culture and are uncomfortable and harmful to our students of colour, while also reinforcing the dominant nature of white culture in our white students and families,” one of the conference documents explains. The manual defines this “white culture” with a list of values, such as “promoting independence, self-expression, personal choice, individual thinking and achievement,” because apparently those are strictly “white” concepts and not emphasised in black communities.

Educators of pallor are being told, at public expense, that in order to become “anti-racist white allies,” they must first embrace the conceit that “All white people are racist. [Therefore] I am racist.” If that sounds not only absurd but a little sinister, practically Maoist, that’s because it is.

Here’s one of the many reasons why the leftist website Salon gets laughed at quite a lot. 

And Fraser Nelson agrees with Charlotte Church and Polly Toynbee, perhaps more than they would like: 

At the end of our tax returns, we declare how much tax we owe. [George] Osborne can introduce a new line in the tax return saying: if you think this isn’t enough, how much extra would you like to pay? People like Ms Toynbee and Ms Church can then fill in the extra so they can pay 50 per cent, or even 70 per cent, if they like. This ‘nudge’ tax reform would be consistent with the liberal principles of a Conservative government while allowing left-wingers to act along with their conscience and hand over more of their income to the government. So next time, rather than complain that they would be happy to pay 70 per cent tax, such people can proudly claim that they do pay 70 per cent tax. And they will have the tax return to prove it.

However, as we’ve seen, Polly is much more troubled by what you earn and keep than by what she earns and keeps – which, given her six-figure Guardian income, plus appearance fees, royalties and property portfolio, is quite a feat. Like many of her peers, Ms Toynbee thinks that voting for the state to confiscate even more of other people’s earnings is somehow an act of altruism. It’s also, conveniently, presented as an excuse for not using her own considerable resources personally, directly, to help those she deems deserving. And if a well-heeled leftist bangs on week after week about how terrible unequal incomes are and how something must be done urgently – and then says she won’t do what she insists is morally imperative unless the state forces her to do it – this isn’t a resounding affirmation of her professed principles.

Feel free to share your own links and snippets in the comments. It’s what these posts are for. 

And then you notice the pigtails. (h/t, Mr Eugenides) // Sexed-up grand piano. // At last, stain-repelling shirts. “Discover what living stain-free feels like.” // Eruption. // The Samsung safety truck. It seems obvious now. // Man with some old vinyl and an electron microscope. // Free Hayek. // Customer feedback of note. (h/t, PootBlog) // Arrive refreshed with this in-flight posture apparatus. Works on any desk top surface. // Assorted gifs and photos from an organic chemistry lab. // He brings greetings from his home world. // Owl café, Ikebukuro, Japan. // Wooden keyboard of note. // Test your colour vision. // All six Star Wars films superimposed. // Four-year-old girl copes quite well with dad’s stunt flying. // And finally, office chair plus leaf blower equals good times.