Friday Ephemera

Endless bi-directional spiral made with model trains. // Inhale your booze among fellow booze inhalers. Or stay home and inhale, whatever. // The wearable multi-tool you’ve always wanted. // “The convenience and flexibility of a car, the freedom of the open sky.” (h/t, Dr W) // Ferro-fluidic alarm clock of note. // “Aircraft carrier, hairdryer, digital clock.” (h/t, Franklin) // Trek fan does Borg maths. // Big lady shark. // How speakers make sound. // His spinning top tricks are better than yours. // Concerned tweet of note. (h/t, dicentra) // “Comrade Coninternov flew to Mars and vanquished all the capitalists on the planet!” // A history of light bulbs. (h/t, drb) // Designer lollipops. // Attention all toilet users. // And, er, why parents rarely want their children to be artists, part 14. 

Comments

[mojo]

Ace reminded me of this.

https://youtu.be/Lin-a2lTelg

It's perfect

[Jimmy]

Goat man needs serious help. Or a good hard slap.

[Mark]

http://time.com/102720/miley-cyrus-knee-seth-rogen-face/

[Rafi]

“Aircraft carrier, hairdryer, digital clock.”

'Spatula. Crash helmet. Gas mask.'

[David]

‘Spatula. Crash helmet. Gas mask.’

Perhaps we’re witnessing the birth of robot jazz poetry.

[Anna]

Live action zombie shooter on Chatroulette.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=86&v=p747PrxmZJ4

[David]

Live action zombie shooter on Chatroulette.

Blimey. A labour of love.

[sH2]

Concerned tweet of note

I've been looking at my knees in the mirror. Nothing to report as yet.

[R. Sherman]

Concerned tweet of note

For some reason, I now feel compelled to add Total Recall to my Netflix cue.

[Sam]

Live action zombie shooter on Chatroulette.

I had to watch the whole thing. :-)

[Kevin B]

As for where the borg came from, I blame the Japanese.

[dw]

Hair slide, red wine.

Chocolate sauce?

Waffle iron!

[Jason]

I really liked Rorschach's alarm clock.

[DensityDuck]

Train Spiral looks like the kind of thing that Charlie Stross's Laundry would arrest you for doing...

[David]

Meanwhile, in academic clown shoe news:

All freshmen at Indiana University at Bloomington have to attend a musical performance teaching them how to not rape each other as part of their mandatory new-student orientation.

Because rape is bad, m’kay?

[Sam Duncan]

“I really liked Rorschach's alarm clock.”

My first thought was World of Goo, but there's that as well. I want one.

“How speakers make sound.”

Unless it's a rotary woofer. I want one of those, too. Although I'm not sure how well it would go down in a block of flats. (The whole point of them being that, at the same sound pressure - i.e., volume - lower-frequencies sound quieter, you need to move a hell of a lot of air down around 20Hz. If you've ever heard the bass notes on a pipe organ, you'll know the idea. One of these has actually been used to recreate that sound/earthquake.)

[Will]

“Comrade Coninternov flew to Mars and vanquished all the capitalists on the planet!”
And strongly influenced Terry Gilliam, apparently.

[dicentra]

“Comrade Coninternov flew to Mars and vanquished all the capitalists on the planet!”

Can't wait to see what I dream about tonight.

Yeesh.

[mojo]

"Borg" is an obvious contraction of Cyborg, which itself is a portmanteau of cybernetic organism.

Strange that an alien species on the other side of the galaxy would use the same terminology, know what I mean? But that ain't none of my business.

[Darleen]

Does left-illiberalism make you an unhappy juvenile, or are the terminally unhappy and puerile drawn to left=illiberalism?

[rabbit]

I might never poop again.

[Martin Morgan]

He is Comrade Cominternov, not Coninternov - after the glorious Comintern (Communist International). Although it should really be Commezhplan - Communist Interplanetary, I suppose.

[witwoud]

'Dismaland' … God, what dismal people made this.

[David]

‘Dismaland’ … God, what dismal people made this.

It does seem flat, predictable and artistically mean, by which I mean, it doesn’t have much art in it.

[Tell Sackett]

So you really can get paid for acting the goat.

I'm guessing this is part of a more ambitious project, investigating what it might be like to live your whole life without ever doing anything worthwhile.

Neither use nor ornament, as they used to say.

[Hal]

'Dismaland'

Oh, that does actually look amusing . . . Particularly with the matter of fact onsite staff.

Big Rig Jig is, of course, recycled from Burning Man, so not everything was done just for the event.

What actually does come to mind is the SF Cacophony Society, of which, when the group existed, was the group of people who started Burning Man . . . . while particularly noting that the same individuals----exceptions can be noted--- quite no longer bother with BM, where BM got to be pointlessly wall to wall hipster many, many years ago. I haven't bother to go, m'self, the first I heard of BM, the mention already had the accompanying comment of It just hasn't been the same since they banned the drive by shooting range . . .

As things go, the idea of people actually lining up for Dismaland does rather neatly parallel this year's big BM story . . . apparently BM this year features what headlines have described as Smelly Stinging Insects . . . and the assorted stories then explain that no, they're not talking about the two legged BM attendees . . . .

[David]

‘Dismaland’ … God, what dismal people made this.

Even the Guardian’s Jonathan Jones, a man easily impressed by fatuous tat, was disappointed by it:

Dismaland is a kind of consummation, for me, of all that is false about Banksy… I felt I was participating in a charade where everyone has to pretend this is a better joke than it is… As an actual experience it is thin and threadbare, and I found [it], to be honest, quite boring… Dismaland does not offer the energy and danger that real theme parks do. Instead, it brings together a lot of bad art by the seaside.

It’s a strange feeling, agreeing with a Guardian art critic.

[wtp]

Interesting that, according to the Guardian article, there is real security checking bags followed by a fake/mock security. Seems to me the mock security is mocked by the presence of a real security detail. Personally, I think it would be douchebaggily awesome if they did away with the real security. Think how "edgy, challenging" the exhibit would be then? And if there were to be a terrorist attack, think of what a "blast of reality" that would be. Certainly more "freakish and bizarre" than a Cinderella coach with a dead Princess Di, *smirk smirk*. Just picture it, dead or dying hipster/douchebags tossed about like so many Mickey Mouse dolls, news crews everywhere documenting the carnage. Maybe even a few antisemite conspiracy theorists would show up to blame it all on the Jews. Think about what that would say about our "the commodification of the spectacle." Or, unlike Princess Di, would that be too soon?

[Joan]

there is real security checking bags followed by a fake/mock security.

And they frisk you for spray cans. "All graffiti in Dismaland is official graffiti."

[David]

Does left-illiberalism make you an unhappy juvenile, or are the terminally unhappy and puerile drawn to left-illiberalism?

A question we’ve asked many times. My guess is that illiberal leftism appeals very strongly to certain personality types and then reinforces that disposition with endless, often ludicrous pretexts and rationalisations. As we’ve seen here repeatedly over the years, for many “social justice” scolds the politics is a fig leaf for obnoxious inclinations.

[wtp]

"All graffiti in Dismaland is official graffiti."

Yes...funny how that is, isn't it? People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly.

[dicentra]

I find the spiral train to be emblematic of both tranquility and nihilism. Perhaps the tranquility OF nihilism.

[Fay]

It's come to this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3209554/Is-baby-racist-Scientists-discover-way-reverse-racial-bias-young-children.html

FFS all babies respond to what they know. Aargh, somebody let me off this roundabout.

[J.M. Heinrichs]

The spiral train set reminded me of an 8-track cassette reel in operation.

Cheers