Attention, citizens. Rotary dials are coming. (1936) // Duet is a maddening game. // A small miscalculation, an atomic explosion, and a rapidly moving manhole cover. // Home-made smart mirror. // Home cinema on a budget. // Alaskan blue. // PlantBlock. // Baby swordfish. // On Kubrick’s beginnings. // Because she could. (h/t, Franklin) // A brief history of spite houses and passive-aggressive architecture. // The London that never was. // Wearable chair for the upright citizen. // Yiwu Commodity City, Zhejiang, China, is a really bad place to get a migraine. (h/t, Coudal) // People holding posters, a Tumblr. // Lover’s eye and other horrors. (h/t, Things) // A brief history of Japan. Some liberties taken. // And finally, athletically, Jurassic Parkour II: The Revengening.
The shaft had, in effect, become a enormous 500-foot long, four-foot wide gun barrel with the energy of billions of pounds of TNT released at one end and, at the other end, the now insignificantly small metal cap, about the equivalent of a bottle cap on the end of a naval gun.
Messrs Hynemann and Savage are looking sideways at each other, smirking, and chuckling slightly sinister laughs.
Posted by: Spiny Norman | February 05, 2016 at 03:31
Via AoSHQ and Rob Long, "The 'Other Side' Is Not Dumb":
Oh, I MUST beg to differ, on behalf of the denizens of this blog and its host.We mock the "caricature[s] of the Other Side" because what the hell else are we supposed to do with this dreck? Engage the perpetrators thereof, in good faith, as if that were even possible?
Furthermore, those of us who are Not Of The Left have been inundated with unquestioned left-wing messages our whole lives; it's only because we understand the other side that we have declined to join it.
Well, props to Mr. Blanda for recognizing the clubbish, self-congratulatory nature of his cohort.
Now wait until he talks to a libertarian lesbian who catches WAY more flak from the Left for being Not!Left than from the religious right for being gay.
Maybe he'll even have the good fortune to realize how well his putative enemies understand his side compared to how poorly he understands them.
Maybe he'll even be excommunicated from His Side.
One can only hope.
Posted by: dicentra | February 05, 2016 at 05:10
Home cinema on a budget.
Oh, piffle. If you're going to do a private theatre arrangement, Then Do One.
Posted by: Hal | February 05, 2016 at 05:21
. . . of the Other Side . . .
Um, other side? From where?
. . . a libertarian lesbian who catches WAY more flak from the Left for being Not!Left than from the religious right for being gay.
Uh, huh.
See also the Pink Pistols . . .
Yes, there are the right wing extremists and the their mirrored left wing extremist opposites, and all such will still be bookending the rest of us holding the middle
Also see also;
Sooo much rather easier to stick to the administrative basics, ie, does something work, or does something not work?
Posted by: Hal | February 05, 2016 at 05:55
Messrs Hynemann and Savage are looking sideways at each other, smirking, and chuckling slightly sinister laughs.
It’s a strangely pleasing tale, despite the rather alarming miscalculation of yield, out by five orders of magnitude. The comments over there are now rumbling about whether the atomically accelerated manhole cover’s speed record has been beaten by NASA probes that were accelerated by the gravity of the Sun, and by particle accelerators on Earth. Does an accelerated electron count as man-made?
Posted by: David | February 05, 2016 at 07:40
Welp, I gave that History of Japan thing 3 inaccuracies until I bailed. Mutter mutter why can't people read history mutter snarl.
Posted by: Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK | February 05, 2016 at 08:01
A small miscalculation, an atomic explosion, and a rapidly moving manhole cover
Er, what happened to the manhole cover?
Posted by: svh | February 05, 2016 at 08:11
Er, what happened to the manhole cover?
Apparently, it was never found. I’d imagine it may have been melted and vaporised, at least in part, given the blast and its somewhat brisk journey through the atmosphere. Whatever was left of it is presumably buried, or strewn, somewhere in the New Mexico desert.
Posted by: David | February 05, 2016 at 08:20
Yiwu Commodity City, Zhejiang, China, is a really bad place to get a migraine.
Felt stressed just looking.
Duet is a maddening game.
Thanks for making my commute even more frustrating.
Posted by: dw | February 05, 2016 at 08:55
Felt stressed just looking.
Eight hours at a time, it would be a bit… much.
Posted by: David | February 05, 2016 at 09:03
Modernity.
Posted by: David | February 05, 2016 at 13:12
The thing about this blog is it doesn't laugh at caricatures of the other side, it laughs at examples of the other side. Possibly because the only other reaction to the examples is to weep. How else could you deal with this:
Posted by: TomJ | February 05, 2016 at 18:00
Lori Day is an educational psychologist, consultant and parenting coach.
Ohdeargawd. I have little doubt she's turned more than a few happy, playful young boys into life-long misogynists.
...and surely blamed the boys' "maleness" for any unpleasant results.
Posted by: Spiny Norman | February 05, 2016 at 18:17
Lori Day is an educational psychologist, consultant and parenting coach.
But remember, we must never associate feminism with misandry, dogmatism or the phrase “bitches be crazy.”
Posted by: David | February 05, 2016 at 18:42
Toddler with GoPro attached to head plays hide and seek.
Posted by: David | February 05, 2016 at 18:57
Lori Day and spiritwind, two more Underpants Gnome Theorists:
1. Remove most or all males from the planet.
2. ???
3. Utopia, with all the mod cons men built still in place and functioning!
Posted by: Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK | February 05, 2016 at 19:01
Re: Lori Day.
As more and more babies are born with microcephaly, male politicians in Latin American countries are requesting that women not get pregnant for the next two years, while simultaneously denying them access to contraception and abortion.
Apparently Miss Day suffers from the delusion that celibacy and solitary vice are fatal.
Also, once the "Mandemic" thins the Oppressive Patriarchal herd, who does she imagine will be left to make abortion and contraceptive technology necessary? I sense a degree of cognitive dissonance, or just plain intellectual dishonesty.
Nothing unusual there of course.
Posted by: jabrwok | February 05, 2016 at 20:06
Re: Lori Day and her list of evils that only penis-people are responsible for --
"Overpopulation" -- how does a parenting coach not know about how the human reproductive system works?
"FGM" -- it ain't the penis-people performing those mutilations AND how dare she criticize the cultural practices of an oppressed minority?
"Domestic Violence" -- "Yes, officer, I stabbed my boyfriend to death, but HE MADE ME DO IT."
Oh, and her closing 'gotta break some eggs for an omelet"
Such a sweetheart!Posted by: Darleen | February 05, 2016 at 20:59
I’d imagine it may have been melted and vaporised, at least in part, given the blast and its somewhat brisk journey through the atmosphere. Whatever was left of it is presumably buried, or strewn, somewhere in the New Mexico desert.
I would have thought it (or its remains) would be ejected into the galaxy.
Posted by: W Krebs | February 05, 2016 at 21:03
Meanwhile, on the frontiers of intersectionality, a small snag appears.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-35504185
Posted by: W Krebs | February 05, 2016 at 21:04
"Er, what happened to the manhole cover?
Apparently, it was never found. I’d imagine it may have been melted and vaporised, at least in part, given the blast and its somewhat brisk journey through the atmosphere. Whatever was left of it is presumably buried, or strewn, somewhere in the New Mexico desert."
See, if they'd only thought to put it inside a fridge, it'd be ok.
Posted by: JuliaM | February 06, 2016 at 07:15
See, if they’d only thought to put it inside a fridge, it’d be ok.
I’m getting you one of these for Christmas.
No, don’t thank me, the pleasure is mine.
Posted by: David | February 06, 2016 at 08:10
Well, I enjoyed the history of Japan. There are no doubt inaccuracies but Japanese history was not taught at all when I was at school, and even now it is not something that is obvious in a library etc.
Posted by: mike fowle | February 06, 2016 at 11:33
One of the guys involved in the "manhole" test wrote it up as a joke. It didn't achieve escape velocity, despite the fact that an idiot in Australia made a short film suggesting it was the first man made object in space.
You only have to think about it a little bit to realise that whatever the ginormous forces behind it, it wouldn't have gone very far. And of course, it's nothing like a bullet in a gun, or even a sparkling wine cork.
Posted by: JL | February 06, 2016 at 11:56
Black History Month Explained (NSFW)
Posted by: Jonathan | February 06, 2016 at 12:18
When you’re being all sassy and ting and your mum really blows your cool.
Posted by: David | February 06, 2016 at 15:16
When you’re being all sassy and ting and your mum really blows your cool.
Still laughing. :-D
Posted by: Rafi | February 06, 2016 at 17:15
"Er, what happened to the manhole cover?"
"six times escape velocity" = bye bye, mr. manhole cover, you sexist object.
Posted by: mojo | February 06, 2016 at 18:25
and your mum really blows your cool.
Heh...hehehehehe...ok, I lie. Is there an English translation? Or I'm guessing it loses too much in the process.
Posted by: WTP | February 07, 2016 at 04:38
With that ball shop above you could probably make a pair of monochromatic goggles so that everything was a soothing shade of pink?
Posted by: dan | February 07, 2016 at 21:25