Friday Ephemera

So how was your day at work, darling? (h/t, Damian) || Upgrade. || Her dessert is much fancier than yours. || Nun armed with chainsaw does her bit to help. || Trek nerdology. || A taste of New York. || BBC Pidgin. || Pro tip. || Perverse objects. || Genes and Marmite. || Robotic gams. || Aliens the size of guinea pigs. || A pile of Python. || She chose poorly. || Cat vacuuming. Do try it at home and let us know how it goes. || “Yes, but technically, I’m inside it.” || Street art. || They do this better than you do. || “A person can control it like a car.” || Zero to four hundred, and back, in forty-two seconds. || 30 days at sea. || Drawing on water. || This. || That. || A bit of the other. (h/t, Obnoxio) || Cassini’s farewell photos. || And finally, the man who survived not one but two atomic bombings.

Comments

[Hal]

BBC Pidgin.

Pidgin To Da Max

[Hal]

Perverse objects.

Between one item and another, I'm reminded that one can indeed get one's own klein bottle, in any number of sizes and shapes.

[Hal]

She chose poorly.

Oh, right, as of 16:22, and a mile and a half or so south or so of Ben Shapiro, et al, I can report that the hearing of the helicopters has started . . .

[Hal]

That.

Um. Oops.

[Spiny Norman]

And finally, the man who survived not one but two atomic bombings.

I'm pretty sure Mr Yamaguchi was interviewed by John Toland for his book The Rising Sun, because the video's details of Mr Yamaguchi's experience are strikingly similar to what was described by Toland, including his colleagues' disbelief that "a single bomb could destroy a whole city".

[Spiny Norman]

A pile of Python.

Umm, would people think I'm a bit mad if I admit that I have the entire series, all of their films, and a couple of documentaries on VHS, DVD and digital media on my computer?

>_>

[Spiny Norman]

and as well as

[headdesk]

[Black Ball]

A bit of compare and contrast. Click both links to capture the essence of the Yes campaign of same sex marriage in Australia. First link the reaction to the no advertisement.
https://www.popsugar.com.au/celebrity/Twitter-Reactions-Marriage-Equality-Ads-44020661

Now for the yes campaign.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/gay-marriage/this-powerful-yes-ad-upstaged-the-bachelor-finale/news-story/7b9763ca533113ee919c66717ef68a81

How dare they upstage the beautiful, entirely scripted finale of The Bachelor? Oh and by the way, I was being sarcastic.

[Hal]

Umm, would people think I'm a bit mad . . .

Um^2, the name keeps getting signed as Spiny Norman, where the current moment in time regarding handling data proverbially notes homeless holding more communications, computing power, and storage capability in one hand than the Apollo program, and you state you've made use of a rather prosaic digital storage item to store a relatively minor amount of data.

Ehn, especially with the former bit of those three factors, one might be a bit surprised if you hadn't?

[[+]]

Aliens the size of guinea pigs.

"There were doubts about their originating in outer space when two Ever-Ready batteries were found inside"

[[+]]

This.

Very good. :-)

[David]

Today’s word is “autoethnography.”

Also, standards.

[Spiny Norman]

Today’s word is “autoethnography.”

The Twitter replies are hilarious. =^D

[Spiny Norman]

This.

Very good. :-)

If I'm not mistaken, that's Ralph the Wonder Llama.

I should probably stop now. It's very late here, and I have work to finish.

[David]

Apparently, at Berkeley, there was some concern that Ben Shapiro’s words would endanger people and shatter windows.

Here’s video of Shapiro’s talk and subsequent Q&A.

Meanwhile, outside the venue, leftist students denounce discussion as “violence,” and cry “NO!”

But it turns out that it is actually possible to have a non-leftwing speaker debate ideas at Berkeley, and answer audience questions - and all it took was dozens of campus security guards, metal detectors, concrete crash barriers, hundreds of armed police officers, and a security bill for $600,000.

It’s the birthplace of free speech, you know.

[Tom]

I should probably stop now. It's very late here, and I have work to finish.

Certainly before you're bitten by a moose...

[Alice]

Dramatic cats.

[Hal]

But it turns out that it is actually possible to have a non-leftwing speaker debate ideas at Berkeley, and answer audience questions . . . It’s the birthplace of free speech, you know.

Shapiro took the stage at Zellerbach with several hundred in the audience and some empty seats for an event that was described as sold out. . . .

. . . Hundreds of protesters participating in a Refuse Fascism rally, were kept off campus . . .

. . . While there were 1,000 tickets issued to the free event, not all the seats were filled and Shapiro lamented that the university cut off the number and blocked off the balcony over concerns that agitators would throw things from above.

A bit of Googlemancy states that Zellerbach Hall can hold 2,689. The Chron and others report there were several hundred protesters . . . only several hundred protesters . . . .

Sooo, very simply, there could have been the full number of attendees that tickets were issued for, and there could have been the full compliment of outnumbered protesters---aka, certainly do wave signs to state point of view, while free speech remains in progress on the stage and in the audience---and all of 'em could have been in Zellerbach all at the same time, all attending the one event . . .

So much for "community" opposition to free speech . . .

- and all it took was dozens of campus security guards, metal detectors, concrete crash barriers, hundreds of armed police officers, and a security bill for $600,000.

“We have seen extremists on the left and right in our city,” said Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin, a Democrat who backed the police request to use pepper spray. “We need to make sure violence is not allowed.”

A first rule of being a lifeguard tends to be to avoid getting one's self killed while trying to keep someone else from drowning . . . and rather a parallel for cops would be a note of Hi there, we're here to be the reaction to criminals, so that the normal people can just go their own way . . . . and Oh.

We see.

Fine.

Yes, the AntiFirstAmendment rioters have indeed demonstrated their demand for destruction and disruption, therefore we are indeed now going to set up camp and see who comes to play.

On my part, I stopped hearing helicopters ages ago.

[David]

From the SFGATE article, a money quote:

Michael Vancea, 18, and a student at Ohlone College also thought the event was entertaining. “There were people of all backgrounds, with people disagreeing,” he said. “I really liked that.”

Heavens. Anyone might think that civil disagreement is a good way for people to learn. Even at a modern university.

[Sam]

Pro tip.

*changes ringtone*

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

""Speech is violent, we will not be silent!" Students protesting #BenAtBerkeley."

So by not being silent themselves and instead chanting like a demented frog chorus are they being violent ?

Meanwhile, speaking of the Clown Quarter, Harvard proves they can be embarrassed and rescinds Bradly Manning's "fellowship".

Elmendorf decided to withdraw the invitation after realizing that “many people view a Visiting Fellow title as an honorific,”[Rocket surgeons these Ivy League types are I tells ya.] though the school had not intended to “honor [Manning] in any way or to endorse any of her [sic] words or deeds.”[(cough)bulls#it(cough)]

[PiperPaul]

"There were doubts about their originating..."

That reminded me of Smithsonian Barbie.

[Joan]

Pro tip.

*checks hit of garden fence*

[Joan]

*height*

[WTP]

Harvard proves they can be embarrassed and rescinds Bradly Manning's "fellowship".

OK, so maybe God doesn't want me to become an alcoholic after all. Sure wish He would make up His mind about these things.

[Sporkatus]

Something which may be of interest. Rather effectively sets a Grievance Zeppelin on fire.

[R. Sherman]

@Spork,

Saw that yesterday. Really outstanding stuff. Query the odds of the author being able to address the snowflakes at Berkeley?

I showed the article to my wife--an immigrant with a Ph.D. in English language and who taught ESL to immigrants at a local community college for several years. Her experience with her students was the same. A wide variety of cultures and languages represented, but each wanted to a) be a part of the America they'd dreamed about and b) wanted to succeed and contribute to our society. Further, they bonded as a group primarily over disgust at the way "natural" Americans didn't realize how good they had it compared to their countries of origin.

Worth remembering when we're tempted to succumb to all the SJW B.S. which floods the news.

[Ben]

Perverse objects.

I instantly thought of Norman's 'Design of Everyday Things' (which I can recommend)

[David]

Rather effectively sets a Grievance Zeppelin on fire.

You’d think that Ta-Nehisi Coates might reflect on the extent to which his own name-to-drop status – despite being a racist mediocrity - undermines his claims of ongoing, eternal victimhood.

[Sporkatus]

Tennessee Jackets' success, such as it is, is rooted in the Representative Authenticity Principle. To gain the greatest credibility and the most attributed earnestness from guilt-laden white liberals and bureaucratic nonentities, one must not only scream the loudest but adopt the largest number of pretenses. If the competition brings out a robe, you must wear the robe, a daishiki, and surround yourself with earnest "African-speaking" children. Greatest "authenticity" achieved, selection as *true* representative achieved and your own scam funded, in total isolation from any real "help to the community" or genuine representation. Real progress stymied for lack of pretense.

Described in detail in Tom Wolfe's Mau-Mauing the Flak-Catchers, which read today is both hilarious and horrifying.

[Squires]

Apparently, at Berkeley...

In a strange twist of reality (generally being stranger than fiction as it is) David Lynch's version of Frank Herbert's Dune was prophetic.

Ben Shapiro's name is a killing word; institutes of higher education have discovered ways to turn students' brains into Weirding Modules.

[David]

Ben Shapiro’s name is a killing word;

And difficult to spell, apparently.

institutes of higher education have discovered ways to turn students’ brains into Weirding Modules.

Which might explain why Mr Shapiro is being denounced as a “suspected white supremacist” and a “Nazi sympathiser.” And also the screeching.

As we’ve seen more times than I can count, the vehemence of campus protestors is often matched by their ignorance of what non-leftist positions actually are. Which is hardly surprising, given how rarely they hear them on campus, except as caricature. If the leftists being paid to educate you opt instead to reinforce the conceit that anyone who disagrees with you, and with them, is by definition a bad person, and therefore must be silenced, idiocy will follow. But flattery sells.

Not entirely unrelated.

[pst314]

"Rather effectively sets a Grievance Zeppelin on fire"

A flaming Nazi gasbag, to recycle an old liberal insult in a way likely to offend liberals.

[Sporkatus]

A flaming Nazi gasbag

*golf clap*

[John D]

Not entirely unrelated.

Metaphor alert!

[David]

Metaphor alert!

The rubbish bin was oppressing him. It’s so unfair.

[pst314]

"an old liberal insult"

I was using "liberal" in its American sense--rather different from what it means in the UK.

[Spiny Norman]

Rather unrelated to the current conversation, but related to recent posts:

Seen at AoSHQ yesterday:

Ok - instead of those "cute animal or plate of food" stuff how about a mash-up of "Trans-health Manifesto or Uni-bomber Manifesto"

Posted by: Publius Redux

This morning, co-blogger "OregonMuse" noted this, which would be a good template.

[pst314]

how about a mash-up of "Trans-health Manifesto or Uni-bomber Manifesto"

Remember the "Al Gore or the Unibomber" quizzes?

[Sam Duncan]

“BBC Pidgin”

Okay, I know it's a Proper Language Now and all that, but I defy any English speaker to supress a chuckle at

North Korea don fire another missile

Japan don warn say dem no go tolerate dis kain thing

Following the Father Ted school of international diplomacy, apparently.

“Something which may be of interest.”

Damn, that's good.

[Farnsworth M. Muldoon]

Remember the "Al Gore or the Unibomber" quizzes?

Coincidentally, courtesy of Ace today, Al Gore or The Unibomber.

[David]

[ Slides unheard-of free drink to Mr Norman as consolation for his link being overlooked. ]

[Sporkatus]

his link being overlooked

Not once, but twice, in subtly different ways!

[David]

Not once, but twice

Drunks and heathens, the lot of ‘em.

[Farnsworth M. Muldoon]

Drunks and heathens, the lot of ‘em.

The apples fall not far from the tree.

[pst314]

"Okay, I know it's a Proper Language Now and all that, but I defy any English speaker to supress a chuckle..."

From Wikipedia:
"A pidgin, or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups that do not have a language in common..."

Any grammatically simplified language will sound comical to fluent speakers of the languages it is derived from. Political Correctness demands that we not even smile, much less chuckle, but sod em if they can't take a joke.

[pst314]

And here's another free drink, Norman.

[Sonny Wayze]

Ahem...

Un'A'bomber.

[Looks at barkeep].

Waits...

[WTP]

Drunks and heathens, the lot of ‘em.

Hey, I scored 50%. I challenge any of you skallywags to top that!

[Pogonip]

https://www.boredpanda.com/cats-with-unusual-fur-markings/

Marble Beauty is a bit scary.

[Farnsworth M. Muldoon]

Marble Beauty is a bit scary.

Feline vitiligo, same as human except most of us aren't fur covered...

[Pogonip]

Didn't know there was such a thing as feline vitiligo!

I may be a bit scarce for a while because boring old real life has more demands than usual, but I will make sure to drop in every so often and whine about same.

[Spiny Norman]

: HIC :

Why thnaks to ever'one. Much 'preciated.

Are them pickl'd eggs in dat jar some kinda dare?

[Hal]

Well, once you fix the italics, you'll prolly stop seeing everything at an angle.

Lessee.

That should do it.

[Hal]

Oh dear, did the background support go wonky?

[Hal]

Oh, indeed . . . apparently a pair of iterating italicisers, there.

---All right, Spiny, for your penance, say that five times fast, or figure out the ameliorating alternate . . .

[Spiny Norman]

Very strange. It looked fine in the preview...

[jones]

Mr Yamaguchi.

The luckiest or unluckiest man in the world?. One of those half-empty/half-full conundrums.

[David]

[Looks at barkeep].
Waits...

[ Picked egg rolls along bar, accumulating fluff and debris as it approaches… ]

[David]

Today’s words are “anti-fascist.” Also, adjunct professor.

See the educator airing his brains here.

[jones]

"Also, adjunct professor"

I notice the esteemed adjunct complains about living in "this ahistorical world" (0.53s).

I guess he's opposed to removing statues and other artefacts then?

[David]

I guess he’s opposed to removing statues and other artefacts then?

There do seem to be some common, recurring features among such people. The self-flattery and sense of entitlement; the grandiose unrealism; and the emotional instability.

[David]

I guess he’s opposed to removing statues and other artefacts then?

And then there’s the striking mental dissonance and double standards. As when professing his entitlement to physically intimidate and assault people with whom he disagrees - to shut them down and silence them, violently - and publicly wishing murder on the “future cops” that he’s employed to teach - and then, when suspended for this, complaining, “So much for free speech, I guess.”

It’s an imperviousness to contradiction more typically found in children.

[David]

If anyone wants to poke around in the adjunct professor’s Twitter feed, by all means knock yourselves out.

Oh, and by the way, Dr Isaacson thinks the TV interview linked above “went great.”

Self-knowledge, it ain’t for everyone.

[jones]

Oh go on then.....I was tempted to poke around adjunct's twitter and noticed this vid of Robert Lee' statue being removed.

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/908476613808893952

Ahistorical indeed.

Great fisticuffs on all the threads too.

[I sneeze in threes]

https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/media-40969682 I would like to hear John Humphrys delivery the 1-minute pidgin news review, or Jim Davidson.

[jones]

sneeze,

"I would like to hear John Humphrys delivery the 1-minute pidgin news review, or Jim Davidson."

John Humphrys doing it would be praised as paying homage to the noble savage.

Jim Davidson would be character assassinated as a Nazi, bigot racist.

Have you noticed as well how (former Laureate?) Aung San Suu Kyi is being transformed into a deemed bigot now she is in conflict with the highest ranked victim group?

[Squires]

The self-flattery and sense of entitlement; the grandiose unrealism; and the emotional instability.

And then there’s the striking mental dissonance and double standards.

My lies are not lies, they are the truth. My truth.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Oh, and by the way, Dr Isaacson thinks the TV interview linked above “went great.”

Not everyone is down with the prof. (NSFW for language)

[David]

Not everyone is down with the prof.

Heh. The, um, elongation does lend itself to his favourite expression.

Which I’d describe as self-satisfied.

[Hal]

Today’s words are “anti-fascist.” Also, adjunct professor.

Meh. Hire a hipster, get a hipster . . .

[[+]]

The, um, elongation does lend itself to his favourite expression. Which I’d describe as self-satisfied.

He's literally looking down his nose at us.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

The, um, elongation...

All this time I had always thought "pencil necked" was just a euphemism. Who knew ?

Today’s words are “anti-fascist.”

Among his more delusional rantings is that anti-communist (because he is an anarcho-communist because of course he is) = fascist. This will,of course, come as a great surprise to all those who fled the USSR, East Germany, Cuba, Pol Pot's Cambodia, North Korea, and communist China.

Oh,, wait, those weren't really real communist-communist. Sorry.

[WTP]

See the educator airing his brains here.

The puzzled look on Tucker Carleson's face when he, rhetorically I presume, asks, "Do you teach students?" It's like he just woke from a Rip Van Winkle.

[David]

He’s literally looking down his nose at us.

And being amused by the thought of future police officers, his own students, being murdered, is “critiquing policing.”

[David]

And speaking of adults who probably shouldn’t be left unsupervised near impressionable youngsters.

“I’m defending myself!”

[Spiny Norman]

The, um, elongation...

All this time I had always thought "pencil necked" was just a euphemism. Who knew ?

Obligatory:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkB_CFi9row

[PiperPaul]

I wonder if he takes advantage of his physical attribute at Halloween.

[svh]

https://twitter.com/TheSafestSpace/status/908742539246792704

Science!

[John Brady]

Similar to pencil neck, but more human.

https://youtu.be/JjIXwkX1e48

[dicentra]

I recommend watching the 30 days at sea at full-screen resolution. It's magnificent.

[Farnsworth M. Muldoon]

The Last Southern Gentlemen, and a tune as you have never heard before.

[QuintAmpersandJessel]

So, that old guy was defending himself, or what? He sounds like his brain got stuck.

[bgates]

He's literally looking down his nose at us.

Finally an answer to the question, "What if Jafar from Disney's Aladdin had a gay nephew?"

[Hal]

. . . and a tune as you have never heard before.

A bit reminiscent of Tommy and the song Pinball Wizard.