Friday Ephemera

Heavy metal weather. || Murmuration. || The molecular mechanics of cell division. || A world of data. || In search of hidden dimensions. || The man who created Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future. (h/t, Obnoxio) || The first man-made nuclear chain reaction. || Sunken villages. || When mum dips her toe in virtual reality. (h/t, Damian) || Thickening time. || No offensively dirty faces. || “The time is fastly approaching where the tables are going to turn.” || Winter. (h/t, Ben) || The Great Smog of ‘52. || Impatient dog. || Punks share their wisdom via the medium of leather jackets. || This is one of these. || Big ‘uns. || Berezka. || Zinnia is woke. Don’t be like Zinnia. || And finally, at long last, a site for those who know the visceral thrill of milk floats. It has audio files and everything.

Comments

[Pogonip]

Since we started anew, behold this that I found on theothermccain.com

http://archive.is/YsWD9

What interested me were the comments. The pendulum hasn’t swung back, but I saw it twitch.

[champ]

The world of data

Why am I not surprised to see that Venezuela has the highest murder rate in the world?

[Pogonip]

Berezka: way cool! I strongly suspect, based on my own dancing experience, that they’re on tiptoe under those skirts.

[Fred the Fourth]

After the link on Punk fashion, I found this bit of Toxic Masculinity Appreciation:

http://www.neatorama.com/2017/12/01/What-Flight-Attendants-Notice-First-About-Passengers-As-They-Board/

They also check to see if you're muscular, so they can go to you if they need backup:

"I consider this person a resource for me. In the event of an attack on the flight or on me, these are my 'go-to' people. If a situation looks like it could develop, I'll privately and discreetly ask one of these people if they would be willing to help us if necessary. Help might involve subduing or restraining an unruly passenger. We hope it never happens, but we will prepare just in case it does."

[Boatswain's Mate]

OK, as I had said, I'd been saving this all week. Hee hee.

Undoomed ("Hey, moron! Fucking moron!") discovers "Everyday Feminism."

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/nsgltX8JH9o

[Pogonip]

How long IS that video?

[Mags]

"Toolbox of note."

[Rafi]

a site for those who know the visceral thrill of milk floats. It has audio files and everything.

And milk float poetry.

[David]

Undoomed (“Hey, moron! Fucking moron!”) discovers “Everyday Feminism.”

When he got to Melissa and her “illegal” nipples I had to put my coffee down.

[David]

It’s ingenious and classy.

[David]

Undoomed (“Hey, moron! Fucking moron!”) discovers “Everyday Feminism.”

I can’t help feeling that the green-hair-orange-face combo – the Oompa-Loompa aesthetic - is a warning signal.

And remember, this is someone who denounces “white supremacist capitalist cisheteropatriarchal standards of feminine beauty,” but chooses to wear an orange mask with fake eyebrows, while taking endless, heavily filtered selfies and re-tweeting flattering comments about how pretty she is. Presumably, in a desperate attempt to achieve the kind of effect that she claims to despise.

And this is a woman who describes herself, at length, as “an intellectual being,” but won’t engage with factual corrections or any unflattering feedback, and instead howls, at length, about the psychological “trauma” of being disagreed with.

[Alice]

Thailand's most dangerous market.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sxuAm569IY

[jones]

With respect to turned tables I really don't think they'll be able to contain themselves until they really can turn over said tables and so reveal themselves for what they are.

They'll then get a war they won't believe.

After which those responsible will have to be dealt with.

Justly of course.

Angry......

[Burnsie]

The punk jackets? They look better on the cats:

http://www.neatorama.com/pet/2016/01/31/Punk-Rock-and-Metal-Cats-Decked-Out-in-Vests/

[David]

Ed West on the ghosts of Christmas-yet-to-come.

[Microbillionaire]

Today's word is: midwit.

Right now, the federal government is working to pour billions of your tax dollars into building a wall between the United States and Mexico, despite the fact that walls have been militarily obsolete since the advent of gunpowder.

Midwittery may be defined as the sort of argument committed by a person marginally above average. The midwit has learned that data points are superior to screaming and swearing, but is still struggling with identifying accurate, relevant data points that support the midwit's argument. (The illegal aliens crossing the border between the United States and Mexico generally do not have gunpowder artillery, for instance.) The midwit often thinks himself a genius because he once found a flaw in someone else's argument, and concludes that all arguments he doesn't like must be similarly flawed.

Since the Trump administration is committed to using 12th-century military technology to protect our country from Mexican invaders, we have responded in kind by building a 30-foot trebuchet, a medieval catapult designed to destroy walls.

The midwit thinks very, very highly of his own cleverness and wit. Arguing with the midwit is a waste of time; should he be rebutted, he'll flee to "it was a joke bro, you have no sense of humor". But cease to take him seriously and he'll pop right up again.

Those of us who do not think walls are a 12th-century technology might also note the instructive example of Hungary's border wall, which cut illegal immigration there by 99%.

[jones]

"ghosts of Christmas-yet-to-come"

"Does anyone in a position of power believe this is going to get better and these security measures will ever be taken down? If not, perhaps they should explain to us why, how they led us down this route, and what they intend to do about it."

https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2017/12/christmas-markets-without-armed-police-are-now-a-thing-of-the-past/

I can only assume they think they'll get away with it.

[John D]

Zinnia is woke. Don’t be like Zinnia.

Speaks volumes.

[David]

Speaks volumes.

It does, I think, reveal something about the broader attitude.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...despite the fact that walls have been militarily obsolete since the advent of gunpowder.

Midwit is overestimating the wit of someone who has never had to learn that a wall made of something as simple as Hesco bastions is your friend, and that walls are quite effective against an enemy with mortars, rockets, and trucks filled with explosives even in the 21st century.

The former East Germans could not be reached for comment either.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Teh Patriarchy™ is so evil and oppressive, it has made women superior to men.

No, seriously, Obama said so, or something.

Meanwhile, Chad Kroeger tells us we are in the midst of gnarly times and still makes more sense than Miss Fabello.

[David]

Chad Kroeger tells us we are in the midst of gnarly times and still makes more sense than Miss Fabello.

Rad and crunchy, dude.

Yes, Ms Fabello does seem gripped by a deranged conspiracy theory, one that bears about as much relation to reality as Scientology. The two articles of hers that I’ve linked upthread are attempts to assert why she, and those like her, should win arguments by default, before they even begin, despite being unable to string together ideas in a remotely consistent and logical manner. And her bizarre lamentations aren’t at all unusual among the intersectional sisterhood. As a political philosophy in the developed world, modern feminism is ludicrous. But if you think of it as an attempt to rationalise spite and a kind of malignant narcissism, it starts to make a little sense.

[R. Sherman]

@Microbillionaire,

I would appear that the Midwit's beef is with the efficacy of the proposed solution, not the identification of the problem. Perhaps then, s/he would be persuaded by a deployment of late 20th century technology to deal with the situation, i.e. constant CAPs of A-10 Warthogs with various AP load-outs.

[Joan]

But if you think of it as an attempt to rationalise spite and a kind of malignant narcissism, it starts to make a little sense.

It's all about MMMEEEEEEE!

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Zinnia is woke. Don’t be like Zinnia.

Indeed; wherein we find Zinnia thinks videos of ISIS throwing gays from buildings are "suicide photos" and that the brave ISIS lads were trying to prevent them from jumping.

[David]

It’s all about MMMEEEEEEE!

You almost have to be impressed by the presumption and dogmatic nastiness. A poster aimed at men, encouraging them to have occasional health checks, is construed as somehow “guilting women,” and then vandalised as if encouraging men to have health checks were an affront to womankind.

[Microbillionaire]

@Sherman,

I would appear that the Midwit's beef is with the efficacy of the proposed solution, not the identification of the problem. Perhaps then, s/he would be persuaded by a deployment of late 20th century technology to deal with the situation, i.e. constant CAPs of A-10 Warthogs with various AP load-outs.

Yes, that does seem to be an unfortunate implication of CAH's phrases like "militarily obsolete". If the mass migration is a military problem, the proper terminology for it is arguably an 'invasion', and there are certain actions it is licit to take against an invading army that are generally illicit in other contexts.

A proper border wall would also have the related effect of repelling mere sob stories and exposing more of the sort of person willing to come at the wall with trebuchet or battering ram, making their nature more obvious.

[R. Sherman]

I haven't decided whether this dude has reached "midwit" stage or blown completely past it. His argument seems surprisingly coherent compared with some of Melissa Fabello's oeuvre.

[PiperPaul]

I thought that handwritten graffiti said quilting women, "quilting" being some kind of invented-yesterday term describing the latest evils of Teh Patriarchy or something.

It's so difficult to keep up with the fuckwittery midwittery these days.

[Connor]

milk float poetry

Band name.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Meanwhile back in The Great White North, it appears that there no actual complaint filed against Ms. Shepherd.

Oops.

[David]

I thought that handwritten graffiti said quilting women, “quilting” being some kind of invented-yesterday term describing the latest evils of Teh Patriarchy or something.

Don’t joke. The term ‘patchwork’ is apparently sexist and deeply offensive.

[WTP]

Someone was asking early this week why we hate the cheese eating surrender monkeys? Exhibit Z-20171941

https://nypost.com/2017/12/07/french-ambassador-bashes-us-on-pearl-harbor-day/

[R. Sherman]

Oops.

Nah, the failure to document any complaint is deliberate. I suppose it's possible that somehow the august worthies at the university heard through the grapevine about the contents of Ms. Shepherd's tutorial, and decided to convene a struggle session on their own, but I doubt it. More likely, they desired to eliminate any evidence of the identity of the complaintant[s] or his/her/their specific grievances in order to sanitize their ultimate decision and actions. My guess, is they hoped to confront her with allegations from non-specified informants in order to bully her into a confession and agreement for penance without exposing themselves or the department or university to scrutiny. As we say in the legal biz, a guilty plea cures a lot of problems. If there was an "oops," it was in underestimating Ms. Shepherd's resolve, not in the failure to document.

[R. Sherman]

The term ‘patchwork’ is apparently sexist and deeply offensive.

Good lord. That link is from 2010. Have I been visiting these pages for that long? I need a new hobby.

[David]

Have I been visiting these pages for that long?

Try sitting here.

[sH2]

Tone police.

https://twitter.com/WASPmafia/status/939119114278367232

[Spiny Norman]

Zinnia is woke. Don’t be like Zinnia.

Sex with trans women: a frank discussion (NSFW)

Let's talk girljunk, teehee.

Wait... what??? I thought "feminine penis" was just a long-running joke/trolling on 4Chan /b/ (aka "Kekistan").

[headdesk]

[Spiny Norman]

Tone police

From the replies:

For those wondering, "audist" means racist against deaf people. LOL

Ohferfuckssake.

[Spiny Norman]

On that note, I seem to recall David once posted a link to something about "militant deaf advocates" demanding an end to cochlear implants, because being able to hear Mozart was a form of violent assault.

[pst314]

I seem to recall David once posted a link to something about "militant deaf advocates" demanding an end to cochlear implants

Because enabling the deaf to hear would destroy "deaf culture". Also, they insisted that being deaf is not a disability.

[David]

I seem to recall David once posted a link to something about “militant deaf advocates”

I’m guessing you mean this.

Somewhat related.

[Lab Rat]

Wait... what??? I thought "feminine penis" was just a long-running joke/trolling on 4Chan /b/ (aka "Kekistan").

The language has been so corrupted now and everything is a minefield of hate crimes against someone's feelz that if challenged about my sexual preferences I'd have to take it back to first principles. As in "XY chromosomes, factory default equipment only". And they are supposed to be the "pro-science" bunch!

[bgates]

militarily obsolete

Mexico's military numbers 280,000.

There are an estimated 5,600,000 illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States.

[Fruitbat44]

Berezka. Was that one of the inspirations for Terry Nation's Daleks?

[Spiny Norman]

There are an estimated 5,600,000 illegal Mexican immigrants in the United States.

20 years ago, maybe. It's quite well north of 11 million now - the number the 2010 US census estimated, which was immediately denounced by "immigrant advocates" as an "intentional undercount" and, naturally, rayciss!.

[Spiny Norman]

Also, the number of "Hispanic" (i.e. Mexican, Central- and South-American) illegal aliens living in California alone is well above 5,600,000.

[Spiny Norman]

I’m guessing you mean this.

Yes, I do believe so. I specifically recall the "Mozart = violence" claim, though, but didn't see it there.

[Chester Draws]

Nah, the failure to document any complaint is deliberate.

My guess would be that they had a verbal "complaint" and in their haste forgot to do the paperwork.

I can't help suspecting that our Ms Shepherd had been asking for it for a while, having quite the wrong sort of ideas in general. Hence the haste and the long struggle session. A person with right-think (TM) would have been given a quiet word to toe the line.

I use "complaint" because a lot of complaints turn out to be "Hey, you never guess what happened in ..." overheard by someone with an axe to grind. I've also been the subject of a complaint laid by a student who was in a whole heap of trouble and was casting around for some mud to throw at others to deflect attention from himself. The complaint in question was about something 6 months prior, no-one bothered with at the time because it was of trifling importance and was between me and another student in any case.

[jabrwok]

Friday Open Road

Unfortunately the site isn't indexed, so for previous Friday Open Roads you'll have to scroll back page by page. Worth it though. Especially the "Freckles are Good" series.

[Spiny Norman]

In "Pushing the Envelope of Sexuality" news:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sWDCz5v1Vg

[Pogonip]

Norman, that envelope’s already been scribbled on, crumpled, and shredded! 😄

[Darleen]

the visceral thrill of milk floats.

Honestly, I had to click through the links to the pictures because I've never heard the expression "milk float" before.

For me, it is just the milkman and his delivery truck. Where did the "float" come in?

For me, these are floats

and these ...

[Darleen]

When you've made a boneheaded statement, remember to double-down.

[David]

I had to click through the links to the pictures because I’ve never heard the expression “milk float” before.

Even the enthusiasts at Milk Float Corner aren’t sure where the term came from. But the sound of the electric motor, and the early morning clink of glass bottles on doorsteps, is quite evocative of an era. It reminds me of staying over at my gran’s as a wee seedling. In the UK, I should imagine they’re now found only in some rural areas and are probably endangered even there.

[David]

In “Pushing the Envelope of Sexuality” news

“Ectoplasm, ladies and gentlemen!”

“Ooh, hang on.”

“Aaiiieee!”

The spirits are angry. Or possibly horny.

[Jonathan]

we have responded in kind by building a 30-foot trebuchet, a medieval catapult designed to destroy walls.

I'm sure it can be re-purposed to MAGA:

[champ]

Good grief, has it devolved to this?

http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/39743/

[Darleen]

It reminds me of staying over at my gran’s as a wee seedling.

Until we got a second car, we had both the milkman and the Helms Bakery delivery man. Had fresh milk, eggs, butter and bread between weekend visits to the supermarket.

When I was home with my little ones in the early 80's I had a milkman for a few years for the same reason. I think that was the last of the era of home delivery in suburbia.

[Darleen]

Why college students reject reason.

[David]

Why college students reject reason.

Paywall. Is there a choice quote?

[Spiny Norman]

Darleen,

Until we got a second car, we had both the milkman and the Helms Bakery delivery man.

Whoa. I'm old enough to remember the Helms Bakery man. Here's another one for ya: my dad used to bring home doughnuts from the old Van de Kamp's bakery when he got off duty - the one in Long Beach that looked like a Dutch windmill (IIRC, they all did, but that one was near where we lived.)

[Spiny Norman]

Why college students reject reason.

The Wall Street Journal has gotten good at thwarting the "Google search" method of getting around the paywall.

[Fred the Fourth]

Insty has a link to the Lorde story in WSJ which seems to bypass their paywall.

[R. Sherman]

Until we got a second car, we had both the milkman and the Helms Bakery delivery man.

We had a weekly egg delivery and semi-weekly dairy delivery until at least 1973--two different local farmers There was an elaborate milk box outside the front door with space for a large block of ice. We had a pad of tear-off order sheets which we'd leave clipped to the box on delivery days. After one delivery, Mom evidently told the milkman that under no circumstances was chocolate milk to be delivered. Somehow, four gallons had been scratched onto the order form. To this day, the perpetrators remain unidentified, though I blamed hippies.

[Ted S., Catskill Mtns., NY, USA]

Darleen's link at 0555 today to the tweet from Inclusive 2017 is excluding me. Apparently they don't let non-followers see their stupidity any longer.

[champ]

Oh, sure...

https://www.dailywire.com/news/24496/top-transgender-weightlifter-i-have-no-advantage-amanda-prestigiacomo?utm_source=shapironewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=120917-news&utm_campaign=position3

[Pogonip]

Champ, isn’t that the same guy who recently lost to a (real) woman?

[champ]

@Pogonip, Sarah Robles, an American weightlifter...

[Darleen]

Darn it!! When I went through the link at Instapundit, it didn't trigger paywall.

Let's try this <--- it works in preview

Lorde’s campus acolytes see the university as the “master’s house” and Western thought as his tools—which is to say that they espouse an ideology that rejects the idea of a classical education. Lorde claims to offer an alternative. “When we view living in the european [sic] mode only as a problem to be solved, we rely solely upon our ideas to make us free, for these were what the white fathers told us were precious,” Lorde wrote in “Poetry Is Not a Luxury,” a 1977 essay. [...]

In another essay, she asserts, “Beyond the superficial, the considered phrase, ‘It feels right to me,’ acknowledges the strength of the erotic into a true knowledge, for what that means is the first and most powerful guiding light toward any understanding.” She defines the erotic as “a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feelings.” If student activists seem irrational, they’re actually deliberately antirational, rejecting reason as “white” and “male.”

[Darleen]

my dad used to bring home doughnuts from the old Van de Kamp's bakery

I remember my grandparents taking us to a Van de Kamp's Coffee Shop & Bakery in Los Angeles.

And going to Helm's Bakery on a field trip was standard fair for my elementary school (Rinaldi Elementary in Granada Hills)

The only thing more fun thing was eating in the drive-in section of Bob's Big Boy.

[Darleen]

Darleen's link at 0555 today to the tweet from Inclusive 2017 is excluding me.

well, crap. I gotta learn to screen-cap more.

[David]

Why college students reject reason.

Lorde insists: “Even at the same time that I understood what you meant, I felt a total wipeout of my modus, my way of perceiving and formulating… I’m used to associating a request for documentation as a questioning of my perceptions, an attempt to devalue what I’m in the process of discovering.” Scepticism or demands for evidence are not only a personal affront but an example of the oppressive system at work. Earlier this year, this newspaper examined test scores and discovered that at more than 100 American colleges, at least one-third of seniors were incapable of making an argument or weighing evidence, among other tasks of critical thinking. Lorde’s influence would seem to match her popularity.

Ah. Short version: Clown Quarter students are using a whiny, self-absorbed poet, now dead, as a kind of guru, because her whiny, self-absorbed blathering can be construed as excusing the students’ own whiny self-absorption and academic incompetence. Telling mediocre students that ‘You are oppressed,’ ‘It’s never your fault,’ and ‘Don’t even try to organise your thoughts so that you and others can see if they’re accurate and sound’ is apparently a winning formula. Albeit temporarily.

See also, auto-ethnography, critical race theory, standpoint theory, etc.

It’s worth taking a moment to digest the fact that, for many Clown Quarter students, academia is now a place where they’re led to believe that being asked for evidence, or being asked to construct an argument that will bear any kind of scrutiny, is somehow an affront, an invalidation, and therefore constitutes “violence” that is enacted by ignorant and evil people.

The idea that what is being invalidated is merely their own vanity and arrogance is apparently anathema, quite literally unthinkable.

[Captain Nemo]

Ten dating tips for the intersectional feminist. Because of course, "The personal is political".

https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/12/intersectional-feminist-first-date/

[David]

Ten dating tips for the intersectional feminist.

Or, ‘Don’t date or befriend anyone who is likely to disagree with you on any subject.’ Which I suppose is essential if you’re determined never to learn anything from them.

[David]

Sharp-eyed readers will perhaps spot a theme in the preceding comments.

[Jonathan]

‘Don’t date or befriend anyone who is likely to disagree with you on any subject.’

tl;dr: "Straight, white people are bad, m'kay."

Or:

' You should never date an intersectional feminist. Here's why.'

[David]

Or: ‘You should never date an intersectional feminist. Here’s why.’

Somewhat related.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Regarding Miss Lourde,

The Black mother within each of us—the poet—whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.”

In another essay, she asserts, “Beyond the superficial, the considered phrase, ‘It feels right to me,’ acknowledges the strength of the erotic into a true knowledge, for what that means is the first and most powerful guiding light toward any understanding.”

I think she can't recognize "superficial" when she writes it.

However, speaking of the Clown Quarter, another one in the Great White North "ain't down with" academic freedom, or freedom of speech, as it is white supremacy, or something.

Sentio ergo est.

[Pogonip]

Well, the reason the intersectional feminist had to write that article is her social calendar is full to bursting and this way, she can just point prospective suitors to the article, instead of explaining it all individually 12 times a day.

[David]

well, crap. I gotta learn to screen-cap more.

No, Darleen, it’s too late for apologies. We’ve all been wounded, invalidated and traumatised.

Come, let us huddle together and weep.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I am not at all sure why I did, but I thought about this some more, and it occurred to me that, "...the considered phrase, ‘It feels right to me,’...", does not really do anything that, "...acknowledges the strength of the erotic into a true knowledge, for what that means is the first and most powerful guiding light toward any understanding.”

In reality, "It feels right to me", is the same thought that goes through ones mind when one says, "Hold my beer and watch this".

[sH2]

Ten dating tips for the intersectional feminist.

Or, ‘Don’t date or befriend anyone who is likely to disagree with you on any subject.’ Which I suppose is essential if you’re determined never to learn anything from them.

That.

[David]

That.

And remember, these are people who regard themselves as intellectuals, as righteous and heroic bringers of light. This is how perverse and laughably degenerate academia’s Clown Quarter has become.

[Daniel Ream]

I suppose it's possible that somehow the august worthies at the university heard through the grapevine about the contents of Ms. Shepherd's tutorial, and decided to convene a struggle session on their own, but I doubt it.

I don't. At all. I am quite familiar with the institution in question.

[Darleen]

Ten dating tips for the intersectional feminist.

Wow! And Lara Witt is an anti-Semite, too!

I wonder, does she need a Rolodex to keep all her hates in order?

[David]

I wonder, does she need a Rolodex to keep all her hates in order?

She’s not the loveliest creature. Again, note Ms Witt’s conceit that there’s “no value” in debating with anyone who questions her claims and assumptions, which, we’re told, amounts to “abuse” and a questioning of her humanity.

[Darleen]

there’s “no value” in debating with anyone who questions her claims and assumptions

Wow, that's some hall of mirrors she's got going! Even garden-variety narcissism is several orders of healthier.

[Darleen]

More from Lindsay Shepherd and the cultists who rally against things that never happened.

[David]

Wow, that’s some hall of mirrors she’s got going!

She’s essentially boasting that you can’t have a conversation with her in good faith, since any demurral or correction, any failure to defer to her Magic Female Blackness™, will be construed as abusive and proof of “white supremacy.” Some kinds of broken you just can’t fix, assuming one were inclined, and are simply best avoided and kept away from children.

[Sonny Wayze]

"For me, these are floats

and these ... "

Now, *these* are floats (/Dundee):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aomori_Nebuta_Matsuri

[Hal]

milk float poetry

Band name.

There is a company in Oakland, CA, called NPM, named after their primary product, the Node Package Manager, which is used in JavaScript.

Just in case one is uncertain of the meaning of NPM, up in the upper left of the website the meaning is very helpfully spelled out.

I've just realized that the very helpful spelling out is itself a rather handy band name generator, as long as one likes N, P, and M.

Nosey Party Murderer
Notably Polite Mariner
Nucleophosmin
Neutral Pork Motel
Nietzsche's Preposterous Moustache
Nauseating Packaged Meat
Nightly Patch Machine
Nincompoops Producing Methane

[Daniel Ream]

There is a company in Oakland, CA, called NPM

Yes. Yes, there is.