Friday Ephemera

Minor malfunction detected. || An appetising dessert. || Just the usual family drama. || An alarming example of upside-down peas. (h/t, Damian) || How to sound like Erik Satie, or alternatively, like Bach. || The sounds of American doomsday cults. (h/t, Things) || It undulates. || Theodore Dalrymple on modern dishonesties. || The car of tomorrow. || Firecrackers of yore. (h/t, Coudal) || South African scenes. || Horse sense. (h/t, Darleen) || High anxiety. || I think something is rattling. || Attention, retailers: How to sell the Sony Betamax. || Stromboli goes boom. || There and back again. || God one, boat nil. (h/t, Rita) || Eleven elements. || And finally, via Elephants Gerald, a balance of terror.

Comments

[Captain Nemo]

Unwanted pillion passenger of note:

https://twitter.com/Bikers_Magazine/status/1147872978459418624

The home bar you've always wanted:

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-63574254.html

[Hal]

Minor malfunction detected.

Major malfunction detected

[Hal]

An appetising dessert.

Mine!

[Captain Nemo]

Hi David. When you read this, could you please gently tickle your spam filter for me, and get her to free my post?

[Hal]

The car of tomorrow.

The cars of tomorrow.

[Hal]

South African scenes.

Where's his knife??

[Hal]

Eleven elements.

Boron

[Pogonip]

Coming soon to a theater near you:

SJW remake of Mouse: The Car, where the oppressed female mouse beats the driver up.

[Sam Duncan]

“How to sound like Erik Satie”

The interesting thing about that is that, beyond the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes, Satie didn't sound much like Satie.

And with that said,

“or alternatively, like Bach”

God damn, I wish I could do that.

“The sounds of American doomsday cults.”

For the sound of a British doomsday cult, just tune in to BBC Countryfile every Sunday evening.

“Theodore Dalrymple on modern dishonesties.”

He's right about the curious suddenness of modern pieties. The Great Plastic Panic, for example, seemed to burst on to the world's media, fully formed, at the stroke of midnight on January 1st 2018. I share Dr.D.'s distrust of conspiracy theory, but it's enough to make you wonder.

“The cars of tomorrow.”

Heh. Great minds think alike, Hal. :)

[Steve E]

I love the handle Elephants Gerald.

It strikes me as rather Winnie-the-Pooh-esque, though I'm sure that it's not: Trespassers Will, Heffalumps and Woozles, etc.

My rather cursory google search found a New Orleans Jazz Band and an obscure homonymous reference to Ella Fitzgerald from the group Cream when they were looking for album names for the eventual Disraeli Gears.

[pst314]

South African scenes.

I'd like to forcibly deport all the West's open-borders advocates to the worst hell-holes of Africa...with no hope of ever escaping.

[pst314]

Stromboli goes boom.

At what moment did they realize that would be a good idea to exit the area quickly?

[TimT]

“an obscure homonymous reference to Ella Fitzgerald”

By thunder, I hadn’t thought of that. If it’s a reference to Herr Gerald’s musical taste, then he has dashed good musical taste.

[Darleen]

How to sound like Erik Satie, or alternatively, like Bach.

in 200 years this will still be played, 150 longer than when those youngins will say "Taylor Swift? Who's that?"

[Mike]

An alarming example of upside-down peas.

That's triggering.

[David]

Morning, all.

Skillz.

could you please gently tickle your spam filter for me,

Done, freed. She’s moody and capricious, the spam filter.

That’s triggering.

I’m assuming we weren’t supposed to notice. I wonder if it could be used as a test for OCD.

[David]

He’s right about the curious suddenness of modern pieties.

The moral shoaling - at times, a sort of lockstep hysteria - is quite odd to watch.

Ages ago, I was trying to think of something positive to say about Laurie Penny and it occurred to me that for several years she seemed to have sudden and passionate opinions on whatever subject was fashionable that week, albeit opinions that were for the most part unhindered by knowledge, or equivocation, or by the obvious contradictions with last week’s sudden opinion. It was almost as if there were a predetermined worldview that she could plug into and immediately get upset about, often quite shamelessly.

Which I suppose is a kind of skill.

[David]

Tim Worstall was recently a guest on the BBC’s Moral Maze. As you might imagine, spluttering ensues.

[Captain Nemo]

Done, freed.

Thank you.

[Joan]

I was trying to think of something positive to say about Laurie Penny

You came so close. :-)

[David]

You came so close. :-)

I gave it my all.

[Tom]

As you might imagine, spluttering ensues.

I listened to Tim's section and am now cleaning blood off the inside of my glasses. It tends to spontaneously shoot out of my tear ducts when exposed to weapons grade stupidity which is mostly what you get on Moral Maze. The cleaning bills and cost of blood pressure meds caused me to stop listening some time ago.

It's amazing listening to someone (Tim) with facts and knowledge speaking with people who just feel deeply and are subsequently unable to accept that their closely held beliefs may just be completely specious. The annoyance in Giles Fraser's voice will warm the cockles of my heart for the rest of the week.

Perhaps I should start listening again?

[David]

people who just feel deeply

It was by no means the worst example of the programme’s default assumptions, but the peeved interruptions and air of condescension were, I think, quite telling. In such exchanges, it’s often interesting to note which party is getting heated and snippy.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

As you might imagine, spluttering ensues.

1) Cotton is problematic for vague hand waving reasons, wool is right out because shearing is cruel, artificial fibers are a non-starter because of oil, linen would be just as bad as cotton for the same vague reasons, likewise for the perpetually beloved by the left hemp, so that gets us down to animal skin loincloths which are also a no go because animals.

About the only thing left is fiber from kudzu which requires no skill to grow and the leaves are edible, so a win-win for the econuts.

2) Any clothing made from plants or animals is biodegradable, the artificial fibers just take longer.

Fun cotton fact learned, living as I do in cotton growing territory, is that modern methods can yield 850 pounds to over a ton/acre. After ginning, there is also cotton seed used for animal feed and oil, lint which gets used in things like Q-tips and bandages, the left over stalks stems and whatnot are used in erosion control (of course other plants also have byproducts as well). However, I am sure our interlocutor would deny modern methods to the farmer in Bangladesh because even though they are more "eco-friendly" because they produce more with less land, they require dreaded and problematic insecticides, fertilizers and other "non-organic" items.

It is almost as if these preening ninnies have no idea what they are talking about, let alone getting the spilkes over a first would problem like fashion while the farmer in Bangladesh is wearing an Anaheim Ducks t-shirt because nothing is ever reused or recycled.

[Pst314]

people who just feel deeply

Note the insistence that Tim “admit” that poverty is immoral, with the unspoken assumption that if something is immoral then someone is to blame and a “solution” must be imposed.

[David]

people who just feel deeply

It reminded me of the Guardian’s Leo Hickman, who seems to believe that the way to help poor farmers in developing countries is to not buy their products and then feel smug about it.

[David]

Previously on the Moral Maze. And do click the link for Dr McKenzie’s video. It’s quite a thing.

[Cornel]

Tell me about your childhood...

[Boatswain's Mate]

Based on the comments from our celebrated host's link, at 14:12 GMT, to a past entry, I couldn't resist.

Vyvyan hates "The Good Life"

[David]

Tell me about your childhood...

A win for the chaps, I think.

[Pogonip]

More about the Knutty Knitters:

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274279/inside-twisted-ravelry-controversy-danusha-goska

[Charlie Suet]

The default assumptions are infuriating. It’s clear that there are huge numbers of people (and it’s not a question of intellect) who kind of subcontract their thinking politically and end up accepting the fashionable package tout court. These people are then more likely to be completely outraged by any threat to their secondhand opinions. What is regarded by the BBC as consensus is typically just metropolitan grundyism.

What I find interesting is that in the sixties and seventies the kalloi kagathoi “knew” that aggregate demand management and state direction of industry was the only correct economic policy. If you disagreed you were some sort of weirdo. The heirs of these people, who act in the same way, now fawn over the EU, which whatever its other faults is increasingly opposed to these policies.

[Darleen]

Note the insistence that Tim “admit” that poverty is immoral

After the umpteenth insistence "I'm just trying to get you to say...", I wanted to scream at the speaker. Tim has great patience with these sanctimonious buffoons.

[Sam]

Just the usual family drama.

Am I missing something or was that just some "laughing at poor people" bullshit?

[David]

or was that just some “laughing at poor people” bullshit?

More a question of low sexual intrigue, I think.

[Sam Duncan]

“there are huge numbers of people (and it’s not a question of intellect) who kind of subcontract their thinking politically”

Yes. This. Or they just don't think at all.

One of the few useful things I got out of psychology and counselling is that worrying isn't the same as thinking. You can believe - genuinely believe - you're thinking about something really hard, when you're never actually engaging your brain's critical faculties at all. You see a surprising amount of this in politics, mainly on the Left (although it's not unknown on the “right”).

[David]

Tim Newman on ungrateful immigrants. And one in particular.

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

And now for something completely different, the utterly bugfuck insane cult leader -- sorry, CEO -- of WeWork, who saw The Circle and Sorry for Bothering You and thought, "Pikers."

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/06/wework-adam-neumann.html

(Short take: Guy from broken home receives billions in funding for shared workspace company, imposes mandatory liquor-fueled parties, talks about what in essence is a new slave plantation, takes said funding and buys lots of property so when the whole thing collapses he'll be doing fine. Absolutely insane.)

[Darleen]

More about the Knutty Knitters:

Excellent! I've been moving around the ex-ravelry groups on Facebook and everything the writer says is borne out time and again.

Those in the pro-Forbes group are imagining into being a monster, the hated other, the Trump voter, or even just the person who didn't support Trump but is leaving Ravelry because they support free speech. This monster is so dangerous that one must curse, swear, and threaten to destroy the monster. Thus, the keyboard trench war.

Many of my Facebook friends are Trump supporters. In spite of my direct criticisms, I have not had to ban a single one. One of these friends is a member of a black church. My Trump supporting friends do not post white supremacist material. In fact they frequently post links to black conservative authors like Thomas Sowell, Jason Riley, and Walter E. Williams.

Further, in spite of my sharp criticisms, none of my Trump supporting Facebook friends has harassed me. In short, I just do not believe Casey Forbes or his supporters. I do not believe that pro-Trump knitters are such a menace to world peace that they need to be banned, outright, from the world's premier knitting community.

BTW, I ran across a YouTube video that gives lie to Ravelry's claim of "8 million users" ... and pages and pages of non-functional accounts added the DAY BEFORE the ban was announced. Plus users added after registration was closed.

I wonder how much money in donations are coming to Forbes/Ravelry because of this "controversy"? (registration is still closed)

[Darleen]

Brave.

[Sam Duncan]

“More about the Knutty Knitters”

What a brilliant article. Didn't expect that at all.

[Sam]

As you might imagine, spluttering ensues.

Does anyone else who, like me, is of middling intelligence become deeply depressed when hearing intellectuals - who have the ear of governments, media moguls, and taste makers - and realizing that not only are you smarter, but far smarter than the blithering morons speaking? I understand MENSA members' disdain for humanity based on their relative intelligence but it's downright terrifying to a common idiot such as myself to realize that these people are running the show.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I am going to take a wild guess that every person she asked was a suddenly unemployed member of the politburo and not the average Ivan Baggadonutsovich who traded his Lada for a BMW and doesn't have to wait in line for a pair of shoes in the wrong size any more.

O’Dell also detailed that she spoke with an unnamed “Ivy League professor who said coming to America was the greatest mistake of her life & she will be returning soon to her post-Soviet nation [because] neoliberal late capitalism is devoid of all humanity.”

Post-Soviet, eh ? Curious, though, that the unnamed prof is not headed to Cuba, China, or North Korea.

[pst314]

"...there are huge numbers of people (and it’s not a question of intellect) who kind of subcontract their thinking politically and end up accepting the fashionable package tout court."

I have great respect for a young woman I met some years ago who said she wasn't going to vote in the presidential election because she just didn't know much. Sooner or later she will figure things out, but in the meantime she refrains from voting without sufficient knowledge. Her companion, on the other hand, (just as young) was all woke and completely certain about everything.

[David]

Does anyone else… become deeply depressed when hearing intellectuals…?

I’d say that was pretty much a theme here, no? Maybe not the depression bit, necessarily. Sometimes it’s comedy or farce.

[Sam]

True Dear Host, but must they all be as dumb as Penny?

[Governor Squid]

Does anyone else...become deeply depressed when hearing intellectuals?

I trace my bitterness to the day I realized that the adults in the real world were every bit as stupid and horrible as my monstrous schoolmates. For most of my life, I believed that after graduation I would be able to leave all the pettiness and stupidity behind. Finding out that grownups were just as stupid as adolescents (without the excuse of youth) was a hard pill to swallow. I've really never gotten over it.

You can only imagine the feelings I get when I see the monsters proudly wearing their misanthropy. How dare they! Do they not realize that they have it all backwards?

[WTP]

Sam, I think what you're discovering there is the Dunning-Kruger effect. Perhaps you've heard of it. It comes up here at times and is becoming more widely known. I first ran across it about 5-10 years ago. Whenever I mention it to people, well that and the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, it's like lightbulbs coming on. Unfortunately, such is not accompanied by the usual warm-and-fuzzy feeling. It's kind of an initiation into a new level of a moderately exclusive club. Personally, it's pretty much made me afraid to know any more than I have to about stuff. I was doing find until that damn DJT came along and exposed (well, really confirmed and confronted suspicions that I had deeply repressed) the turpid banalities of the deep state. That bastard.

[Sam]

WTP - I'm familiar with both effects*. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised and depressed, but maybe I'm a closeted optimist. It's like discovering your father not only doesn't know everything, but is a bit of a buffoon...over and over again.

Then again it might be the American habit of confusing British accents with intelligence.

*I think that sentence was pretty ironic given the subject.

[Darleen]

If you can stand 11 minutes of a babyish voice & valley-girl verbal tics, there are some very entertaining self-owns here of Lauren Duca v Ben Shapiro.

[Darleen]

Oh my, another woke-while-white UK knitter bitching about too many ypipo exhibitors at Yarndale.

So yes, I’m on the exhibitor list of a very white show. I’ve both emailed and spoken with the @yarndale organisers about this over the last few months. As a consequence they did create a diversity statement for their website, though I can’t now find it. I’ve stressed to them that positive discrimination is currently required to counteract the effects of structural racism. I don’t think they’ve yet taken that on board. The more knitters, crocheters and exhibitors that contact them about this, the more likely it is that they will engage in the learning and change-making that are required to make this show more equitable. Please do so! I was particularly disappointed to find when I spoke with them last month that I was the only exhibitor who had contacted them to express concern about how white the show is. I’m wary of publicly expressing how I feel about this because I don’t want to centre my feelings, which are vastly less important than the feeling of erasure that BAME/BIPOC folk are experiencing in the yarncrafts community. That said, I feel lonely and disappointed.
#yarndale #yarndale2019

No word yet if she's turned over her spot at the fair to a BAME/BIPOC at her expense.

[Sam Duncan]

“I was the only exhibitor who had contacted them to express concern about how white the show is.”

*snort*

I can't help wondering what the (private) response of the people on the receiving end of this kind of stuff is. I'm imagining a lot of rolled eyes and “Guess who just emailed again”s.

[Hal]

Now that's just offal: Heap of pig guts hog road after truck spills load in Kansas City

The Interstate 670 was turned into a porcine lot as three of four lanes were closed after the goregasm at 9am local time, . . . People stuck in the traffic would have been boared out of their minds . . . An emergency response vehicle was dispatched with sty-le . . . no live animals were injured in the ham-fisted snafu.

[Fred the Fourth]

Diversity. Hmm.

I recently attended the departmental graduation ceremony of the first class in a newish information analysis / statistics program at University of California. There were about 130 graduates.
The keynote speaker, a woman, was the Senior VP (IIRC) for Diversity and Inclusion at a major US corporation. She, and most of the other speakers, harped frequently on the need to have and increase diversity.
I couldn't help notice, though, that the graduating class had roughly the following composition:
10% "white" / "european" names
5% "black" (by my Mark-1 eyeball)
35% SW Asian i.e. Indian, Pakistani, etc.
35% Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai
15% Arabic or Iranian
...
55% male
45% female
(I may even be remembering this backwards. It was close-ish to 50%)

Of course, there was no way to estimate other diversities, such as economic, citizenship, philosophical, etc.

What did I miss? There was CLEARLY a huge diversity PROBLEM, since it was mentioned over and over. They wouldn't be pulling me leg, would they?

I dunno. Sometimes I just want to go scuba diving, where at least I know precisely where I am on the predator-prey axis.

And sea life? Pretty damn diverse. But for some reason none of them give a damn about my feelings.

[Felicity]

Who knew that knitting was so controversial. https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2008/11/14/whits-knits-baby-mocs/

[Pogonip]

OK, I’ll bite but in return the SJWs have to give up things not of THEIR culture, like penicillin, dentists, and cars.

[Squires]

I understand MENSA members' disdain for humanity based on their relative intelligence but it's downright terrifying to a common idiot such as myself to realize that these people are running the show.

I could squeak into that particular organization, had I any interest in doing so.

Having an unusually high IQ does nothing to prevent one from becoming foolish, or damned foolish, or outright malignantly disordered.

[Squires]

I am going to take a wild guess that every person she asked was a suddenly unemployed member of the politburo and not the average Ivan Baggadonutsovich who traded his Lada for a BMW and doesn't have to wait in line for a pair of shoes in the wrong size any more.

Back when we were in our twenties a buddy of mine went bouncing around Eastern Europe for several weeks. Before the trip he had thought it was a good idea to learn some basic Russian, for use as a lingua franca.

It was not a good idea.

I suspect the woman in question is simply engaged in a species of naked bullshit.

[David]

Who knew that knitting was so controversial.

We have permanently removed this pattern but are leaving this page active in order to publicly apologize for having shared it in the first place. We are deeply and truly sorry that we exploited and commodified Indigenous culture by taking what is not ours to take. We cannot undo the damage of having created these “moccasins,”

Yes, tears and wailing. Over knitted baby bootees. These clowns like to imagine themselves as enlightened and forward-looking, but the comparison that comes to mind is with the dupes of Victorian spiritualism. It’s like a modern analogue of table-tipping and regurgitated ectoplasm, and where devotees get very excited, even hysterical, about imaginary phenomena.

[jabrwok]

There was CLEARLY a huge diversity PROBLEM

Well obviously. You pointed it out yourself: "10% "white" / "european" names".

We can only have TRUE diversity when the world is free of the scourge of wypipo!

[pst314]

We can only have TRUE diversity when the world is free of the scourge of wypipo!

IIRC, about a year ago there was a California public school which touted their diversity for being entirely devoid of wypipo students. Very telling.

[jabrwok]

IIRC, about a year ago there was a California public school which touted their diversity for being entirely devoid of wypipo students.

Yeah, that's what inspired my comment:-/.

[pst314]

David, do I have a MENSA related comment stuck in the spam filter?

[David]

There’s nothing in the spam filter.

[Sam Duncan]

“We are deeply and truly sorry that we exploited and commodified Indigenous culture by taking what is not ours to take.”

Modern Leftism: the belief that scarce goods should be free to all and a strict policy of property rights on nonscarce mental abstracts must be rigidly, even violently, enforced.

[David]

the belief that scarce goods should be free to all and a strict policy of property rights on nonscarce mental abstracts must be rigidly, even violently, enforced.

Heh. That.

[pst314]

There’s nothing in the spam filter.

Found a copy still in Notepad. (Hit Ctrl-Z and there it was.) So...

"I understand MENSA members' disdain for humanity based on their relative intelligence but it's downright terrifying to a common idiot such as myself to realize that these people are running the show."

and

"I could squeak into that particular organization, had I any interest in doing so. Having an unusually high IQ does nothing to prevent one from becoming foolish, or damned foolish, or outright malignantly disordered."

Indeed, indeed.

And the older I get, Sam, the more respect I have for "common idiots".

In my experience, and according to various friends who are in MENSA, MENSA members tend to have personality problems (autism spectrum?) and many are singularly foolish. Lots of book-learning but no damn sense, as my grandmother might have said.

Isaac Asimov wrote that he declined to join because MENSA members showed an annoying tendency to be engage in antisocial behavior intended to prove that they were smarter than others: The higher your reputation the more you would attract the malign attention of MENSA *ssh*les. As someone who preferred congenial company, Asimov decided to avoid MENSA. I was told I qualified but found the people off-putting. A joke I have heard now and then is that MENSA is for people who are not yet mature enough for science fiction fandom.

[pst314]

An aphorism likely to infurate members of MENSA--and most members of our ruling classes:

"Experts should be on tap, not on top."
--George William Russell

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/01/26/expert/

"Our theory, which we have often put forward, is that experts ought to be on tap and not on top. We have had during our career a long and intimate knowledge of experts, most interesting men in their own speciality to which they have devoted themselves with great industry and zeal. But outside this special knowledge they are generally as foolish and ignorant as any person one could pick up in the street, with no broad knowledge of society or the general principles of legislation."

Co-operation and Nationality: A Guide for Rural Reformers from this to the next generation, by George William Russell, chapter 11: Farmers and the State:

https://books.google.com/books?id=Fo03AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=%22George+William+Russell%22+experts+on+tap&source=bl&ots=DO3Sxkymm2&sig=ACfU3U0xxDGnRvs5f6Dc1PM9CTTbJs5GRw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjU_Z6eybLjAhVaWs0KHWWTAnUQ6AEwBnoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22George%20William%20Russell%22%20experts%20on%20tap&f=false

"...control the [Agriculture] Department's policy and keep it to its proper function--which is to supply the farmers with the technical information they want and not to force on them policies they detest. Experts ought to be on tap and not on top."

[Squires]

A joke I have heard now and then is that MENSA is for people who are not yet mature enough for science fiction fandom.

I was told that their parties are boring.

And the older I get, Sam, the more respect I have for "common idiots".

I’ve met guys who were downright Forest Gumps, when it came to intelligence, but who showed themselves to be better men than I was.

“Experts should be on tap, not on top.”

A downside to expertise is that management or leadership is less likely to promote you to a position beyond where your expertise is being applied full-time and directly. This may stick in the craw of many who believe their intelligence, or reputation, or paper qualifications entitles them to a higher status.

Generally speaking, I’ve long held it a maxim that the unusually intelligent or highly schooled tend to be easier marks for confidence artists. They are just that much better equipped, or inclined, to fool themselves into the belief that they are not being fooled.

[pst314]

Future MENSA member:

[WTP]

men in their own speciality to which they have devoted themselves with great industry and zeal. But outside this special knowledge they are generally as foolish and ignorant as any person one could pick up in the street, with no broad knowledge of society or the general principles of legislation."

This dovetails somewhat (well, yes a hammer may be required) with something I've observed about exceptional athletes. The Babe Ruths, Ted Williams, Michael Jordans, Magic Johnsons of American sport, though presumably applies further afield. Those who achieved and reached the pinnacle of their game are often harangued into leadership positions as head coaches or specialty coaches and such, but more often than not fail. My theory on why such otherwise driven people so often fail is that their knowledge is so intuitive to them that it is very hard for them to teach it to others. They don't really understand why they know how to do those things better than others who may have practiced even harder than the star. The athlete that struggled, the one who almost made it or was marginally talented relative to the highest levels, had to study the game harder looking for every advantage that they could tweek out of whatever skills that they had and/or by studying the weaknesses of their opponents. They consequently have a much broader understanding of the game and thus can relate to a much more diverse group of younger men when put in position to do so.

While the autism spectrum may play a role in some of this, the idea that because someone is "smart" at one thing they thus understand most other things, while a tempting assumption to make, this capacity is not often transferable. Sure there are some polymaths out there, but not every knowledgeable person, and I'd say very few of them, has that broader capacity. This is part of what makes me suspicious of IQ. Not saying it's irrelevant, but so many other factors go into success such that many, many high IQ people are about as useless, and more likely to do far more damage, than an average IQ or even slightly below IQ person. I mean look at what that Gruber guy from MIT has done to the US healthcare system. You'd think you couldn't possibly make things worse with an MIT guy designing things, and yet...

[WTP]

Bah...I let myself drift a bit there. Part of what I was driving at was that these smart people also presume that what drives them drives everyone else. And yet even among such "smart" people, when they find that other "smart" people are driven by slightly different reasons, fireworks often ensue. The sort of things that happen when you get more than one architect in charge of a project. God help you. Not that all architects are necessarily "smart" people, but the ones that aren't seem to follow the same patterns.

[pst314]

WTP: Good point.

Also: The skills that make a good engineer/scientist/athlete/etc are not the same as the skills that make a good manager/team leader/etc. Thus, a superior engineer may do poorly if asked to lead a team or manage a project. People skills, planning skills, etc, etc, etc.

[Hal]

Isaac Asimov wrote that he declined to join because MENSA . . . .

Except, of course, that Asimov was indeed a long time member of Mensa.

[pst314]

Hal:
1. I got my information from Asimov's autobiography, which would have been relating events of the 1950's.
2. Would you please, please stop linking to Google searches? Take the time to choose a single link and quote the relevant passage from that link. Okay?

[Hal]

I got my information from Asimov's autobiography, which would have been relating events of the 1950's.

. . . You keep repeating that he didn't join.

Would you please, please stop linking to Google searches? Take the time to choose a single link and quote the relevant passage from that link. Okay?

Except that the results there remind you several times over that he did join.

As I keep pointing out, reality is reality, and it just don't change 'cause mere belief would like reality to not be. Sometimes there is one instance that can be cited, and thus I do cite that one source, sometimes there is an entire stream of sources, and---as in this instance---I cite that stream.

[pst314]

"You keep repeating that he didn't join."

What repeating? I wrote it once in this thread. My subsequent reply to you stated that I was relying on his autobiography, and in particular the part dealing with the 1950's. (Or maybe a little earlier? Certainly not the 1960's.) That is not a denial that he joined later.

"Except that the results there remind you several times over that he did join."

None of the readers of this blog need to be "reminded" several times. (And isn't "reminded" a rather obnoxious phrasing?)

"As I keep pointing out, reality is reality, and it just don't change 'cause mere belief would like reality to not be."

Again with the obnoxiousness.

"Sometimes there is one instance that can be cited...sometimes there is an entire stream of sources..."

You do not need a "stream" of sources to establish that Asimov was a member of MENSA, and most helpfully to inform us of the year in which he joined.

[TimT]

Woke James Bond. Hahahahaha.

[pst314]

Woke James Bond.

Very funny.

007: Do you expect me to talk?
Goldfinger: No, I expect you to pontificate.

The new Bond will not need a gun, because she will kill people with her tedious wokeness.

[WTP]

Ever so slowly, Hollywood is starting to get its shit together when it comes to casting for major roles. Following a procession of men to have held the post of 007 since the James Bond franchise launched in 1962, the role will, at long last, belong to a black woman.

1962. The year I was born. This is what my generation has to show for itself. Starting to get its shit together? By making James Bond into a whoa-man? Oh FFFS. I am living in a Monty Python sketch. As a young man I never, in my most ate-the-whole-16-inch-pepperoni-and-sausage-pizza-thing with six beers quasi-nightmares, expected this.

[TimT]

I didn't care about woke Ghostbusters, the Captain Marvel controversy whooshed past me like the insignificance it was, and I actually thought the Dr Whoman thing was a good, interesting and logical (to a point) plot twist (who seriously expects a two-hearted space alien with magical regenerative abilities and multiple bodies to confine himself to one gender???) But I always thought 'they can't make James Bond woke, that'd just be exposing their own hand and revealing the lameness of their strategy'. Well, they just did expose their hand - and they've got one pair while the person they're playing against has got a straight flush. Laaaaaaaaaaaaame.

One point to take into consideration: every Bond movie after the first two or three has been lame anyway.
Another point: technically it's just the 007 title that's being taken over by a woman; the old James Bond character - Daniel Craig - has just been retired.

[TimT]

This is why all Bond movies from the '80s onwards have been laughably bad, really. The character was fully formed in an era when sexual politics were vastly different - by Fleming's description he'd already been through the WWII by the time he became a secret agent. In a sense all the remakes of the franchise have been following the original 'Casino Royale' model - instead of finding a way for the character to grow, they've been wan parodies.

[Hal]

"You keep repeating that he didn't join."

What repeating? I wrote it once in this thread.

Well, in your own words---or at least the words attributed to you---

Isaac Asimov wrote that he declined to join because MENSA Cite #1, and Asimov decided to avoid MENSA, cite #2 . . .

[pst314]

Hal, I wrote that once.

Are you a member of MENSA?

[Hal]

Hal, I wrote that once.

And yet you even type that out after being reminded that your typed out the two statements.

[Pst314]

One comment, Hal.
Do you enjoy being an obnoxiously obtuse asshole?

[WTP]

Pst, Code 9000.

[pst314]

One of the social pathologies I have noticed in some MENSA members is a tendency to use language dishonestly to make pedantic or jargon-filled arguments about the topic at hand, be it serious or trivial. In some cases it seems to stem from an unwillingness to ever admit to being wrong, in other cases to appear erudite by being incomprehensible, and in still others it is part of a complex of behaviors seemingly calculated to annoy and offend.

[Hal]

One comment, Hal.
Do you enjoy being an obnoxiously obtuse asshole?

I wouldn't know, would I?

Since you seen fixated, what does that look like in your mirror?