Friday Ephemera

Today’s word is elegance. || Today’s other word is barkour. || Yeah, okay, it’s pretty big, I guess. || Banana in orbit. || He does this better than you do. || And she does this quite well. || Don’t tell your mother. || Rotary mobile phone. || Whiskey decanter of note. || The Dutch Headwind Cycling Championships. || Win $2,000 at the Takhini Hot Springs Hair Freezing Contest. || Korean classic film archive. || Snake makeover. || “Mathematics operates with unearned privilege, just like whiteness.” || Scenes from the North. || How to confound face recognition. || The glamour of flight. || And finally, “The more leftwing you are, the more likely you are to have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.”

Comments

[Captain Nemo]

Elegant demolition of note:

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden_/status/1227692894288523265

[Lady Cutekitten]

If anyone needs new clothes...

https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/shocker-grown-men-wont-dress-like-toddlers-romphim-clothing-firm-goes-bust/

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Yeah, okay, it’s pretty big, I guess.

Meanwhile, 900 miles away in Honolulu, they ask you to define fireworks...

[Mags]

And finally, “The more leftwing you are, the more likely you are to have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.”

LOL. *Shocked face*

[David]

Morning, all.

Meanwhile, 900 miles away in Honolulu, they ask you to define fireworks...

Well, yes, there is that.

[JuliaM]

Topical tune!

https://twitter.com/PlungeMeClunge/status/1228025988015108097

[David]

LOL. *Shocked face*

There are all sorts of caveats one could add, in terms of candidness and self-reporting, and the possibility that for reasons of self-interest people with chronic mental illness may be more inclined to leftist, i.e., redistributive, policies. But the correlation is quite pronounced and in no way surprised me. (See, for instance, this, and pretty much anything tagged ‘psychodrama’ and/or ‘academia’.)

As a general point, it seems to me that if your political persona is based to a large extent on unrealism, signalling and affectation, a kind of competitive piety, as a great deal of leftism is, then this pretension will attract certain, somewhat neurotic personality types and is likely to have psychological consequences of an unhappy kind. And so, perhaps, a feedback loop.

[ Added: ]

And it scarcely needs pointing out how fashionable it now is, at least in leftist circles, to declare (or feign) some niche mental illness, as if being unwell, or broken, were a credential of some kind, a way to become interesting. (See, for instance, about a third of the articles that appear in Everyday Feminism, a publication almost wholly reliant on needless convolution and a kind of practised neuroticism.)

Just reading the thing can induce something akin to nausea.

[David]

Entirely unrelated to anything above.

[JuliaM]

"Entirely unrelated to anything above."

Even if it's not a Volkswagen?

[David]

Also entirely unrelated.

Incidentally, the woman in the video, the one indulging in a spot of harassment and recreational thuggery, refers to herself, proudly, as a “deranged leftist.”

[Alice]

And finally, “The more leftwing you are, the more likely you are to have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.”

Envy isn't healthy.

[Charlie Suet]

I’m not at all comfortable with that article about mental illness (and the reaction to it). We’ve had years of unpleasantness from Remoaners smearing everyone who disagrees with them as mentally deficient. A more extreme comparison could be drawn with the Soviet Union’s use of psychiatry to remove dissidents from society. It’s a nasty road to go down.

I do acknowledge that plenty of the idiots documented on this site have a habit of announcing quite proudly that they have some sort of personality disorder. In general, though, it’s better to play the ball not the man. Give people the basic respect of assuming that they came to their opinions intellectually.

[David]

Give people the basic respect of assuming that they came to their opinions intellectually.

It’s a fair assumption to start with; though, following the evidence, one won’t always end up there, or anywhere close.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Whoever does these, does them better than you do.

[David]

Whoever does these, does them better than you do.

Heh. As a Portal enthusiast quips, the lie is a cake.

[David]

Envy isn’t healthy.

That too. I’d add that if you’re spending every day pretending that you’re somehow oppressed by “the patriarchy,” or “whiteness,” or the looming Zombie Nazi Apocalypse, or some other woke fever dream, and telling yourself, based on nothing, that almost all of the people around you are seething with racial and sexual animus, directed at you, then this probably isn’t healthy either.

If your political theatrics entail things like this as a matter of routine, signalled daily in a bid for woke status, then you’re waving goodbye to any residual sense of proportion.

[ Added: ]

Somewhat related, this farce of piety from last year.

And again, I’m not sure it much matters whether Ms Arquette is being sincere and believes what she tells the world, or merely feels compelled to pretend these things, publicly, over and over again. Either way, her behaviour is neurotic.

[Sam]

This and this are some of these.

[Rudely throws towel back to bartender]

[Sam]

Meanwhile, 900 miles away in Honolulu, they ask you to define fireworks...

Well...Hiroshima and Nagasaki say "hold my sake".

/shows self out

[David]

[Rudely throws towel back to bartender]

Cleanest I’ve seen it.

[ Wipes bar. Also face of small child. ]

[Sam]

In general, though, it’s better to play the ball not the man.

Agreed, Charlie, though it is their batshit crazy ideas that makes one curious if they have mental conditions that explain the weapons-grade dissonance they carry within.

[Darleen]

Don’t tell your mother

Wherein one of those rare instances, reading the comments are awesome.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Well...Hiroshima and Nagasaki say "hold my sake".

Hiroshima + Nagasaki = 36 kilotons.

Honolulu says, "hold my mai tai".

[BrassG]

"Give people the basic respect of assuming that they came to their opinions intellectually."

I believed that when I was a youngster. A lifetime of experience has put the lie to it. The vast majority of people come to their conclusions emotionally and subjectively. Once arrived at, they will most often cling to them like a drowning man with a plank.

[Governor Squid]

Once arrived at, they will most often cling to them like a drowning man with a plank.

...and then advocate loudly for policies to punish those who invested in life rafts, or who decided not to blow holes in the hulls of their ships.

Because fairness!

[a different james]

@Darleen Wherein one of those rare instances, reading the comments are awesome.

Among the comments:
I noticed the children in my extended family who have an absent father do not know how to play rough.

When my sons were young, birthday parties usually involved hiring a 5 a side soccer pitch/school hall for an hour or two of soccer.

Then back to the house and further soccer/ competitive games/ wrestling in the garden.

Then food and birthday cake.

Then some would drift off to play and watch video games while some would go for more soccer/ wrestling in the garden.

I was in charge of all sporting activities and always there would be a few kids who kept me in the garden until it was going-home time- usually making me join in the games.

After several such parties, my wife pointed out to me that the kids who played in the garden until going-home time and insisted on my joining in were all boys with no father at home.

[WTP]

"Give people the basic respect of assuming that they came to their opinions intellectually."

I believed that when I was a youngster. A lifetime of experience has put the lie to it.

--Agree

The vast majority of people come to their conclusions emotionally and subjectively.

--Disagree. Or maybe agree with important clarification. I believed that until just a few years ago. My current theory is that the vast majority of people come to their conclusions based on how often they hear the approved narrative, either overtly or through subsumption of the narrative into otherwise innocuous media. And also whoever will doggedly, repeatedly call them stupid or evil for not believing what the narrative people say. It's more of an intimidation game and thus truth, reason, etc. are irrelevant and even one's own emotions get kicked to the curb. Thus also the dependency on use of psychology and such to further keep people in line with approved double plus good thought. It is this that more overtly drives their emotional/subjective conclusions. The conflict that drove me to this was how people even seem to come to conclusions that even emotionally they should be predisposed to disagree with. Hard working people who support socialism, Jews who fall in line with anti-Semitic groups/policies, LGBT people who embrace or dismiss Islamic extremism, etc. It's not so much that such people are a one-off, it's the group mentality that they let themselves be herded into.

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

Roy Galvin, credentialed in the departments of architecture and business/econ studies at the University of Cambridge, has concluded that climate deniers can't be influenced by moral arguments, so calling us evil will work.

I assume he'll be in charge of designing the gas chambers when the revolution comes.

[Sam]

I assume he'll be in charge of designing the gas chambers when the revolution comes.

Given historical trends odds are better that his brains will be used as organic GMO-free wall paint far before the first gas chambers are built.

[Hal]

This and this are some of these.

[Rudely throws towel back to bartender]

Hold . . . well, someone's towel.

---I rather like the bit of making certain the earplugs are in.

[SteveGW]

Hiroshima and Nagasaki say "hold my sake"

Honolulu says "hold my mai tai"

[Betelgeuse has joined the conversation]

[Squires]

The more leftwing you are, the more likely you are to have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness.

Meanwhile in France, quel surprise:

https://news.yahoo.com/rape-charges-against-islamic-scholar-ramadan-182234031.html

[ACTOldFart]

The item on the privilege of mathematics left me nonplussed

My thoughts were divided, my doubts multiplied

Is it all a factor, a product of sum difference?

It all didn't add up, maybe that's the take-away message

[TimT]

”Give people the basic respect of assuming that they came to their opinions intellectually.”

I agree with that in principle.

I have in practice observed the survey to be true. One important caveat is that people who become seriously involved in politics, whichever type of politics we’re talking about, are *all* crazies. It takes a certain base level of self-obsession to claim that your political scheme, your way of doing things, is and always will be best for everyone.

But there’s some deep(ish) history going on here: at least as far back as romantic literature, it was quite common to sentimentalise and celebrate mental illness, and claim it as the true way of seeing the world. The progressive left are heirs to this ideology: so they don’t just accept mental imbalances, they tend to attract them.

[Darleen]

Seattle woman.

[Lady Cutekitten]

Heil Honda! 🚗

[Lady Cutekitten]

We now have Jordan B. Peterson Derangement Syndrome:

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/385851.php

[Hal]

Call us immediately if your child uses Kali Linux, squawks West Mids Police

The UK's National Crime Agency has publicly distanced itself from a poster urging parents to call police if their child has installed Kali Linux, Tor or – brace yourself – Discord. . . . . Observant readers will have spotted the National Crime Agency logo alongside that of the WMROCU. Strangely enough, the NCA was not at all impressed to have been linked with this obvious bollocks.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Seattle woman.

Well, I think that rather settles the argument about mental illness, but last time I looked, if you cut down a tree you get more sky, not a hole in it...

[David]

The intellectual class of 2020.

Apparently, use of the term “sacred cow” is not only “racist,” but sufficiently racist to make a student “not feel safe” because the term constitutes proof of a “white supremacist environment.”

Once again, we see academia’s Clown Quarter - the left’s proving ground and fiefdom - encouraging dysfunctional behaviour. In this case, competitive grievance-seeking over trivia, imposing on others and wasting their time with a game of pretentious emotional injury and claims of enduring an oppressive environment, all while being cossetted and indulged to an absurd degree.

It’s not exactly healthy.

[TimT]

The - in-no-way insane - left create an in-no-way insane solution to a problem of their own making. Everyone loves forms!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B8CGz-VB-iU/?igshid=13bjgemeq92m5

[David]

[Betelgeuse has joined the conversation]

[ Slides well-thumbed pastry along bar. ]

[Anon a mouse]

Even if it's not a Volkswagen?"

Ja. Fahrvergnügen?

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

[Betelgeuse has joined the conversation]

...with all the important news from 700+ years ago...

"Now where were we? Oh yeah, the important thing was I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time."

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

"or – brace yourself – Discord"

My daughter, the non-geek, set up her own Discord server to talk about fanfic, including Legend of Zelda.

I'll denounce her immediately.

[David]

“or – brace yourself – Discord”

[ Looks up from strategy pages of Hades’ Star Discord, tuts disapprovingly. ]

I feel dirty and corrupted.

[Darleen]

Glimmer of hope.

In a strongly-worded judgement, Mr Justice Julian Knowles said the effect of police turning up at Miller’s place of work “because of his political opinions must not be underestimated”.

He said: “In this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an Orwellian society,” he said.

[Baceseras]

I feel dirty and corrupted

No refund - credit note only.

[David]

Further to recent rumblings, and for those few who may care, a Star Trek: Picard update. Episode four is slightly better than its predecessor, in that something actually happens and a familiar face returns. But even now, almost halfway through the series, the two main branches of the story – Picard’s glacial ‘quest’ and whatever’s happening (very, very slowly) on the Borg cube – still feel disjointed and unrelated. There’s no interaction between the two narrative threads, no sense of momentum or urgency.

It's barely holding my attention.

[Baceseras]

I feel dirty and corrupted

No refund - credit note only.

On second thought: no credit note: pre-existing condition.

[Ted S, Catskill Mtns, NY, USA]

God the 80s were spectacular

[Fred the Fourth]

Alert! Important news from the P R of California!
https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/02/13/at-risk-youth-replaced-with-at-promise-youth-california-penal-codes/

1. Update your vocabularies immediately
2. There's no more crime in CA. Come on over!

[Fred the Fourth]

Oh, hat tip Instapundit...

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Glimmer of hope.

Police Constable Mansoor Gul admitted ‘educating’ Miller on the transgender issue. “What you need to understand is that you can have a fetus with a female brain that grows male body parts and that’s what a transgender person is,”...

Science ! I guess, though, if you have a brain growing male bits, you would have a genuine dickhead.

[felicity]

God the 80’s were spectacular – yes, yes they were. I still yearn for a spiral perm… When they became unfashionable, somehow it marked the end of my youth. My kids don't understand why I like this song, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K38xNqZvBJI. I finished school in 1985 and had children in '92 and '94 - so I think it was written for me.

[David]

Update your vocabularies immediately

The belief in the power of euphemism – even bewilderingly inept euphemism – is almost funny.

[[+]]

Episode four is slightly better than its predecessor, in that something actually happens

I only made it to the end to see Seven of Nine.

[David]

I only made it to the end to see Seven of Nine.

Ms Ryan is wearing well. I must discover her secret.

And yes, I don’t think anyone could fairly call this series gripping. So far, it’s a drama without suspense.

That said, I did sort-of like one of the scenes in an earlier episode, in which Picard gets chewed out and f-bombed by one of the many hard-faced women now running Starfleet. Given the description of what happened on Mars and the tactical vulnerabilities, Starfleet’s position seems quite sensible, really, and Picard is the one who seems self-righteous and dangerously unrealistic. If the series were going to slyly throw shade at Picard’s grandiose moral chest-puffing, that would be fine, and long overdue. But whatever they’re going to do, I just wish they’d get a move on.

At the moment, now almost halfway in, they’re still coasting on nostalgia for earlier iterations of the franchise.

[WTP]

"At-risk youth" was already a euphemism for juvenile delinquents which itself was a euphemism for a euphemism for a euphemism for punk. Which I'm guess was itself a euphemism at some point. But hey, we got good feelz.

[David]

which itself was a euphemism for a euphemism for a euphemism

Ah, but the previous euphemisms were insufficiently euphemistic for modern needs. To maintain the current, near-hallucinatory levels of pretence, we must depart even further from any residual whiff of reality.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

"At-risk youth" was already a euphemism for juvenile delinquents...

Yeah, but "at-promise" is positively Orwellian, I am so old that I remember "promising" meant someone was on the cusp of attaining success in some field, not the cusp of 5-7 in the slammer.

“No educators, no law enforcement will no longer be able to call our young people who make a mistake ‘at-risk,'” Jones-Sawyer said.

I think there is some English at-risk there, not to mention that whole, "criminal acts are just a mistake", concept.

[WTP]

A 'mistake' as you call it is just a thing that happened. It's true. You cannot refute a fact.

[Darleen]

“No educators, no law enforcement will no longer be able to call our young people who make a mistake ‘at-risk,'”

said by someone who has never even toured a juvenile detention facility or attended juvenile court.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

You cannot refute a fact.

You are right, of course, "some people did something". I hang my head in shame and will report for regrooving.

[David]

I hang my head in shame and will report for regrooving.

I’ll just leave this here.

[TimT]

” At-risk youth" was already a euphemism for juvenile delinquents which itself was a euphemism for a euphemism for a euphemism for punk. ”

“Juvenile delinquency” appears in the 1950s ‘West Side Story‘, where one of the gangs mocks the term roundly.

“In my opinion juvenile delinquency is merely a social disease.”
“Hey! I gotta social disease!”

Maybe you had to be there....

[Daniel Ream]

My kids don't understand why I like this song

I didn't even have to click the link to know that was Bowling for Soup.

The first time I heard it on the car radio I nearly went off the road I was laughing so hard, a feat only ever equaled by Pop Music 101.

[Daniel Ream]

they’re still coasting on nostalgia for earlier iterations of the franchise

Star Trek is, I think, done. TNG and DS9 had some interesting variations on the formula, Voyager was riven by creative conflicts between Paramount and the showrunners, and Enterprise was already just retreading old ground.

The writers clearly had no idea what to do with Discovery, and Picard is no better. I don't think this is fixable. The problem isn't bad writers, it's that Star Trek is a particular set of themes and tropes and they've mined out the premise. Nearly every SF TV show of the last fifty years has aped the basic structure and often the formula of Trek; there just isn't anything new left to do with the concept. And unlike properties like Lord of the Rings or Dune, there's no incredibly detailed fictional universe to explore with different characters or eras.

I know I'm a heretic for saying so, but Abrams Trek was the best recent thing to happen to the franchise; they had a vision and committed to it, and it was both recognizably Trek and a new style and tone.

[David]

I know I'm a heretic for saying so, but Abrams Trek was the best recent thing to happen to the franchise

[ Quietly hides breakables. ]

[Darleen]

there's no incredibly detailed fictional universe to explore with different characters or era

Oooooo… that sounds like a challenge! There are some sci-fi properties out there with very interesting world building. From totally "not-Earth" of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn or Stormlight sagas, to the "our world, just tweaked" of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter or Grimnoir stories.

That's just scratching the surface.

The one thing I'll give Netflix and Amazon credit for, is that making stand-alone series out of books, or adaptions has really gotten good.

[Daniel Ream]

Oooooo… that sounds like a challenge!

I just meant Trek doesn't have that. There's certainly no shortage of such out there in literature.

I'm still waiting on any adaptation of Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber to make it out of development hell. Asimov's Robots trilogy would be a good fit for HBO given their success with Westworld. Since Amazon seems to be doing humorous fantasy these days Robert Asprin's Myth series or John DeChancie's Castle Perilous would be a fun romp.

It's a pity Disney bobbled John Carter as badly as they did, as there's a ton of material in there.

I'll be upfront about my biases and say that I'm not a huge fan of Sanderson or Correia's writing (although I like Correia personally). I don't think writing up one's college D&D campaign qualifies as good fantasy lit, although I concede it's a popular genre.

[Ed Snack]

Sanderson's Stormlight saga started out really well, and well written to boot. But it has slipped a little in the follow ups. Still (IMHO) one of the better ones around. He has a very dedicated fan base that follows his every word - and he's a very dedicated fan-interactive writer.

But if you like world building, may I suggest Jack Vance as a credible alternative. Noy huge all encompassing sagas but scenarios that included gems of detail. There's more than a few films possible from his works, the Dying Earth collection cries out for a decent attempt at film making.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

there's no incredibly detailed fictional universe to explore with different characters or era

Discworld.

[Daniel Ream]

may I suggest Jack Vance as a credible alternative

I tend to feel that Dying Earth is mostly weird for the sake of weird. Which may well be a viable target for adaptation, if you just go for visual spectacle. I think Lyonesse probably has more mass market appeal.

Discworld

Been done several times already. And is also not part of Star Trek, as I pointed out.

Much of the Discworld corpus is parody of pre-existing work, though, which only works if the audience is already familiar with what's being parodied. I don't think that's the case and would explain why the existing adaptations have been largely forgettable.

[David]

The writers clearly had no idea what to do with Discovery, and Picard is no better. I don’t think this is fixable.

Discovery was bewilderingly bad. So bad, in fact, so comically incoherent in tone and particulars, that some people chose to hate-watch it.

Picard isn’t that awful - Discovery warrants its own category of badness - but it isn’t well-written, not least in terms of dialogue, and the structure and pacing aren’t good. We’re talking pretty basic stuff. From peering at social media, interest is waning somewhat and if I had to summarise a general reaction, the word meh comes to mind. Unlike some critics of the series, I don’t mind the departure from the expected feelgood tone, but what the writers and producers are doing isn’t being done terribly well. Again, it isn’t gripping, or anything close to gripping. And that matters.

Regarding the Abrams reboot films, I enjoyed the first one – the opening scene in particular was nicely done – and I thought the cast were good. But as things went on the writing became weaker and by the third film, I was decidedly underwhelmed. Whether this means the basic premise is exhausted, I couldn’t say. Though I don’t have any compelling ideas as to how things might be fixed.

[Squires]

I don't think writing up one's college D&D campaign qualifies as good fantasy lit, although I concede it's a popular genre.

Joel Rosenberg did this the right way with his Guardians of The Flame series.

[Daniel Ream]

Guardians of The Flame

Let's just say my position on the topic remains unmoved.

About the only implementation of the concept I can tolerate is the anime Ashes of Grimgar, in which suddenly being tossed into the world of their favorite fantasy game turns out to be horrifyingly traumatic to the protagonists, and for some of them not entirely survivable.

[Squires]

...in which suddenly being tossed into the world of their favorite fantasy game turns out to be horrifyingly traumatic to the protagonists, and for some of them not entirely survivable.

That is what happens in Rosenberg’s series.

[Daniel Ream]

I'm not going to argue my literary preferences. I've read Rosenberg, and suffice it to say that there's a level of script immunity required simply to keep the main characters alive that strains my suspension of disbelief.