Friday Ephemera

Half-speed Frakes has apparently been on a bender. (h/t, Damian) || Strange beings detected. || I think I heard something moving in the basement. || Penguins descending. || A brief history of pandemics. (h/t, Dicentra) || Sounds from the toilet-paper apocalypse. || Yes, Picard is still bad. || Actual prancing. || “Post-capitalist” streaming service: “Live weekly shows covering news, the working class, gaming and sports.” || Leggy redhead. || Ladies got moves. || Only 377. || Bosch bingeing imminent. || The simple pleasures of baking. || These things happen. || Also, these things. || A lady with unusual drawers. || Daughter happy, wife displeased. || And finally, nature’s pecking order, a brief illustration.

Comments

[Hal]

Only 377.

Health Education England, apparently pronounced Hee!, no doubt inspired by the job listing . . .

[Karl]

Aware that I'm late to the party on this, I still have to ask:

I know that Poe's Law describes the situation when it becomes impossible to tell the difference between the honest work of an utterly un-self-aware SJW and a parody, but what's it called when you absolutely refuse to believe that it isn't a parody, but it isn't?

[Hal]

what's it called when you absolutely refuse to believe that it isn't a parody, but it isn't?

There's a hipster born every minute, and You will always have the hipster among you . . .

[Steve E]

Leggy redhead.

I was worried there for a second. I thought you had hacked my browser history.

[TimT]

Catominos: a new game.

https://nerdist.com/article/cats-dominoes-video/

[Gunker]

Deer don't prance, they pronk.

[H]

A lady with unusual drawers.

I see what you did there.

[H]

Yes, Picard is still bad.

So glad I gave up on it.

[David]

Morning, all.

So glad I gave up on it.

The Script Doctor sifts through the show’s dull convolution.

[Liz]

"Among the measures introduced in France to deal with the coronavirus is a requirement to fill in a form before going out for a walk."

https://www.samizdata.net/2020/03/in-france-you-now-have-to-download-a-permit-to-go-for-a-walk/

[Tom]

Health Education England, apparently pronounced Hee!

How noninclusive, surely it should be pronounced 'Heeee - eeerrr' for true inclusivity regardless of spelling. Decoupling spelling from pronunciation is a British speciality after all, Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square indeed.

Deer don't prance, they pronk.

Actually, they sproing. Go on, look it up, the first video hit is a lovely llama levitating via the 'sproing.'

[Tom]

Among the measures introduced in France to deal with the coronavirus is a requirement to fill in a form before going out for a walk.

Would never have assumed that of France. The need to papiere haben has always seemed a more German thing. On the other hand, the only place a good friend got in trouble for not having his passport on him in the 80s was in Strasbourg. He said the French police were really quite nasty all things considered and he hasn't been a fan of the place since. He was studying German at the time so maybe the Francophobia was an offshoot.

[Mike]

Daughter happy, wife displeased.

Can relate.

[David]

Can relate.

I doubt you’re alone.

[Pete]

Half-speed Frakes has apparently been on a bender.

LOL. Thank you for that. :-)

[David]

Today’s word is precautions.

[David]

“Experimental internet gas.”

Critical Drinker has some thoughts.

[JuliaM]

I don't really understand the loathing of 'Picard'. I'm really enjoying it. The theme music is great too.

Mind you, I also loved 'Discovery'!

[Sam]

So now it makes sense: the virus is a godsend for the global elite to once again fleece taxpayers and meltdown the economy to avoid taking a haircut and being strung up on the nearest lamppost.

Also, regular people's ridiculous hysteria can be understood as emergency LARPing with a heavy dose of participatory fun. A sort of Pokemon Go Apocalypse for un-serious people in an un-serious age.

The only shortage that concerns me is the lack of enough helicopters.

[David]

Mind you, I also loved ‘Discovery’!

I think Julia may be feverish. That, or she’s been on another butane bender.

[David]

On the upside, Bosch is back.

[Lady Cutekitten of Lolcat]

Two different worlds, theirs and ours...

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxekyz/transgender-surgeries-delayed-coronavirus-hospital

[pst314]

Two different worlds, theirs and ours...

Heh: "Life-Saving Trans Surgeries"

[David]

A sort of Pokemon Go Apocalypse for un-serious people in an un-serious age.

The herd dynamic is a thing to behold, as are some of the shopping choices. I saw one chap with four bags of frozen peas and enough toilet roll to build a makeshift sofa.

Happily, the wine aisle was relatively unmolested.

[PiperPaul]

Do we all have to wear masks here now?

[David]

Do we all have to wear masks here now?

I can lay my hands on several gallons of lamb’s blood if anyone wants to mark their doors.

[BrassG]

"So now it makes sense: the virus is a godsend for the global elite to once again fleece taxpayers and meltdown the economy to avoid taking a haircut and being strung up on the nearest lamppost."

Governments and bureaucracies are exacerbating this manufactured crisis of a non-pandemic to test the limits of how many restrictions they can force onto citizens before we push back. Same as it ever was: the world consists of those who want to be left the fuck alone (almost everybody) and those who won't leave us the fuck alone (you know who they are). It's why I keep full ammo cans in my closet.

[WTP]

the world consists of those who want to be left the fuck alone (almost everybody) and those who won't leave us the fuck alone (you know who they are).

Day 3 of keeping our community's swimming pool open. I finally have four board members expressing support. The other two strangely silent. A couple people have thanked me for the effort but I can't help but wonder at times what the silent ones, or worse the formerly outspoken opponents, may be up to. I'm kinda sorta hoping someone will seize this opportunity to take this "job" away from me. I doubt I will ever be so lucky.

[Hal]

. . . to avoid taking a haircut . . . .

Erm? Among the details I've been noting with the hipsters is the utterly obsessive insistance on having hacked at hair which is utterly contrived, tackily deviod of any grace or taste whatsoever, and rather often with hair by Exxon to keep the fiasco in place.

I rather suspect that some of the more iffy barbershops open these days have only been able to stay open because they've got enouogh hipsters to scam that way . . .

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Erm?

A haircut refers to the lower-than-market value placed on an asset...

...not actual tonsorial work, Roscoe. Context, it is not just for breakfast, anymore.

[Steve E]

I can lay my hands on several gallons of lamb’s blood if anyone wants to mark their doors.

I used to use scenes from the Ten Commandments as part of my training for new sales people to teach them about leadership and the frailty of followers. Today that would earn me a date with HR and a likely early exit from the company.

[Hal]

...not actual tonsorial work,

Aso. Granting, having hipsters acutally manage to pile up something of actual value also seems equally likely . . .

A year and something back I audited some hipster's version of a sort of tech boot camp, where a fellow classmate described the final evening as What a shitshiow, and the organization that I and two others came from dropped the hipster and his snake oil immediately . . . And he's only the first example that comes to mind . . .

[Hal]

Today that would earn me a date with HR and a likely early exit from the company.

Obviously you need to select something more relevant and representative. How 'bout the text of Starship Troopers?

[RTW]

"these things happen" now links to a deleted post

[RTW]

"lady with unusual drawers" link is also gone.

I guess I better start reading the Friday Ephemera on Thursday nights (US time) before stuff disappears.

[David]

I guess I better start reading the Friday Ephemera on Thursday nights (US time) before stuff disappears.

The “These things happen” item has, alas, vanished, but on my browser the lady with unusual drawers is still showing their contents to passers-by.

[David]

Peter Whittle interviews Lionel Shriver.

[JuliaM]

Mine host: ’ Happily, the wine aisle was relatively unmolested.’

Ah, but thanks to Internet rumours that quinine is a Coronavirus prophylactic, tonic is now in short supply. I may have to drink gin neat!

What do you mean, you thought I already did?

[David]

I may have to drink gin neat!

We’ll pray for you at this dark time.

[Bigland]

A (somewhat inferior) copy of "These things happen" is here (for now):

https://youtu.be/4lHrfSdm424

(They do seem a picky and fickle lot on Reddit.)

[David]

(They do seem a picky and fickle lot on Reddit.)

Yes, I can’t fathom what triggers the deletions. They seem quite random. Thanks for the replacement copy - though, sadly, it’s been cropped so you can’t see the young woman who may or may not have been a factor in the driver’s otherwise bewildering failure to notice a large, quite solid pole.

[pst314]

I guess I better start reading the Friday Ephemera on Thursday nights (US time) before stuff disappears.

That's what I did, and the lady with unusual drawers was already deleted. A keen lot, those Reddit purity police.

[Darleen]

Your new dietary must ... the totwaffle.

[David]

Your new dietary must ... the totwaffle.

The maple-syrup-and-ketchup combo was faintly alarming.

[Daniel Ream]

thanks to Internet rumours that quinine is a Coronavirus prophylactic, tonic is now in short supply

It isn't a rumour; there's increasingly encouraging evidence that hydrochloroquinine is effective at treating non-advanced cases.

Note, though, that's hydrochloroquinine, not the quinine in tonic water. To get the amount of quinine tested to be effective against Kung Flu, you'd have to drink 6-8L of tonic water. That gets you above the LD50 for water.

Also, the New Warriors have always been a cringey attempt by 40-year-old comic writers to shoehorn late-adolescent topicality into comics for their entire existence. They were like this in the 90's.

[David]

To get the amount of quinine tested to be effective against Kung Flu, you’d have to drink 6-8L of tonic water.

She has gin. Don’t tempt her.

[Darleen]

Clown nose on/clown nose off

[JuliaM]

I need little tempting! 😂.

The panic buying is bizarre. I can't figure out where most families can be storing all this stuff. Tesco this morning g was implementing a 'one in, when one goes pig's policy, presumably to avoid crowding more than panic buying. Lots of items on a one per household basis.

Incidentally, I went to Marks and Spencer on the way home from work yesterday. Few packs of meat, little fish, no chicken, no pizza or bread or pasta.

But I picked up a dressed lobster and a venison haunch with red wine jus! Don’t ever change, Marks and Sparks!

[David]

Clown nose on/clown nose off

I wonder if the in-group positioning is enough of a compensation. I mean, I wouldn’t have thought that self-respect is all that easy to live without.

[David]

Meanwhile, in Ireland.

Via Damian.

[Runcie Balspune]

I do rather like the post-capitalist streaming service, totally reliant on the intervening internet built by capitalists, and the viewing devices built by capitalists.

[sH2]

the post-capitalist streaming service,

Going under in 3... 2...

[Fred the Fourth]

I posted this at thenewneo.com specifically about HCQ and Azithromycin:

A French “Non-randomized clinical study” using HCQ and Azithromycin.

https://twitter.com/laoneill111/status/1240598258533138433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1240598258533138433&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Face.mu.nu%2F

Note the graphs.
Somewhere in the various tweet threads or the NY Post article is a discussion of the possible effect from the Azithromycin, which is an antibacterial. Basically it also reduces lung tissue inflammation which appears to reduce virus uptake.

And there's a massive amount of info here:

the white house released all the paperwork for the AI people to go through to find such things… you can locate it on Kaggle..

https://www.kaggle.com/allen-institute-for-ai/CORD-19-research-challenge

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House and a coalition of leading research groups have prepared the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19). CORD-19 is a resource of over 44,000 scholarly articles, including over 29,000 with full text, about COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and related coronaviruses.

[pst314]

but on my browser the lady with unusual drawers is still showing their contents to passers-by.

So describe these unusual artifacts that we cannot see.

[Fred the Fourth]

David, did my post about the french HCQ trial and some other links get jammed up?

[WTP]

So describe these unusual artifacts that we cannot see.

Well, they're a bit tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk. The whole lot of them, axshully.

[David]

did my post about the french HCQ trial and some other links get jammed up?

Freed.

[pst314]

Well, they're a bit tired and shagged out following a prolonged squawk.

Ah, this then:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/313140980335078170/

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

Your new dietary must ... the totwaffle.

Thank god; for a moment I read that as "twatwaffle."

sadly, it’s been cropped so you can’t see the young woman who may or may not have been a factor in the driver’s otherwise bewildering failure to notice a large, quite solid pole.

When the driver's door opened, I made a bet that he had a phone in his hand. I was not disappointed.

[Darleen]

They drink more that you do.

[WTP]

Ah, this then:

There you go. D'you.... d'you want to come back to my place?

[bgates]

The panic buying is bizarre.

I went to a grocery store today that was sold out of toilet paper (obviously) and also Greek yogurt and shredded cheese - but not cold medicine.

[PiperPaul]

"I wouldn’t have thought that self-respect is all that easy to live without."

That is hilarious and true!

[Hal]

. . . Thanks for the replacement copy - though, sadly, it’s been cropped . . .

Hmmm. Barring something odd with links, I'm still gettting what appears to be an original and uncropped copy . . .

[Hal]

. . . and also Greek yogurt . . .

One of my local stores sells small cups of Greek yogurt with pomegranate bits. What is never explained is that once one has had one such cup and bits, how many months of the year is one going to spend in the underworld.

[JuliaM]

Oh, Hal, haven’t you heard? This spring, the underworld is coming to us..!

[Fred the Fourth]

Looks to me like that bloke was driving straight into the sun and was blinded.
Also, of course, phone in hand.
And the woman...
And there's probably a cup of coffee in the car...
And probably NPR on the radio...
My father once told me that a big chunk of the airplane crashes he investigated ended with the plane hitting the ground because no one was actually flying it at the time. Too busy looking at cockpit alarms or talking to ATC.

[Hal]

Oh, Hal, haven’t you heard? This spring, the underworld is coming to us..!

. . .

Looks to me like that bloke was driving straight into the sun and was blinded.
Also, of course, phone in hand.

Oh, what I've been noticing since the nineteen empties is that we've already had zombies wandering the streets and sitting behind steering wheels of cars in motion, covid-19 is just being an additional layer . . .