Friday Ephemera

Stealth mode engaged. || Egg living dangerously. || Why dogs don’t rule the… Oh. || Sorcery with cardboard. || Children’s table manners of the fifteenth century: “Pyke notte thyne errys nothyr thy nostrellys.” || A brief history of the F-word. || He does this better than you do. || They do this better than you do. || Incoming. || This just in. || Just one kiss. || Coke stash of note. || How to wash your hands. || If we all attack at once, this island is ours. || Today’s words are sociology department. || ‘Progressive’ incentives and their predictable outcomes. || “This is a car. And this is a trampoline.” || Swimming while waterproof. || Want to tell the government what you think of the BBC? || And finally, blustery scenes.

Comments

[Hal]

If we all attack at once, this island is ours.

If we all attack at once, this island is ours.

[NateWhilk]

Just one kiss.

The image/gif is already deleted. The few comments at reddit make me think that's just as well.

[Mike]

He does this better than you do.

Ballsy.

[Joan]

‘Progressive’ incentives and their predictable outcomes.

Stunning and brave.

[David]

Morning, all.

Our betters attempt arithmetic.

[David]

An interview with Quillette’s Claire Lehmann.

[David]

How to wash your hands.

More on this

[David]

More on this.

Dry your clean hands on a child’s hair.

Heh.

[David]

Coronavirus, Japan 2020

[sH2]

‘Progressive’ incentives and their predictable outcomes.

Leftism versus real world.

[Dr. Westerhaus]

Now we just need a WHO video demonstrating to the guys who run the Vietnamese restaurant downstairs from me how NOT to cough up giant balls of sputum every morning and spitting them onto the yard we all constantly use, and where their kitchen entrance is also conveniently situated. Pho kyu!

[David]

cough up giant balls of sputum every morning and spitting them onto the yard we all constantly use, and where their kitchen entrance is also conveniently situated.

[ Urge to wash hands intensifies. ]

[David]

I’m sensing tension in the room.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Regarding the stick dilemma, other than that I am a bad person, I don't know why this came to mind.

I know, rayciss, off to yet another regrooving.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Politicians, is there anything sciency they don't know ?

Look, I am already off to regrooving, in for a penny, in for a pound.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Yet more hand washing techniques.

[tkdkerry]

Ah, yes, table manners. Clearly an historical feature of oppressive white supremacy.

[Daniel Ream]

cough up giant balls of sputum every morning

I used to work in an office with a number of first-generation Chinese engineers. The office space was rented inside a larger building with shared washrooms per floor.

At one point the landlord told us in no uncertain terms that they would terminate our lease if we didn't stop the Chinese employees from spitting into the sink and the floor drain. It's cultural; they believe that expectorating is good for the health and the more you cough up the healthier it is.

[George]

I was a bit disappointed to see that errys was a reference to ears in the plural rather than another part of the anatomy in the singular...

[Steve E]

Yet more hand washing techniques.

What are you supposed to do if there isn't a POC to provide the other hand?

[Governor Squid]

I always enjoy the juxtapositions that crop up on Fridays. Today, I'm particularly interested in seeing sociology prof Johnny Williams travel to Japan and insist to the masked Japanese people that there is no such thing as race, and that they are indistinguishable from and interchangeable with the Chinese tourists they currently keep at arm's length.

If these idiots weren't in positions where they influence our politics and corrupt our offspring, their parochialism might almost be charming.

[Paul Carlton]

"Pyke notte thyne errys"

Better than I expected. I thought "errys" must mean arse instead of ears.

I'm glad I was wrong

[Paul Carlton]

Sorry George, you noticed it two hours before I did!

[PiperPaul]

"I’m sensing tension in the room."

The bird is nailed to the perch?

[TimT]

” Today, I'm particularly interested in seeing sociology prof Johnny Williams travel to Japan and insist to the masked Japanese people that there is no such thing as race.

Like that Woke Professor I have been known to argue that there is no such thing as ‘white people’ - seriously, the definitions are contrary and keep changing and the folks most interested in the terms are either white supremacist dickheads or their woke/progressive mirror image - but I haven’t gone on to square the rhetorical circle like this professor and go on to blame ‘white people’ anyway.

[Jeff Wood]

My dear Muldoon, I must be insufficiently woke. I sensed there was something odd about your handwashing poster, but it took me fully twenty seconds to see it.

My good Squid, I had some small contact with Japanese folks once - my brief bow of politeness abides - and the students will listen politely, applaud equally politely, and leave thinking "What an Arse!" in Nipponese or whatever it is.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I sensed there was something odd about your handwashing poster, but it took me fully twenty seconds to see it.

Obviously you are "color blind" and therefore a racist, as we learned the other day. Of course had you seen it immediately that would mean you are a racist too.

That is some catch, that Catch-22.

[pst314]

I sensed there was something odd about your handwashing poster, but it took me fully twenty seconds to see it.

Obviously the subject had suffered a terrible accident and got a replacement from the human organ banks.

[Darleen]

Just misunderstood yoots ... Nothing to see, move on.

[Darleen]

Meanwhile

Cullors, who has often been candid about her desire to “dismantle” law enforcement agencies and abolish prisons, told Rolling Stone that Measure R “was really 10 years in the making, 10 years of work from the grassroots level that had been challenging elected officials to invest into community-based services versus incarceration.”

[NateWhilk]

Sample the self-serve soup!

https://twitter.com/jordylancaster/status/1233919823899439104

[David]

Just misunderstood yoots… Meanwhile

It’s strange how these “alternatives to incarceration” never include the obvious. I mean, the kind of permanent solution that comes to mind after watching a child being robbed and gang-stomped by beings with no conscience.

[David]

First shots fired in the Great Toilet-Paper War of 2020.

[Felicity]

What a rebel without a cause, but many daddy issues

https://twitter.com/JoshLeCash/status/1236064830567534592?s=20

[David]

What a rebel without a cause, but many daddy issues

As I’m sure I’ve said before, leftism is often bewildering unless you take into account psychology.

[David]

Prizes of note.

[PiperPaul]

Also, much leftism is a status machine for those who desperately need status in order to feel good about themselves or to justify exercising power over others, according to Joe Katzman.

"...the meta-message inside political correctness is to override your own judgement, in favor of deliberately-shifting judgements from people with higher status."

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

What a rebel without a cause, but many daddy issues

The cure for that is for conservative banker pops to cut off the hot and cold running cash taps at the main, take away the cars and what not, change the locks on the house, etc. What are the brats going to do, be mad ?

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

From Orwell & Goode, sound advice indeed.

[WTP]

First shots fired in the Great Toilet-Paper War of 2020.

One good thing about the Coronavirus is it's enabling people throughout the world to understand what it's like to have a hurricane off shore or a dusting of snow in Atlanta.

[David]

or a dusting of snow in Atlanta.

Heh. If I start getting angry letters, it’ll be all your fault.

[pst314]

sound advice indeed

That's got to be a photoshop...even if this song did come out of Australia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFzgYeUN6iQ

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Shamelessly stolen, proper formal place setting for the 21st century.

[David]

More scenes from the Toilet-Paper Apocalypse.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...the Toilet-Paper Apocalypse

COVID-19 Emergency Prep List:

Dried Food - nah
Canned Food - nah
Bottled Water - nah
Water Filtration - nah
Antibiotics - nah
Bandages - nah
Batteries -nah
Toilet Paper - 2 463L pallets full, check, better get one more to be on the safe side.

I'm starting to think the whole COVID-19 thing is just a plot of Big Bog Roll.

[Casper]

Hope the BBC didn't get charged very much for that survey.

Didn't expect to _submit_ a response, but was just stepping through the questions to see what was being asked, and having some fun along the way. Surely at some point I would run into questions like "Do you live in the UK, and do you own a television receiver", and then I would be bounced out of the survey. But that never happened. After the most serious question of all, about the "effects on ... marginalised groups", it was just "Thank you for your response."

Maybe they're still holding out for the option to tax all foreigners living abroad.

[David]

A gal this fine you gotta woo.

[Squires]

I'm starting to think the whole COVID-19 thing is just a plot of Big Bog Roll.

More like Coronazionist:

https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/03/05/iran-basij-commander-is-latest-senior-official-to-die-from-coronavirus/

[Darleen]

A gal this fine you gotta woo.

And the guy just calmly walks away with arms folded.

Not the first time he's seen this act.

[Darleen]

I'm starting to think the whole COVID-19 thing is just a plot of Big Bog Roll.

I've got pretty much of that list for my earthquake kit (plus a crank radio so batteries aren't critical)

Just doing my normal shopping last week and, hell, WHY toilet paper?

[Hal]

Made in mainland China, squared . . .

[Darleen]

Pass the popcorn.

[David]

Pass the popcorn.

Curious that the piece, which invokes “transphobic content” and rumblings of “distress,” quotes nothing egregious, nothing specific – in fact, nothing at all – beyond a vague acknowledgement that the preferences of transgender people can sometimes be in conflict with those of women, which is obviously true.

Though by curious, I mean expected and routine.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...plus a crank radio...

It only gets the Bernie-Biden "debates" ?

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Catie doesn't quite get what a journalists job is supposed to be.

The Journalist, and some other level headed comments from Warren staffers.

[WTP]

The Journalist, and some other level headed comments from Warren staffers.

Yet again, I am having a harder and harder time understanding, especially on Twitter, which side of an argument many people are on. Especially in regard to comments of the "I know, really" variety. It's like entering some bizarro opposite world/game like we used to play as elementary school kids to torment each other.

[TimT]

” Catie doesn't quite get what a journalists job is supposed to be.

TBH both sides have a point.

The media is full of crap and politicians do struggle to communicate intelligent policy in a media environment obsessed with the most lackwitted stereotypes.

To them the Dem primaries are simply an argument between the gay one, the socialist one, the establishment one, the woman one, and the other ones.

Yes, these are the stories the public probably respond most readily too, but it’d be nice to see the media at least f*ing try to go beyond that.

So Warren didn’t cut through the media crap and get her message favourable coverage- that’s the common dilemma of all politicians.

Even those politicians who do cut through do so largely on the basis of the same stereotypes and timing. Obama was the black one who had the good fortune to arrive at the end of an unpopular presidency. That’s pretty much it.

[Chester Draws]

Yes, these are the stories the public probably respond most readily too, but it’d be nice to see the media at least f*ing try to go beyond that.

But Sanders is getting his message through pretty easily, and Trump had little issue.

The problem so many of them have is that their message is muddled. The Democrat candidates need to be both patriotic and internationalist. They need to support abortion without limit and yet be church-goers. They want to sell themselves as practical people who could run a country well, and yet promise to give away large amounts of money the country simply cannot afford. They want to be seen as on-message Democrats, yet need to criticise each other to make themselves stand out.

Republicans, other than Trump, want to stop illegal immigration and lock up criminals, but don't want to look like they are bad guys. They want to get the economy running, but are scared to look like they are pandering to big business.

It's a failure of imagination among those that aren't extremists. That means that those who aren't afraid to say something different, and hold a firm line without equivocation stand out.

[Squires]

...which is obviously true.

Permitted thought never conflicts with correct thought! Permitted speech never conflicts with correct speech! Submit, oppressor, or be canceled!

[Chester Draws]

Well, the next few months are going to be interesting, as we see the Left attempt to paper over various issues:

Trump's latest magic trick -- the Left attempting to defend rule by old people, having spent the last election saying exactly the opposite:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/weekend-bernies-theory-presidency/607489/

[David]

Such lovely people.

[David]

Permitted thought never conflicts with correct thought!

As an example of Buzzfeed journalism, it’s pretty much what you’d expect. Though it’s still a little odd to read a piece intended to agitate, by a self-imagined agitator, but which makes no effort whatsoever to explain the basis, should there be one, for being agitated. Apparently, readers should rush to an opinion without knowing any facts, like who said what exactly, or whether it’s true. Unless, of course, we’re expected to believe that merely acknowledging that tension can exist between competing group preferences is itself scandalous, “transphobic,” and a basis for fainting.

Again, wokeness is stupefying. It inhibits mental activity.

[David]

I repeat, lovely people.

Via Julia.

[David]

Heh.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I repeat, lovely people.

Math fits commies like socks on a rooster - quick back of the envelope, 66 million people, net gain of 600K or 0.1%, gain against just all wypipo, 0.11%.

Winning !

OTOH, with just 66 million people, instead of blowing it on campaign ads, Bloomberg could have given everyone 7.6 million...

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Orwell & Goode brings a PSA I share because I too have always wondered why just wypipo in the western world have such an astronomical rate of disease from the fecal-oral route. Finally, a">https://medium.com/@indica/white-people-you-need-to-wash-your-butts-a1dd1a1b2bef">a rational explanation.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Oops, not the preview button...a rational explanation...

[Squires]

Apparently, readers should rush to an opinion without knowing any facts...

Opinions and facts alike are bourgeois constructs implemented to ensure oppression. These are the facts. In our glory we have devised a new mode of human existence; from the best aspects of “do what you feel” and “do what you are told” we have ushered in a new age of “FEEL what you’re told!” Thus streamlined, stripped of the unnecessary and counterprogressive habit of thought, the populace liberated shall rush forward.

[WTP]

From Chester's link:

The Upside to Having an Old President
As presidents slow down, more decisions get made by other people.

"...more decisions get made by other people."

Because this is what democracy looks like.

[WTP]

a new age of “FEEL what you’re told!”

This. Very much this.

[Darleen]

Update on yoots and brava to mom ... but I spot what is missing and explains why her son joined in.

[David]

but I spot what is missing and explains why her son joined in.

Noticeable by his absence is a father, yes.

But hey.

[TimT]

This just in: covering things in protective plastic and using bleach as a cleanser in response to Coronavirus is actually western appropriation of *ancient* Asian practices and you need to stop!

https://mobile.twitter.com/paxthedog/status/1236412661723774981

[David]

This just in: covering things in protective plastic and using bleach as a cleanser in response to Coronavirus is actually western appropriation of *ancient* Asian practices and you need to stop!

And Columbus is now apparently a verb.

[David]

This just in

On a more general note, the dogmatic scolds who bang on about “cultural appropriation” rarely display much understanding of culture or how it comes about. Presumably, they imagine that the world would be richer and more pious without Akira Kurosawa’s vivid reworkings of Shakespeare, or his ‘appropriation’ of American band music of the 30s and 40s, and without Kurosawa’s own films inspiring Sergio Leone and George Lucas, etc.

The riffs and copying, the to-and-fro, are to a very large extent what culture is.

[Fred the Fourth]

Shoot, man. Didn't you know that Comet cleanser was invented in Xian? And of course plastic slipcovers on furniture were never a joke about 60s US middle class. Get some Knowledge, man!

[TimT]

It was actually rather quaint to see the term ‘cultural appropriation’ used - woke culture tends to move on quickly from such terms. It’s 2020 culturally appropriating the woke complaints of 2018, I tell you!

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Didn't you know that Comet cleanser was invented in Xian?

As a wypipo, I am triggered that the Asians have culturally appropriated crosswalks, street lights (and buttons), plastics, surgical masks, and real shoes just to MingDynasty them.

[Fred the Fourth]

But seriously (I know, why bother?) except for the shoes off thing, everything else in that list was "appropriated" from the US and Europe. My wife's family immigrated from China to US about 1970, and I've got countless examples from her extended family.

[pst314]

Didn't you know that Comet cleanser was invented in Xian?

Baseball too?

[Fred the Fourth]

Nah. Baseball was invented in Arabia.
"Al Qaeda" = "the base"
"Ba'al" = "ball"
It's obvious, innit.

[pst314]

Nah. Baseball was invented in Arabia.

:-) Remember when the Russians claimed to have invented baseball...along with everything else invented in America?

[WTP]

Ultimate wokeness...the invention of invention was invented in...wait for it...Africa. Of course. Now pay Kenya your reparations.

[Lady Cutekitten of Lolcat]

Thanks for the tweets about how ancient samurai wiped their sword hilts with Clorox wipes before drawing. Some of those made me laugh out loud.

Is anyone else curious about what seem to be racial differences in how likely it is that the new virus will kill you? I notice The Media carefully do not mention the names of the deceased, from which ethnicity can often be extrapolated. If it was killing a lot of whites, they’d be dancing in the streets...but they shy away from mentioning the issue. It seems to me the public needs this info. If you’re ethnically Chinese and the virus is 20X as likely to kill you as it is Mr. McGillicuddy next door, don’t you need to know that? Maybe Mr. McG. can go to the store for you while you stay home as the epidemic rages.

My white uncle and half-white, half-Korean nephew are going to courageously gather data by going to a Broadway show next week. My Korean aunt is staying home, which I suspect is a good idea.

[pst314]

If you’re ethnically Chinese and the virus is 20X as likely to kill you

Not sure: is it racial or is it cultural? That is, do Chinese anywhere in the world seem to be equally vulnerable, or does it seem to have something to do with the conditions in China--air pollution, smoking, etc?

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Not sure: is it racial or is it cultural?

Neither.

The case fatality rate* in Hubei is 4.4, but in Guangdong (second most number of cases in China) 0.5., in Henan, (second most number of deaths) 1.7. Zhejiang 0.08. Get your updates here.

Italy, (second most number of cases worldwide) 4.9 - I am going to go out on a limb and guess Chinese are not overly represented among the Italians, though apparently a Pakistani who was supposed to be in quarantine was delivering take out.

Korea, (third most number of cases worldwide) 0.7.

US&A, 3.9, unless you take out the nursing home in Seattle, then it is about 1.1. UK, 1.1. The rest of the Five Eyes, 0.0.

The bottom line is there is no ethnic risk factor, Hubei numbers are high because that is where it started, most everyone else appears, because they now know the disease exists, to be taking appropriate preventive and treatment methods and/or the attack rate is actually pretty low*.

*(Case Fatality Rate = number of people dead of a given disease/number of people diagnosed with that disease, one of the many tools used to characterize a disease, and useful to assess severity of a disease particularly in a developing epidemic.)

**(Attack rate = new cases in a population/number in that population - a measure of how quickly it spreads)

[pst314]

Farnsworth, thanks. I haven't had time to read deeply.

[Lady Cutekitten of Lolcat]

Hi PST314,

That’s a good question—for example, Chinese men smoke heavily. If Mr. Wang is felled by the virus, is it his genes, his 4 packs a day, or some combination of the two? That’ll take a while to figure out, if it can be figured out.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

That’ll take a while to figure out, if it can be figured out.

His four packs a day, assuming no underlying pathology or chronic illness.

The main cause of death with this virus is secondary pneumonia and/or acute respiratory distress syndrome, anyone with diminished lung capacity, as nigh every 4PPD person would be, is more likely to develop either or both conditions, both of which are also reasons people die from the flu.

[TimT]

” Thanks for the tweets about how ancient samurai wiped their sword hilts with Clorox wipes before drawing. Some of those made me laugh out loud.

And it’s a well known fact that Confucius invented plastic. I’m sure he says something about it somewhere in the Analects or something.

[Hal]

And it’s a well known fact that Confucius invented plastic. I’m sure he says something about it somewhere in the Analects or something.

Photographic proof of the little known but actual reason for the decline of the samurai.

[Lady Cutekitten of Lolcat]

But both of them used their Clorox wipes without fail!