Friday Ephemera

How to use a chair. || How to sell bread. || Biodegradable shoes. || These black holes are bigger than yours. || Suboptimal situation. || Incoming. || Kuru, the laughing death epidemic of Papua New Guinea. || How to kill weeds. || Wheelchair of note. || Wheelchair of note 2. || “He would put on the voice of an elderly woman, then ask the call handler to describe their feet.” (h/t, pst314) || Can I touch? || Candle smoke. || Cat trees. || Accidentally gigantic spiders. || Which kind of rain would you like? || Candy Wrapper Museum. || Jam session. (h/t, Darleen) || Life skills. || The sounds of learning. || Serving suggestion. || When The Pie Was Opened, 1941. || And in ever-updating pronoun news, “This makes perfect sense.”

Comments

[asiaseen]

Biodegradable shoes

In the rain do they smell of wet dog?

[pst314]

In the rain do they smell of wet dog?

Even more important, how quickly do they biodegrade in the rain? And do dogs aggressively sniff them?

Strange product, though: Why not just use traditional fibers?

[pst314]

Life skills. || The sounds of learning.

All cultures are equal. All cultures are equal. All cultures are equal.

[anon a mouse]

I like pie...

Hmmm

[Chester Draws]

Most of my shoes are leather. Perfectly biodegradable. I have some cloth and suede sneakers too. Again biodegradable.

It will take a we bit for some of the eyelets to rust, but 10 years and only dust will remain.

I don't actually want shoes that rot before I've finished wearing them.

[Em]

Biodegradable shoes.

The soles... lol

Hard pass.

[JuliaM]

"Can I touch?"

Sure. Once. Might find it hard to touch anything after that, though!

[Mags]

Wheelchair of note 2.

*backs away slowly*

[David]

Morning, all.

*backs away slowly*

I could be wrong, of course, and I suppose there could be a perfectly innocent explanation, but it appears to be a gentleman buying jewellery for his childlike sex doll.

The antique wheelchair is just the icing on the cake.

[David]

Hard pass.

I’m not convinced that particular style is going to catch on.

[Martin]

Thanks for the black hole video.

[David]

Thanks for the black hole video.

The Kurzgesagt series is pretty good. Some of the earthly topics can be a bit tinged with fashionable politics, but the astronomical subjects are generally entertaining.

[David]

Speaking of feet, in niche entertainment news.

Please form an orderly queue.

[Joan]

Life skills.

What the hell is *wrong* with the parents?

[Kenji]

Life skills ? Not my people. That’s all ... not my people

[John Lewis]

Incoming

Shades of Donnie Darko.

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

“He would put on the voice of an elderly woman, then ask the call handler to describe their feet.”

The headline claims he wasted £20K of taxpayer money, as if the call handlers wouldn't be on the job if he hadn't been calling.

Never mind how much money the sainted NHS is wasting on everything else.

[David]

On political myths.

[Nikw211]

How to kill weeds. || Wheelchair of note.

These made me proud to be a part of the human race.

[Nikw211]

This is a year old, but it's only just come to my attention.

It's quite possibly one of the worst things ever produced via a broadcast medium.

It's even worse than Ridley Scott's Prometheus - and that's really saying something.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Personal massagers of note (SFW) and other fine products for your AmazonHarrods shopping experience.

Country customers may order by post with seldom any hitch.

[Mike]

Twitter loves the mentally ill.

[Stephanie Richer]

Jam session

I am reminded of this: "Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as 'one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.'"

The laughing death

Every Biden interview. Then I curl into a fetal position and cry . . .

How to use a chair

September 11th. That's when I pick up one of the males from this bunch.

https://www.facebook.com/DilbeckWeims/posts/4418889988149626

I can hardly wait. Puppies, kittens, and babies make the world a happier place. Maybe add blow up sex dolls to that, I mean, for some . . .

[Sam Duncan]

“I don't actually want shoes that rot before I've finished wearing them.”

I feel reasonably confident that Messrs. Tricker, Loake, Barker, Church, et al. will not be quaking in their — exquisitely crafted — boots.

“And in ever-updating pronoun news, 'This makes perfect sense.'”

Er... you've got a... thing... on your face. No, down a bit...

Anyway. Films within films. And a comprehensive resource.

[anon a mouse]

Country customers may order by post with seldom any hitch

Wonder how long that will stay up?

*see advert for musical clowns and n.....s*

[asiaseen]

*see advert for musical clowns and n.....s*

Ah yes, I was just about to mention that - and whatsmore, supplied on the shortest notice.

[PiperPaul]

a comprehensive resource.

Architectural and engineering paper sizes appear to be missing, for example "ANSI D" (22"x34").

[pst314]

Personal massagers of note (SFW)

Portable model "fitted with dry cells, for use anywhere". Almost anywhere.

Remember dry cells? Big, massive things but with very limited capacity. It's amazing how far battery technology has come since 1960-1970.

Terry Pratchett, while young, "lived in a small cottage with no electricity...the huge 90-volt Ever Ready radio batteries that powered the family wireless." I wonder how long one of those batteries lasted, and suppose they kept the volume turned down to make them last longer.

[pst314]

other fine products for your AmazonHarrods shopping experience.

Remember detachable collars? Me neither, thank goodness. But I do remember when suits were often sold with two pairs of pants (the expectation being that pants would wear out more quickly.) I am not absolutely certain, but I recall my father saying that the customer had the choice of accepting the second pair, which if declined would be offered for sale at a discount.

Note the page listing rifles, including Lee-Enfield military rifles. Not sure what "government viewed" meant, but "can only be supplied to British subjects" is clear.

[Felicity]

This is a year old,, but it’s only just come to my attention.

The only word I heard was ‘Tool’.

[pst314]

"the huge 90-volt Ever Ready radio batteries that powered the family wireless."

Ever seen one of those big glass wet cells that were used on farms? Generally rectangular, and held up to 4 gallons of acid, with a detachable perforated glass lid so that the lead grid assembly could be replaced and so that fresh acid could be poured in.

[David]

Architectural and engineering paper sizes appear to be missing,

[ Hands PiperPaul nerd crown. ]

[Glady, The Cross-eyed Bear]

Most of my shoes are leather. Perfectly biodegradable.

And in a pinch, edible.

While we're on the topic - what exactly does "sustainable" mean?

For example, is solar power sustainable if you have to change out the very expensive, non-recyclable solar panels every 8 years?

[John Lewis]

Wheelchair of note 3

https://youtu.be/DJ9G_h_1_l8

[Buck Fiden, Elocutionist]

...suits were often sold with two pairs of pants...

When I was about 10, I had such a suit, with improvements. The jacket was navy blue. One pair of pants was navy blue, while the other was Night Watch plaid. It also came with a reversible vest - navy on one side, nightwatch on the other. Very nifty.

[David]

Wheelchair of note 3

Blimey. That’s the fastest one of those I’ve ever seen.

[anon a mouse]

the huge 90-volt Ever Ready radio batteries

Hmm. Seem to have a very different definition of "huge" - they were about 3 inches across. FWIW, the trick nowadays for the old school batteries is to link a bunch of 9V (D cells) together.

*goes looking for a Radio Shack. Bummer*

[pst314]

Hmm. Seem to have a very different definition of "huge" - they were about 3 inches across.

Are you looking at currently manufactured batteries? If so, I would speculate that maybe the 90V batteries were larger in 1950, thanks to much lower capacity per pound. On the other hand "huge" might simply be how they looked to a very young Terry.

[Sam]

The constraint exercised by white feminists wishing to denounce twerking as a tool of the male gaze patriarchy must create require quasar levels of energy.

[Sam]

Anyway. Films within films.

Bravo, that's what the interwebz is supposed to be for.

[Sam Duncan]

“[ Hands PiperPaul nerd crown. ]“

Dammit! I was sure that was mine. Next week, mark my words...

“For example, is solar power sustainable if you have to change out the very expensive, non-recyclable solar panels every 8 years?”

Shhh! Don't say it out loud....

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

I would speculate that maybe the 90V batteries were larger in 1950...

I suspect he was referring to something like one of these dual voltage AB batteries that apparently had a 90V section for tubes and either a 9V or 1.5V section for whatever else.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

In case anyone missed it, We Must Believe In Science™!

[Governor Squid]

I was revisiting Sean Lock's (RIP) reading of his children's book, which is a delightful bit of fun, when I noticed a reference at the 10:58 mark that might be of some interest to the usual suspects here.

[Sam]

A 20-minute hors d'oeuvre to a 4-hour+ buffet of fail-analysis, if you're into that sort of thing.

Warning: Marvel related.

[WTP]

I don't care how you feel about the police, this is great.

[David]

a 4-hour+ buffet of fail-analysis,

Heh. It’s quite remarkable how Marvel’s reputation has of late been taking hits on all fronts. From kings of the multi-billion-dollar-franchise-farm to “oh dear, we shat the bed again” in just a year or so. I’ve yet to see much grassroots enthusiasm for ‘phase four’ of the MCU – certainly, nothing near the levels of anticipation for previous phases. The decision to hire writers whose work is so glaringly mediocre and peppered with clumsy and obnoxious identitarian politics, and which often undermines popular characters, resulting in a widespread fan backlash - and then hiring them again to do even more damage elsewhere - is quite bewildering.

[WTP]

Damn. Wrong link. Can't seem to get a link to what I meant (did I mention how much I hate Twitter?) but meant to link to the "This is India" reply to the Inman post.

[PiperPaul]

Hands PiperPaul nerd crown

Hey, why does this thing have electrodes atta...

BZZZZZT

[Richard Cranium]

Remember detachable collars?

Oddly, I do.

The West Point cadet Dress Grey and Full Dress uniforms have detachable collars and cuffs. Those things are wool, so you can't wash them that often, and the starched white cuffs and collars can be easily replaced.

However, I can tell you that the funk you smell unzipping the tunic after you've been sweating in Dress Grey during 3 hours walking punishment tours with a rifle (M14) on your shoulder is something that stays in your head.

[pst314]

Ya think?

[David]

Damn. Wrong link. Can’t seem to get a link to what I meant (did I mention how much I hate Twitter?)

It’s probably not you. It’s Twitter. I have the same problem.

[pst314]

It’s probably not you. It’s Twitter. I have the same problem.

Are you accessing Twitter on a computer or from your phone? I have URL problems on my phone which do not occur on a computer.

[David]

Are you accessing Twitter on a computer or from your phone?

Laptop. I don’t have a Twitter account, and Twitter seems determined to make the non-user browsing experience as aggravating as possible. Linking to a specific reply - say, for inclusion in a batch of ephemera - can be a… testing experience.

[ Added: ]

And now the “Don’t miss what’s happening, sign up” pop-up, which appears every time. In every window. With every refresh. As you might imagine, it’s not making me feel warm towards the company.

[ Tweaks adblocker. ]

[pst314]

Laptop...And now the “Don’t miss what’s happening, sign up” pop-up, which appears every time. In every window. With every refresh. As you might imagine, it’s not making me feel warm towards the company.

And when you click on a link in a Twitter post, and the pop-up appears, closing the pop-up returns you to the original URL. You have to go to the browser's address bar, where the new URL appears, and click "enter" to make that truly the new location. I wonder what fun and games the trolls at Twitter have planned for us next?

[David]

And when you click on a link in a Twitter post, and the pop-up appears, closing the pop-up returns you to the original URL.

Exactly. Hence certain salty epithets.

[WTP]

Yeah, I mostly do this stuff (was going to say "work"...heh) from my iPad. Getting more and more frustrating how you can't do some of the simplest things from this device and in most cases there is no discernible reason why not. For instance, I simply wanted to change my "home" location on YouTube TV. They say I've overstayed my 'temporary' location so they've been bugging me about it all summer and were going to pull 'local' tv access next week. Couldn't do it from the tv, couldn't do it from the iPad, so had to use the laptop in my office. Which is way the hell downstairs. I mean what the hell do they think I am, some kind of Sherpa? Reason number 47 why I'm not going back to work. People now in tech are idiots.

[Sam]

Don't sign up, David. Don't do it! I finally created an account to get memes intravenously and it's a helluva drug.

[pst314]

Exactly. Hence certain salty epithets.

Jack Dorsey & company need to get the hamster urine fire hose treatment.

[pst314]

People now in tech are idiots.

Also arrogant swine.

[David]

Jack Dorsey & company need to get the hamster urine fire hose treatment.

Several reasons come to mind.

It’s odd how one’s feelings towards similar pieces of technology can be markedly different. When Samsung send a major software update to my phone, I’m either indifferent or mildly pleased and curious about the UI tweaks, etc. When my laptop tells me there’s a Microsoft update waiting to be installed, I feel faintly resentful. Partly, because I can be sure that half of my settings preferences will have to be manually restored, again, endless features that I never use and have zero interest in will have to be switched off, again, and the language default of the Outlook spellcheck dictionary still won’t work properly.

[WTP]

Partly, because I can be sure that half of my settings preferences will have to be manually restored, again, endless features that I never use and have zero interest in will have to be switched off, again, and the language default of the spellcheck dictionary still won’t work properly.

Oh, so much this. I don't rely on/do much on a Windoze machine anymore but the same is happening with my various Apple devices...and thus also The Wife's. I was never much of a Steve Jobs fan per se, but the man knew the importance of human interfaces. These days having to poke around and find/turn off so many of idiotic new "features" that unset my previous preferences is bloody annoying. Actually it's not even the features themselves so much as the surprises. Like I am going to read every set of release notes, not just for the device but also the numerous apps like I used to do with releases of new software tools and such...yeah, they paid me to do that work. And even when they paid me...never mind...

[pst314]

Oh, so much this.

Agreed. In spades.

[John Lewis]

https://www.todayonline.com/world/polish-javelin-thrower-gets-olympic-silver-medal-returned-after-auctioning-it-help-infants

A very pleasing story.

[Nikw211]

I'd add a comment, but there's really no need:

Welsh Arts Council slammed as 'systemically racist' as its OWN report says language policies 'exclude people of colour' and uphold 'white supremacist ideology'

Actually, on second thought, maybe just "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition".

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

When Samsung send a major software update to my phone...

Free yourself from google...

...there’s a Microsoft update waiting to be installed...

Two words: Linux.

[Sam]

Could one could get funding for researching "How Constantly Referencing White Supremacy Upholds White Supremacy"? It would technically still be blaming white people for upholding white supremacy.

[Sam Duncan]

“BZZZZZT”

Hmm. Maybe I'll settle for second place next week.

“And now the 'Don’t miss what’s happening, sign up' pop-up, which appears every time. In every window. With every refresh. As you might imagine, it’s not making me feel warm towards the company.”

That seems to be new. Yeah, thanks Jack, that really makes me want to sign up now.

No, wait. Did I say “sign up”? I meant “Never rest until your entire company is a smouldering pile of rubble circled by vultures and you're sleeping in a cardboard box under a flyover. Instead of just looking like you do.”

(What happened to the evil tycoons of old? I might have some respect for Dorsey and Zuckerberg if they wore top hats and smoked fat cigars. I'm flat broke and I'm better dressed than these bozos.)

“Free yourself from google...”

Lineage is nice. Except that the... er, phone part of my old phone stopped working after a few weeks and I had to reinstall it, and I can't change the ringtones on my current one because “Sound Settings” has decided to stop working. So I'm probably going to have to reinstall again.

Don't get me wrong, though: totally worth it to avoid Google.

[WTP]

OK, so doing best-i-could-find-back-of-the-envelope-inside-my-nearly-60-year-old-head, since the beginning of the data I could find, Twitter seems to be somewhere south of $500 million in net losses (whatever that means in today's language) over it's 10+ year history. I invite anyone to check me on that because I used very round figures but I don't think I'm off by an order of magnitude or such. Yes, they were quite profitable somewhat recently but then went south again. I don't get where this is, given a current world of significant uncertainty, a 55 billion dollar corporation.

[Daniel Ream]

It’s quite remarkable how Marvel’s reputation has of late been taking hits on all fronts

I remain convinced that Feige saw exactly what was coming, wrapped up the MCU and then stepped away from the oncoming train wreck. He knew what the fans actually wanted. You wouldn't get movies like Iron Man 2 or Ant-Man out of the M-She-U. What I find bizarre is how, having seen the kind of giant piles of filthy lucre they can make when they put a man in charge of a franchise that's aimed squarely at men, they would then cut their own throats. Especially when they've seen what happens when they put a woman in charge of a franchise aimed squarely at men. I'm guessing there's simply so much money flying around in Disney that the cratering of a flagship franchise doesn'y do anything but make the lines on a graph go a different way. Nobody's selling their $16M mansions, nobody's laying off thousands of middle management staff. I also wonder how much money they ever made off of the movies compared to the merchandising deals. Lucas knew as early as ESB that that was where the real money was.

People now in tech are idiots

Now?

I was never much of a Steve Jobs fan per se, but the man knew the importance of human interfaces

Steve understood that computer interfaces are designed by programmers for programmers, and that there was gold in the notion that they should be designed for users. He knew how to say no to his engineers when they came up with some kewl new feature that would complicate the user experience. Like the fact that pressing the button on iPhones does different things depending on how many times you press it in rapid succession[1]. That's an engineer coming up with a clever workaround to a requirement that the phone only have one button. Under Jobs that engineer would have been fired.

Two words: Linux

Not when it's that prone to off-by-one errors.

[1] Modal interfaces kill people.

[pst314]

Yes, they were quite profitable somewhat recently but then went south again.

Perhaps the companies that actually pay Twitter have been finding that their dollars are not returning as much value as they thought. And perhaps Twitter traffic is down. I'm just speculating here.

[Daniel Ream]

Don't get me wrong, though: totally worth it to avoid Google.

You're not. Android is 100% a Google creation, and no phone manufacturer has even a hundredth of the resources dedicated to maintaining their spin of the OS that Google does. Modern smartphones are horrifically complex beasts to QA, and there's zero profit in adequately qualifying a generic OS for a phone that's no longer being sold.

The closest thing to a non-Google smartphone OS you've ever been able to buy is OnePlus, and they've recently sold out hard. Operating systems are hard.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

...er, phone part of my old phone stopped working...

I recently put 17.1 on a phone I had previously (a few years ago...) installed the last Cyanogen version on and had a few wonky things till I did a complete wipe and reinstall, now everything has been working fine.

Android is 100% a Google creation...

100% bought by google in 2010. Anybody who knows how can get the source code and make whatever versions they want, e.g., Lineage after Cyanogen. The big deal is a custom phone ROM won't report back to the mothership up to 340 times/day, unless one is mad enough to add in google play and that other junk.

The closest thing to a non-Google smartphone OS you've ever been able to buy is OnePlus...

Librem 5 (straight up Debian Linux) or one of the Ubuntu Touch phones.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Today In Racism...The Black Face of White Supremacy.

You've been warned.

[David]

The Black Face of White Supremacy.

It’s hard to miss the indignation and dishonesty of the article’s author, Ms Erika D Smith, and her expectations of what she can get away with in a supposedly serious newspaper. I’m now trying to imagine what it must be like to be able to dismiss out of hand “statistics” – as if it were some dirty word - while not actually addressing those statistics, or sharing them with readers, or addressing any argument in which they appear. As if it didn’t matter and no-one would notice. As if merely disapproving would be enough.

Journalism, baby.

[ Added: ]

It reminded me of when the Guardian reviewed Martin Durkin’s documentary about debt and public spending, Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story. The reviewer, Lucy Mangan, managed to disapprove, quite triumphantly, without actually addressing (or apparently understanding) any of the points the film made. “Obviously I have not the time, space or qualifications to consider the validity of [the economic arguments] here,” she declared, seemingly oblivious to what that might suggest. And yet despite this handicap, she implied that those same arguments – the validity of which she couldn’t find time to consider - should be dismissed as improper and unimportant. Given her admission of ignorance, you can’t help but wonder exactly how she knew this.

[PiperPaul]

Do modal interfaces cause Homer Simpson-like problems of "I'm somewhere where I don't know where I am"?

For some reason I'm thinking of 3D CAD and similar software where you get 4 or 5 subcommands-deep and forget what you were going to do in the first place.

[David]

What I find bizarre is how, having seen the kind of giant piles of filthy lucre they can make when they put a man in charge of a franchise that’s aimed squarely at men, they would then cut their own throats. Especially when they’ve seen what happens when they put a woman in charge of a franchise aimed squarely at men.

Heh. Ah, Ms Kennedy, Queen of Fail. The ‘M-She-U’ thing does seem quite apt.

One thing I recently registered is Marvel’s increasing reliance on access media, rather than starting with the usual grassroots engagement. A few years ago, hardcore devotees - people who would pay for opening-night tickets - would be invited to an auditorium by Marvel to scream loudly at glimpses of forthcoming films. (I remember the deafening shrieks that greeted just the logo for Infinity War, a film still some years distant. I even shared some of the sentiment, albeit without the shrieking.) Now, there’s much less of that.

It’s also interesting to watch the access-media thing develop. Take, say, Grace Randolph, whose YouTube channel I’ve followed for some years. Although it’s safe to say her opinions didn’t always match my own, she was nonetheless capable of insight and was part of the spectrum of critics whose views I could at least take into account to form an impression of whether some forthcoming film might be worth seeing. Now, she’s become a relentless cheerleader for Marvel’s creative failures, excusing or ignoring practically any shortcoming or woke idiocy, and has been rewarded with exclusive interviews with actors and directors. It’s funny to see the process unfold, quite quickly, right before your eyes.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

It’s hard to miss the indignation and dishonesty...

Mainly the dishonesty and hypocrisy because Elder "...goes out of his way to be at odds with the leadership in the Black community and at odds with the thinking in the Black community." How dare he. Of course we have all seen how well the groupthink has worked out.

If elected, the task force studying reparations for Black Californians would be toast.

And that is the rest of the story...

Meanwhile, Today in Racisim™: the Welsh language.

Dywedwch nad yw mor! Given that there are TV shows produced in the UK that need subtitles because of the Welsh spoken in them, I guess the average UK yte is also an "excluded minority".

[WTP]

Modal interfaces kill people.

Yes, that looks familiar. From 1995. Interesting that a 13 page paper is needed to "clarify" a problem that a frustrated, technically educated user like a pilot could describe in two minutes. Less if he took out the cursing. Of course his concern was not valid until the paper was written.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

An XX "lesbian" with a genuine XY boyfriend tells us why we need to sharpen out reading comprehension skills.

[Sam Duncan]

“I recently put 17.1 on a phone I had previously (a few years ago...) installed the last Cyanogen version on and had a few wonky things till I did a complete wipe and reinstall, now everything has been working fine.”

Yeah, I did the same. It worked for a few months then gave up again. It's a known issue with that model of phone apparently: the binary-blob phone driver sometimes decides to switch the radio off and nothing will convince it to keep it on. So not, strictly speaking, a Lineage problem at all. (In fact, I seem to recall that it happened with “real” Android and that's what convinced me to finally root the thing and switch to Lineage in the first place: nothing to lose.)

“The big deal is a custom phone ROM won't report back to the mothership up to 340 times/day, unless one is mad enough to add in google play and that other junk.”

Precisely. I've actually installed a couple of apps that are missing features or simply don't work at all because they can't find the Google backends. Which is — I won't lie — slightly annoying, but simultaneously reassuring: it really isn't Google's Android.

“Librem 5 (straight up Debian Linux) or one of the Ubuntu Touch phones.”

I'd probably be using UBPorts if it was available for my phone. I almost bought a PinePhone until a friend gave me a hand-me-down a few weeks ago. Still might, actually.

[anon a mouse]

Today In Racism...The Black Face of White Supremacy.

Oddly enough, after that I'm treated to adverts for something called "Beach Body", featuring a rather ... large "woman of color".

Hmmm.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

Still might, actually.

Me too as something to play with. I know a guy with one who was showing me how it boots from a micro SD ROM (if installed) first so you can try different distros. If you do spring for a Pine, apparently everything works with Mobian but not so much with Ubuntu Touch.

The report is the Pine is still not a daily driver, though, but I am quite pleased with Lineage - very clean - and as I am a radical who mainly uses the phone to make phone calls, the only issue I have with apps (both of them) was tracking down the apks without having to go through the idiot google play store.

If you haven't already, give the DuckDuckGo Android browser a try.

[anon a mouse]

as I am a radical who mainly uses the phone to make phone calls

*faints dead away. That is, after closing flip phone...*

[pst314]

"Larry Elder goes out of his way to be at odds with the leadership in the Black community and at odds with the thinking in the Black community."

She implies that "the Black community" is composed of criminals and friends of criminals.

Like a lot of Black people, though, I've learned that it's often best just to ignore people like Elder. People who are — as my dad used to say — skin folk, but not necessarily kin folk.

Sounds a lot like racist identity politics. Hmmm.

"He is a danger, a clear and present danger," said Melina Abdullah, cofounder of Black Lives Matter Los Angeles.

Well, that settles it: Racist, Marxist revolutionary and spokeswoman for thugs and terrorists doesn't like him, so he must indeed be bad.

If you wonder why a racist creature like Erika D. Smith is employed as a columnist by the Los Angeles Times, well, that newspaper has been a cesspool for decades.

[pst314]

Oddly enough, after that I'm treated to adverts for something called "Beach Body", featuring a rather ... large "woman of color".

Are you sure that wasn't "Beached Body"?

[pst314]

That's an engineer coming up with a clever workaround to a requirement that the phone only have one button.

I think I have complained before about how mp3 players have been "improved" to the point where they cannot be operated without taking one's eyes off the road to look at them. And all I wanted was "pause" and "rewind" and "play" for whatever I'd selected before I started driving.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

That is, after closing flip phone...

The Motorola Razr was possibly the greatest cell phone in the history of cell phones and if I could would still use one. Now I am in a bind because I am occasionally in situations where either I need to be contacted or vice versa, and a phone call would be unacceptable but you can get by with a text. Bad enough doing that on anything but a proper BlackBerry keyboard, but tedious on a dial pad.

Don't get me started on the size of the damn phones these days. Get off my lawn.

[WTP]

Heh...while we're in "get off my lawn" mode...the hours wasted trying to purge my gmail and yahoo accounts of obsolete or typo'd email addresses...over and over again...SMDH.

[Farnsworth M Muldoon]

More get off my lawn mode - Amazon reveals radical new shopping concept.

[asiaseen]

Erika D Smith
Smith holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University, and a master's degree in religious studies from Howard University. Smith began her career as a Senior Engineering Specialist for the Boeing Co.

However, from such a surprising start she seems to have gone backwards:
Smith is a curriculum and instructional specialist for Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School in Hollister, North Carolina. She was formerly associate pastor at a Missionary Baptist Church.

She might just be a little out of her depth in the US Senate.

[Captain Nemo]

Petted dog of note:

https://twitter.com/korvys/status/1428553989553983495

[WTP]

Amazon reveals radical new shopping concept.

Heh....A couple years ago I had some younger, Gen X and younger, coworkers/friends who were bitching about the large retail strip centers where they shopped now. These huge strips of big box stores, etc. with a giant parking lot in the middle such that, especially given the Florida heat, had some of them driving from one side of the parking lot to the other to get to the different stores. I suggested what I described as a radical idea. What if you turned the whole thing inside-out? Put the parking lot on the outside of the buildings and connect all the buildings via an inside, climate-controlled, pedestrian-only walking space. People could shop at their leisure, the stores themselves, while yes having to contribute to air conditioning the common area would still save a bit on the other end without having so many customer entries coming in from the heated exterior. Either way, the customer experience would be much more greatly enhanced. Crickets.

[WTP]

Petted dog of note:

Sure, but try and do that with Venus's breasts everyone loses their minds. Don't ask me how I know...

[pst314]

Erika D Smith Smith holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering...

I think you have the wrong person.

Here is her page at the Los Angeles Times, and here is her Facebook page:

"Erika D. Smith is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times writing about the diversity of people and places across California. She joined The Times in 2018 as an assistant editor and helped expand coverage of the state’s housing and homelessness crisis. She previously worked at the Sacramento Bee, where she was a columnist and editorial board member covering housing, homelessness and social justice issues. Before the Bee, Smith wrote for the Indianapolis Star and Akron Beacon Journal..."

[WTP]

And more "get off my lawn"...I just noticed that while I have clicked "Graduated" on my FB profile for my college experience, what is now presented is a more generic "Studied at...". Like I only took a class or two. Tempted to put Yale down as I took Kagen's Greek History course and one other regarding Roman architecture on-line. But OTOH, given how much worse Yale is now than even my alma mater, I'd rather people not think the "best" of me.

[Mike D]

'Foundation'...

https://youtu.be/X4QYV5GTz7c

Does anyone watch Apple TV?

[Uma Thurmond's Feet]

It’s funny to see the process unfold, quite quickly, right before your eyes.

I wonder if OzzyMan's headed down the same corrupting rabbit hole.

At least he doesn't set himself up as a person who has Views, although he did do one BLM viddy.

[pst314]

Does anyone watch Apple TV?

Not me. And I suspect that Foundation will be too "woke" to enjoy.

[Steve E]

Either way, the customer experience would be much more greatly enhanced. Crickets.

Are they building malls anymore? In my neck of the woods, I don't think they've built an indoor mall since the late eighties, early nineties. Lots and lots of big box centres though.

The marching band by kids played in were touring Florida about five years ago. There were lots of mall appearances on the itinerary. These "malls" were sad places indeed with only 25 to 30 per cent occupancy. We visited three like this. It was all very depressing.