Hope you all are having a lovely day today, whatever this day means to you (or doesn’t). Consider this an open thread, to discuss whatever, from presents to politics to cats to whatever holiday stress you might be feeling.
And here’s some stuff I found on the Twitter.
— David, who is hanging in there
Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎄🎅 pic.twitter.com/YfyTsQ95de
— Maggie Serota (@maggieserota) December 25, 2017
At this time of year, take a few moments to remember who Christmas is truly about… pic.twitter.com/TQ9tSP5EED
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) December 24, 2017
I haven’t laughed this hard in a while. I needed this. pic.twitter.com/2aQFpugdis
— deray (@deray) December 7, 2017
Brian Eno, Paris, 1973 (with Christmas 2017 augmentation) pic.twitter.com/hRwMDTOUKv
— Brian Eno News (@dark_shark) December 25, 2017
“Fun” pic.twitter.com/tsAdsZeez8
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 24, 2017
#MerryChristmas 🎄🤶🏻 pic.twitter.com/IahMZhf5gc
— Melania Trump 45 Archived (@FLOTUS45) December 25, 2017
Same. pic.twitter.com/kcNPdrLy6R
— Adrenalin (@adrenalindenver) May 24, 2017
🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅🎈🐾🐅
All of a sudden …
🐾🐾🐾🐾 pic.twitter.com/fza8NZioI0
— The Cult Cat (@Elverojaguar) December 25, 2017
Human: My cat has an easy life
Me: pic.twitter.com/e8kvlVhUdR— Curious Zelda (@CuriousZelda) December 20, 2017
https://twitter.com/awwcuteness/status/945193410662682624
Hey Everyone,
Thanks again for suggestions, I am mulling it all over. And my own thoughts. I ruminate a lot.
@ Brony,
We all here, my pals and I who gather round Ye Olde Laptope whilst having a few ales, we always enjoy your most interesting thoughts 🙂
You have also inspired me, your excitement over research ideas, to follow through on some business plans. I have an idea that I think will work 🙂
This is also why I am looking for a basic job close to home. So I have time to work on this business idea. No it’s not MLM, it’s something I would make and sell myself.
An existent product that already sells. I believe I can do it better and cheaper.
I’m not inheriting a lot of money either, just to be clear. With this biz idea, it would not be a large money outlay at first either. And if it works, the money outlay would come at the next stage where I’d have to go to light industrial. I would inherit the rest by then, could probably attract investors by then too.
I think it’s a workable plan! I am inspired to work more on it!
Oh and my one friend who has an MBA likes it too 🙂
Glad to see your excitement over your ideas, Brony! 🙂
Really cheered me 🙂
You carry on too! You are a BRILLIANT person!
Everybody here! I always think, when reading all the comments here, – wow, there are a lot of really smart people here! 🙂
This is a really good article on “The Crucible” and its many, many problems:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/him-too-how-arthur-miller-smeared-marilyn-monroe-and-invented-the-myth-of-the-male-witch-hunt?ref=home
I have never liked the play, and the background on Miller was fascinating.
Going to disagree with you here:
There’s a fair number of dictatorships in the world, and well over 3/4 of them have at least some of trappings of democracy. You don’t suspend elections, you merely manipulate them or ignore them (depending on cultural conditions) – the USA would need to go the manipulation route for at least a generation or so until the correct mythos was in place.
As such, you still need opposition parties. Sham pseudoparties are useful in terms of appearances – patsies are wonderful.
Small, honest opposition is even better though – it collects all your more vocal and able opponents in one place. Makes it more convenient to clean up every so often under the guise of law and order, remembering to leave enough people out and seemingly free to act to act as magnets for the next crop of the dissaffected.
As to the line – in my opinion (and only my opinion) the Republic as originally envisaged is gone. That idea died back in the 70s. The USA is now a nation state with a few nods to local control rather than a representative republic.
Democracy – not quite over the line yet, and won’t be for at least three more election cycles.
Might never go over the line – I’ve got a lot of faith in the sheer stubbornness of Americans in that regard. Most people, when it comes right down to it, are decent. Yanks are more decent than most.
I forgot to complain about More Weird Shit!
1. Car nearly failed AGAIN! When I got the key caught in my scarf. Break key, car not work. And I should know by now to always expect the most ridiculous of problems. (It was OK, I got it untangled, it was a serious panic though too!)
2. In an immediate financial pinch again, because for some paperwork – the lawyer wrote my address wrong.
oO
My friend told me I shouldn’t leave the house until after Chinese New Years. That’s – 16 Feb? Not sure. And I’d normally poo pooh such things, but…..
The strangest things happen to me!
Please, Spirit World, enough already! Please.
I’m reasonably certain now that Carisma has given birth to a Dire Kitten, as this morning’s result shows 410 grams of ambitious, fierce, cuddly furbeast.
About two and half weeks of age.
Like, man whoa.
My heat is on, my septic is fixed (yeah that happened too), and financial aid has helped me reach solvency. Hazzah!
Contrapangloss, I’ve sent an email to your throwaway account, thanks for the info. Life is good, and MRAs are asshats that deserve what they get.
My anti-depressants are not in yet, but screw it, I’m celebrating the good things tonight.
I got Differential Equations homework done and I actually understand it! Environmental Geology is fascinating. Physics is a treasure trove of insight and opportunity. Damn but I’m so happy to be learning stuff.
TIL that peptic ulcers are not caused by stress and spicy foods, but by bacteria that can be controlled by a round of antibiotics. Off topic, but still wow.
@Skiriki 😀
Should call him Llyan, if he likes music too 😉
And … thank you for accidentally reminding me of those books. Know what I’m reading today! 😀
Edit to add:
@Mistyful
That is wonderful news! Both the physical needs and the joy in learning.
@Z&T:
One (or both) of you have some thing that seems to follow you around and thwart whatever you try to do? Said thwartage takes the form of seemingly “extremely improbable and/or strange and unusual bad luck” rather than direct malicious actions by specific persons? Said “bad luck” has no single potential conventional cause in common? (E.g. not all computer “glitches” that might be orchestrated by a hacker who had backdoored relevant systems.) Said “bad luck” includes physical injuries, sometimes with no visible cause, e.g. a foot suddenly hurts like a heavy object fell on one toe corner-first, but no heavy object is in evidence near the affected foot immediately after, or a pain develops in an area where no recent physical injury or strenuous exertion took place? Also malperformance of business by assorted persons and companies none of which have any logical business reason nor personal motive for said malperformance? (Lawyers getting addresses they should know backwards and forwards wrong, stores being unexpectedly closed after you traveled a long time/distance to get something there the getting of which really can’t/shouldn’t be put off, things like that?) Things that “judge” you (score you, pass/fail you, accept/reject messages or claims or work output of yours, measure performance, etc., including automated ones and people in authority) often incorrectly “judge you and find you wanting” when you didn’t actually do anything wrong? (E.g. comments rejected as spam that aren’t; Facebook or blog posts not going through for vague and unspecified reasons, when their going through was expected; poor grades on seemingly reasonable quality schoolwork or other work; even games giving a lower score than expected, seeming to cheat against you even in single player, or appearing to have someone else twiddling the difficulty knob without your permission.) And all of this would be difficult to prove (or perhaps even to believe) was anything systematic and nefarious if it weren’t for its sheer pervasiveness and improbability, and the fact that (next to) no-one else you know has similar levels of difficulty with similarly ridiculous failure modes with what should be ordinary, so-easy-a-child-could-do-it tasks?
In short, unscientific though it sounds the simplest explanation you could give for it all is to hypothesize that you’ve been cursed?
If so, then I think we have the same kind of problem. I don’t have a solution, including a way to positively identify let alone combat the cause.
Do you?
@Mistyful
Great to hear from you Misty! May your antidepressants work swell and comgrats on the learning and the healths.
@Shriki
Aww new kitty!
@Z&T
Wow it’s like some force is really out for you.
@economic anxiety joke
9_9
Anyway, in completely unrelated news, I have several 50 pound bags of litter cluttering up my place, and I don’t know how I ended up on pouncingcat.com looking for ideas for litter storage solutions, but I did and this place has some fairly great botspeak. For example,
“The Secret to Cat Accessories
(…)
Cat people aren’t evil or sinister. Being one of the most popular shoes brands in the world, he or she provides boots that are comfortable, stylish as well as very durable. If you want your indoor cat in order to look outside, and relish the view or find the warm breezes coming in through the window, then it’s possible to buy these cat window seats. Keep in mind, cats are stubborn. A cat doesn’t like to share its home with a different one. Buying stuff in this way can be fun so below are some examples of cats’ accessories that you are able to give to your buddies or relatives who own cat. In case the kitty isn’t comfortable in apparel, then, it’s possible to even receive a cat lion hat for her.”
But mostly, I’m concerned about the first section, which is titled “Who Is Misleading Us About Cat Accessories?”, but then is left BLANK. Why don’t you want us to know who’s misleading us about cat accessories, pouncing cat dot com, WHHHYYY?
So apparently Jordan Peterson, he of the towering intellect, was chatting with Camille Paglia (double shudder), and he offered this observation:
I know, no surprises there, really. But I mention it so that I can share my favourite response, from @TakeDownMRA’s thread:
A round of applause is in order, methinks!
So… Jordan Peterson holds that, in an intellectual “confrontation” (or any other type) between a man and a woman, the man has no option to resort to violence??? Where the fuck has he BEEN for the past 10,000 years??
E.T.A.: ok, let’s cap it at the length of time since the historical record began, and say “where the fuck has he been for the last 5000 years”….
Wait. Are we supposed to feel sorry for men when they feel like they can’t just hit someone who won’t submit to their opinion? Or give them cookies when they manage to not resort to violence while in an argument?
@Weird Eddie
Wow, there’s a gut-punch for ya. Says a lot about how B.D.’s life unfolded afterwards, doesn’t it?
@Mish
Oh, Cathy Young doesn’t want to mine my thoughts. Particularly on her writing career. But as for what the odious Kermit-voiced dirtbag who continues to bring shame to my alma mater said, I find two things notable:
1. The fact that he thinks men engaging in an intellectual confrontation have some unspoken rule that should it become too heated, it can devolve into violence speaks volumes not only about Peterson’s potential predilections towards it, but his need to establish dominance to assuage his own ego.
One thing about me is that to the extent that I’m prideful, I tend to shy away from expressing it openly. While that makes me terrible at marketing, but it also means I eschew the kind of (as Peter Coffin calls it) the “perpetual correctness” fights. I don’t need to “pwn” people to derive self-worth. I do that for myself, through art, through writing etc. And frankly, a lot of the 4chan crowd could really benefit from that mindset.
2. He’s just dog-whistling the whole “why men aren’t allowed to hit women?” gripe that his fellow dirtbags have in an attempt to attain social validation for domestic abuse. He knows his audience just want to punch women and not get taken to task for it. Which speaks to his cravenness (which of course we knew).
Of course there are dudes all, “men can’t hit women but women can hit me so the power imbalance is in favor of women” on that thread. Of course.
Well, Happy Black History Month everyone
(if that’s your thing)
Prepare for the incoming racism from the mra subreddit
@Weird Eddie
He can’t see much with his head up his own ass.
@THE_SAMURAI:
And, to start off Black History Month, the Metro Morning show here in Toronto had an interview with Bob Kendrick, who founded the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/metro-morning/segment/15517404
@ Surplus to Requirements,
I often think sim. Many things are too much and too bizarre to be random. It’s all just too much at times.
Too much and too far out to be random.
I think it does point to something else. Some other mechanism or system …..
I can’t believe anyone would curse me. I can’t believe anyone past or present cares that much. Not discounting your ideas here, you might be onto something. And maybe it’s something else, has some other angles to it?
There has to be something to it though, it’s too much to be random. Good or bad. Or odd. And especially way too much of anything, the sheer volume is outside of random chance.
DP / Ghosts
@Mish
So this is an intellectual confrontation, right? They’re hashing out whose idea is superior? And they can settle this argument by . . . fisticuffs?
Except that a man can’t hit a women, so he’ll always lose an intellectual argument?
I guess this is how Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize. The male scientists couldn’t hit her. So they lost the Nobel Prize. Boo-hoo!
Yes, this idea makes total sense.
I need to respond to a bunch of stuff, which I unhappily can’t do tonight. However, I found a little something on the Mary Sue that I think folks hear might be interested in.
https://www.themarysue.com/black-panther-rating-trolls/
Apparently the same group of trolls who (tried to) tank the Rotten Tomatoes rating of The Last Jedi have now targeted Black Panther for similar treatment. Including releasing spoilers to help ruin the movie for other people.
So this took almost 40 years. . . .
Not incidentally, Natalie Wood was known to have a terror of deep, dark water. And yet somehow deep, dark water became her grave.
Robert Wagner Has Been Named a ‘Person of Interest’ in the Death of Natalie Wood
Here’s the URL for the Natalie Wood story:
https://jezebel.com/robert-wagner-has-been-named-a-person-of-interest-in-th-1822624399
@Redsilkphoenix
I wounder if they’re going to go after Netflix over the new “Black Lighting” Series.