The white shooter painted swastikas on his guns and left behind several racist manifestos; he apparently intended to kill students at the historically black Edward Waters University but was chased away by security and went to a Dollar General store instead. He killed three black shoppers and then himself.
This is the country we live in now.
Open thread.
@Alan: Since we don’t seem to be able to edit any more, I’ll add that I once saw one of the actual carbon-arc lights from the 1931 Frankenstein in use!* I very gently put my sneaker on the giant cable when it was in use, and even with modern wiring and through a ton of shielding, it vibrated a LOT when it was time for another lightning strike. No leaking electricity, though. And, of course, noisy even without sound effects. They don’t make them like that any more.
*also, of course, for “Young Frankenstein”
@Alan Robertshaw; @GSS ex-noob:
For a Crowning Moment of Nerditude, here’s Arc Attack’s Tesla coil rendition of the Doctor Who theme—with Adam Savage as go-go boy:
Rage troll: HOW DARE DAVE DO WHAT HE SAID HE WAS GOING TO DO!
Alan: ??? yUmadBro ???
Rage troll: YOU FLOUNCERS HAVE ISSUES, I TELL YOU WHAT. ISSUES, I SAY. BIG ASS ISSUES, YOU’VE GOT!
:exeunt, pursued by himself:
======================
Seriously, David did well when he created a place that can provide such entertainment even when largely shut down.
@FM Ox: Yes, we saw them at various local nerd expos here, which 99% of the time means Adam.
The Mr. has an Arc Attack t-shirt.
NERRRRRDDDDSSS! R Us.
@Crip Dyke: Thank you for putting it in terms troll-boy could understand. Except the last line.
@GSS ex-noob:
I had the great good fortune to catch a Mythbusters live show at the Schuster Center
@GSS ex-noob:
To elaborate, since the system apparently won’t let me edit, either: I had the great good fortune to catch a Mythbusters live show at the Schuster Center in Dayton, Ohio (and derived a certain defiant joy from showing up at the local pearls-and-lorgnettes venue in an ensemble that included a pirate bandana and a CAUTION tape print sarong, both my own handiwork.)
(Dayton ought by all rights to be a retropunk Mecca, but Dearborn Village in Michigan snagged most of the Wright Brothers’ artifacts.)
Baby-man loses it over pronouns. Lots of swearing.
https://twitter.com/danvasc2/status/1698158088732205552
@FM Ox: I saw them live too. For a number of years, before, during and after MB, you couldn’t go to any vaguely-nerdy Big Event Expo Thing around here without running into Adam. Robot Wars, Arc Attack, Silicon Valley Comic-Con, Maker Fairs, everyone was all,”Hey, Adam” in passing. One of my besties is an acquaintance of his now.
An Ascended Nerd, but not pretentious. I think the first time I saw him was in an early Robot Wars (long before TV). His and Jamie’s bot was the reason the Battlebox has a roof. Originally, it didn’t need one, till they built an overpowered bot. When MB came on, we were like “Oh, those guys! Remember when the bits of the bot they smashed went flying and we all ducked even though we were on the opposite side?” No one was hurt, they withdrew immediately, and safety was had.
@GiJoel:
That is indeed a prize specimen you found. A guy who goes frothing apoplectic because they got <i>pronouns!</I> all over his <i>immersions!</I> strikes me as singularly ill-equipped to handle science fiction and alien worlds—where biology and sociology are liable to work in all sorts of ornery ways an Anglo-diasporic upbringing doesn’t prepare one for.
Heck, Earth is too big a place for his entitlepantsed little imagination: nobody tell him about the downright plethora of pronouns in Japanese, conveying not only (and not always) gender but elaborate nuances of formality and hierarchy—English doesn’t even have a second person plural outside the vernacular! Or the wide variety of culture-specific gender identities such as hijra and Two Spirits. Or heck, The Talk that Marlin is going to have to have with Nemo about that very special turning point in a clownfish’s life.
Just finished a vulnerable witness course. Snaffled three bottles of wine, but popping back tomorrow to blag Mr Fox.
@GIJoel: Those guys are such fragile little snowflakes. Does he (oops, that’s a pronoun!) also complain he (sorry) isn’t allowed to select “He, Mr. Super-Manly Man” (again!) as his? (darn it) Even though he’ll (shucks) never have to change his (sigh)?
@FM Ox: How about Mandarin, where he, she, and it are all pronounced the same? And 3 versions of you? Or even the English one and the royal We?
LOL at “The Talk”. I wonder if some clownfish end up as neither?
@Alan: Does Mr. Fox have a personal name, or is he merely fantastic?
@ gss ex-noob
Well, he was helping me cross examine a 6 year old girl, so kept it simple. Although I think he looks like a Heironymous.
He was fantastic though. Better than me. But he hadn’t necked two bottles of wine during the training.
@GIJoel
Oh, man, when I saw that Dan Vasc shared that video I hoped it was to mock the guy, but judging from his responses to comments, Vasc did indeed share it as “wise man speaks truth.”
It’s really disheartening to learn that someone whose work you loved is a bigot.
Back from my course. I like the design on the train.
Although….are Great Western Railways implying trans people can’t do cryptography?
@Alan et al – I’m so glad there are ways like having the able assistance of Hieronymous Fox to make things less frightening. I’ve only been in court twice and in prison once, and it’s incredibly intimidating even as an adult in a very minor role for a very short time; must be so much more overwhelming as a child.
@Alan: I think it’s implying that trans people are so good at cryptography that they’re able to keep much hidden behind the door.
Have rabid Tories/Brexiters been boycotting GWR since that design was put on?
@ opposable thumbs
I feel for you. Court can be pretty unpleasant for all concerned; although must confess I am rather inured to it now. And prison sucks too.
So I like the idea behind the training. I will be putting in some feedback though. The procedure for actual kids seemed pretty well thought out. They got a lot of experts to contribute to the methodology, and it has been updated and revised as people gain more experience.
However some of the stuff for other categories of witness didn’t quite gel for me. or example, I’m no expert in autism, but I do have a fair few friends who have autism to various degrees; and the way we’re supposed to question, according to the guidance anyway, seemed a little bit condescending and one size fits all. Luckily the training was delivered by a couple of judges who have day to day experience of what we call ‘ground rules hearings’ and they agreed. So in practice it is a bit more flexible and tailor made. But they asked me to put in writing anyway so maybe the guidance can be tweaked a bit.
It’s all pretty fascinating though. If you want to check out the course materials you can access them here…
https://www.icca.ac.uk/post-qualification-training/cpd/advocacy-training/advocacy-the-vulnerable-crime/
@ gss ex-noob
In fairness I haven’t heard anyone make a fuss about it. I like that there’s an Alan train though. Normally all the ones on this route are named after castles.
Bit of sad railway news today though. I noticed Hector the Redruth Station Cat’s little house on the platform was no longer there. Turns out he passed away. I’ll really miss him. He was good company when you were waiting for a train. They reckon he was about 14 though. So I guess that’s a good innings for a cat. Especially one who used to literally sleep on the railway line.
Nice little tribute vid here…
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1349343819190168
I notice the suggestion GWR should name a train after him. I think that would be nice.
@ Alan Robertshaw
Perhaps the implication is that that not only are trans people able to keep things hidden behind the door as GSS ex-noob suggests, but that the cryptograhy of others is an open door to them . . .
Also my understanding is that the label “autism” covers a huge variety of conditions, and that the thinking among those who study the conditions it covers is that “we know these states are related so we are calling them all autism, but when we know more we are likely to split them up somewhere down the line”. So as you’d expect thee guidance will likely need tweaking to account for that at some point. And Hieronymous Fox looks like an extremely helpful, if perhaps a little mischcievous Fox, it is good to hear that this sort of training is available, is it optional?
@ jazzlet
Re: Public transport and Pride
Not quite sure what the busses have done to annoy everyone.
Currently, whilst ground rules hearings are compulsory in cases with vulnerable witnesses, there’s no actual obligation to have done any specialist training. There is talk though of making it compulsory for people who practice in these fields.
There’s a criminal law version and a family law version of the course. The principles and rules are very similar in both areas; but they use different case examples for the training.
We don’t have formal ground rules hearings in civil proceedings, so there isn’t a specific course for us. But I just fancied doing the course anyway. It seemed interesting; and as I do quite a lot of advocacy training I thought it would be handy to see how they teach this.
I feel a lot of the guidance is just good practice for dealing with witnesses generally. It’s all about keeping things short and simple, and being gentle. Which is my preferred style anyway.
As I tell the new barristers: “It’s cross examination; not examining crossly.”
Not arrive on time? Arrive early and leave just as you get to the stop with, allegedly, a minute to spare? Arrive full? Arrive empty with the number for your route but the doors stay closed and the sign says “not in service”? Charge too much? All of the above?
I habitually look at Europe’s weather map every day, and yikes at the temperatures currently prevalent in western Europe. Looks like today has hit well over 30C in France, over 30C in at least southern England and over 25C as far as southern Scotland.
As it happens, one of my longtime favorite Finnish historical novels involves a number of historical incidents across the late 11th century Europe, including the Battle of Stamford Bridge. The novel describes that day as a “hot and sunny” late September day. I have no idea if there’s any actual record of the weather – Alan might know if there is. Anyway, I found myself wondering how hot it can realistically get in Yorkshire in late September. I was guessing low 20s, which admittedly would be easily exhausting for me personally if it was sunny and moderately humid.
And now, some messages from Adam Erickson, pastor at the Clackamas United Church of Christ in Milwaukee, Oregon:
http://64.media.tumblr.com/205ae6a0b647b7deb74fabe6655e6812/tumblr_ps6ssfesAp1yov2syo1_1280.jpg
http://64.media.tumblr.com/c3d0ed7c0a618f3887fbed2b5fe112d4/tumblr_psff3yinID1qdkk2k_1280.jpg
http://64.media.tumblr.com/50687f06c07a0cd84e9a5fd94100ccfe/tumblr_psff3zT4TF1qdkk2k_1280.jpg
http://64.media.tumblr.com/8473eb5f7a2e61309e7268f92022a46b/tumblr_psff40787w1qdkk2k_1280.jpg
http://64.media.tumblr.com/e0b2b4e2dfa2fa2f418b966b11f50efe/tumblr_psff40D2gd1qdkk2k_1280.jpg
http://64.media.tumblr.com/f5550069605b6881bafcdbbf66964a15/tumblr_psff417B091qdkk2k_1280.jpg
@ lumipuna
It can get really hot in Yorkshire, even in September. But you’ll get a few days in the 20 degree range in just about any September. Although the battle was getting close to October (22nd Sep).
The heat though is mentioned as a factor in why so many Norse warriors had abandoned their armour. Although they were pretty slack defensively in all aspects. In fairness they had little reason to believe they were under any threat. So the weather might be a post facto rationalisation for some slack practice.
But as for actual evidence, there are four separate accounts of the battle. None are contemporaneous. But at least one is by a usually reliable source who almost certainly had access to primary material. And they all tally to an extent on the basic facts, so I suspect the general account of events is accurate. Maybe slightly coloured by later ideas of how you’d fight a battle. And the idea it was hot seems to be a common theme.
Mind you, if you come from Scandinavia maybe everywhere seems hot? These are the people who called that big island of ice ‘Greenland’ after all. Although that may have been a marketing ploy.