The best carols I have heard in a long time. It’s interesting to watch the faces of the listeners. Via The Advocate.
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Art, Fun, & Nonsense.
The best carols I have heard in a long time. It’s interesting to watch the faces of the listeners. Via The Advocate.
Warwick Players: (left) Lucas; (center) Cian; (right) Tom.
A message, from the always fabulous Warwick Rowers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVxVRO-rLmc
The video is also available at warwickrowers.org.
As Plus previously reported, there has been a 147 percent increase in homophobic attacks in the United Kingdom since the Brexit vote, and the men’s Warwick rowing team worries the recent Trump victory will amplify this globally. So, three of its players did exactly what they had to do: strip naked and send a Christmas message to Trump and Pence themselves.
Lucas, Tom, and Cian (all members of the team) stripped in front of Westminster, the seat of British government and spoke directly to world leaders, urging them to speak against the growing resentment of minority, women’s and LGBT rights across the globe.
“We are here because we have a message for the new leadership team in the United States and for all leaders around the world,” Lucas said.
“As straight allies,” Tom chimed in. “We believe that everyone should have the same human rights, regardless of gender or sexual identity.
“And as athletes,” added Ciao, “we believe that sport can play a vital role in creating an inclusive, healthy and happy world for everyone.”
“This year, as every year,” said Lucas, “we have shed our clothes as a symbol of breaking down barriers, a demonstration of the contribution that sport can make to health and wellbeing [one or more guys flexes their guns, tenses their abs, etc], and as a reminder that we are all equals in this challenging journey called life.”
“So, President Elect Trump and Vice President Elect Pence,” Tom pronounced, “We’re sending you our world famous calendar. In it, as here, we stand naked in front of the world to do what we can to make a difference.”
Via Plus.
Trent Bennett (Malvern Hig School).
Facebook, Oh Facebook XIV. A Science teacher in Arkansas has been saying nasty things about President Obama and the First Lady. You won’t need three whole guesses to figure out the nature of the remarks. Parents aren’t terribly pleased with Mr. Bennett.
Parents want an Arkansas teacher out of the classroom after he compared Michelle Obama to a chimpanzee — and then called the president a “spider monkey.”
Trent Bennett, a science teacher at Malvern High School, apparently made the comments on his personal Facebook page, reported KARK-TV.
One post refers to “Michelle Obummer … America’s First Chimp,” and the teacher then doubled down on his racist comments when a Facebook friend questioned him.
Bennett described the First Lady as a “nasty chimp,” and he called President Barack Obama a “spider monkey.”
He also complained about “monkeys” rioting after the police shootings of black Americans, and said protests during the American Revolution era were more valid because they were over taxation.
Chimps. Monkeys. You’d think a science teacher would have at least gone with ape, but I have a sneaking suspicion that perhaps Mr. Bennett doesn’t believe humans are apes. Anyroad, this comparison is as old as the hills and beyond tiresome. All you bigoted asswipes, you are in desperate need of new material. Good luck finding any, I have noted over the years that bigots aren’t terribly creative. Too much brain atrophy.
School officials have launched an investigation into Bennett’s social media activity, which they described as “inappropriate” and “insensitive.”
Parents and civil rights activists say Bennett should quit or be removed from his job over his comments.
“Someone like Mr. Bennett that has his mindset and believes this, has no business molding the minds of children that will lead us into the future,” said Rizelle Aaron, president of the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP. “If the allegations are true, he needs to resign, if he doesn’t, then the NAACP will do everything we have legally to make sure he is terminated.”
Here’s hoping this creep does get kicked out. He has absolutely no business around children, with that amount of poison leaking out of him all over the place.
Via Raw Story.
Categorical.
adjective
Logic.
a. (of a proposition) analyzable into a subject and an attribute related by a copula, as in the proposition “All humans are mortal.”.
b. (of a syllogism) having categorical propositions as premises.
3.
a. of, relating to, or constituting a category.
b. involving, according with, or considered with respect to specific categories.
“We already have. He recognised Perrault. After that, he’s categorical: no one went up until you did.” – The Frozen Dead, Bernard Minier.
Beautiful shots from rq, click for full size.
© rq, all rights reserved.
White-breasted Nuthatch, click for full size.
© C. Ford.
Skinheads enact Nazi salutes (Shutterstock).
Awwww, look, all the little nazis want to have a ball (I keep picturing them in Southern Belle type ball gowns), but they are fighting amongst themselves so much, it’s interfering with all their happy ball plans.
Alt-right leader Mike Cernovich, who is organizing the Deploraball, started a massive fight this week after he told popular alt-right Twitter personality @bakedalaska that he couldn’t attend the party if he was going to do Nazi salutes of the kind that white nationalist Richard Spencer encouraged during his talk at the National Policy Institute conference earlier this month.
@bakedalaska quickly took his grievances with Cernovich online to his 131,000 followers.
Let’s call these racist assholes what they are, shall we? White supremacist nazis. Well, wannabe nazis. Some of them don’t want to be overt however, they want to be undercover nazis. You can see the relevant tweets at the link.
@bakedalaska’s fan base quickly rallied to his side — and one of them even showed his support by burning a copy of Cernovich’s book in protest.
The neo-Nazis at The Daily Stormer quickly got involved and declared that Cernovich was a member of the “cuck/kike contingent of the Trump movement” who had “banned… heroes such as Richard Spencer and Sam Hyde” from attending the inauguration ball, while still inviting “Alt-Light figures attempting to kike-over the Alt-Right by making it non-racist and accepting of Jews.”
Tsk. I’m sure all of us rabid hordes of attacking parasites we now call activist progressives are about to dissolve into tears over the infighting. Yep, any second now, I’m sure.
Via Raw Story.
Carl Paladino (WGRZ).
Remember Carl Paladino? Paladino recently shrugged off his own son’s condemnation of his ugly bigotry, but apparently, the seemingly endless criticism and calls to remove him from the school board have provoked an apology from poor victim Carl, and it’s a doozy:
“I never intended to hurt the minority community… to them I apologize,” said Paladino, who was condemned by his own son on Christmas Eve over his racist tirade.
That said, Paladino was still upset at all the criticism that he received for his original statement, and he said that it has been “horrible… watching my family and friends react to the rabid hordes of attacking parasites we now call activist progressives.”
“It’s been a sick, combative year for America,” he continued. “We changed the direction of our country and beat back the demons for a few decades. I am proud to have been a part of the making of history. As for the vanquished progressive haters out there spewing their venom at anything that is a reminder of their humiliating defeat, irrelevance is tough to chew on. For the mean-spirited, disoriented press trying to find grounding and recover legitimacy on my back, pray that you still have a job next year because you have lost all credibility with the people.”
Paladino concluded his statement by stating emphatically that he is “certainly not a racist,” despite the fact that he said Michelle Obama should be “let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie, the gorilla.”
Goodness. Yet another one of those “great” Americans who support Trump in “making America great again.” It’s gonna be a long three years until we can get the hell out of this hellhole of a country.
Via Raw Story.
Carrie Fisher (Wikimedia Commons).
Actress Carrie Fisher has passed away following a massive heart attack she suffered on a flight from London to Los Angeles, People is reporting. Fisher was 60 years old.
“It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning,” family spokesman Simon Halls said in a statement. “She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly. Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers.”
Fisher, the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actress Debbie Reynolds, burst to fame as Princess Leia in the popular ‘Star Wars’ films .
According to CNN, Fisher’s flight was on approach to Los Angeles when the 60-year-old actress became ill, with passengers reportedly rushing to her aid.
Goodbye, Ms. Fisher, and thank you for so many wonderful moments. My favourite movie turn was Ms. Fisher playing the sardonic and cynical Bianca in Scream 3.
Via Raw Story.
Catholics burning Protestants, a fine old Christian tradition.
Christians just love the idea of persecution. Generally speaking, throughout all of Xian history, the persecution was applied by them, towards pretty much everyone, including those Xians who decided to do things a bit differently. The history of Xianity is a particularly nasty one, and it’s not at all like they like to paint, with them the humble, willing martyrs so terribly persecuted. The initial church, the Catholic one, had a death grip on many world leaders, as well as too much of the population. The had terrible wealth and power, and used it. Ages went by with the constant spilling of blood, all the wars, the crusades, condemning countless children and adults to death. All the declarations of heresy. The inquisition. Oh, all those witches to torture, burn, and hang. A Christian’s work is never done. Once divisions took place, those who rejected Catholicism got busy torturing and killing those who wouldn’t renounce Catholicism (as in Hawaii), and so on. A history replete with brutal oppression, burning with fanatical hatred and writ in blood. The majority of Xians, anywhere in the world, know very little about actual history. They know the insipid stories they are fed, and little more. Learning on your own when you’re any flavour of xian is frowned upon, and quickly discouraged. Learning has this nasty habit of shedding light, and making a person curious and questioning. Not a good thing when it comes to religion. You are, to steal from Futurama, to choose to believe what you have been programmed to believe.
Christians to this day insist they are persecuted, oh yes we are, they cry, while stamping their feet. This never ending cry is often deafening here in uStates. Recently, the ever delusional Louie Gohmert and Frank Gaffney went on and on about it.
Sometimes, search strings on my stats page catch my attention. Yesterday, it was “Republican Nazis will burn in hell.” Still haven’t figured that one out, but quite honestly, that’s not a remotely satisfactory thought. There is no hell, and even if all that nonsense were true, xtianity has that get out of hell free card, with the last minute repentance jazz. At any rate, I’d prefer nazis, republican or otherwise, to be sidelined and prevented from doing any damage right here and now. To hell with waiting for hell. And what kind of person gets enjoyment from that sort of vision? I’m not that sadistic.
Today, the search string “rainbow water” caught my eye. Somewhat afraid this might be yet another new age scam, I headed for a search of my own. I didn’t find anything dubious, but I did find something cool:
One of these days, I’ll have to do this. I don’t have a matching set of glasses, though. I like having a cupboard full of odd ones. There’s a step by step at the site, along with an explanation of density.
Oxford Dictionaries decided on “post-truth” this time, defining it as the situation when “objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”. In a year of evidence-light Brexit promises and Donald Trump’s persistent lies and obfuscations, this has a definite resonance. In the same dystopian vein, the Cambridge Dictionary chose “paranoid”, while Dictionary.com went for “xenophobia”.
Merriam-Webster valiantly tried to turn back the tide of pessimism. When “fascism” looked set to win its online poll, it tweeted its readers imploring them to get behind something – anything – else. The plea apparently worked, and in the end “surreal” won the day. Apt enough for a year in which events time and again almost defied belief.
Collins, meanwhile, chose “Brexit”, a term which its spokesperson suggested has become as flexible and influential in political discourse as “Watergate”. […] It nearly won out in Australia in fact, where “Ausexit” (severing ties with the British monarchy or the United Nations) was on the shortlist. Instead, the Australian National Dictionary went for “democracy sausage” – the tradition of eating a barbecued sausage on election day.
Around the world, a similar pattern of politics and apprehension emerges. In France, the mot de l’année was “réfugiés” (refugees); and in Germany “postfaktisch”, meaning much the same as “post-truth”. Swiss German speakers, meanwhile, went for “Filterblase” (filter bubble), the idea that social media is creating increasingly polarised political communities.
Switzerland’s Deaf Association, meanwhile, chose a Sign of the Year for the first time. Its choice was “Trump”, consisting of a gesture made by placing an open palm on the top of the head, mimicking the president-elect’s extravagant hairstyle.
Trump’s hair also featured in Japan’s choice for this year. Rather than a word, Japan chooses a kanji (Chinese character); 2016’s choice is “金” (gold). This represented a number of different topical issues: Japan’s haul of medals at the Rio Olympics, fluctuating interest rates, the gold shirt worn by singer and YouTube sensation Piko Taro, and, inevitably, the colour of Trump’s hair.
And then there’s Austria, whose word is 51 letters long: “Bundespräsidentenstichwahlwiederholungsverschiebung”. It means “the repeated postponement of the runoff vote for Federal President”. Referring to the seven months of votes, legal challenges and delays over the country’s presidential election, this again references an event that flirted with extreme nationalism and exposed the convoluted nature of democracy. As a new coinage, it also illustrates language’s endless ability to creatively grapple with unfolding events.
Which brings us, finally, to “unpresidented”, a neologism Donald Trump inadvertently created when trying to spell “unprecedented” in a tweet attacking the Chinese. At the moment, it’s a word in search of a meaning, but the possibilities it suggests seem to speak perfectly to the history of the present moment.
I know what meaning I would ascribe: The day of the presidential inauguration, impeachment proceedings began, and due to numerous constitutional violations, Trump was unpresidented.
Via Raw Story.
Who doesn’t love Spirograph? Ars Technica has an article about Wild Gears – spirograph to next level.
Spirographs were invented in the late nineteenth century by mathematician and electrical engineer Bruno Abakanowicz, but didn’t become a popular toy until the 1960s. They allow you to create a wide range of kaleidoscopic designs by putting your pen into one of many holes in a set of interlocking gears, then using your pen to push the gears around an outer ring. I hadn’t used one since elementary school, but Bleackley’s passion reminded me of how satisfying it was to watch those amazing designs appear under my pencil.
The best part is that Bleackley wasn’t kidding with his humble boast. He’s the creator of Wild Gears, a company that makes several spirograph sets that are guaranteed to please your mathy, artsy, weirdness-loving mind. He prototypes his acrylic gears using a laser cutter at the Vancouver Hack Space, and fans can order his kits through the Ponoko store.
Via Ars Technica.
And a bonus – if you feel the need to spirograph right now, you can, online with Inspirograph!