This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
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Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
This is the lounge. You can discuss anything you want, but you will do it kindly.
Status: Heavily Moderated; Previous thread
*takes a couple hugs off the pile and wraps them around me like a blanket, then sits in the pillow fort*
I had a good weekend. I really did. Mostly. I just get so tired of having to have the same conversations (mostly in online spaces) over and over again. “Don’t call me ‘dear,’ ‘honey,’ ‘hun,’ ‘sweetie,’ ‘baby,’ or ‘miss.'” “Don’t tell me to dance with you. Ask me.” “Yes, I’m really a woman. My age doesn’t matter. I live in the US, but I’m not getting any more specific than that.” I’m glad most of the online spaces I visit have a decent block feature.
*Sneaks a hug, wallows in it*
–
Yellow Thursday:
Oof, the pet name thing.
I encountered an older gentleman who called me “hon” and “honey” at every other breath. I called him “sweetie” and “sweetheart” until he switched (pretty quickly) to “ma’am” and “[Portia]”. ^_^
But I feel your pain.
People are so good at being tiring.
:) *makes more hugs for the basket, just to be safe*
Portia @502:
That’s an interesting tactic. I might try that for repeat offenders. :)
The one that really pissed me off was after I said I’d rather he didn’t call me “dear” started calling me “hun.” *rolls eyes*
Thanks for the extra hugs, Anne. Sounds like we may need them. :)
PZ not writing about Nigeria makes me sad
Honey, I’m home!*
I declare Germany to be the weirdest country currently in existence.
When I heard that Pegida was going to march in our state capital last Monday, I was hoping that we’d out number them. Today there was 9.000 people at the counter protest. Pegida cancelled their “walk through the city” and just met in front of a shopping centre. 300 people too much, but 30 times as many of us is fucking good. Has probably something to do with our closeness to France, but fuck yeah.
2 people asked me what “Baga” meant. I told them it used to be a town in Nigeria. They’d never heard of it. But yeah, #allgodsdamnfuckinglivesmatter
Now my neck is hurting because the little one rode on my shoulders for a large time.
*Yes, I am 12
Hopefully a few people felt led to google Baga and learn about what happened. Hopefully some of them will feel led to do something.
I have to admit I chuckled at the Pegida assholes being chickenshit.
Hum. Seems world leaders didn’t “lead” #CharlieHebdo marchers in Paris but conducted photo op on guarded street lol #OIT ”.
Speaking of Baga, Survivors of Boko Haram attack describe days of systematic killing. TW on that, okay?
Oh, and this: Nigeria: Market Hit by Bombs Strapped to 2 Women. Some of the more horrible images from the wreck that was Baga starting to make the rounds on twitter, too.
For something a little more fun, I’m considering the story possibilities of this phenomenon: The Dangers Of The Dust Bowl Included Electrocution By Hug.
And, here’s today’s WTF.
All Hail Keanu
He is the way the life and the truth, whoooooooa.
*nonchalantly stuffs a few in pockets*
I have seen some of the photos related to terrorism in Nigeria posted on Instagram. Quest Love of The Roots band posted one. People seem to be slowly waking up.
In other news, racist billboards have been put up in Alabama.
Talking Points memo link.
*quietly replaces hugs basket with larger one filled and brimming over*
If you want to get right wingers to pay attention to Baga, just post something on Twitter about Obama not attending the Baga rally…
Obama doesn’t send an important enough rep to Paris for the rally and he’s a cheese eating surrender monkey, but if the White House even acknowledges an innocuous hashtag campaign following an Islamist attack in Nigeria, the results are predictable. Maybe some should fire up #bringbackourwhitecartoonists???
The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. Scores of children kidnapped, thousand of people killed, and the most the world has to offer is a fucking hashtag campaign and conservatives scoff at the White House for fucking tweeting along. But Obama sends “only” an ambassador to the fucking Paris rally for a handful of white people, and he is excoriated by fucking right wing weasels and a bunch of idiots for whom Baga is likely a little guy with hairy feet who fought Smaug in the Lonely Mountain. #lovedthatmovie
How much you wanna bet this asshole is pissing and moaning that Obama wasn’t in Paris?
Tonight, I had red wine and Latvian chocolate for dinner.
The latter was courtesy rq.
I don’t read Latvian, so it was a bit of a surprise, figuring out what each one was.
I do think, though, that “šokolāde rigonda” means that the chocolate has hazlenuts. Because that’s what was inside the wrapper.
Tasty!
The home-health-care doctor saw the Redhead today. Physical therapy will be prescribed.
The first grog or swill will be my treat tonight.
Unfortunately some white American girl, preferably blonde and a missionary, will have to be kidnapped by Boko Haram before Fox will take the story seriously. That would also get Nancy Grace involved as well.
Esteleth @20: No idea what ‘rigonda’ means, maybe it’s a brand name, but the Latvian for ‘hazelnut’ is lazdu rieksti. My mum’s cousin recently sent us some chocs made by the company Laima (named for the goddess of fate), with the wording šokolāde ar veseliem lazdu riekstiem, ‘chocolate with whole hazelnuts’. Fuckinloverly.
I’m working on cloning hugblankets.
Rob
When sending to friends, I only use Laima. ;)
Esteleth
The ‘Rigonda’ is just the name of the chocolate. That the one with the palm tree? :)
And I’m glad you are enjoying it!!! (They should have tiny writing in English on the back.)
chigau
Hugblankets? Are they anything like weighted blankets?
WMDKitty
hugblankets are whatever you want them to be
light
heavy
shiny
dark
clingy
floaty
Chigau
Cool!
My personal hugblanket is moderately weighty, and extremely soft/furry, something like a really giant cat, minus the purr, and the allergy – but everybody has their own sweet spot.
Yay for PT for the Redhead!
There are Je Suis Charlie posters all over around here, but I’ve only seen one Je Suis Ahmed, and nothing on Baga at all, which is depressing.
My schedule seems to be trying to force me to choose between karate and everything else in my life, which is deeply annoying. Karate is a whole four hours a week, two hours Tuesday night, and two hours Thursday night – so how is it that both nights are managing to be double-booked over and over again right now (mind you, I’ve been doing karate for more than ten years now, and I’ve never had this level of scheduling conflict before). Makes me want to punch things – irony!
Tapetum
The Vorkosigan Saga actually features blankets like that, engineered from genuine cat tissues.
Good morning
Ouch. My neck and shoulders hurt
+++
My hugblanket…
…needs washing.
Maybe I should do it right now because I still can use Mr’s for not getting cold.
It is also very old and mostly brown, with a swan on it.
+++
Timgueguen
FIFY
Last night the German news had a 5 minutes segment on “football player of the year” and how the German goalkeeper didn’t win it. Yeah, really, that sucks. Being a millionair, worldchampion, beloved hero and not getting an award. With so much human misery, you can’t expect people to care about Nigeria on top of it.
I think the lack of interest in islamistic terror that doesn’t kill westerners is two-fold. First of all it’s simply racism. PoC getting killed? Duh, those brutes kill each other all the time, at least they’re not killing us (this ties in neatly with the idea that we should send people “back to where they came from”)
Secondly, if the majority of those killed are muslims, you cannot easily point your finger at Islam, because believing in one certain variety of stupidity obviously didn’t make the victims brutal murderers. A christian missionary would prevent people from thinking about that, of course. You can simply pretend that the thousands before were just collateral damage…
+++
BTW something else that totally pisses me off are the posters with the faces of the 4 cartoonists. They’re heroes, they are martyrs, everybody else is just dead. Ah, but they died for their convictions!* Right, and everybody else died for their convictions, too. The policemen didn’t get a choice in that. The jaintor who didn’t even know that CH was in that building didn’t get a choice to take that risk. They’re just as dead anyway, but they’re already being erased.
*Not that I believed in that simplistic explenation anyway
But Giliell, duuuuude*, they were having a meeting on combatting racism when they were killed – obviously died for their convictions.
* Used intentionally but without malice. ;)
+++
So in keeping with the uneven weather, the roads outside are slippery – slippery enough that a fire truck caused a 5-car pile-up, killing 2 people and injuring 3 (of whom 2 are firefighters). Just yesterday I was listening to the news in the car, about how deadly this year has already been to people on the streets (pedestrians, drivers and passengers – also in a couple of rather bizarre accidents), and then this. That’s 11 people dead on the roads this year already. And it’s the 13th of January. *sigh*
Also, mum was supposed to fly in today, but there was something up with the plane they couldn’t fix (though they made everyone sit for 2 hours in the plane until they figured out they wouldn’t be fixing it just then) and now we have no idea when she’s arriving. *sigh*
I realize I have no concept of fashion: I just skimmed through both the best and worst dressed lists for the Golden Globes, published here, and I could not really tell the difference. *sigh*
And the rest of the world just sucks.
Oh, and the basement is still leaking. Or again. Not sure.
There, that’s the morning whinge out of the way.
rq
Did you forget a link? because I love oggling at dresses
Oh one moment:
Here’s the best (just start clicking through)l
here’s the worst;
and here’s a gallery that combines both beneath the banner of ‘skimpiest’.
…And here’s an emergency kitten.
rq
I see what you mean
I guess the larger gallery with 20 pics is the best and the smaller one is the worst (I simply opened bith in a new tab and forgot which is which). But that’s just because some of those were spectacularly bad* (the one with the X instead of a top). But seriously, Keira Knightly’s dress reminded me strongly of my bedroom curtains and then there was another woman who looked like she had spent lots of energy on her skirt and then ran out of time and grabbed the topmost black sweater in the closet.
Personally I don’t like it when the underboob line is showing, but that could be mere jealousy on my part.
*Also note how these women tend to be older or non-conventional
Giliell
re: your asterix, yep, that’s what I noticed, too.
Also, I kind of like Conchita Wurst’s combination… Esp. the dark green velvet. I don’t see why it has to make the ‘worst’ list, unless people are being idiots and letting their biases influence their opinions on the dress. But I mean, people aren’t thaT shallow, are they? :P
The only commentary the local fashion people (at least, I’m assuming it’s the local fashion people) could come up with for Uzo Aduba’s dress (which, while not particularly flashy, isn’t what I would consider terrible) was to say that ‘it doesn’t appear to be suitable for the red carpet’. Like what the hell does that even mean? :P
Oh, and the one you mention, the sweater + skirt combo? That one received admiration for being ‘interesting’. And they forgot to add a picture for Claire Danes, besides spelling her name wrong.
Eh.
I see that there is a large hug pile in the lounge. As I’m not doing too badly at the moment I’ll start a new one just next to it. Feel free to take as many as you like.
The media obsession with what women wear on the red carpet is infuriating: the men can wear the same suit to all the different award ceremonies and no one says a things, but woe betide any woman that wears the same outfit twice. Also it has to fit into the media’s conception of appropriately fashionable.
My daughter is having less and less accidents of a lavatorial nature which is great. The only issue is that she’s going through a phase of waking during the night and needing to have her pull-up changed. Not sure how you get her out of it.
bassmike
Yay for the daytime progress, and for the nighttime – same thing, just time and patience until she learns to wake up when her body needs it. Even when she learns it, during periods of stress or after particularly exciting and/or exhausting days, she’ll probably still need changing in the night – but it gets better!
Yay also for doing a little better!
How did the cats-and-dogs end up yesterday?
rq I have no doubt that this phase will end, but it’s a little tiring right now!
The cats and dogs ceased their activities about fourish. There was a lot of standing water on the way home…a lot of which is still there. It’s been quite a nice morning here so hopefully things will dry out.
Have you had any more thoughts on joining the police?
bassmike
No, not really.
I’ve been unable to reach my boss so far today, but some days are like that since she’s out and about.
Had a preliminary conversation with Husband, but it’s mostly about deciding whether the benefits will be worth the hassle (esp. if I have to take a 3 – 6 month paycut, never mind a higher salary on the other side).
Interesting (I never knew): The history of the Peace sign.
Giliell
Interesting, I read a piece that said it originated in the man in Goya’s Third of May, the one with his arms raised – though turned upside down for reasons.
I guess we’re talking about the same person, except the peasant does not have his hands down.
Anyway! Thanks for that history.
The author talks a lot about Voltaire, but the end points are actually very well done: Why I am not Charlie.
rq
Later in the text they talk about how it also “spells” the name of the group in sea signs. Something that’s probably lost completly to 99.9999% of people.
Good morning!
I can’t find the clip to link, but the Daily Show just did a very clever sketch in which the Muslim guy is asked to condemn the CH attacks, and then the white guy is asked to apologize for the NAACP bombing in Colorado.
Portia
I’m holding all of Australia responsible for Rupert Murdoch until every single person apologizes for him.
+++
Hmm, this book on Postfeminism (written from a feminist perspective) is damn interesting, but I’m not sure it’s relevant for my thesis…
I also had a mild heart attack moment when I inserted my USB (I scanned it at the library) and then I couldn’T find the file. Until I noticed that I was searching the SD card…
Portia, #47
Was it this one?
So much for “Can’t you take a compliment”
What happens when women agree with men…
+++
BTW, why doe Comedy Central hate Europeans? I used to be able to watch their stuff, but now I have to wait until somebody uploads it to Youtube…
rq
Tell me about it – one of the dresses that they were badmouthing the worst on a broadcast I saw was one that I thought was just lovely. On the plus side they actually did rate the men as well.
And looking at the lists you posted I now have confirmation that the ‘fashion world’ is just making this stuff up. I recognized some of those worst from a best list that was broadcast while I was in the dentists office (and vice versa as well). Ha! I always suspected that they were full of it!
I started making up my own lists – most glue/tape needed, most comfortable looking, most likely to be impossible to go to the bathroom in … important stuff, right?
I am leaving a basket of hugs and dark chocolate for anyone who wants it. My face is throbbing too much to think about the world today. Sigh. I am supposed to be prepping lectures for environmental case studies class – that’s gonna cheer me up :-/
Here’s a lot more of the GG dresses, with a whole stack I’d put in the ‘best of’ category that didn’t even appear in the local list.
haha pHred I didn’t see your comment when I posted that! :D Ironically, the article lauds Conchita’s sense of style and colour, while the Latvian fashion people ranked her among the worst-dressed.
(And personally, I love the category ‘most glue/tape needed’, though that could be replaced with ‘least movement required’.)
I have just realized something – there is one person who was distinctly missing from all of the best/worst lists I have seen in the states (not the many admittedly – but still). I’ll give you three guesses and bet you need only one.
Here is the one from the LA Times
Right – must work now.
dalillama,
Another reader of the Vorkosigan books? (Wawes at monitor)
.
Did I remember to post this?
”
“Life might thrive a dozen miles beneath Earth’s surface” http://phys.org/news/2015-01-life-dozen-miles-beneath-earth.html But….does that mean the microbes were not carried around by Noah’s Ark?
— — — — —
I am coming back from a budding flame-war at “Aardvachaeology” (Scienceblogs).
Apparently, I am a racist. Using a writing style I developed at Pharyngula might be tone-deaf, but I never expected to run into commenters holding the pro-chinese ruling group in Hong Kong in high esteem. An educating experience.
Below is my latest comment.
— — — — — — — — — —
““The unrest in Hong Kong was (very simplified) about the hurdles a political candidate must face to get the candidacy recognised, and, by extension, Beijing’s ability to veto candidates. This is a very inflamed issue that cuts through demograpics, a fact I was unaware of.
-My view is based upon examples from many countries*; leaders who want to slow down or curtail the expression of democracy are rarely the friends of those they govern. Being deaf to vox populi, they can take a bit of name-calling. Here I follow the example of Charles Hebdo, although I cannot compete with their scatological humor.
*No, I didn’t visit the Ukraine either.
.
PS Racist? I called British UKIP wankers, and some East Asian functionaries wankers so I am a racist?”
— — — — — —
(I might be a bit grumpy early in the day, but I am equal-opportunity grumpy)
(I am now off to boost my racist credentials by eating a pizza at a joint run by a Swedish-Iranian friend. Have a good Tuesday,)
rq I was more thinking about how uncomfortable that stuff is. Depending on what you are using, it can be surprisingly flexible to move around it.
The worst thing I ever had to wear on stage was a Victorian dress – OMG – it weighed a ton and I felt like a battleship moving around in that thing. Someone had to come over and unzip me (zippers – one of the benefits of stage clothing vs the real clothing) so that I could take a deep enough breath to sing at the end of Act I. I lost virtually all body shame during that show – I was so desperate to get out of that dress I would strip it the second I was off stage. I would take a butterfly costume and rolls of tape over that any day!
Well – not anymore – that was ages ago now.
pHred
Your past sounds interesting. :)
And there are still a few dresses in which, I would expect, it’s best not to move around in. But point taken.
Also, you don’t mean Helen Mirren, do you? As the missing person? (Because honestly, I don’t follow enough celebrity to know if it would be anyone else…)
Here are some more hugs for the pile. I just happened to have gotten some from elsewhere last night.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a blogging platform? I’m finally at the point where I’m ready to put a near final draft in and start playing with formatting. I have an old blog on wordpress that I don’t do anything with anymore (I had no idea what I was doing) , but I’m curious about other platforms and what opinions are.
Also can I get some opinions on a stylistic solution that I think I have found for a problem? I have been worried about a couple of things when it comes to style, bias and accuracy:
*Getting the brain science accurate, understandable and contextualized
*Relating the general experience of Tourette’s Syndrome accurately
*Relating my experience of Tourette’s Syndrome with all the emotion that I need to use
*Clearly separating my speculation (reasoned or otherwise) from everything.
I think I have found a way. I’m going to post as my normal self as much as possible, and I’m going to personify my “demon” as a character in parallel that I dialog with. For a similar comparison consider Colbert’s “Formidable Opponent” skits.
I think this works because I can be careful and accurate about the science as much as possible, and try to faithfully and accurately represent others with TS or any other groups I need to discuss. My “demon” can be used as commentary to give the impressions of my experience of TS, and my personal views on what the science means in a general sense. By transforming the tourettic parts of my perception into that character not only can I separate myself from the material, but I can also use all the metaphors that society left for me. And it’s scary how well they fit.
Thoughts? I was thinking of letting my demon use comic sans…
Conchita Wurst wasn’t on any of the mainstream best/worst stuff that I saw. And that ensemble definitely deserves comment. I am having green envy (I have red hair and green eyes) – though I would have to wear a stronger color underneath due to my deathly pale skin (great for hiding in show drifts!) – not that I could wear something like that anymore but still – it is really hard to find rich greens like that!
Oh and I agree about the ‘dress you better not move around much in’ thing- I think this is a great new category.
Ugh. I have to go out and hunt down some Ibuprofen – now that the shot is wearing off my whole face is throbbing.
phred
I’m wondering if your issues weren’t due to the fact that the dress was a wannabe Victorian dress instead of the real thing, where a careful construction of the different parts balance the mass of fabric.
+++
And yep, they definitely make that shit up. Looks like silver glitter was in high fashion this year. I quite enjoy dresses, they’re an art form.
Brony
Sorry, can’t help you much there.
Hmm, I thought the bottom half of Conchita Wurst’s dress worked well, evoking a bit of regionalism with the colour and the fabric and also brought those legs out. The top half didn’t, the colour should have been brighter and it should have had a bit more volume if you asked me.
Well, rq, I cannot see “lazdu rieksti” anywhere on the label, but then I was uninterested in squinting at the tiny print on the back.
But yes, it is the one with the palm tree.
I’m trying to figure out the other two: I think “tumšā šokolāde ar kakao krispiem” is chocolate with crispy rice, and “rūgta šokolāde ar dzērvenēm un veseliem ladzu reksteiem” is chocolate with something and hazlenuts? What’s that something? The label has a picture of a berry, I think?
*chomps on chocolate*
I CALL UPON HIVEMIND!
Because I liked the top half of the dress a lot (in addition to the bottom) – perhaps not the beige corset underneath (something different – white, light green, etc.) but I especially liked that the top was just as rich in colour as the bottom. And the buttons, love the buttons. Just wondering what kind of straps it had, though, as I haven’t seen any pictures showing them. Maybe they could have been more voluminous.
Esteleth
Dried cranberries. That’s my personal favourite, that one. And yes, whole hazelnuts. And dried cranberries. In dark chocolate.
The crispy one is pretty darn good, too! Cocoa crisps, actually, but how that differs from a kind of crispy rice (in texture – I know, it’s not rice), I don’t know. :)
rq
I have to disappoint you, because the corset is exactly what I meant by the “top half”.
I’m not sure, I think didn’t use “bright” correctly here. I meant bright as in “more colourful” probably just mistranslated from German
Giliell
The dress was actually designed specifically for me, like a wedding dress. I got measured in places I didn’t know that I had places. I had the underpinnings (stays with a planchet so I could put it on myself ) and everything – the only concessions to modernity were the fabrics used and the zipper on the back of the dress. I bet the wardrobe mistress would have made us use ties except that there was no one to help with some of my wardrobe changes. It was pretty accurate – early Victorian ladies were just not supposed to breathe in their day dresses – they were supposed to embroider or something, I guess.
The only reason that I could sing once the dress was unzipped was that I have rather large, um, assets, and they couldn’t make the stays too tight or things got way out of hand, plus they were the kind that basically end just under the bustline. When they unzipped the dress (somewhere out there are scripts with stage directions that say “Matthew unzips [my name]”) I could breath deeply with the top half of my lungs – not the best way to sing. I should have had an evening gown for that but that would have been way too expensive for a secondary character.
Sorry I am babbling – I am sure that was TMI. I hope the ibuprofen kicks in soon.
Ugh – I really am babbling – the dress was just way more clothing than I was used to wearing, with all of the layers and everything. I am a jeans and tee-shirt type of person. I can’t even wear turtle-necks. It was exquisitely designed and the fanciest thing I have every worn. I appreciated it, but the idea of having to dress like that for ones entire life oppresses me.
Also – I think that if I were a red carpet male I would have to do something other than a modern suit. A brightly colored tailcoat with buff pantaloons or something. Not full press Georgian dress but at least wear a fancy waistcoat or something.
pHred
The thing about wearing jeans and t-shirts all the time is that it’s a real treat (even if a hassle) if you get to wear something more exciting. I once got to wear something resembling a cabaret outfit, complete with gloves, fishnets and a peacock-feathered headdress (just a small one, though).
I saw some pictures of men wearing sparkly shoes and very neat suits, actually. Still mainly black-and-white, but very suave overall.
Which actually kind of bugs me both directions; there’s the whole policing of women’s appearance part going on, of course, but I also wish that men at these types of things would show some creativity in their style now and then.
Very true. But when you have to do it every night for 4 hours, plus a matinee on weekends, for a few months, it becomes work, not fun. I love dressing up as a one-off too.
Cool! I didn’t see anyone but George Clooney in the photos. Funny too, since one of the things I was thinking about was the sparkly high heeled shoes men used to wear.
A policeman in Las Vegas has called for a race war … and the guy still has his job. The same guy also threatened President Obama.
People who threatened police in New York were arrested, even when those threats were posted online and had not included action. The policeman in Vegas is getting a pass because he only posted online the calls for race war and the threats against the president
Daily Kos link.
http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/jan/12/finding-line/
2015 is off to a rather tentative start.
:(
–
Nerd:
Hurrah!
–
I have never understood Fashion.
I mean, Annie Hall, and then something that looked for all the world as if the models were wearing trash bags, and clompy-looking boots with ruffly hiked-up-in-front dresses….
*shaking head*
–
Someone Turned Star Wars Into An 80’s High School Love Story. They load a bit slow, but some are quite creative. I’d watch a movie based on those pictures – very gritty, too. Though it does somehow emphasize one thing – how alone (in being a woman) Leia is in the story. Because at least in high school, you’d hope to see one or two other girls around.
pHred
I’ll see if I can find some men’s shots for you. Saw some nice ones last night.
Here’s some, check out David Oyelowo, for one. (He’s the one in sparkles – sparkles all over! Including the shoes. I love it.)
If it’s alright, I’d like to snatch a hug or two out of the hug pile. But don’t worry! I’m replenishing them with my own additions to the pile! The hugs shall not run dry! Or something…
Lynna 71,
While it’s not particularly surprising, it is a bit ironic that this officer would come out of Las Vegas, where 2 officers were killed by white supremacists just last year. You’d think the loss of his fellow officers would give him pause before associating with such vile beliefs.
rq 73,
I heard a joke a while back that the reason Amidala died was because she was giving birth to Leia, and only one woman can exist in the Star Wars universe at any one time. This rule isn’t exclusive the the Star Wars universe though. It should also be applied to any action/super hero team. Heck, apply it to all media. One woman is all that’s needed in all the things except reality! *sigh*
Don’t forget the important corollary: if there are three women in a media property, they must be blonde, brunette, and ginger. Few shows will violate this rule.
I can’t figure whether it’s because we all look alike to the people in charge in Hollywood so they have to mark us as different from each other, or so we can make sure hetero men have women for “every”* taste, or what, but it’s weird and annoying anyway.
* FSV of “every” meaning “as long as your taste is for very thin young white cis women within a narrow range of femme presentation, we got your back bro”.
rq
It’s shiny, but it’s still basically a penguin suit.
Dalillama
Well, yes. But he tried. Within the limits of someone’s imagination.
CaitieCat
I’ve noticed that, too. These days, sometimes the brunette is replaced with a woman of colour, but the blonde (usually the more main lady) and the redhead are obligatory. :P
Yeah – mens fashion is pretty uninspiring.
Definitely. Note Dr Who, for instance: RTD gave us Rose, Martha, and Donna, while Grand Moff Snarkin gave us River, Amy, and Clara. Et c., et c.
Latvian internet users show a sense of humour. Basically, they created the hashtag #VainoValsti (which means, essentially, ‘blame the state’, analogous to ‘blame the government’ or ‘blame Obama’ elsewhere – among us atheists, ‘blame Rebecca Watson’).
Some examples within include:
“I’m not pretty, but I am stupid #BlameTheState”
“It’s dark outside already! #BlameTheState”
“I don’t pay my taxes, roads are shitty, bad schools, medicine, defense, small pension #BlameTheState”
“My bowl isn’t particularly clean #BlameTheState”
“It gets windy at sea during a storm #BlameTheState”
“I like pastries! #BlameTheState”
“The weekend is only two days long #BlameTheState”
“The hornets didn’t like it when I shook their nest #BlameTheState”
“Ice is slippery #BlameTheState”
“Water freezes when it’s cold #BlameTheState”
“I left the window open, my house is cold #BlameTheState”
It’s more or less making fun of the (Latvian?) tendency to blame the government for everything – the past few days, up to and including the terrible weather, which nobody seems to be able to keep up with (hence the currently high mortality). I dunno, right now, I find it hilarious.
Bloody cold here again today. Went to the doctor, had to seriously bundle up. Wore leggings under my trousers, hooded sweatshirt, snood, scarf, heavy gloves, boots, and my best winter coat. Worked well, my legs got a bit chilly, but not intolerably so. Forecast says should warm up in the next few days, that’d be nice.
Got a new med I’m starting, pending figuring out how to get the scrip to the pharmacy. Bit scary that it’s an antipsychotic, but it has a second use as an amplifier to the kind of antidepressants I’m on. Since I’m at the max safe dose for that antidepressant, but it’s been having an effect (else I’d be an uncommunicative bedridden lump by now), we’re hoping the amplifier will make the difference. Watch this space.
Snood?
Glad to hear Caitie Cat is moderately warm despite the weather, and that antidepressant meds are working sort of well. Hope to see even more improvement — keep us apprised.
In other news, Wonkette posted a funny and very accurate review of the TLC show, “My Husband’s Not Gay.” Link.
snood.
Ah. Thanks, Cait.
I’m glad to hear (as always) that you are doing well. And here’s to hoping that the new meds have the desired effect!
And for a lower windchill. ;)
*hugs*
The Wonkette in general tends to write pretty awesome things. Thanks for that link, Lynna.
You’re welcome rq. I just loved the descriptions of the characters on the show. Excerpt:
Speaking of women in film, around Christmas I was watching martial arts movies on YouTube. A couple were from the early ’70s and featured Taiwanese actor Angela Mao, Hapkido and Lady Whirlwind. It’s funny that those films have Mao playing characters that are far more kickass than most female characters get to be in current action films after 40 more years of feminism. Both also have a young Sammo Hung in supporting roles.
On the other hand I also watched a film, 1977’s The Shaolin Conspiracy, that literally had no female characters. Not even any non-speaking roles. One character’s mother gets mentioned, but is never seen. Still worth watching if you like ’70s kung fu films, especially for the fight sequences in the last 30 minutes or so of the film, and for Sammo Hung as an evil Tibetan monk who fights with cymbals.
“Snoods” (I hope that bit of html works. My first try in a long time.) This is not me, but someone I know distantly (she went to my college two years ahead of me), and who I know does good work. I still have a snood she made me way back when, though I don’t really have thick enough hair to pull one off well.
Tom and Lorenzo are my (very occasional) go-to snarky fashion blogger gurus.
They have a whole series of posts from the Golden Globes.
From their short list of candidates for “best-dressed” (as decided by the readership) I really like Felicity Jones’ gown a lot. Very classy.
FunnyDiva
My only complaint would be the lack of menfolk featured. ;) But as Dalillama points out, a penguin-suit is a penguin-suit!
+++
Whoops, that was an electric glitch. Time for bed, though – but is the Second Giantest Storm of This Century making a comeback? Eh.
Here’s to hoping mum gets in okay tomorrow.
Blatant homophobia in Atlanta:
The story is not over, as the Family Research Council is standing up for Kelvin Cochran’s right to discriminate against gays. The FRC is calling the dismissal of Cochran “religious discrimination.”
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/01/13/3611000/anti-gay-conservatives-rally-in-atlanta-demanding-the-right-for-bigots-to-be-paid-by-the-government/
Oh hey! I just got a good chunk of work done – why not dump a few links?
(And hugs and chocolate.)
The German un-word of the year 2014 has been chosen. That distinction has been going, since 1991, to the worst bit of sloganeering or headlinese. This time it’s Lügenpresse, a Nazi-smelling term for the “lie press”. Second place: “enhanced interrogation methods”; third: “Russia-understander”, modeled on “women-understander”, which is a self-ironic term (along with “warm-showerer” and “shade-parker”) for not sufficiently toxic men.
There was that march for solidarity with Charlie Hebdo in Paris where all those heads of state and other politicians walked in the first rows. Nicolas Sarkozy, former president of France, was supposed to go in the fourth row, but (as should have been expected) he walked right in front. The Internet mocks him by photoshopping him into the first row (or similar) of everything else; pictures at the link.
Legitimately in the first row were Federica Mogherini (charged with the EU’s foreign policy) and Angela Merkel. The ultraorthodox newspaper Hamodia (in Jerusalem) refuses to publish pictures of women. Not mentioning the march isn’t an option for a newspaper – so they retouched the photo and put that on their front page! Immediately, the secular newspaper Maariv mocked this. Pictures at the link.
And now, all the trigger warnings. Quotes from this article which links to the actual paper:
Bizarrely, the paper doesn’t mention which university the surveyed students (mostly juniors) go to. But presumably it’s the U of North Dakota (Grand Forks), home to the first two authors, or perhaps ND State U, where the third author is based (ignored by the article). This is also the first time I see a non-medical scientific paper where the authors’ titles are mentioned with their names.
Oops, typo in the link to the un-word of the year.
“Family” “Research” Council… or “Council”?
Phred
I always found Victorian corsets mightily comfortable (having the privilege of grown ribs that weren’t crushed by early life tight lacing). But nobody expected me to sing, since that’s listed as a crime of war.
+++
Musing aome more on those red carpet pictures: What’s the universal hatred against necklaces? There’s so many outfits where I think a necklace or a chocker would have really added something.
David
Lügenpresse is an actual Nazi term, it’s not just soemthing that looks like it could be.
BTW, how did your grand application go?
David M. @93 — OMG for the ultra orthodox Jews photoshopping women out of the Paris photo. Really!? I am disgusted.
As far as the Family Research Council goes, I don’t think those rightwing dunderheads have any idea what they mean by naming their organization that. They hate everyone who is not them.
Anti-abortion news:
Link.
Brian Brown, head of the National Organization for Marriage, recently spoke at an event in Russia. Brown is exporting homophobia and other forms of hate.
He likes Russian laws that prevent same-sex couples from adopting children.
He likes laws that restrict marriage to one man and one woman.
He urges Russians to be faithful to God.
Brown is not alone. As Right Wing Watch documents, many rightwing religious doofuses from the USA have been featured at Russian conferences.
The World Congress of Families sent Don Feder and Lawrence Jacobs. They decried the “sexual revolution,” and joined Glenn Beck in praising Russia as “the new global champion of Christianity.”
Link.
Sooner or later the Russians or the American antigay crusaders will do something to piss the other off. I’d guess it’s most likely from the Russian side when the Russian Orthodox Church gets sufficiently upset with some group of American evangelists, and asks that something be done about them.
Caitie
I hope you can get the meds and they be useful
I’m glad I only have to take Thyroxin. If it were something serious I woukd have to seriously become an adult.
+++
I posted the Haredi newspaper thingy on the satire thread. As I said there, I don’t know what’s sadder: that they did this or that they only had to remove 3 people…
Fuck.
Just got diagnosed with diabetes.
@WMDKitty:
Oof. That sucks. My mom got diagnosed around 64yo. She’s got the money to make taking care of herself a little easier than if she were living in poverty, with only SSI/D, but still….
Another friend is living paycheck-to-paycheck with diabetes and hasn’t been managing it well for, oh, the entire adult phase of her life. Hell on her girlfriend.
Hope you get what you need.
WMDKitty
Ugh, that sucks. *Hugs*
WMDKitty, hugs offered.
What I need first is a referral to (and appointment with) a nutritionist.
WMDKitty
Sorry you have to deal with that. Hope everything goes as smoothly as it can. I’ve got a friend who’s been living with it for probably 8 or 10 years now.
—
My wife is on her way to Minneapolis now, to take a deposition on a case about lawnmowers. More specifically, the baffles on lawnmowers. A couple weeks ago she had to go to Madison, Wisconsin to handle a deposition on a case about the baffles on lawnmowers. A couple weeks before that, she was on a conference call deposition on the case about the baffles on lawnmowers that lasted 10 hours.
Seriously. Can there really be that much to talk about with baffles on lawnmowers? (And yes, we’ve run through a lot of the “baffling” jokes on her Facebook already.)
I found out today that Islam has the equivalent of those obnoxiously pious Christians who get all bent out of shape if you say “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas.” According to a (Muslim) coworker, if you wish certain obnoxiously pious Muslims a “happy New Years” around Jan 1st, they’ll reply that “New Year was a while ago” (ie. by the Islamic calendar).
WMDKitty @102:
I’m sorry to hear that. My sympathies.
****
Had a short conversation a few days ago at work (with the same guy-B- who told me a short time ago that there was evidence for the existence of god).
(paraphrased bc I don’t recall the exact wording used)
B: Do you believe in the Iluminati?
Me: No. I’ve seen no evidence to prove that they exist and I try to base my beliefs and opinions on facts and evidence.
B: So what do you believe?
Me: What an odd question. I believe all sorts of things, but as I said, I try to base my opinions on facts and evidence. I believe the sun will rise tomorrow based on evidence.
(At this point, another employee-Z-briefly jumps into the conversation)
Z: But you don’t know that for sure.
Me: True. We can never know anything with 100% certainty. But based on the fact that sunrise has been happening for billions of years, I think it’s safe to say it shall rise tomorrow.
Z: (Z shrugs his shoulders)
B: Do you believe in ghosts?
Me: No, bc there’s no evidence that they exist.
B: Do you think aliens exist?
Me: There’s no evidence that any extraterrestrial life exists. That said, I think it’s entirely possible that alien life exists in some form.
B: Screw it. I give up. I can’t debate anything with you.
Me: Technically we weren’t debating. You asked me questions and I gave you answers. It was more a Q&A. If we were going to debate, you’d need to come up with some idea you sought to convince me (or someone else) of and present the arguments you feel best support your position. That didn’t happen.
While B and I were “debating”, a lone guest at a nearby table picked up on some of what we’d been saying. I noticed that he nodded as if to agree with me when I mentioned my reasons for not believing in the Illuminati and decided to chat with him a bit more. It turned out that he used to be a preacher, but questioned his beliefs to the point that he could no longer fully embrace theism. He referred to himself as an agnostic, not an atheist bc he didn’t know for sure whether god exists.
I told him that I felt he might be making a mistake conflating belief with knowledge, and then explained what I felt was the difference between atheism and agnosticism, with the former being a lack of belief in a higher power or powers (and I added that I don’t believe in the thousands of other gods humanity has created) and the latter being uncertainty about the existence or non-existence of a deity-with the added point that agnostics say they can’t know either way.
From there, he mentioned Richard Dawkins’ belief scale and how RD doesn’t rate himself a 7, bc he doesn’t know for sure that there is no god.
The conversation continued for a short time longer as he told about how questioning his faith caused enough friction in his first marriage that they divorced. Now on his second marriage, he’s married to a woman who-while a believer herself-doesn’t have a problem with his lack of faith.
There was a little bit more, but I don’t recall the rest. It was really nice to chat with someone in meatspace about atheist/agnostic issues (oh, yeah, I just remembered that he not only mentioned Hitchens, but the God Delusion, and the 4 Horseman–and yes, I could just go back and edit this post to include that info, but I’m writing this as it comes to my brain and I’m too lazy to go back and make such an edit :)
Good morning
WMDKitty
Sorry to hear. That sucks.
Tony
One day you’Re going to be into trouble for causing unnecessary thinking in people ;)
A. Noid
Hehe. I don’t think I’ve run into that sort of people yet (though most people don’t care about what you wish them in December anyway)
Tony
I think B’s ‘I can’t debate with you’ was pre-emptive. See, xe was trying to figure out your weak spots – hence all the questions – and, discovering that you already have all the answers, came to the conclusion that anything worthy of the name ‘debate’ would be useless. ;)
WMDKitty
That really sucks. :( I hope you get your appointment.
Oh dear. Good news me! (Negative points for not reading this in Dr. Farnsworth’s voice)
I ordered the complete Futurama box last year, and now it’s delivered to the so called post office nearest to me!
To the R-Kioski, I say, maybe?
*scuttle* Woop woop woop woop!
Religion of love
The comments are full of assholes too.
Lynna, #92
So proud of my city :rolleyes:
I’m happy Mayor Reed got rid of him.
I read the world’s most clueless opinion piece in the paper yesterday. Someone criticized Mayor Reed for punishing people for having different religious views. They ended the piece by saying, you know who else does that? That’s right, the Taliban! Yup, because the Taliban would totally punish someone for saying homophobic things…
A. Noyd, #108
Even more annoying are those who correct you when you say khuda hafiz (a parting phrase very commonly used by Muslims meaning “may god protect you”) instead of Allah hafiz. Their reason is that khuda was the Persian term used by Zoroastrians, and thus not Islamic. Also, khuda technically means a deity and not specifically Allah even though it is very commonly used to mean Allah by Muslims.
*sigh*
This is showing up on my FB with ‘likes’ from normally sensible friends.
Honestly, Ariel is white because Andersen is Danish? Mermaids have a nationality? *sigh*
rq:
Well, don’t you know that the default is white?!
Never mind that the Scandianvian nations had indigenous POC. NEVER MIND THAT.
They didn’t exist. Duh.
Also love how that guy calls the WOC princesses “ethnic”
Right up there with “oriental” in terms of sensitivity.
Also, isn’t Merida Scottish, not Irish.
THAT’S SO RACIST.
*have. Not had.
*mutters to self*
Sheesh, Portia, don’t be part of the problem.
Kind of takes the wind out of Romney’s 47% sails … and that doofus is basically making all the same claims he made before as he gets ready to run for president again. I think we the people need to stop subsidizing Romney. That dude is part of the 1% that pays, on average, about half of what the 47% pay into state and local tax funds (measured as a percentage of income).
Link.
Portia
Exactly. Exactly. I love the sort of shoehorned comment about how there were non-white minorities in all of those countries, but c’mon, who wants to hear about them anyway?? They certainly weren’t royalty. 18th century France had no black people, no brown people, ANYWHERE. All white. :P
My. Ass. (Considering French colonization was still at a pretty high level back then, I’m pret-tee sure. Not to mention the Dutch. Not sure about the Danes, I bet at least they were all-white. :P Go Ariel – and by the way, Danes were and are mostly blonde, so why is Ariel a redhead, huh huh?)
I read some of the comments, and they’re full of ‘race-baiting’ and ‘sticking to historical accuracy’ and ‘this is not a documentary’… that last one, kind of makes the point against historical accuracy, but oh well. People saying racist things say racist things.
Sorry, this response got rather longer than probably necessary. :P
Saad (#114)
Interesting! On that note, I’m surprised Christians aren’t clamoring to restore “goodbye” to “god be with ye.”
Sticking to historical accuracy. Just a documentary, then, is it, about mermaids falling in love with human princes?
Makes as much sense as the GRR Martin argument that GoT must have rapey rapeyness everywhere, just like in the real world of ice zombies and dragons, or it wouldn’t be historical enough. Or Tolkien’s work having only a few china dolls and a single badass woman in it, and how the dark-skinned races are inherently and irredeemably evil, y’know, just like real life.
I think I just sprained my optical bone rolling my eyes so hard.
CaitieCat
Here, allow me to splint that for you. Rest, my dear – I’m sure there will soon be a thread where you’ll need all those optical muscles and bones to roll once again.
+++
Now I’m even more depressed: it’s January fucking 14th and 16 people have died on Latvian roads this year already. Looking to beat the record set in November 2013 (27).
And of course, it’s everybody else’s fault. Our driving culture is fine.
rq
Tsss, didn’t you know, white people are now the experts on what is racism.
Also, really, this person thinks that Brave is set in Ireland. Maybe, just maybe, until they can get the fucking island right they should not share their opinion on the net.
Also, I demand that all Cinderella adaptations must have an all Chinese cast ’cause that’s where the story comes from. Plus, why not sit down with your kids and watch Sleeping Beauty, the original version (the one with the rape…)
In that spirit…
… Not that, you know, January 1 as such is a particularly good signpost in measuring road fatalities, but… it’s been a rather stunning past couple of weeks.
Giliell
Cinderella, Chinese? Really?
I always thought it was Egyptian! (At least, my Egyptian friend has always insisted the story originated in Egypt – but in the Egyptian story, the princess is, actually, a white Greek slave with green eyes… How’s that for something resembling irony?? But a handsome Egyptian prince? Hmmmmmm…)
rq
No, that’s where the tiny shoe element comes from, Chinese foot binding. That’s how Cinderella shows she’s actually the noble one, unlike her stepsisters who came to the wealth later in life.
You know, when in doubt, always look up the Klingon original….
Giliell
Interesting. Wiki the bastion of all knowledge says Rhodopis is the oldest known, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some bias in that. Do you have a link or a direction in which to point me?
Ah, never mind, I think I found what I was looking for.
Rhodopis wins out here, too, though that encyclopedia at least includes the Chinese version.
Anyway.
Well, this is just bloody awful.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/01/14/3611473/remembering-vanessa-collier/
Caitie
You know, fantasy is my favourite genre. Always has been. but the more I understand the more I’m disappointed with large parts of it. Too often it’s the uni-myth of white man saving the world and it is often simply an excuse to write racist and sexist shit you know wouldn’t fly if you wrote novels set in the here and now. Indulgence in a world where it’s just OK to rape and abuse PoC and still be the good guy.
Thankfully I’m also discovering more and more fantasy thatis written by more progressive people who don’t throw a temper tantrum when you mention this. PoC as protagonists, or at least problematization of structures of power.
rq
The Pfft of all knowledge
History for Kids
I always thought the point of fantasy was, you know, the fantasy part, where you diverge from historical accuracy, but I’ve been wrong before.
That being said, it’s definitely been rewarding to seek out less-known authors and less-visible authors (basically, anyone not male and white) and more interesting story-lines. Turns out a lot of them have been around for a while.
Giliell
Thanks for those! I found similar links already. I’m also finding other sources and they either list the 8th (sometimes 9th) century Chinese story as the original, and sometimes the 1st century Greek one (sorry, not Egyptian after all, should have known, if the princess is white :P). The Chinese version fits better with the story as I know it, though.
On the subject of folk tales and mythology and fantasy… I’m looking for good examples of redemption stories. The older, the better. Any suggestions?
I’ve got an idea that won’t leave me alone after spending far too much time power-reading through comics over the past couple days. It involves a very ancient being in modern times trying to turn over a new leaf, but not really knowing how to redeem themself. So the being tries to fall back on what they know from mythology.
A very beautiful and touching tribute to the children murdered in Peshawar.
I wish it was subtitled, but it’s a child singing to his mother about the TTP terrorist who killed him. These are some of the best lines:
The fact that he’s singing to his mother gets me right in the feels. Damn it.
Can someone link me up to the ‘Later this morning’ thread? I had to restart the work computer and using the Search function on Pharyngula doesn’t seem to be turning it up at all (happened once before when I wasn’t logged in, don’t know why it’s doin it now). :(
Sent, rq.
Thanks, Cait, well received!
I just remembered something I wanted to share, hee hee.
A door to door salesperson called me an evil witch last night – she rang the bell, hammered on our door repeatedly, and when I politely said we were eating dinner, not interested, thanks, have a good evening, she took umbrage. Loudly, and all the way down the sidewalk to the next house, including calling upon her deity to bless me because obviously I needed it, being an evil witch and all. Tee hee, and I wasn’t even wearing my pointy hat…
Anne
Speak of entitlement. Yours, of course. Thinking you could have a dinner in your own home!
rq
Well, you can. As long as you still have the white man saving the world.
It is acceptable to let him start poor, though.
My favourite was the two Mormons who came to my door a third time, after two of my kids had told them we weren’t interested. The third time, I answered the door wearing a sarong (my breasts covered, though legally I could have been naked), and told them I’d totally love to chat, but my coven were coming in an hour and my baby stew wasn’t ready yet. It was kinda like a cartoon, the way their eyes bugged out and they headed for the sidewalk in a hurry.
Wouldn’t do it on the first one, nor even the second, but if you won’t get that no means no, all bets are off. :)
Anne
The nerve of you! The Deity is obviously much more important than your dinner. You’re far too materialistic for your own good. Next time, wear the pointy hat straightaway and leave the black cat out on the porch – maybe they’ll stay away completely!
Giliell
Well pfft, he has to start poor – starting rich is just too easy. Plus, I hear being poor automatically endows one with a slew of strong characteristics such as honour, honesty and a penchant for pure love (as opposed to the sex, the sexy parts, ew!).
CaitieCat
Aaaaahahahahahaaaa…
Back when I was a single unwed mother (for about six months of my life), a lutheran pastor friend of mine was over visiting and we were walking in the Old City when we were approached by a pair of mormons. My lutheran pastor friend was interested in the theological conversation, but once they started asking personal questions, they (the mormons) got all weird about our information – I was catholic, childfully unwed, and he was a lutheran pastor, not the father of my baby and also not a boyfriend, in a relationship of his own, and yet here we were together, without a chaperone of any sort. I don’t think they had enough salvation for the both of us.
Hehe, the last time I saw Jehowa’s Witnesses was when I was 8 months pregant and still sharing a flat with my BFF. They arrived at the top of the stairs (87 steps) and were trying to catch there breath to preach to my BFF when I walked out, my belly arriving some 5 min before me, put my arm around my BFF and smiled.
They vanished quickly…
Caitie
It’s completely legal to open your door naked here. After all, it’s your flat you’re in. My uncle used to work for a private postal service. The rules were that if the name was on the mailbox, you could just put the letter in, but if it wasn’t you had to ring the bell and deliver in person. Whenever he had to deliver mail to the brothel, where for obvious reasons the names wouldn’t be on the mailbox, the women would open in various states of naked. He also said they were extremely friendly and often would offer him a glass of water.
Giliell
Well, that’s how it always starts in the films…
… And the head of the Latvian islamic community just came out in favour of corporeal punishment such as breaking fingers for blasphemy and cutting off hands for thieving (reduces theft up to 99%!). The breaking fingers bit came as a reference to ‘those cartoonists didn’t deserve to die, perhaps the punishment could have been less severe’.
All the while he keeps pointing out Latvia’s own double-standard in freedom of speech (i.e., in Latvia, it is a criminal offense to deface the flag or any other state symbol – as can be proved by one of my colleagues’ current cases, where a Latvian flag was nailed to the ground in a public place, allowing people to walk on it – yes, there’s a criminal case open for that).
And then he goes on to defend islam as a peaceful religion.
…
I just. People. How do they work? Seriously. Like what.
Trigger warning for all kinds of abuse.
Guards in Florida prisons are torturing and killing inmates.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/14/1357661/-Poisonings-beatings-gassings-Record-346-inmates-die-dozens-of-guards-fired-in-Florida-prisons
rq
Just when everybody was behaving reasonably and doing damage control…
Thanks, asshole
*quietly replenishes hugs supply*
Giliell
At least it’s a small country, a small community… I can chalk it up to fringe elements, right?
rq
Definitely. Is there actually a “central authority” in Latvia? Germany has the Central Council of Muslims, which is an organisation that represents all the diverse muslim communities.
Giliell
I suppose so, it’s the Islamic Cultural Centre here, I think. The director was interviewed. From what I understand, yes, he represents the entire muslim community as such. But there’s no real way to know how representative his comments are, since none of the other members of the muslim community have been interviewed.
rq, are you playing the No True Latvian card?
Seriously, I’m sorry. The nasty just keeps spreading, doesn’t it?
rq
Your community must be really small.
Good night, folks
Giliell
Pretty sure it is.
Good night!
Anne @140:
I hope the putrid odor of entitlement didn’t ruin the rest of your dinner.
****
CaitieCat @142:
Bwahahahahahaha! That’s an awesome response.
Did you folks hear about how comedian Aziz Ansari shut down Rupert Murdoch in the wake of the latter’s recent Tweets about Muslims?
Unfortunately, our new apartment complex appears to house a laundry thief. Two pairs of pants that L made us have gone missing since the last laundry day.
Child 2 stories – he had a county music audition thing tonight where he had to do a solo/sight reading. One of those things where everyone has a slotted time and there are several rooms and judges and such. So we get there, and of course there are kids in all types of dress from tshirts/track pants to nice dresses, and we had made him wear dress slacks and a button down and tie. The accompanist (who has known him for years) came out to get him and asked if he was ready, and he said “Yes, but I’m questioning whether I should have dressed semi-casual.” She managed not to laugh, said he looked great, and took him in. :D
On the way there he had been grumpy at not having time to grab his mp3 player before we left the house. I asked if he wanted to listen to any of my cds I had in the car, and he said no. On the way home, he said “I guess I’ll listen to one of your cds. I just said no on the way here out of spite.” ;)
carlie @160:
I hope Child 2 enjoyed himself!
::wondering if carlie sees her offering to tpyos::
****
Want to piss off someone for only $9.99? This company will ship a very lovely product to the people you despise.
NYT columnist David Brooks offers a reading and his own…unique interpretation of Ursula K. LeGuin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
Tony 161
I think I just saw on Facebook that ShipYourEnemiesGlitter had to pull back some because of overwhelming demand. I can’t seem to find the notice I saw, but Google shows me news articles that mention it.
And I know I don’t see an offering to tpyos.
carlie 160
How did he do? Or when do you find out if you don’t know yet?
Dalillama
Does that mean someone will have to hang around and watch the laundry? Because that’s a pain, but at least there are books to be read, right?
ajb47:
Y’know, I assumed that this
was a typo (‘county’ rather than ‘country’), but now that you mention it, I could be completely wrong and shouldn’t have made the assumption. My bad.
We won’t find out for a few days at least – it’s just to sing in the large all-county choir for a big performance.
I can’t find a typo! Now I’m obsessing over it.
Oh! :) Yes, it was county – we have several music things here that are all the districts in the county together. That’s different from where I grew up, where it was just your own district or statewide. Nice, though; more exposure to new people and teachers, but not so intimidating as all-state.
I just noticed that I’ve been getting some traffic on a post I wrote a few months back titled ‘If men in comics were sexualized like women were’. The traffic is coming from a Reddit subthread, which I clicked on to check out. I feel kinda dirty now.
(the Reddit subthread is here: reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/2sfcyq/quick_survey_about_women_in_comic_books/; no link bc I’m not sure if Reddit links will make it through moderation)
Oops. Sorry carlie.
No problem, Tony – I had never encountered such a thing until I moved to my current location, so I should have explained it.
My brain tripped over it (county vs. country) at first, too, but then I remembered that when I was playing trombone in school, we had a Philadelphia School District band/orchestra that took the best from around the city (which is also the county). We also have city or county champs in school sports.
I actually don’t know if there is a county-wide music thing for where we are now. Neither of my kids wanted to get into music. Son took violin lessons for a couple months before giving it up and daughter spent a school year in the school choir in 4th grade but didn’t want to go back.
Carlie and Tony!
So, child #2 performs BOTH types of music? County AND District?
(I’ll get my coat…)
Well, as of yesterday, my friend is cleared for discharge from the hospital. ^.^
Funny Diva – only get your coat if we’re going outside to toast that awesome comment. :)
Dalillama, you have email. FYI. :)
Azkyroth @172:
Good news indeed!
A rare sighting of a good guy with a gun
Conservatives and gundamentalists are going to eat this story up. And then act like it happens with great frequency.
My fellow Loungegoer (or to be more precise those Lounge-goers who like coffee), I give you Bulletproof Coffe.
Well, I’m glad I made SO a spare key a few months ago. I told him I left my keys at the office, and he forgot I also have my office key on that ring…would’ve been hard to go get my keys from the office…
We met at the halfway point, 15 minute drive for each of us, and now I’m finally fed, and in bed, and zoning out. Whew what a day.
*piles up some hugs in the corner by the blanket fort, free for the taking*
Portia @178:
Looks like it was good thinking on your part to give SO a key.
What manner of edible goodness fills thy belly?
Tony:
Yeah, not to mention all the times he has used it to let himself in and start cooking dinner when he beats me here ^_^
I ate leftover spaghetti with meat sauce – I made it a few days ago with SO’s dash-of-red-wine recipe. Very satiating.
How are you doing, my dear friend?
Portia @180:
Mmmm, spaghetti with meat sauce…that’s good comfort food in my book.
As for me? As the best character in the Buffy-verse would say, “I’m five-by-five”…
Tony:
Yeah, and the comfort food made everything feel better.
I didn’t know Faith was your favorite. That’s interesting. How come?
Tony! 177
Oh, yes, that prat. He recommends mixing butter with your coffee in the morning to get an extra energy boost (it will give you some extra calories, at least; I used to do the same thing with an egg when I was working out regularly, as otherwise I got massive headaches from insufficient calories). He’s attached a lot of woo and overpriced bullshit to the idea and made a mint.
Portia @182:
To be honest, I’m not completely sure. Come to think of it, if someone asked me why I liked any of the characters (whether movies, tv shows, or comic books), I’d be hard-pressed to explain why I like them.
****
I really like the word ‘prat’ (and that’s something else I can’t explain).
Trigger Warning:
West Hollywood is making all single-stall restrooms gender neutral.
It’s a good, progressive move. I support the idea. However, the sample sign shown in the accompanying image shows the standard pictograms used to represent women, men, and people with disabilities. It also makes use of an image I haven’t seen before, and one that I find fucking insulting. It’s an image that combines the man and woman pictogram into one, creating a half-man/half-woman. I surmise that this new pictogram is meant to represent trans women and trans men (as well as anyone outside of the gender binary), as if they’re half of each gender. Which they fucking aren’t. A trans woman is a woman. A trans man is a man. They aren’t half anything.
Surprising and unsurprising news about a gun rights group from Texas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESPr7PXmHFk
They staged reenactments of the Charlie Hebdo massacre to see if it could have been prevented by as “good guy with a gun,” and the results were negative. And they acknowledged that this was the case. That’s the surprising part. What’s unsurprising is that they’re going to go on carrying guns everywhere in the belief that they can stop a mass shooting.
there is only one restroom in the establishment?
How about a graphic depicting a TOILET?
(I hope they didn’t dislocate their shoulder from patting themselves on the back)
Good morning
Dalillama
I’m always wondering who steals handmade stuff. I mean, with some generic store bought shit you can always claim you just happened to have the same item, but handmade, individual stuff? #1 had handmade stuff with her name on it stolen and believe me, it’s a name you don’t hear often.
Portia
Ahhhh, one of those days. I did something equally smart yesterday. I drove to college to return some library books that were due, scan the relevant passages before doing so and to pick up new books.
Well, when I left the motorway I noticed that my purse was in my other backpack, the one that was standing at home. Thankfully I could return the books without my library card or I’d have to drive there again today…
Tony
Toilet signs are a fucked up “male as default” thing anyway. Because the sign for “man” is the default sign for “person” elsewhere. Women, otoh, are represented by a skirt.
Yeah, why not simply have a toilet, you can add “all genders” in written…
Oh, forgot…
As a German, I find this one quite hilarious but also scaaaaaaary
Giliell
Was not expecting that.
Giliell@188,
On Saturday, I set out on the drive from Turin to Dunfermline – the car had to return to the UK for insurance reasons – and about 45 minutes into the drive realised I’d left my phone on charge in the flat… At least it wasn’t when I reached the end of the first day’s drive (Saint Quentin) and looked for the phone to call my wife.
8 Terrifying Urban Legends That Will Keep You Up At Night.
Also, An Englishman in Latvia: The Trials and Tribulations settling in Latvia.
Nick Gotts Turin to Dunfermline is quite a trek. Watch out for the bad driving conditions in the UK. My brother did Marseille to Wolverhampton and back over X-Mas.
Minor work related rant:
It seems that academics don’t use the scientific method in the ‘real’ world. Case in point: I set up a video conference event which included broadcasting a powerpoint presentation. I was called to fix it as the presentation couldn’t be seen. I went to investigate and it turns out one recipient could see it and the other could not. Surely the logical thing would be to assume that the fault was at the receiving end that didn’t see it rather than the broadcast end? Apparently not!
/rant
Scary: the way his words echo. An Anti-Feminist Party Is Standing In The General Election.
rq @195. That’s literally too close to home! I always vote in General Elections, but this makes me more determined. My hope is that they lose their deposit at the very least. But hopefully they will get very few votes. We can but hope.
Also, but completely unrelated, I read this BBC News article concerning a trans* girl:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-30783983
The article always used the correct pronoun, which was reassuring. It made interesting reading as it appears to show that accepting someone as trans* before puberty can make the transition a lot less painful and easier. I would be interested to hear other’s take on it as it may help with my education on such matters.
Nick
Hoh did we manage before mobile phones?
+++
I will say that if you cut your hair short your neck will feel very cold for a while and get tickled
+++
bassmike
AFAIK trans children get puberty so the hard to undo changes of puberty don’t affect them before they then get HRT later
*blocker
Insert word after “puberty”
@Tony!
From the bulletproof coffee link:
“grass-fed butter”
You can feed butter?
Also, today at the checkout
Me, putting my nashis on the counter.
Woman behind me: Excuse me, what are those?
I explain
She: Are they good?
Ehm, no, I’m just buying them because I want to look sophisticated (no, I didn’t say that, but, what did she expect? And since are the tastes of the randomn person in front of you a good indicator whether you’d like something, too?)
I hope no one here has connections with Target Canada. It was just announced Target is pulling out of Canada. They’ve been bleeding money from the start, and it has been suggested they wouldn’t see a profit here until 2021. 138 stores will close.
‘I can haz genomes’: cats claw their way into genetics http://www.nature.com/news/i-can-haz-genomes-cats-claw-their-way-into-genetics-1.16708
.
Seattle Dog Figures Out Buses, Starts Riding Solo To The Dog Park http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/13/seattle-dog-rides-bus-public-transit-park-black-lab_n_6463364.html
This is what you get when you do not provide enough public funds to get a full staff of HR personnel:
“Jail Guards Hired Despite Arrests, Debts And Gang Ties: Report http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/15/new-york-city-jail-guards_n_6475982.html
“Futures”: The left hands of lovers http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7534/full/517406a.html
Hahaha, totally did not expect the ending here
Giliell
Sometimes, yes, when I see someone in front of me buying something I know nothing about, I might feel a bit braver about trying it out next time I’m in the shop.
But that’s just me. I’m usually the one with the odd assortment of random objects that make sense only to me.
Saad
:D
About the origins of the attacks in Paris last week and the fallout from them:
Waking Up to the New al-Qaeda – Ahmed Rashid
When I follow a link to background material and find myself automatically responding to a three year old comment in a closed thread, I think it’s time to take a break from arguing on the internet for a day or two.
@rq 195
Isn’t that the same Buchanan who sometimes comments in Ally Fogg’s posts?
I am shocked, SHOCKED to learn that hollywood is controlled by white men.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/academy/la-et-unmasking-oscar-academy-project-html-htmlstory.html
Brony
I have no idea, but if yes, that’s… kind of scary.
Brony
Take a well-earned break
rq
I sometimes play a mental “what’s for dinner?” by looking at whatever other people buy.
+++
Talking ’bout breaks, don’t worry if you don’t see me much the next days. It’s my birthday tomorrow and Mr and I are going to the Spa first and then we take the kids out to the Chinese restaurant (If Döner leads to the islamification of Europe, does Chinese food lead to communism?)
Giliell
Enjoy your socialist meal tomorrow. ;)
And can I pre-emptively say Happy Birthday? :) Hope you have a great time, and that the kids behave in the restaurant! Sounds like you have a lovely day planned.
@Giliell 211
What funny is that this was the comment, I actually finished the response, and went to the bottom and tried to post it. XD
I am honestly laughing at it. These are the things that remind me that the only reason I know about flawed behavior in others is that I have to deal with the same flaws in myself. Hyperfocus is a double-edged sword.
Happy Birthday for tomorrow Giliell
…~year and a half old comment.
Preemptive happy birthday to Giliell!
Delightful scorn: http://hs13.snstatic.fi/webkuva/sarjis/560/1305916718453?ts=766
Translation, although it isn’t even necessary: “We might be virgins, but not desperate.”
Some more background on other attacks that have taken place in France in recent weeks:
France: The Ground Shifts – Mark Lilla
Happy Almost Birthday, Giliell!
Happy Tomorrow, Giliell!
Tony @176, I think the armed customer lucked out in a way. He didn’t kill any innocent bystanders. From the article:
:-))))))) Brilliant.
Hope the audition went well, carlie!
… and sorry, apart from that I’m totally ‘rupt again :-\ I meant to post this hours ago and my internet connection went awol. Don’t know if it’s back to stay or just taunting me.
Hugs to those who could do with one.
A good presentation of Charlie Hebdo cartoons, with translations and cultural background provided:
Daily Kos link.
The unvaccinated woman who started a measles outbreak in the USA was a 20-year-old from California:
I was not surprised to see that unvaccinated children from Utah are spreading the disease after their visit to Disneyland. There’s a big push in both Idaho and Utah to “stop poisoning our children.” It gains some momentum by being connected to mormon communities that spread all kinds of bad viruses. Some of the non-mormon anti-vaxxers are woo-infected.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/14/measles-outbreak-spreads-unvaccinated-woman-disneyland
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/disneyland-measles-outbreak-spreading-report-2015-01-14
Come to Disneyland, we have measles for everyone. Sigh.
Lynna @224
I hope the new outbreak will make them reconsider the anti-vax stance. :( And I hope nobody is taken deathly ill, just serious enough to warrant some extra thought.
The number of times I nearly killed my instructor and me per driving lesson has gotten pretty low.
I’m so proud of myself :)
… and happy birthday tomorrow, Giliell!
Heh. Well as it turns out, the State Security Police is reviewing the statements of the head of the Islamic cultural centre – the ones made yesterday, about breaking fingers, etc.
I doubt it will amount to much, but they’re at least looking into it (whether the statements represent a real-life threat to anyone’s safety or security kind of thing).
And *hugs* for opposablethumbs, too, who I somehow missed last time she made an appearance in the Lounge! (Not an intentional snub!!!)
Jesus mythical blue-balled christ, is it really THAT difficult to just list the goddamn prices for the goddamn things one offers on one’s website that also lists what those things are?!
(Self-storage spaces, in this case, but it seems to be a chronic problem.)
Sentinel Police Chief shot during bomb threat investigation
I wonder why the suspect was taken alive. He was fucking firing shots at the police officers! So many law enforcement officials claim “my life was in danger” as justification for their extrajudicial killings, yet HERE, where their lives WERE in danger…no loss of life.
____
I don’t need to state this for the rest of the commentariat, but for anyone reading this unfamiliar with my views, I’m glad there was no loss of life. I don’t want anyone-suspects or police officers-being killed or injured. I’m merely pointing out that police officers treat white suspects differently than African-American or Hispanic suspects. And yes, I’m assuming the suspect in this case is white. I could be wrong and if I am, I’ll amend my thoughts on this situation to reflect the facts.
Beatrice
Yay! May that number be ever decreasing!!
Fantastic ice sculptures.
Margaret McCollum, wife of GA police chief who shot her while she slept, is paralyzed.
rq @229:
Well that’s good news, modestly good anyway.
Tony @232, sounds like another “sovereign citizen,” white of course. Sheesh.
rq @234, those look more like snow sculptures. A snow sculpting contest is held in Driggs, Idaho every year. They prepare the huge blocks of snow to be carved by compressing snow — I think it takes them several days to build the compression forms, load the snow, and compress it. Driggs has nothing as large and impressive as those to which you linked, but I am always impressed by the care, the artistry, and the tools they use. http://www.driggssnowscapes.org Photos of people compressing snow the old fashioned way are available at the link.
Tony! 232
Yup, he’s white. Also right wing, a survivalist, a ‘gun enthusiast’, and thunderingly racist. (I found his facebook page). When, oh when, will white people address their culture of crime and violence?
Ah, yes, Joni Ernst. I suppose we should congratulate the Republicans for choosing a woman to respond to President Obama’s State of the Union address — but letting this ragged-edge-of-the-far-far-right be their spokesperson is not a good idea.
I guess this tells us where the Republican Party is headed, policy-wise.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-perfect-choice-serve-the-voice-the-2015-gop#break
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/09/joni-ernst-bruce-braley-agenda-21-conspiracy-theory
Yikes! More super bad air quality readings in China:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/01/beijing-airpocolypse-beyond-index-hazardous-smog
http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/01/14/gop-justifies-weakening-social-security-disabil/202143
Yeah, we’ve all heard how Republicans are planning to decimate Social Security, especially the part of the program that helps the disabled. Their justification comes almost entirely from rightwing media sources that have been promoting a “rife with fraud,” or “plagued with fraud” story for years. You know, all those deadbeats “gaming the system.”
The fraud stats they quote are not true. But there’s no getting through to Republicans with the actual facts.
Rand Paul and other politicians have routinely quoted or referred to such media presentations.
Yeah, that’s right, 0.4 percent. For such a large government program that’s not bad. According the administrators of the Social Security program, more than half of all disability claims are denied.
The population of the USA is aging, and the number of disabled or partially disabled people is rising. The Republicans want to cut disability benefits by 20%. I just can’t fathom this. I know people living in poverty already on disability benefits. What will they do if those are cut?
Funny how one of the kookier right wing conspiracy theories is that “they” have a plan to murder huge numbers of people as part of the UN’s Agenda 21 or what have you. Yet here we see right wingers who want to do things that may shorten the life span of vulnerable people. Some of whom are no doubt military vets. Makes me think of their attitudes towards abortion, where babies are of no concern after they’re born.
I’m sorry. I forget his name, but he invited me to have a conversation about the difference between induction and parsimony as the basis of scientific reasoning. I was arguing that science uses induction – more properly Bayesian reasoning – and that his definition of parsimony was insufficient to properly describe empiricism.
I recognize I’m a few months late.
For example, imagine a opaque container. Put in 1 red ball, 1 green ball, 1 purple ball, and 2 blue balls. Close and shake container. Draw one ball at random. Under Bayesian reasoning, the proper conclusion is 20%, 20%, 20%, and 40% confidence in each of the expectations. Under usual nomenclature, that means that one should not hold a positive belief about the particular color of the ball just randomly drawn.
Whereas, under his described parsimony, the conclusion “the drawn ball is blue” is the most parsimonious explanation, and thus one would be rationally warranted – even required – to hold a belief that the drawn ball is blue. I think that is a ridiculous position. We need to talk about confidence levels for our beliefs, and for that you need a framework like Bayesian reasoning (or something like it). Finally, I want to argue that the usual common understanding of “inductive reasoning” maps very well onto Bayesian reasoning.
For his counterexample, he gave the example that 100 years ago, no one had ever seen a meteor, and thus we had lots of evidence that meteors never struck the Earth, and thus one would be warranted under inductive reasoning to believe that meteors never struck the Earth – in spite of all of the contradictory evidence. The response is simple: Proper honest Bayesian reasoning does not allow you to ignore evidence at your leisure. Yes, the observations that we’ve never seen a meteor impact makes the hypothesis very unlikely, and thus it would take a lot of evidence to overcome that amount of evidence. Which is exactly what we have, which is why under a proper
inductiveBayesian approach, they properly concluded that meteors impact the Earth without ever seeing it firsthand.Ah yes. Responding to the very honest, nice, reasonable, intelligence, knowledgeable, etc., David Marjanović.
Tony, #235
Damn, that’s terrible!
Fucking gun obsession…
Wut?
Azkyroth @245:
I’m guessing your ‘wut’ is directed at EnlightenmentLiberal’s comments?
Update on the story I linked to @232:
Horton has been released from police custody, which doesn’t seem quite right, given that the police traced the 911 bomb threat call to Horton’s residence.
They also found an explosive device at Horton’s home. While his guilt should be determined in a court of law, surely that’s enough to arrest him, no?
Related to the OK bomb threat-
I read multiple news reports about the events in Sentinel, OK, but aside from FOX News, no other media outlet mentioned anything about Horton having ties to ISIS.
foxnews.com/us/2015/01/15/oklahoma-police-chief-shot-during-bomb-threat-investigation-alleged-shooter/
I wonder if FOX has a source that no other news organization has…or if they’re making shit up. Which choice makes more sense? Gosh, I’m stumped here…
Of course it’s possible he was ranting about Isis, the comic book and TV show character from the ’70s.
Enlightenment Liberal @242
I believe you’re looking for the Thunderdome…?
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2014/12/25/thunderdome-57/comment-page-1/
Arrives …. looking for grog ….
Never mind … Opens bottle of Aussie Sauvignon Blanc, pours gals, proceeds to peruse Lounge comments from the top.
Gals? >> Glass.
It’s a good day.
—
This auto fill stuff is waaaaay creepy.
—-
“waaaaay”
flummoxed it
—
or
not
Am I? I thought the difference was moderation, not content. Did I break some rule?
The Lounge is meant to be about safe and huggy.
Some topics are better elsewhere.
“It’s [Not] Okay”: How Women Die In Comic Book Movies
EnlightenmentLiberal
That’s the kind of conversation that’s best to occur in the Thunderdome – as it easily becomes contentious and not quite appropriate for the Lounge. It’s not so much a content thing as we can recognize where it will go.
What does one call, in English, that usually-triangular-shaped utensil with which one picks up slices of cake, torte and pie? In order to serve it?
I’ve just heard it called a cake server. I bet there’s some obscure more appropriate term for it though.
“Cake server” would be the boringest name for such a useful tool.
@160 I would call it a cake slice……..as opposed to a slice of cake!
rq 260
I’ll call it whatever it wants me to call it as long as it puts cake or pie on my plate. But yes, I’ve always heard it called a cake (or pie) server. You’re talking about this, right?
I call mine Bringer of Felicity, Usherer of Joy.
Tony!@248,
The Faux News report doesn’t say what Horton said about ISIS, so it could have been:
or
Saad 265
I was going to say something like Most Exalted Server of Baked Goods.
Saad @265,
Sacred to the Goddess Anoia, Most Blessed of Serving Utensils, Hallowed Be Thy Pastries…
Amen.
:)
Cake server here also.
I made a watch! It is nothing like what I had wanted to make, but I like it. I gave up on the idea of ordering things, as the total plus the shipping was more than I had wanted to pay. Went back to the drawing board and decided I could live with silver, even though I never wear it (ordering online was because I wanted bronze, and no stores here carry anything but silver). I had a bunch of silver wire/findings/clasps left over from a store workshop I took a couple of years ago, so all I had to buy was the watch face and beads. Two stores, careful couponing, and a clearance bin later, I had what I needed. I found sliver flat beads that look a lot like crinoids, and black/grey round beads that look kind of like slate, so it makes my paleo side happy. And I realized I could a) do simple loops instead of wrapped and b) if I did that, I could use the eye pins in my stash and only have to make half the number of loops. ;) Hopefully this will get me through the first week of classes next week.
carlie, pictures, please?
Still reckon it’s called a cake slice. Maybe I’m just being posh!
Hello all! Just passing through, but wanted to extend birthday greetings to Giliell, and hope everyone is well. Later, gators!
ajb47
Yes, that.
bassmike
That’s it, stick to your guns! :D (Is that really a posh name for it?)
I like Saad‘s version.
And thanks for all the responses, it truly is a bringer of joy and felicity, and a most sacred server of baked goods.
In Latvian we tend to call it ‘the little shovel’. I’m not sure if that says more about the consistency of our cakes, or our serving style. :P
hmm … also know it as a “cake slice” or (oddly, as it probably doesn’t cut) as a “cake knife”.
Or just om nom nom.
… must have caught some of the same poshness cooties as bassmike ;-D
Maybe it’s a British thing opposablethumbs !
Oh you Brits.
Hullo
German word would be a cake shovel
Re beads
Watch for the fashion jewellery shops having sales or even better, broken item bags.
Thank you all for the good wishes. So far the day was perfect
If Hermione Were The Main Character In “Harry Potter”
It really likes the word ‘b*tch’, but it’s definitely worth the read!! :D
Anne – I put a picture up <a href="https://twitter.com/CarlieP/status/556125009585123328"here, although it’s a little kinked so you can’t see all the fantastic loop action (heh). (in fact, I think one strand got slightly twisted, so I’m going to have to take it partway apart when I get home and fix it.)
(really, I’m just glad that I managed to make a plan and then actually carry it out. This is a big achievement for me lately)
carlie, the link is wonky, but if you copy it and remove the “here at the end, it gets you there. Nice work, I like the colors!
Well, that was lovely. Try here.
Thanks, Anne!
Yes, that’s right, Florida police officers are using mugshots of black men for target practice. This practice is likely to continue.
http://www.salon.com/2015/01/16/florida_pd_uses_mug_shots_of_black_men_for_target_practice/
The coffee maker at work is making a weird noise, and I haven’t even turned it on. Should I be scared?
rq, #288
Yes!
#Skynet
Saad
…
Actually, I think it’s trying to sing. It’s doing that weird air-escape whistle up and down the scale.
That means it will stop on its own eventually, right?
I think PZ reviewed this movie once. He will be glad to know that the main character in the story has now admitted that entire premise on which the movie is based was one big fat lie.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/alex-malarkey-heaven-book-fake
Lynna
Thanks for that @291! Someone on my FB posted a gawker link that didn’t work, and I was sad, but you have banished that sadness.
Yup, apparently just the lying bible is enough to profit!
I don’t think I have enough irony for this one. Anyone have extra?
Wow. So earlier this week, the Toronto Star published this: Star should have published Charlie Hebdo front cover: DiManno, by one of their admittedly more conservative writers (I don’t much like her opinions or her style). But today the TS has published this: Why the Star won’t run the Charlie Hebdo cartoons: Cruickshank, which is actually a very nice and thoughtful response (I can even agree with most, though not all, of the reasoning).
rq @288:
That weird noise may have been a signal to the Decepticon forces to begin their invasion of Earth.
rq
“It’s doing that weird air-escape whistle up and down the scale.”
Sounds like my rice cooker.
How does the coffee taste?
Wow. I just heard a radio announcement reminding listeners of the upcoming birthday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
(it was notable for me, bc I was lamenting-just last week-that people who are Jr’s often have that suffix left off in references to them; I’m one, MLK Jr is one, Michael Brown Jr is one)
chigau
I’m having tea. :P
The plaintive mating cry of the lonely appliance?
Walmart and other large companies are avoiding paying on-the-joy-injury costs to employees. President Obama wants to change that. The proposed regulatory changes are going to be strenuously fought by corporations and by Republican politicians. The owners of Walmart are insanely rich, but I guess they can’t be bothered to treat their employees fairly.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/01/walmart-osha-workplace-injury-tracking
Anti-muslim bigotry — new levels of ridiculousness:
Right Wing Watch link.
Well honestly if my employees are enjoying themselves at work so much they’re getting injuries, they’re in the wrong job.
@300: or the right one.
rq @ 300:
Ha! Good catch. I have made my obeisance to Typos. “on-the-job-injury” of course.
When I proofread I see what should be there instead of what is there. Doesn’t work all that well.
NEW THREAD.