1. 50 ways to Leave Your Lover - (Paul Simon / arr. Mehldau) 1:01
2. O que sera - (Chico Buarque / arr. Mehldau) 11:13
3. Knives Out - (Radiohead / arr. Mehldau) 19:45
4. The Very Thought Of You - (Nat King Cole / arr. Mehldau) 29:42
5. She`s Leaving Home - (Lennon / McCartney / arr. Mehldau) 40:38Brad Mehldau
Jeff Ballard
Larry Grenadier2005
Er…
— internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F) July 22, 2023
How bad is the warming in the waters off the Florida coastline?
Well, they’re installing *underwater fans* to keep the coral alive. https://t.co/5e4X0HqnPC pic.twitter.com/B2fCO5PnGd— Bill Grueskin (@BGrueskin) July 22, 2023
I just read that Dwayne Johnson is getting $50 million (the highest salary ever paid to any actor ever) for a direct to streaming holiday film called Red One.
That is insane. For comparison, Oppenheimers entire budget was $100 million.
It is almost nonstop anti-trans talk on far-right forums. I think regular people will be shocked by how persistent and virulent the hatred is, and that’s because of a widespread failure by mainstream news outlets. https://t.co/tfKoC9AByU
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) July 24, 2023
No, it isn’t true, and pizzagate is a load of nonsense, too. pic.twitter.com/ti4fJq90IC
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) July 23, 2023
‘Justified: City Primeval’ is Relentlessly Cool
And he makes detroit cool also. So much fun.
re: #6 Eclectic Cyborg
I just read that Dwayne Johnson is getting $50 million (the highest salary ever paid to any actor ever) for a direct to streaming holiday film called Red One.
That is insane. For comparison, Oppenheimers entire budget was $100 million.
so that’s… the annual salary of 800 of the striking SAG/AFTRA actors, all added together.
New logo looks like it’s for a D2C brand of sex lube that secretly contains asbestos pic.twitter.com/9ebXl5LfnT
— Jason McGlothlen (@goddamnedfrank) July 24, 2023
re: #15 goddamnedfrank
There must be fifty ways to pronounce Xelox Xusx.
re: #6 Eclectic Cyborg
I just read that Dwayne Johnson is getting $50 million (the highest salary ever paid to any actor ever) for a direct to streaming holiday film called Red One.
That is insane. For comparison, Oppenheimers entire budget was $100 million.
I assume this is a sequel to Red Notice, whitch was apparently the most successful Netflix original movie ever.
Just got back from seeing Oppenheimer; it was brilliant.
Apparently, there are anti-sunscreeners.
This is what conspiracy mentality sounds like…pic.twitter.com/vwfpxZmOLo
— Dr. Jonathan N. Stea (@jonathanstea) July 23, 2023
re: #22 The GOP is a Terrorist Organization
That’s some seriously hippy dippy shit.
re: #222 ckkatz
The problem with the alternatives to Twitter abound.
For example, many Mastodon instances seem to be run by such ardent anti-capitalists that they don’t want people doing commerce on their instances.
So any news company, say WaPo (yes, I know, it’s owned by megacorp Amazon) or NYT is going to be prohibited from trying to sell themselves or anyone who wants to use them to sell things.
So Vindman can hope all he wants, but right now Threads seems to be the only way forward for for-profit organizations, and even that is going to be limited by Meta to fit into their ecosystem of commerce.
There’s a book called Visual Complex Analysis about using complex number in calculus for solving math and science problems. As the title suggests, it’s focus is on methods allowing you to see mentally what the solutions are doing in the respective spaces (i can be thought of as a 90 degree rotation, for instance). There is a new, 25th anniversary edition out, with a forward by Roger Penrose. But the funny part is in the second paragraph of the description, written by the author:
The fundamental advance in the new 25th Anniversary Edition is that the original 501 diagrams now include brand-new captions that fully explain the geometrical reasoning, making it possible to read the work in an entirely new way―as a highbrow comic book!
Looking forward to the roll out of Florida’s new alternate to DEI training. It’s called HDE—Homogeneity, Dominance, and Exclusion.
— Seth Cotlar, mostly now at the other places (@SethCotlar) July 23, 2023
Earlier this afternoon, x.com wouldn’t resolve to Twitter.
This evening it does again. I assume they tried to rebrand twitter to that site and failed.
re: #26 Belafon
I was told there would be no maths.
Adobe is so oppressively Victorian that its online generative tools flags the word “entrails”.
Seriously.
re: #33 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
Cox nameserver still does not recognize it.
re: #15 goddamnedfrank
Ah yes, rebranding.
The corporate equivalent of taking a rusted-out hooptee to Earl Scheib for the $99 special before putting it up on Craigslist.
Column: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking (Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2023)
In one respect, the actors and writers of Hollywood uniting on the picket lines in a historic, industry-shaking strike is a tale as old as time: one of workers fighting bosses for better pay. Yet the reason this battle is shaping up to be so uniquely intractable and momentous — as you might have gathered from all the headlines about artificial intelligence and streaming economics — is very much of our moment.
But it’s not, ultimately, technology that’s at the root of the problem. It’s that the studio executives both new and old have embraced the powerful — and ultimately disastrous — magical thinking pumped out by Silicon Valley for the last 10 years.
Studio heads are touting the disruptive properties of digital streaming, the transformative power of AI, a brave, unpredictable new world for entertainment writ large — and how writers and actors must adapt to this new future. But just as it did when it was issuing from the tech sector during the 2010s, this talk too often amounts to a smokescreen that lets executives and investors line their pockets and risks leaving workers holding the bag.
“These companies blew up a successful business model that the public enjoyed, that was immensely profitable, and they replaced it with a mishmash that we have now,” Adam Conover, the star of “Adam Ruins Everything” and a negotiating committee member of the Writers Guild of America, tells me. “And now, they’re refusing to update the contract to reflect those changes.”
(more)
re: #34 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
I was told there would be no maths.
I didn’t tell you that. You should talk to the person who did and get a refund.
The Ethicist | Is it OK to keep slaves if I help them develop skills?
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) July 23, 2023
re: #36 Captain Ron
Carol Kane is excellent in ST:SNW.
Such a great addition and such a great character. In fact, there are a ton of them. The episode where we got to meet Spock’s possible future in-laws was tremendous. Especially watching the supposeldy cool, logical Vulcan daughrter get logically aggravated with her mother whio was a typical insulting MIL. Fun to watch.
re: #40 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
Column: Hollywood is on strike because CEOs fell for Silicon Valley’s magical thinking (Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2023)
(more)
The producers are going to be destroyed because of the writers and actors working on the line together. My example - Frank Grillo and Joe Carnahan. They met on the set of The Grey (another fun movie) and groused about how nobody would make the movies they wanted to. So they formed their own production company and have made several movies. The best of which is Boss Level.streaming on Hulu.
The costs have dropped to much that a good B-movie can be made for $50 million, even with special effects. So why pay a producer money when the creative talent can do the production. There will be a lot more of these because the writer-actor-director will always be better than just a producer.
I’m convinced Musk was going insane from Barbie driven lack of attention and had to do SOMETHING
re: #44 silverdolphin
Also, there are places that AREN’T being struck, because they’re listening to the writers and actors…A24, for example, is one of these, I think….
A wag responded “we have nuclear weapons, by the way.”
re: #22 The GOP is a Terrorist Organization
Apparently, there are anti-sunscreeners.
Were I still on the dead bird I’d laugh and say enjoy your melanoma dipshit.
re: #39 Dr Lizardo
Ah yes, rebranding.
The corporate equivalent of taking a rusted-out hooptee to Earl Scheib for the $99 special before putting it up on Craigslist.
I’m old enough to remember when Earl Schieb did commercials saying he would paint any car for $19.95…damn I am that old…
re: #44 silverdolphin
The producers are going to be destroyed because of the writers and actors working on the line together. My example - Frank Grillo and Joe Carnahan. They met on the set of The Grey (another fun movie) and groused about how nobody would make the movies they wanted to. So they formed their own production company and have made several movies. The best of which is Boss Level.streaming on Hulu.
The costs have dropped to much that a good B-movie can be made for $50 million, even with special effects. So why pay a producer money when the creative talent can do the production. There will be a lot more of these because the writer-actor-director will always be better than just a producer.
That’s the thing, they won’t be destroyed.
Capitalism is an extractive industry. If the capitalists running the studios decide they’ve extracted all they can from their workers, they will simply close up shop. They already have their millions and billions.
The article goes on to note that every time there’s a technological advance in any industry, that industry uses it as leverage to slash wages and benefits “because they’ll be unable to compete.” When they can no longer slash wages and benefits (rather than invest), the industry closes. The workers and the buyers are worse off, but those who ran those companies will do just fine.
No super-rich died jumping out of windows in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. In fact, those rich people remained rich.
Uber and Lyft have never been profitable. What they have been good at is extractive capitalism from livery and taxicab companies and their employees, without giving anything to their own employees in return. Eventually those two companies will also collapse, while their founders and early investors take away billions of dollars. Drivers will be out of business, and riders will be left with no alternatives in cities where taxicab companies were destroyed.
Libertarian techbro companies in Silicon Valley are famous for blowing smoke up investors’ assess and not providing metrics on how their companies are actually doing.
Netflix for example when they decided to go into production, cancelled much of their supposedly permanent catalogue of films and shows you could watch whenever you wanted at your pace (the premise of their advertising when they launched it). They killed off their lucrative DVD mail service (I was a member of Netflix then; that service was very good for people who live with poor Internet connexions) to launch their streaming service (then I quit).
They cancelled all those films and shows in their catalogue so they could launch in their new production house eye-wateringly expensive shows like “House of Cards.” After a few shows like that were promoted by the understandably delighted fans, Netflix started cutting back on production quality and values. Hulu did the same thing with productions like the adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Having signed up all those new viewers and mined them for money, they all started scaling back. Viewers are left with fewer choices and a fragmented viewing landscape where it’s almost impossible to watch anything. But the folks behind Netflix and Hulu are going to be just fine. It’s everyone else who suffers when they ultimately shutter their closed mines.
re: #50 Joe Bacon ✅
re: #50 Joe Bacon ✅
I’m old enough to remember when Earl Schieb did commercials saying he would paint any car for $19.95…damn I am that old…
I’m not that old, so I only remember Earl Scheib as a regular joke on MST3K.
“Based on 2023 survey data, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has an approval rating of 45% and a disapproval rating of 30%.
“Based on these figures, Pillen ranks as the second least popular state governor in the country.”https://t.co/6LurS07mPd https://t.co/bdzN0JbTTd pic.twitter.com/0BX4ydse9H— Senator Megan Hunt (@NebraskaMegan) July 18, 2023
I award this woman one “yike.” (0:59)
I found out what a “gusto anointing” is.
I did not anticipate the rest of her prayer, though… pic.twitter.com/C8j4VKTkwX— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) July 18, 2023
re: #51 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
The process Anymouse describes is what Joseph Schumpeter referred to as the creative destruction component of market capitalism. The process is described in Schumpeter’s magnum opus Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.
Schumpeter started out as a proponent of the Austrian School of Economics which is where Von Hayek and Von Mieses formulated their laissez-faire economic theories. Schumpeter became disillusioned with the Austrian School and went his own way. He believed that eventually greed and selfishness would run unchecked and a revolt of the dispossessed would eventually lead to a socialist society.
re: #59 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
The Righteous Gemstones Party.
re: #60 Joe Bacon ✅
Huh. So on my own I arrived at the place many other better educated people did before me.
Maybe I should be an economist. /s
re: #44 silverdolphin
The producers are going to be destroyed because of the writers and actors working on the line together. My example - Frank Grillo and Joe Carnahan. They met on the set of The Grey (another fun movie) and groused about how nobody would make the movies they wanted to. So they formed their own production company and have made several movies. The best of which is Boss Level.streaming on Hulu.
The costs have dropped to much that a good B-movie can be made for $50 million, even with special effects. So why pay a producer money when the creative talent can do the production. There will be a lot more of these because the writer-actor-director will always be better than just a producer.
The flip side is that such a scenario actually helps the argument of the studios, that the resources being invested in modern productions is way in excess of what’s needed to produce a quality product and that the people on the picket line are overpaid prima donnas. Hence why they’re all popping boners over the promises of “AI,” as the holy grail of producing blockbuster productions without paying writers and actors is (at least in their minds) on the horizon. Why sign multi-year, tens/hundreds of billions contracts with flesh-and-blood staff who might be obsolete before the expiration date?
re: #60 Joe Bacon ✅
The process Anymouse describes is what Joseph Schumpeter referred to as the creative destruction component of market capitalism. The process is described in Schumpeter’s magnum opus Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.
Schumpeter started out as a proponent of the Austrian School of Economics which is where Von Hayek and Von Mieses formulated their laissez-faire economic theories. Schumpeter became disillusioned with the Austrian School and went his own way. He believed that eventually greed and selfishness would run unchecked and a revolt of the dispossessed would eventually lead to a socialist society.
So he needs the destruction to reach the socialist ideal.
re: #44 silverdolphin
The producers are going to be destroyed because of the writers and actors working on the line together. My example - Frank Grillo and Joe Carnahan. They met on the set of The Grey (another fun movie) and groused about how nobody would make the movies they wanted to. So they formed their own production company and have made several movies. The best of which is Boss Level.streaming on Hulu.
The costs have dropped to much that a good B-movie can be made for $50 million, even with special effects. So why pay a producer money when the creative talent can do the production. There will be a lot more of these because the writer-actor-director will always be better than just a producer.
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once only cost $25M.
re: #62 Joe Bacon ✅
Tax. The. Churches.
That couple is taxed. They have to file for their small business income.
Physical church buildings are not taxed (other than perhaps fees for services) as the church property is not taxed.
But a pastor/preacher which gets a salary from a church has income.
An independent preacher has their salary from their business taxed.
re: #62 Joe Bacon ✅
Tax. The. Churches.
Let’s tax wealthy individuals and wealthy corporations (like film studios) that manage to evade taxes even though they are earning fabulous sums of money, because of clever tax evasion techniques.
re: #62 Joe Bacon ✅
Tax. The. Churches.
Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life (one of the anti-abortion groups which helped overturn Roe v Wade had this to say on Twitter today (I can’t get to her tweet; maybe she deleted it):
Note the order please
1. God
2. Family
3. Country
That is of course the fundamentalist thinking that causes family members to be shunned or killed by their families. It’s also the thinking of “my family is more important than everyone else.”
Via Nitter in response:
Barry
@baz_blackadder
5h
One of the most notable examples of just how severe religious brainwashing can be is when theists consider their family to be runners up, and virtually a minor afterthought, to their own deities. #Atheism #antitheism
re: #66 Belafon
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once only cost $25M.
And has won a shit-ton of awards. Meanwhile, the new Avatar sequel that took over a decade and nearly $500m to produce managed only one Academy Award and only managed #3 on the list of highest grossing films after failing to eclipse a superhero movie.
#BREAKING Ukraine takes down massive pro-russian bot farm -this time it’s about 150,000 SIM cards.
The bots were used to push Russian propaganda on social media justifying Russia war in Ukraine.#Ukraine #ukrainian #ukrainians #Russia #russian #russians #nato#eu pic.twitter.com/QmoYh6sSka— Intermarium 24 (@intermarium24) July 23, 2023
Russian bots farm and Sock puppet accounts are not a sci-fi. Here is further hard evidence of their existence. We cannot pass by this phenomenon indifferently. We also take part in the proxy-war. We need to communicate their existence and methods.
— Intermarium 24 (@intermarium24) July 23, 2023
Thread continues, 5 more tweets.
re: #65 Belafon
So he needs the destruction to reach the socialist ideal.
Not necessarily. Mixed economies balance the needs of the people of their countries with the rapaciousness of capitalism.
What libertarianism purports to do is remove those guardrails which “restrain” the captains of industry from achieving the heights of wealth and power. So what if a few thousand workers die in a preventable industrial accident which wouldn’t have happened if some safety measures were applied that would have cost the industrialist a few extra bucks? Those are bucks he can’t keep.
Most of climate change is the result of unrestrained capitalism, and will destroy far more than an economic system.
Wal*Mart is another example of an extractive industry. They go into a town, flood it with cheap products provided by rock-bottom wages and benefits, destroy all the local businesses, then move on and close their stores when no one has any money any more (Boy I’m glad Wal*Mart never came here.)
The town is left with few or no stores, everyone has to drive much farther to get anything, workers go from under-paid to not paid, and the taxpayers are left saddled with the wreckage.
The Waltons don’t lose any money or sleep over it though.
Abigail Disney for First Secretary of the Party. /s
re: #68 Hecuba’s daughter
Let’s tax wealthy individuals and wealthy corporations (like film studios) that manage to evade taxes even though they are earning fabulous sums of money, because of clever tax evasion techniques.
Wages and salaries: Taxed low but progressively higher the more you make.
Capital: Punitively taxed when it is not used to pay wages or salary or expand business or products. (Money sitting in investments making money.)
💥#Breaking: Following the Israeli Business Forum, dozens of tech companies & venture capital funds announce they will shut down operations tomorrow “to give workers the opportunity to protest.” https://t.co/V229n81EUT
— Noga Tarnopolsky נגה טרנופולסקי نوغا ترنوبولسكي💙 (@NTarnopolsky) July 23, 2023
drop the resistor, it’s simpler
— Brandon (@brandonhgomes) July 22, 2023
re: #51 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
That’s the thing, they won’t be destroyed.
Capitalism is an extractive industry. If the capitalists running the studios decide they’ve extracted all they can from their workers, they will simply close up shop. They already have their millions and billions.
The article goes on to note that every time there’s a technological advance in any industry, that industry uses it as leverage to slash wages and benefits “because they’ll be unable to compete.” When they can no longer slash wages and benefits (rather than invest), the industry closes. The workers and the buyers are worse off, but those who ran those companies will do just fine.
No super-rich died jumping out of windows in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. In fact, those rich people remained rich.
Uber and Lyft have never been profitable. What they have been good at is extractive capitalism from livery and taxicab companies and their employees, without giving anything to their own employees in return. Eventually those two companies will also collapse, while their founders and early investors take away billions of dollars. Drivers will be out of business, and riders will be left with no alternatives in cities where taxicab companies were destroyed.
Libertarian techbro companies in Silicon Valley are famous for blowing smoke up investors’ assess and not providing metrics on how their companies are actually doing.
Netflix for example when they decided to go into production, cancelled much of their supposedly permanent catalogue of films and shows you could watch whenever you wanted at your pace (the premise of their advertising when they launched it). They killed off their lucrative DVD mail service (I was a member of Netflix then; that service was very good for people who live with poor Internet connexions) to launch their streaming service (then I quit).
They cancelled all those films and shows in their catalogue so they could launch in their new production house eye-wateringly expensive shows like “House of Cards.” After a few shows like that were promoted by the understandably delighted fans, Netflix started cutting back on production quality and values. Hulu did the same thing with productions like the adaptation of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Having signed up all those new viewers and mined them for money, they all started scaling back. Viewers are left with fewer choices and a fragmented viewing landscape where it’s almost impossible to watch anything. But the folks behind Netflix and Hulu are going to be just fine. It’s everyone else who suffers when they ultimately shutter their closed mines.
You may well be right. And I pretty much agree. Most production compaies and studios are simply no longer the engine that will drive futrure content. It will be production companies run by the creative talent. The dream of United aertists is finally coming about.
The entertainment industry is in turmoil today because of the streaming services. And, frankly, too many of the streaming services do not have good business models. They do not know how to retain subscribers who simply cancel at will and then join for one month to watch a particular movie. So they throw out tons of awful content and then raise prices in the ensuing death spiral.
I think the studios and streamers no longer have a hint of a good model. But we are seeing this weekend something novel to my mind - two powerful movies (largest box office in 2 movies ever) roiling the waters because both were produced by companies founded by the creative talent, not deals by a studio bringing in the talent. They were not studios putting a deal together. The actor, writer or director put it together themselves and then shopped it.(The smart studios also pay these production companies money for first looks.)
Is The Rock worth $50 million? Nope. Yet Margot Robbie and her husband have a production company that financed Barbie. Here we have creative talent not only producing content they can star in or direct, they also get a lot more money that they would as a star. And they have different missions than just making money. LuckyChap is focussed on women in the industry, often having most of the crew be female. That is a stakeholder-driven company not a shareholder one.
Openheimer is produced by Syncope, a productuon company founded by Christopher Nolan and his wife. With only 2 other employees they have produced all of Nolan’s movies. They only use the studios for distribution.
The two biggest movies of the summer both were produced by the creative talent, not by studios. This is a big deal, IMHO.
My point was that the studios are in need of new business models. Because they are starting to get pushed around by production companies run by creative talent. And most creative talent want to make a good product, not just make lots of money.
This is one example of how we are, I think, moving away from the sociopathic shareholder economies of Milton Friedman to economies based on all stakeholders (shareholders, employees, suppliers, government and communities). These new production companies are taking in huge amounts of money without focussing purely on the shareholders/CEO.
re: #66 Belafon
Everything, Everywhere, All at Once only cost $25M.
One of the production companies for that movie was started by the Russo Brothers, fmaous for all the Marvel movies. An example of a production studio run by the creative talent, not the libertarian ‘talent.’
What I like to argue is that all those technological innovations we were promised during the 90s are finally coming true as the technology finally catches up. But much like the auto industry failing to cope with the rapid introduction of automated production processes supplanting human workers, the movie industry is struggling to cope with rapid introduction of computerized production. Much the auto execs of yesteryear, it’s no surprise that the bosses of Hollywood’s major studios see the promise of yet more blood to be bled from the stone by removing humans from the equation and telling those still around to be grateful they have jobs at all.
re: #64 Targetpractice
The flip side is that such a scenario actually helps the argument of the studios, that the resources being invested in modern productions is way in excess of what’s needed to produce a quality product and that the people on the picket line are overpaid prima donnas. Hence why they’re all popping boners over the promises of “AI,” as the holy grail of producing blockbuster productions without paying writers and actors is (at least in their minds) on the horizon. Why sign multi-year, tens/hundreds of billions contracts with flesh-and-blood staff who might be obsolete before the expiration date?
I am sure that is their dream. But compare the turnouts for so much of their claptrap production, like the Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot disappointment on Netflix, to the humongous box office of Barbenheimer. Both movies were not produced by studios but by production companies founded by the creative talent (Margot Robbie and her husband in Barbie and Chris Nolan and his wife in Oppenheimer). This is happening more and more. There really is little need, I believe, for the production studios of the past. Great movies can be produced by the creative talent. They do not need the huge production costs that studios use to line their pockets. NAd they are much more likely to blow a lot of their profits back into the company.
AI is not really going to give the studios anything novel and original, like Barbenheimer. IMHO. It can only regurgitate what it has been fed. There would not be a Barbie or an Oppenheimer with AI.
And, when dealing with real people, what advantage do the studios provide in comparison to creative-driven companies?
Keep it up, ladies.
‘Nontheistic’ nonprofit calls for Bible ban in Leon schools, citing Moms for Liberty efforts (Tallahassee Democrat, July 18, 2023)
The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which describes itself as a nontheistic nonprofit, is giving Leon County School District an ultimatum: Ban the Bible or stop banning books altogether.
In an email sent to school board members on July 14, Freedom from Religion foundation piled onto a recent successful effort by the local chapter of conservative group Moms for Liberty to pull five books found in Leon County high schools.
“We are disturbed that the district has chosen to start removing books from school libraries based oncontent taken out of context at the request of extremist groups like Moms for Liberty,” foundation Staff Attorney Christopher Line said in the published email to the district.
Following prodding from Moms for Liberty Leon chapter, Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna announced on July 10 that five books would be removed from high school libraries.
“Of these 468,000-plus books that we have in our current catalog, if we come across those we deem are in violation of state statute, we will remove them immediately… These are black-and-white, cut-and-dry, need-to-be removed,” Hanna said.
The books were pulled without going through the formal process: They were pulled because Fascists for Liberty sent the school an E-mail.
The five books were not removed in a formal hearing process, instead they were reviewed by Hanna and removed without a hearing from members of the public.
“We don’t believe any books should be banned, including the Bible,” Line told the Tallahassee Democrat in an interview. “In cases like this where a school district appears to be using a footpath to discriminate, we demand that they apply that equally across the board to all books that have sexually explicit content, including the Bible.”
(more)
The whinge from the book burner superintendent is “it’s only five books.”
re: #88 Captain Ron
WTF?
That was my comment not anymouse’s…
The way that comment displayed it does look like my comment.
I see the same. I presume the “show more” button from Mastadon needs a tweek here to work correctly. Going to Mastadon itself, comment on the “silent flash” displays correctly.
re: #85 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
From a previous article about the bogus book challenges, also in the Tallahassee Democrat:
Only one book had been sent through the school district’s formal book challenging process, “I am Billie Jean King,” where it remains, with a decision expected later this summer. It is the district’s only challenged book, as the five mentioned in the email weren’t part of a formal process.
That’s the rub for Stephana Ferrell, co-founder and director of research and insight for the Florida Freedom to Read Project.
“The rest of the public has not been informed about these challenges and have not had the opportunity to speak up either in support or disagreement that the book should be removed, and that’s the most disappointing piece,” Ferrell said.
And Ferrell said pulling those five in that manner opens the floodgates, encouraging people to pressure for the same result for many more.
re: #70 Targetpractice
And has won a shit-ton of awards. Meanwhile, the new Avatar sequel that took over a decade and nearly $500m to produce managed only one Academy Award and only managed #3 on the list of highest grossing films after failing to eclipse a superhero movie.
I made it to where they wound up at the water kingdom and was basically “what the fuck is this?” And gave up on it. Now I did just watch the last John Wick and it was enjoyably bloody.
re: #90 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
From a previous article about the bogus book challenges, also in the Tallahassee Democrat:
That’s the BS they’ve been going with, that the books are not “banned” but “under review” where the “review” takes weeks or months. The books have been yanked from shelves, they’re unavailable to the public, and you can’t request them even if they remain available in the card catelogue. But they’re not officially “banned” so stop saying that because it hurts our feewings.
re: #60 Joe Bacon ✅
The process Anymouse describes is what Joseph Schumpeter referred to as the creative destruction component of market capitalism. The process is described in Schumpeter’s magnum opus Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy.
Schumpeter started out as a proponent of the Austrian School of Economics which is where Von Hayek and Von Mieses formulated their laissez-faire economic theories. Schumpeter became disillusioned with the Austrian School and went his own way. He believed that eventually greed and selfishness would run unchecked and a revolt of the dispossessed would eventually lead to a socialist society.
I am actually a fairly strong Schumpeterarian (?) especually with regards to long term business cycles, but I follow more one of his acolytes, Carlota Perez. Schumpeter disucussed long term cyles that occurred with new disruptive technologies that destroyed one set of markets as they created another. It was an evolutionary process of continuous innovation and ‘creative destruction.
Perez has catergorized 5 of these cycles of innovation and destruction sine the 1750. Each is driven by new technologies that allow easier access to scarce resources. Society must reorganize itself in order to take full advantage of these new economies. Or rather, the commmunities that learn how to reorganize proprly can take advanatge while those communities that refuse to change will die.
The early part of each era sees exponential growth funded by VCs until the buble bursts. Government moves from a laissez faire approach(because it does not understand the technology) to a more regulated one (as it gains understanding).
We are in the middle of just such a transition now. Those following the Milton Friedman, shareholders, Reaganomics approach simply cannot deal with the new economies effectively for very long. Those organizaitons follwing stakeholder, Bidenomics, underpinned perhaps by MMT, are begining to win. That is why we fight.
One point I diagree with Schumpeter is that capitalism would fail and socialism would reign. I think capitalism is too adaptable for it to be that easy. But I think it will be more tightly controlled. No more free market capitalism based on rent-seeking behavior. I think we will move more to a social democracy, where capitalism is used in the realm where it works best but is kept away from areas important to social stability, such as human healthcare It will be more complex market rather than a mixed market.
re: #82 silverdolphin
I am sure that is their dream. But compare the turnouts for so much of their claptrap production, like the Rock, Ryan Reynolds, Gal Gadot disappointment on Netflix, to the humongous box office of Barbenheimer. Both movies were not produced by studios but by production companies founded by the creative talent (Margot Robbie and her husband in Barbie and Chris Nolan and his wife in Oppenheimer). This is happening more and more. There really is little need, I believe, for the production studios of the past. Great movies can be produced by the creative talent. They do not need the huge production costs that studios use to line their pockets. NAd they are much more likely to blow a lot of their profits back into the company.
AI is not really going to give the studios anything novel and original, like Barbenheimer. IMHO. It can only regurgitate what it has been fed. There would not be a Barbie or an Oppenheimer with AI.
And, when dealing with real people, what advantage do the studios provide in comparison to creative-driven companies?
The phrase “Nothing new under the sun” comes to mind, as you had a lot of this same stuff happen in the 70s and 80s. Young actors and directors who’d made their names under the old studio system with smaller budget films were now demanding huge budgets for vanity projects while established actors/directors who’d already made names for themselves were starting up small production companies that made bank on smaller productions that did amazing in the box office because they weren’t carrying all the weight of Hollywood’s established budgets.
And it was good…for a time. And then the vanity projects started bombing and failing to make their budgets back, while the small production companies found themselves quickly dealing with the same problems of unable to pay the talent they’d attracted the money they demanded. The killer blow to the whole thing was the rise of new tech (i.e. VCRs) that meant people stopped rushing to the theaters when they could wait a few months to see the movies at home as often as they liked for a fraction of the price.
To borrow one of my favorite quotes: “All of this has happened before, and it will happen again.”
re: #69 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
Yikes. Another day at Reddit’s r/Atheism, another family disowns their child (and grandchildren) for his lack-of-faith and refusing to teach their religion to his kids without also teaching about other religions as well. Fortunately this child is an adult and not dependent on his parents any more.
That’s what the poster at Twitter was referring to when the president of Students for Life made her post about God being above Family.
That is an unfortunate and daily occurrence over at Reddit (which is part of the reason the subreddit exists). It isn’t some rare random thing in the USA. LGBT+ and atheist are the two most common reason parents throw away their children.
The r/Atheism FAQ cautions people that before “coming out of the closet” they must consider their financial resources. If they are a child, or an adult dependent on a religious person, the situation will get very bad very quickly. In that case it’s better to “go along to get along” (lie) until you are financially stable and away from home.
There used to be a lot of videos of Christian or Muslim parents destroying the property of atheist children or throwing them out of their homes, before YouTube banned them all as “hate speech against religions.”
Told my mom we were atheist and she lost it. In front of kids.
That also exists in the subreddit r/Epilepsy (children accused of demon possession or thrown away by parents or disowned). Interestingly, about 4% of people with epilepsy report religious experiences after a seizure.
Spirituality and religion in epilepsy (PubMed, January 2, 2008)
Abstract:
Revered in some cultures but persecuted by most others, epilepsy patients have, throughout history, been linked with the divine, demonic, and supernatural. Clinical observations during the past 150 years support an association between religious experiences during (ictal), after (postictal), and in between (interictal) seizures. In addition, epileptic seizures may increase, alter, or decrease religious experience especially in a small group of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Literature surveys have revealed that between .4% and 3.1% of partial epilepsy patients had ictal religious experiences; higher frequencies are found in systematic questionnaires versus spontaneous patient reports. Religious premonitory symptoms or auras were reported by 3.9% of epilepsy patients. Among patients with ictal religious experiences, there is a predominance of patients with right TLE.
(more of the abstract and study at the link)
TLE stands for Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (seizures arise in the temporal lobes). Fortunately for me, I have left TLE, so I don’t suffer religious experiences as an atheist. /s
re: #74 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
Wages and salaries: Taxed low but progressively higher the more you make.
Capital: Punitively taxed when it is not used to pay wages or salary or expand business or products. (Money sitting in investments making money.)
I absolutely agree. We had the best economies when marginal taxes were at their highers.Not surprisingly, it turns out the wealthy do other thinsg with their money when wages are taxed.
I’ve been intrigued by Modern Money Theory. One of the bad things from Friedman models is that adding too much money to the system is bad because it causes inflation. Thus why the government running deficits and thus printing lots of money is bad.
But we have seen that is not the case. MMT states that it is not how only how much money the government adds to the supply by printing more money, but also how rapidly it removes money from the system by taxation. Really, it is the acceleration of money through the system, being pushed by printing money and pulled by taxation, that is important.
Thus rich people are a drain because very little of their money moves through the system, There is little pull..
So we need government policies to get the wealthy to accelerate their money. Taxes are the best way.
re: #84 teleskiguy
This is my Mastodon post…
The first chapter in John Hersey’s 1946 essay published in The New Yorker entitled “Hiroshima” is called A Noiseless Flash.
During the Trinity Test sequence I uttered “A Noiseless Flash” right there in the theater.
Here’s John Hersey’s essay if you want to read it. It’s lengthy for an essay but I’ve read it in one sitting several times.
re: #93 silverdolphin
Thank you for that explanation.
You can learn a lot here at Mr. Johnson’s Home for the Sane (tm), even if you don’t know very much (cough me).
By the way, congratulations on achieving the random milestone of 6,604 karma points as of this post. I believe in the LGF Redemption Catalogue that will get you one pineapple chunk for your pizza.
COVID really upset the entire Hollywood applecart because it did two things that nobody really predicted: It accelerated the decay of the old theater-focused model while also demonstrating the importance of streaming in the future business model. Streaming has gone from a pipe dream to a niche product to an essential service in roughly a generation, going from something you used to watch old episodes of TV series that are no longer in syndication or available on physical media to a major distribution hub of new content and a means of bypassing the need to purchase a new appliance every few years. Hollywood’s trying to tap into that and is doing so in the usual ham-fisted way it approaches anything that threatens its monopoly. A rather fitting irony considering that it owes its existence to a protest movement that started in response to Thomas Edison trying to exercise total control over motion picture production back in the day.
re: #94 Targetpractice
The phrase “Nothing new under the sun” comes to mind, as you had a lot of this same stuff happen in the 70s and 80s. Young actors and directors who’d made their names under the old studio system with smaller budget films were now demanding huge budgets for vanity projects while established actors/directors who’d already made names for themselves were starting up small production companies that made bank on smaller productions that did amazing in the box office because they weren’t carrying all the weight of Hollywood’s established budgets.
And it was good…for a time. And then the vanity projects started bombing and failing to make their budgets back, while the small production companies found themselves quickly dealing with the same problems of unable to pay the talent they’d attracted the money they demanded. The killer blow to the whole thing was the rise of new tech (i.e. VCRs) that meant people stopped rushing to the theaters when they could wait a few months to see the movies at home as often as they liked for a fraction of the price.
To borrow one of my favorite quotes: “All of this has happened before, and it will happen again.”
I agree except that it happens at a higher floor than before. Like a spiral staircase, return to where we were but at a slightly more advanced level.
The difference this time is the more extensive distribution of new digital technologies in the industry. Anything that gets on Moore’s law gets cheaper. We are not finding it possible to do quite exciting things onl little money without the need to have a huge blockbuster to sustaion someone’s livelihood.
We are seeing music being disrupted by the ability of the artists to not only market their own works but book their own gigs. SImilarly, I think in movies we are moving away from blockbusters to fund the industry to more boutique productions. I look at Apple’s “Shot on an iPhone” series and think about how the Super 8 produced Steven Spielberg. What woulkd he have done with a complete cinematography studio in his hands?
re: #98 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
Thank you for that explanation.
You can learn a lot here at Mr. Johnson’s Home for the Sane (tm), even if you don’t know very much (cough me).
By the way, congratulations on achieving the random milestone of 6,604 karma points as of this post. I believe in the LGF Redemption Catalogue that will get you one pineapple chunk for your pizza.
OMG. Thanks. I had not even checked to celebrate getting over 6500. Thanks.
And for someone who does not know much, you have some wonderful opinions that create great discussions ;-)
re: #99 Targetpractice
COVID really upset the entire Hollywood applecart because it did two things that nobody really predicted: It accelerated the decay of the old theater-focused model while also demonstrating the importance of streaming in the future business model. Streaming has gone from a pipe dream to a niche product to an essential service in roughly a generation, going from something you used to watch old episodes of TV series that are no longer in syndication or available on physical media to a major distribution hub of new content and a means of bypassing the need to purchase a new appliance every few years. Hollywood’s trying to tap into that and is doing so in the usual ham-fisted way it approaches anything that threatens its monopoly. A rather fitting irony considering that it owes its existence to a protest movement that started in response to Thomas Edison trying to exercise total control over motion picture production back in the day.
What a great comment, connecting the modern industry to the original ‘sin.’ Let’s through one more interesting bump in the road approaching. Apple is apparently filming a lot of its content, such as the sports it is showing, in a format that works with its Vision Pro AV headset. This will do more than just create 3-D. and could overturn hiw we watch a live performance. You could watch a movie that appears to be on a 100 foot screen. Or completely surrounds you. Spatial computing will create an entirely new mode of watching content.
Massachusetts is being sued for involuntarily institutionalising people with epilepsy and other disabilities currently.
John Simmons, Mass. Senior Action Council, et al. v. Charles Baker (as Governor) et al (PDF, sixty-one pages, U.S. Dist. Ct. Mass. Civil Action No. 22-11715)
Specifically, the Republican governor and his Republican administration is being sued for violating the civil rights of people with epilepsy and other disorders, forcing them into segregated facilities which are a danger to their mental health and physical health (in the case of epilepsy).
Why the fuque did Massachusetts elect a Republican for Governor?
re: #101 silverdolphin
[clip]
And for someone who does not know much, you have some wonderful opinions that create great discussions ;-)
I’m especially good at creating flame wars.
re: #100 silverdolphin
I agree except that it happens at a higher floor than before. Like a spiral staircase, return to where we were but at a slightly more advanced level.
The difference this time is the more extensive distribution of new digital technologies in the industry. Anything that gets on Moore’s law gets cheaper. We are not finding it possible to do quite exciting things onl little money without the need to have a huge blockbuster to sustaion someone’s livelihood.
We are seeing music being disrupted by the ability of the artists to not only market their own works but book their own gigs. SImilarly, I think in movies we are moving away from blockbusters to fund the industry to more boutique productions. I look at Apple’s “Shot on an iPhone” series and think about how the Super 8 produced Steven Spielberg. What woulkd he have done with a complete cinematography studio in his hands?
Yet really, if you look at the progress of technology over the last century, things have continued the same trend of “smaller, cheaper, easier” as they have again and again. The iPhone is to the VHS camera as the VHS camera was to the Super 8 camera, shrinking the technology needed to record your film while also introducing better quality and easier ability to manipulate it. CGI productions that once took an entire room of mid-90s supercomputers operating in a meatlocker for a month now can be done in a day with a sufficiently powerful consumer-grade PC. The home recording studio has been replaced by a guy with a laptop and bluetooth headphones working in his college dorm. Video games are put together by a guy coding on his spare time at home rather than major studios forcing dozens of programmers to endure ungodly amounts of “crunch time.”
Basically entire industries built upon old business models are undergoing a collective crisis and they haven’t the first clue how to deal other than tightening the screws.
Have I got a story for you. It starts with a simple tip that someone has done a FOIA request for all 7 million voter signature cards in Georgia. I was able to get a screenshot of the request. It’s much more insane than I could have possibly thought and people need to know. pic.twitter.com/vOyIoG53hZ
— Fred Wellman (@FPWellman) July 23, 2023
So this guy wants the full legal name, address and signatures of 7 million Georgia voters. Is this one of the States that also wants part of the social security number as part of their ID?
This is a recipe for mass identity theft.
re: #6 Eclectic Cyborg
I just read that Dwayne Johnson is getting $50 million (the highest salary ever paid to any actor ever) for a direct to streaming holiday film called Red One.
That is insane. For comparison, Oppenheimers entire budget was $100 million.
It was a business decision that his name on the project was worth $50 million
re: #42 Captain Ron
The Ethicist | Is it OK to keep slaves if I help them develop skills?
Bible says it’s okay and doesn’t even mention the bit with the skills…
In extremely local news:
When my wife is tired early, she’s not interested in cooking. As such, she will ask me to make dinner. That means, since I know diddly about cooking (my job is washing dishes), we get a culinary masterpiece which reminds her I should be never anywhere near the kitchen except to wash up.
Tonight’s cordon bleu dinner was air fryer chicken nuggets and French fries.
I suspect tomorrow she’s going to fire me form cooking duty.
re: #71 Captain Ron
Ukraine takes down massive pro-russian bot farm -this time it’s about 150,000 SIM cards.
The bots were used to push Russian propaganda on social media justifying Russia war in Ukraine.
Fox news spin:
“Deep-State-funded Terrorists Stifle Conservative Free Speech!”
Oppenheimer is such a good film. I can’t understate it, the fucker is a triumph of cinema. I can’t stop thinking about it. Just an amazing film. See it in IMAX if you can.
re: #72 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
What libertarianism purports to do is remove those guardrails which “restrain” the captains of industry from achieving the heights of wealth and power. So what if a few thousand workers die in a preventable industrial accident which wouldn’t have happened if some safety measures were applied that would have cost the industrialist a few extra bucks?
Flowing water can power a mill or irrigate a field. Or it can wipe out the mill and the field. That is why we need to keep it channeled.
One key duty of government is to ensure that the true costs of a product are reflected in the price. The Libertarian/Capitalist model is to allow companies to pocket the profits and then socialize the ensuing follow-up costs downstream.
re: #95 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
Spirituality and religion in epilepsy
Primitive & Medieval Superstition in Modern Religion
Summary: It’s still prevalent and even gaining ground.
re: #106 Targetpractice
Yet really, if you look at the progress of technology over the last century, things have continued the same trend of “smaller, cheaper, easier” as they have again and again. The iPhone is to the VHS camera as the VHS camera was to the Super 8 camera, shrinking the technology needed to record your film while also introducing better quality and easier ability to manipulate it. CGI productions that once took an entire room of mid-90s supercomputers operating in a meatlocker for a month now can be done in a day with a sufficiently powerful consumer-grade PC. The home recording studio has been replaced by a guy with a laptop and bluetooth headphones working in his college dorm. Video games are put together by a guy coding on his spare time at home rather than major studios forcing dozens of programmers to endure ungodly amounts of “crunch time.”
Basically entire industries built upon old business models are undergoing a collective crisis and they haven’t the first clue how to deal other than tightening the screws.
To survive, a company needs to be resilient and adaptive, something hierarchy does very poorly. I use Apple as a possible model. Jobs fired all the executive VPs, etc and had flattened things by having something like 24 people report to him. Instead of departments based on products, they were organized around technologies, all geared to look at new technologies early.
Apple has ‘destroyed’ itself a few times now but while most companies ook to gain as much of the pie as possible, Apple usies technlogy to create whole new pies - iPods, iPads, iPhones, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Apple card. Yet, it still keeps a good size of the original pie _ Macs are the only PCs that have seen growth, for example.
Hierarchical companies simply cannot deal with the information flow needed. More distributed systems can That is why I think production studios in control of creative talent will be the future. are we going to see billion dollar movies every year? Likely no. but a lot of $10-50 million.
Watch this, entirely shot on an iPhone. It has all the cinematic flair of a cinematic movie.
And the making of:it shows many of the techniques.
Thinnk what a new, young Steven sSpielberg would do with this technology.
re: #110 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
In extremely local news:
When my wife is tired early, she’s not interested in cooking. As such, she will ask me to make dinner. That means, since I know diddly about cooking (my job is washing dishes), we get a culinary masterpiece which reminds her I should be never anywhere near the kitchen except to wash up.
Tonight’s cordon bleu dinner was air fryer chicken nuggets and French fries.
I suspect tomorrow she’s going to fire me form cooking duty.
The air fryer is the best kitchen appliance I’ve gotten. But I still have not gotten anywhere close to cooking at the level I was before COVID.
re: #114 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
(8:43)
Homeless woman removed from a shelter in Oceanside, California for being an atheist.[Embedded content]
Hypocrites who have no understanding of the teachings of the person they supposedly worship. He specifically told them what to do in order to get into Heaven. And they do NONE of things he said.
re: #113 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))
Flowing water can power a mill or irrigate a field. Or it can wipe out the mill and the field. That is why we need to keep it channeled.
One key duty of government is to ensure that the true costs of a product are reflected in the price. The Libertarian/Capitalist model is to allow companies to pocket the profits and then socialize the ensuing follow-up costs downstream.
Libertarians are why the Tragedy of the Commons exists. Well, at least theoretically. Because every successful commons has be heaviy regulated to prevent over use and rent-seeking bahavior of lib bros.
re: #118 silverdolphin
Hypocrites who have no understanding of the teachings of the person they supposedly worship. He specifically told them what to do in order to get into Heaven. And they do NONE of things he said.
She blames the California government (run by Democrats) for this situation. Democrats allow religious discrimination in every state they control.
Religious discrimination is allowed in every state run by Democrats.
The Denver Rescue Mission fired an employee over his sexuality, religion and disability, according to legal complaints (Denverite, July 10, 2023)
The Denver Anti-Discrimination Office has charged the Denver Rescue Mission for allegedly discriminating against former director Kyle Fischler over his sexuality, religious views and disability. His attorney, Laura Wolf, has filed an additional complaint with the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Office.
The Denver Rescue Mission, a nondenominational Christian nonprofit with more than $22 million in active multiyear homeless-services contracts with the City of Denver, agreed to follow Denver’s anti-discrimination laws to receive that money. But the charge and complaint state the nonprofit has violated the contracts and the law.
Fischler alleges he was technically fired for being late and missing work — the first of which he acknowledges and the second he claims was fabricated.
He alleges in the complaints that the real reason he lost his job is because the nonprofit discriminated against him based on his sexuality, religion and disability. He also says leadership at the Denver Rescue Mission created a hostile work environment and refused to provide accommodations for his mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, they triggered by grilling him over his sexuality and putting anti-gay policies into the employee handbook.
it has long been said that atheists are the largest group in the United States against which it is okay to discriminate. That remains true today.
I’m going to mosey off to bed. G’night.
Currently, it’s 68°F (20°Commie). Tomorrow is a different story, as the temperature will rise to 102°F (39°Commie). That seems like a good time to wash the linens and sheets and put them out on the clothesline.
re: #119 silverdolphin
Libertarians are why the Tragedy of the Commons exists. Well, at least theoretically. Because every successful commons has be heaviy regulated to prevent over use and rent-seeking bahavior of lib bros.
Libertarian ideologues of the ilk of the Vienna School view the Free Market as some mystical natural state of being that humanity must strive to achieve, a sort of economic ecotope in which Government Tampering is tantamount the Original Sin, setting us all on the Road to Serfdom.
Which is of course horseshit. The Market is a human institution that is supposed to function for the benefit of all, not just the investors.
re: #116 silverdolphin
To survive, a company needs to be resilient and adaptive, something hierarchy does very poorly. I use Apple as a possible model. Jobs fired all the executive VPs, etc and had flattened things by having something like 24 people report to him. Instead of departments based on products, they were organized around technologies, all geared to look at new technologies early.
Apple has ‘destroyed’ itself a few times now but while most companies ook to gain as much of the pie as possible, Apple usies technlogy to create whole new pies - iPods, iPads, iPhones, Apple Watch, Apple TV, Apple card. Yet, it still keeps a good size of the original pie _ Macs are the only PCs that have seen growth, for example.
Hierarchical companies simply cannot deal with the information flow needed. More distributed systems can That is why I think production studios in control of creative talent will be the future. are we going to see billion dollar movies every year? Likely no. but a lot of $10-50 million.
Watch this, entirely shot on an iPhone. It has all the cinematic flair of a cinematic movie.
[Embedded content]
Thinnk what a new, young Steven sSpielberg would do with this technology.
I could say that the counterpoint to Apple’s journey and really the proof that hierarchical companies have a hard time deal with rapid change is IBM. The IBM PC (aka the model 5150) wasn’t some groundbreaking monster that totally made everything before it obsolete but rather a crystallization of all the work being done in home computing at that time into a single product. What made it revolutionary was the ease of use and the wide range of programs that were compatible with it out of the box rather than needing to buy extra bits or tweaking things to make them play nice. It and the models that came after it so dominated the landscape that it was inevitable that smaller companies would first try to copy it (only to be pounded flat by IBM) and then figure out how to clone the BIOS in a totally legal fashion and build their own PCs that ran the same programs and used the same tech to compete.
So what did IBM do when it saw that the marketplace it had once dominated utterly was now flooded with competing smaller brands that were using the same versions of DOS as the latest IBM products? A smarter company might have tried the same step again, grabbing the latest technologies and trying to create a new brand that blew the competition away by offering compatibility while still leveraging IBM’s vast size and thus buying power to offer their new product at a competitive price. Instead, they decided the solution was to try to introduce a totally new (read: unstable) OS on a totally new architecture that was absolutely incompatible with anything on the market in a bid to force consumers to spend gobs more money on new products that were in no way compatible with anything else on the market. Predictably the whole thing bombed, their entire product line flatlined, and they were out of the market entirely by the end of the 90s.
Not that Apple avoided this at all, as the money guys who wanted reliable profits rather than breakneck innovation pushed Steve Jobs out and put in one of their own in a bid to try to copy efforts by their PC competitors to follow the old automaker strategy of offering products to different segments of the market and focus on trying to wring as much out of their own niche market (desktop publishing) as they could until the PC market caught up and then surpassed them by offering a competitive product with easier access. It wasn’t until they brought Jobs back from the wilderness where he’d been undercutting them by exploiting innovation to create computers that demanded the prices he sought that Apple again became the juggernaut that if had been in the 80s.
re: #116 silverdolphin
That movie was awesome. Couldn’t tell it was with a iphone.
re: #106 Targetpractice
Yet really, if you look at the progress of technology over the last century, things have continued the same trend of “smaller, cheaper, easier” as they have again and again. The iPhone is to the VHS camera as the VHS camera was to the Super 8 camera, shrinking the technology needed to record your film while also introducing better quality and easier ability to manipulate it. CGI productions that once took an entire room of mid-90s supercomputers operating in a meatlocker for a month now can be done in a day with a sufficiently powerful consumer-grade PC. The home recording studio has been replaced by a guy with a laptop and bluetooth headphones working in his college dorm. Video games are put together by a guy coding on his spare time at home rather than major studios forcing dozens of programmers to endure ungodly amounts of “crunch time.”
Basically entire industries built upon old business models are undergoing a collective crisis and they haven’t the first clue how to deal other than tightening the screws.
One of the briliant things Jobs did to insure the continuing success of Apple was to hire Joel_M._Podolny then dean of the Yale School of Management, with a research focus on the use of social networks to transfer informaton inside a company, to run Apple University. This was directed to understand why Apple worked the way it did and then teach that to new employees so the culture could continue.
He wrote and article for the Harvard Business Review called How Apple Is Organized for Innovation that should be required reading by anyone wishing to run a modern, resilient and adaptive organizaton.
At base, it is organized around function not products. There are no profit centers. Jobs only cared about Apple as a whole making a profit, not whether specific groups did. And each functional group is led by experts. He fired all the general managers in one day and reorganized Apple. Here is a nice graphic showing that.
It is run by experts not salemen. At most companies, sales takes over since it is easier to show profits. So you end up with non-specialists running specialties. The leaders at Apple are expected to know, in detail, what is going on 3 levels below them and one level above. It beleives in experts leading experts, feeling it is easier to teach experts management skills than managers expertise.
And they foster collaborative debate by diverse individuals. This is sometimes the hardest to convey but is critical for staying on top of the technological wave assaultng us all. No one person can know enough to make the wise decisions. But a collaborative group can.
Read the article. It help explains whyApple is doing so much better than others. Why Amazon will eventually fail and why Microsoft is doing better now than under Ballmer.
re: #125 451_Montag
That movie was awesome. Couldn’t tell it was with a iphone.
Steven Spielberg got started using a Super 8 camera as a kid. What would he have done with an iPhone?
re: #123 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))
Libertarian ideologues of the ilk of the Vienna School view the Free Market as some mystical natural state of being that humanity must strive to achieve, a sort of economic ecotope in which Government Tampering is tantamount the Original Sin, setting us all on the Road to Serfdom.
Which is of course horseshit. The Market is a human institution that is supposed to function for the benefit of all, not just the investors.
The economist I really follow, Carlota Perez, believes that truly disruptive technologies drive an S-shaped curve as they disperse throughout society. Early on, growth is exponential, and companies are driven by VC-driven economics with little governmental regulations (mainly because government does not really undertsnad them) this increases until a bubble forms, pops and necessitates governmental regulation.
The early part of the S-shaped curve, a Gilded Age, is horrible for society as the selfish desire for more money dominates. But the later part is usually an economic golden age as the technologys get dispersed more evenly throughout society.
The transition between the Gilded Age and the Golden Age is always traumatic.
By her count, this has happened 4 times since about 1790 and we ae in the middle of the 5th, with the curve just about turning to the Golden Age cycle.
With all the discussion of “creativity” being overtaken/overwhelmed by ‘AI’, all the (mostly decent) point about hoomons losing the battle to work in a word that is circulatory defined to be a human uniqe trait, here’s a look at the history (a recently coined term) of ‘creativity’ and how it has become such a firestorm.
Maybe we hoomons need to find a better outlet for our self-worth. And this is not saying let the computers take over, hoomons still are better at some things, but it’s it the end of we redefine worth?
The Cult of Creativity: A Surprisingly Recent History
Creativity is one of American society’s signature values. Schools claim to foster it, businesses say they thrive on it, and countless cities say it’s what makes them unique. But the idea that there is such a thing as “creativity”—and that it can be cultivated—is surprisingly recent, entering our everyday speech in the 1950s. As Samuel W. Franklin reveals, postwar Americans created creativity, through campaigns to define and harness the power of the individual to meet the demands of American capitalism and life under the Cold War. Creativity was championed by a cluster of professionals—psychologists, engineers, and advertising people—as a cure for the conformity and alienation they feared was stifling American ingenuity. It was touted as a force of individualism and the human spirit, a new middle-class aspiration that suited the needs of corporate America and the spirit of anticommunism.
Amid increasingly rigid systems, creativity took on an air of romance; it was a more democratic quality than genius, but more rarified than mere intelligence. The term eluded clear definition, allowing all sorts of people and institutions to claim it as a solution to their problems, from corporate dullness to urban decline. Today, when creativity is constantly sought after, quantified, and maximized, Franklin’s eye-opening history of the concept helps us to see what it really is, and whom it really serves.
re: #110 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
In extremely local news:
When my wife is tired early, she’s not interested in cooking. As such, she will ask me to make dinner. That means, since I know diddly about cooking (my job is washing dishes), we get a culinary masterpiece which reminds her I should be never anywhere near the kitchen except to wash up.
Tonight’s cordon bleu dinner was air fryer chicken nuggets and French fries.
I suspect tomorrow she’s going to fire me form cooking duty.
Which was your goal in the first place //
re: #118 silverdolphin
Hypocrites who have no understanding of the teachings of the person they supposedly worship. He specifically told them what to do in order to get into Heaven. And they do NONE of things he said.
They know better.
What he “really” meant
//
re: #129 silverdolphin
Early on, growth is exponential, and companies are driven by VC-driven economics with little governmental regulations (mainly because government does not really undertsnad them) this increases until a bubble forms, pops and necessitates governmental regulation.
I belonged to the first generation that taught environmental awareness in schools.
The counter-question was always, “What do you want? clear blue skies, pristine streams and green meadows or progress and prosperity?”
But thing is this: progress and prosperity also come with health costs that we tend to overlook because they often cannot be directly connected to the emissions of any one particular factory or industry, or if so, too late after the fact.
Which is what I meant about socilizing costs downstream.
re: #134 jeffreyw
Hate to be a downer, you posted the Chiron funny a few days ago.
re: #133 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))
I belonged to the first generation that taught environmental awareness in schools.
The counter-question was always, “What do you want? clear blue skies, pristine streams and green meadows or progress and prosperity?”
But thing es, this progress and prosperity also comes with health costs that we tend to overlook because they often cannot be directly connected to the emissions of any one particular factory or industry, or if so, too late after the fact.
Which is what I meant about socilizing costs downstream.
It’s the wrong question. Because it’s pre-loaded as an either/or.
“Can we effectively work towards clear blue skies, pristine streams and green meadows and progress and prosperity?”
re: #135 Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅
Hate to be a downer, you posted the Chiron funny a few days ago.
Isn’t it Chironic!
re: #136 Dangerman (sigh…only in America)
It’s the wrong question. Because it’s pre-loaded as an either/or.
“Can we effectively work towards clear blue skies, pristine streams and green meadows and progress and prosperity?”
That issue will remain as long as we continue to measure wealth in prosperity in terms of how many resources we consume, not the quality of life we create by using them.
But company’s profits are more related to how much they sell rather than what is done with their product.
re: #139 BigPapa
All the critics of Barbie movie are actually making the movie sound even more badass.
BS is is just another attention whore with nothing to really contribute except his vitriol and frustration about being irrelevant..
He knows that Barbie is the hot topic, therefore he is compelled to get in his comments in the hopes of being noticed and becoming relevant.
re: #141 lawhawk
All the critics of Barbie movie are actually making the movie sound even more badass.
It’s like the GQP spending all their time trying to make people hate Hunter Biden by screaming to the public that he did all sorts of drugs, fucked prostitutes by the bushel, and made millions scaring businessmen with his daddy’s reputation. Perhaps they’re trying to make men envy him for his big dick?
using a standard Unicode X as a logo means it can’t be copyrighted, which is objectively extremely funny pic.twitter.com/pkTfwYItWb
— Ian Coldwater 📦💥 (@IanColdwater) July 24, 2023
Musk fucked up Twitter’s IP. By picking a standard font as the X logo means they can’t copyright the logo (unlike the birdie).
What a fucking dumbass.
re: #135 Colère Tueur de Lapin ✅
Hate to be a downer, you posted the Chiron funny a few days ago.
I hate it when that happens.
re: #146 jeffreyw
Maybe it’s about time the US Chemical Safety Board did a Youtube video on that deathtrap factory run by Willy Wonka Enterprises.
re: #147 Nojay UK
Maybe it’s about time the US Chemical Safety Board did a Youtube video on that deathtrap factory run by Willy Wonka Enterprises.
The children are expendable. Plenty more where they came from. The chocolate is delicious!
Christian hate-preacher: Even if your husband’s an axe murderer, “you cannot divorce him”
Preacher Duncan Urbanek says divorce is always forbidden, no matter the situation
…in this Pulpit Pimp’s own words…
Urbanek is giving cover for continued spousal abuse. Happy marriages don’t end in divorce; if someone wants out of a serious relationship, she probably has a very good reason for doing so because why the hell else would she want to leave?
Urbanek and Christians like him don’t give a damn even in the most clear-cut situations. If you’re the victim of abuse, or your husband’s proximity is a threat to the lives of you and your children, it doesn’t matter. You said “I do” in the past and, for people like Urbanek, that’s an eternal contract sealed by God.
I’m not mad about this at all. pic.twitter.com/Fme52OtnOB
— Jay Arnold (@jayfarnold) July 24, 2023
Shall we check in at the latest incident involving a Los Angeles Sheriff Deputy?
Transgender man punched repeatedly by LA deputy during traffic stop
A newly released video shows a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy throwing a transgender man to the ground during a traffic stop.
Emmett Brock was driving home from his teaching job Feb. 10, 2023, when he saw a deputy “berating” a woman, so he flipped him off, and he said the law enforcement officer then started following him, and the LASD report shows the deputy pulled him over after spotting an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror, reported KTTV-TV.
“Hi, um, I’m being followed by a police car,” Brock told a 911 dispatcher, saying he felt uneasy that the deputy was following him.
Deputy Joseph Benza stopped him in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven, and surveillance video shows he used his cruiser to pin Brock’s vehicle into a spot and threw him to the ground within 20 seconds into their interaction and punched him in the head multiple times.
Benza placed Brock in his cruiser, and he was booked on charges of mayhem, causing serious injury to a deputy, resisting arrest and failing to obey a lawful order.
This deputy is a thin-skinned thug and what he did to this man on tape proves it,” Beck said.
Brock told jail employees he was a transgender man, and they demanded to examine his genitals before then placing him in a women’s detention cell, and he was fired from his job after the school was notified of his pending charges.
“I lost so much of myself that day in the parking lot,” Brock said said. “But I love what I do, and it is kind of how I define myself — and for that to be taken away? It felt like I had just lost everything.”
re: #150 Joe Bacon ✅
Christian hate-preacher: Even if your husband’s an axe murderer, “you cannot divorce him”
Preacher Duncan Urbanek says divorce is always forbidden, no matter the situation
…in this Pulpit Pimp’s own words…
[Embedded content]
Urbanek is giving cover for continued spousal abuse. Happy marriages don’t end in divorce; if someone wants out of a serious relationship, she probably has a very good reason for doing so because why the hell else would she want to leave?
Urbanek and Christians like him don’t give a damn even in the most clear-cut situations. If you’re the victim of abuse, or your husband’s proximity is a threat to the lives of you and your children, it doesn’t matter. You said “I do” in the past and, for people like Urbanek, that’s an eternal contract sealed by God.
She must honor her vows even when he doesn’t.
i’d be bummed if i bought a custom twitter suit and sneakers and six months later the company completely changed its brand identity and name pic.twitter.com/BP4j9GZ4YG
— derek guy (@dieworkwear) July 24, 2023
🚨🚨🚨Government Takeover Practice Run - Aug 4
Pay fucking attention, y’all ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Check out their plan ➡️ @COSProject @MarkMeckler pic.twitter.com/XL1imyWiAF— shelby (@thetrueshelby) July 23, 2023
Tried for all greenies. Alas.
RmF3K1gxK0NidnpmMXczVUZKV1ZQejBhQ3V2MlcxSyt3YWdTTTFvL3h3OGNhMU9UVEkxazNlTldrUlBqdDVMMEVKN0xHRnovUnBBaVFzWnUwVXBOYjY3WTgrT0VEYWdUc2V1WXNnMXU0M0pZK2liUitHNTJhbGl6c2VoZnpRc0dPWjNVVW5NcjFlNUN1eFd5OWwrOEUxYlRkcE1KOXR4K1A0VHUrb3FPejlFZFNlNlpzVUNYL3FQcy9xeFR6NytQOjpJwuQwPuRA+GMUlvM5ZWwX
re: #115 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))
Primitive & Medieval Superstition in Modern Religion
Summary: It’s still prevalent and even gaining ground.
After we got divorced, my ex-wife became a great believer in fundy supernaturalism, especially individually specific divine intervention. If someone she knew had a heart attack and survived, she would immediately start shouting hosannas and praising Jesus, except when it was me, in which case she blamed Satan. She eventually got bad enough about it that my brother, a Nazarene minister and kind of a fundy himself, publicly rebuked her for it. “Not everything is a miracle for your personal benefit, Jean.”
The GOP claims these fuckers are whistleblowers when they’ve failed to get the status of whistleblower through channels - they are nearly roundly rejected because they’re frauds and hacks. But they get noticed by the fascists as a means of advancing their agenda of destroying the administrative state.
People need to understand that Israel has no constitution. So no constitutional rights or democratic guardrails. Just a supreme court, which Netanyahu’s far-right govt just neutered in a legislative coup. It makes Israel’s prime minister a dictator in all but name.
— Max Fisher (@Max_Fisher) July 24, 2023
Bibi succeeded where Trump failed. The US has a Constitution and a “robust” judiciary that is independent precisely because of the Constitution.
Israel has no Constitution. It has the Basic Law, and Bibi’s enactment of “judiciary reform” essentially ended Israel’s judicial review of anything he does.
This is real bad.
Asshole calls into C-SPAN calling for a Civil War…
‘Get this civil war going’: C-SPAN caller urges violence because ‘Democrats suck’
During Monday’s Washington Journal program, a caller from Massachusetts named Bill claimed, “Democrats had the Supreme Court for 60 or 70 years, and everything went their way.”
“And everything was fine and dandy as long as it was liberalism,” he continued. “Now it’s only been, what, four or five, six years that it’s Republican.”
Bill argued that Democrats should focus on allegations that President Joe Biden “took 20-plus million dollars.” And he insisted Biden was a pedophile and a rapist.
“And we’re talking about the Supreme Court!” he added. “Oh, let’s get this civil war going. Democrats suck, bye-bye.”
re: #170 Thanos
From 538:
[Embedded content]
It’s becoming highly obvious that Ron’s just in to push that Overton window.
Welcome to X. Now this is how you do a rebranding: pic.twitter.com/yCiN4hywrx
— Fail Whale (@leederca) July 24, 2023
re: #162 Thanos
Odd map things:
The Kentucky Bend, because who knew which way that river would go?[Embedded content]
The Kentucky Bend… at New Madrid.
That is a name I have not heard in a … long time.
I remember being at work when a co-worker announced he was taking a job at a company trying to revive the Excelsior-Henderson motorcycle (1997? or so). Said he was going to work on “Big X”. Early stages of internet but we all wanted to know more about the company, so a bunch of engineers gathered around a screen and did a search for “Excelsior-Henderson”. Not much in the results for the new company.
Then somebody suggested searching “Big X”. Whoo boy, the pop-ups……
So twitter videos are now Xvideos? 😭#TwitterX pic.twitter.com/b7NZ86prSj
— SudarshaN 🇮🇳 (@ImSudarshan67) July 24, 2023
Alabama Anti-Abortion Leader Indicted on Child Sexual Abuse Charges https://t.co/WgInRwfA2P pic.twitter.com/Ya3NOM7mTq
— Jezebel (@Jezebel) July 24, 2023
Not a transgender.
re: #174 dat_said
Excelsior-Henderson stopped building motorcycles in the Great Depression but was revived in the early 1990s by Dan Hanlon. The new Excelsior-Henderson spent millions of dollars building a huge plant in Minnesota (and got millions in government incentives) but produced fewer than 2,000 motorcycles before going out of business.
Must have been mid-90’s, not ‘97 like I was guessing.
When I first started calling @RonDeSantis a fascist, I got blowback from folks in both parties. Now, he’s being so overt about it that people are coming around. Calling DeSantis a fascist isn’t hyperbole, it’s defining what he is.
This is a Nazi symbol. 👇🏾 https://t.co/HgkXyf1Ovo— Maxwell Alejandro Frost (@MaxwellFrostFL) July 23, 2023
Yeah, we’ve been on to DeSantis (and the rest of the GOP for years now). He’s always been a fascist, and now he’s letting his Nazi beliefs come out.
Besides, you don’t get these kinds of visuals made without those involved knowing precisely what they’re cribbing from. They too are goddamned white nationalist fascists too. Just like DeSantis.
Can any law enforcement explain to me what’s wrong with feeding the homeless? Cause I’m pretty sure they’d like to be fed if they were homeless as well. https://t.co/sIMhED6Fw7
— Ricky Barksdale (@RickyBarksdale) July 24, 2023
This isn’t the birthplace of Escher, but it should get at least an honorary mention.
re: #178 lawhawk
[Embedded content]
Yeah, we’ve been on to DeSantis (and the rest of the GOP for years now). He’s always been a fascist, and now he’s letting his Nazi beliefs come out.
Besides, you don’t get these kinds of visuals made without those involved knowing precisely what they’re cribbing from. They too are goddamned white nationalist fascists too. Just like DeSantis.
He’s going to claim that it was a “random staffer” and that it “doesn’t represent his campaign,” but let’s be honest here: This was a trial balloon. A fucking Nazi put this together for him, he approved it, and he didn’t care whether it had Nazi imagery in it or not. Whether he explicitly knew or not is beside the point: If he didn’t knowingly approve of putting out Nazi imagery, he was indifferent to whether or not there was such in the ad. Either way, he was checking to see if people cared or not, so now he’s going to disavow everything and tell his staffers not to be so obvious about it next time.
re: #180 🐈 Crush White Nationalism 🐈
I wonder if it has something to do with how difficult it is to gauge the depth of the sill, stool, and and that the traditional design allows for more widespread use because it doesn’t need to account for any of those; just the channel.
re: #183 lawhawk
I wonder if it has something to do with how difficult it is to gauge the depth of the sill, stool, and and that the traditional design allows for more widespread use because it doesn’t need to account for any of those; just the channel.
There’s also going to be a bit of a Bernoulli effect through the middle of that design, whereas a traditional design is simple straightforward air flow.
re: #128 Nerdy Fish
That was… interesting.
[Embedded content]
Looks a bit like mine.
WFJLczlQOXlYMENQdjZRODhENE5sVzVaSHIveCtiM0pISTA3a3VsRzAyb0loRGE4eEFaalFDS0twUVVVMy96alVhRWJlZExCZE5qMUJ1c1RWQkJiR1QxUnBEbFZkN3liZFhVZ29BVXVkNklQbTNKdFRod2k0cUtPWk42b3dxNGdsVmRaWTFXT3FUU1c4UWRla0VuRldRPT06Otg83gNyRUKzwwrokc8/4G4=
re: #180 🐈 Crush White Nationalism 🐈
I wonder why window AC units haven’t been like this for a long time. It can’t be bumped and fall out killing someone below, and you keep your view out the window.
[Embedded content]
One guess: the traditional “box” design is a lot simpler to manufacture?
re: #128 Nerdy Fish
That was… interesting.
[Embedded content]
par for me too.
Wordle 765 4/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Of the 3 who reported this morning: 4,4,5
re: #178 lawhawk
sOcIaLsZm Iz FaSciZm. Hitler wUz a FuKiN kOmIiE
Calm the heck down you dumb fucking sasquatch. Could somebody throw a raw steak at this thing? pic.twitter.com/RjXAnFzlHg
— Lame Nissan™ (@theliamnissan) July 23, 2023
re: #128 Nerdy Fish
That was… interesting.
[Embedded content]
4/6 here also
Wordle 765 4/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟨🟩⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
re: #191 Dave In Austin
[Embedded content]
How’s that “peaceable” National Divorce working out for ya?
re: #191 Dave In Austin
These fuckers really do want a massive bloodletting, and they think that they’ll be on the winning side for a change.
They lost the last war. They’ll lose this one too.
re: #191 Dave In Austin
[Embedded content]
What we need is for the enemies of America to be expelled from Congress, but a whole party has been exploited to wreck the nation.
re: #191 Dave In Austin
[Embedded content]
She’s trying to do Civil War II as a cold war. It’s already hot.
re: #194 lawhawk
These fuckers really do want a massive bloodletting, and they think that they’ll be on the winning side for a change.
They lost the last war. They’ll lose this one too.
And none of them recognize that their families and lived ones will suffer and die, too. They seem to think that way it’s fun and tidy and that everything will be fine and candy afterwords. I know a whole bunch of the right-whingers are looking to kill, but fuck them.
The heartening thing to me is that calls for a civil war are the last gasp of the truly desperate. For a long time, I believed that these idiots were winning the culture war. They’re still dangerous; they still have way too much power in the national discourse. If we let them have anything more than what they have right now, they will ruin us. But we’re winning, because they’re scared. They going straight to, “We have to kill them all,” as their nuclear option. And that’s fine; that will resonate with a few of the die-hard fanatics, but I can tell you that people like my mom aren’t going to sign up to get steamrolled by the Federal army over their right to be bigots. If they try anything, they will find out how deluded they have become right quick, and then we can put an end to all this fascist bulkshit and set about with the work of progress again.
This is the way
— N (@Nicholas2133) July 24, 2023
re: #156 Dangerman (sigh…only in America)
She must honor her vows even when he doesn’t.
According to Urbanek, the marriage contract is forever (or until death) but he said it was ok to leave and move to the opposite side of the world. You have to stay married but you don’t have to continue living with him.
So what are Tweets called now? Xcretes?
re: #184 Nerdy Fish
There’s also going to be a bit of a Bernoulli effect through the middle of that design, whereas a traditional design is simple straightforward air flow.
There isn’t airflow from the front to the back of an AC unit. There are coolant pipes and wire. Putting those in a narrow channel shouldn’t make a difference.
Lawhawk may be on to something with the design not fitting as universally as a regular window unit.
This $2 billion payout for Jared Kushner sure looks like a kickback for the $110 billion arms deal Kushner orchestrated from the White House.@TheJusticeDept needs to investigate NOW.https://t.co/I5xbJMbcoG
— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) July 23, 2023
“Kushner shocked a high-level Saudi delegation earlier this month when he personally called Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson and asked if she would cut the price of a sophisticated missile detection system.”
Hello @TheJusticeDept: Who got the kickback? https://t.co/8ci6rWDlF6— Richard W. Painter (@RWPUSA) July 23, 2023
re: #180 🐈 Crush White Nationalism 🐈
I bought a Frigidaire AC that was of that design in 1992. Thought it was clever at the time. It must not have been popular since this is the first time I’ve seen the style in30 years.
being wealthy “tends to go hand in hand with being a morally better culture and one that ought therefore to prevail.”
What the actual fuck is this fucking shit?
Always suspected Republicans were cowards.
If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy - David Frum— Shawn Carter (@ShawnCa01449636) July 22, 2023
I managed a par. Didn’t think I would.
TkVPZ3dXQURGd3E4ZDdGUEFzVVN2c1NEZk9kTjB6MlRycUhnS3hReHJldFlIQmx2dDB4Nm1lbWhnLy9ud2hiVGlIdkdKZXpnRlZiVm1YTHBSdHJ6S1plaUphTG9lMndjM1VwS2p6b1hQN1lJWW1TTUgvWWRTbS8xR2cyS2g5NUNlbmNQbGpKVG8rRDZNUTdvSzBta05RPT06OkVk4rr07RXcnOqNYKN53NE=
re: #150 Joe Bacon ✅
If you are a Biblical Patriarch, then your wife is your property and has no right to leave.
re: #170 Thanos
From 538:
If Trump runs for nomination he wins, hands down, and will have things locked up long before the Convention.
re: #202 Hecuba’s daughter
According to Urbanek, the marriage contract is forever (or until death) but he said it was ok to leave and move to the opposite side of the world. You have to stay married but you don’t have to continue living with him.
And then (according to him) live a chaste life with no partner. I can’t tell if you’re trying to defend him or trolling?
re: #209 Captain Ron
[Embedded content]
That statement from the governor tells me that the Republican majority in their state house did this 100% intentionally. They are going full-on, “Chief Justice Roberts has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.” on us.
re: #171 Thanos
It’s becoming highly obvious that Ron’s just in to push that Overton window.
Not sure it will be effective. Trump gives zero shits about anything. And he’d appoint the same lackeys as policy makers in the WH who were already extreme right wing.
re: #176 DodgerFan1988
[Embedded content]
Not a transgender.
Can’t have people getting abortions. Where would he get his girlfriends/boyfriends in 8 - 10 years time?
re: #207 Oblongatis
I bought a Frigidaire AC that was of that design in 1992. Thought it was clever at the time. It must not have been popular since this is the first time I’ve seen the style in30 years.
I’ve seen one that was U-shaped, that fit onto the window, not the sill.
re: #206 I Would Prefer Not To
[Embedded content]
LOL I actually have that Hallmark Christmas ornament. Went in to buy cards one year and the shit was so fucked up I couldn’t resist.
Good afternoon Lizards. Hope you are all well.
With all the Barbenheimer stuff going on I am really surprised I haven’t seen a Barbie/Oppenheimer mashup with one of the Barbie Dolls. There are people out there who do some seriously wild Barbie doll creations. A fedora and a 40’s cut suit and she is there!
Pooping pic.twitter.com/VvmL5O7TKl
— TravisBlues (@Travisblues01) July 24, 2023
re: #209 Captain Ron
[Embedded content]
✍️: I have signed SB5, the redistricting map. View my full statement below. ⬇️ #alpolitics pic.twitter.com/tevS8kQJYU
— Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) July 21, 2023
“Activist groups” ie the supreme court
re: #225 Dangerman (sigh…only in America)
“Activist groups” ie the supreme court
No, I think they’re thinking of the people who sued them to get the maps overturned, i.e. their own constituents who live in their state with them.
It is a shame that 100% of @haaretzprint is behind a paywall (they should allow subscribers to “gift” a limited number of articles to non subscribers) but the title and subtitle of the article say it all. The article body is mind blowing pic.twitter.com/YtVaJXggHa
— Adam & Solomon (@AdamSolLove) July 24, 2023
re: #226 Nerdy Fish
Basically, the governor’s statement says, “We, the Republican Party, know better than anybody how to take care of our state, and how dare anyone, even the people we claim to serve, claim differently.”
People have been saying for years they’re tired of going to separate sites to do their banking and to post racial slurs.
Only Elon listened. https://t.co/YdaClOXgoO— Devin Nunes’ Alt-Mom (@NunesAlt) July 24, 2023
re: #208 Eclectic Cyborg
What the actual fuck is this fucking shit?
Just garden variety white supremacism.
Good to know Supreme Court rulings are optional.
re: #208 Eclectic Cyborg
being wealthy “tends to go hand in hand with being a morally better culture and one that ought therefore to prevail.”
Calvinism: wealth as an outward sign of inner grace.
Not nearly as unserious as a book called “Liberal Fascism”
— gocart mozart (@EdMix13) July 24, 2023
re: #231 GlutenFreeJesus
Good to know Supreme Court rulings are optional.
President Biden: “Following the State of Alabama’s example in rejecting a Supreme Court ruling they personally don’t agree with, my Administration is declaring the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs as null and void. The Department of Justice is directed to begin the process of filing lawsuits against states that have enacted abortion bans. Have a nice day, motherfuckers.”
re: #231 GlutenFreeJesus
Good to know Supreme Court rulings are optional.
Which theyd have been leaning on heavily if it went their way
re: #229 Captain Ron
I totally want my banking apps to be built on the fail fast paradigm.
re: #234 gocart mozart
Aren’t you the absurd propagandist that projected fascism onto the Americans who believe in democracy and rule of law, while carrying water for the fascist Republican party? That’s part of what made the American-right so delusional.
— Jeff Flanagan (@JeffMFlanagan) July 24, 2023
re: #233 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))
Calvinism: wealth as an outward sign of inner grace.
Some lucky few are born into daddy’s money.
The rest of us have no chance
re: #235 Nerdy Fish
Apparently Texas too
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) “will not be ordering floating barriers to be removed from the Rio Grande, in defiance of the U.S. Department of Justice,” CNN reports.
Said Abbott: “Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused… Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.”
re: #240 Dangerman (sigh…only in America)
“Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority”
That would be none whatsoever, as the Constitution does not empower you, a state Governor, to interfere in the international affairs of the federal government.
re: #239 Dangerman (sigh…only in America)
Some lucky few are born into daddy’s money.
The rest of us have no chance
That is not luck, that is God’s Will. He hath in His Wisdom placed these people over us to govern us in His Name
re: #240 Dangerman (sigh…only in America)
Would Biden be within his authority to send the National Guard down there to dismantle them?
re: #243 Eclectic Cyborg
Would Biden be within his authority to send the National Guard down there to dismantle them?
Corps of engineers id guess
— TravisBlues (@Travisblues01) July 24, 2023
re: #247 Dave In Austin
I’m guessing Musk just went ahead and did all this WITHOUT talking to his lawyers first.
There’s a reason most rebranding processes don’t happen over a weekend.
re: #248 Eclectic Cyborg
I’m guessing Musk just went ahead and did all this WITHOUT talking to his lawyers first.
There’s a reason most rebranding processes don’t happen over a weekend.
The best part is when he goes to shut down twitter.com as a domain and literally millions of links break.
re: #248 Eclectic Cyborg
I’m guessing Musk just went ahead and did all this WITHOUT talking to his lawyers first.
There’s a reason most rebranding processes don’t happen over a weekend.
Of course he did. And were I a betting man, when one of his lawyers told him, “Uh…are you sure about this?” he answered back with 💩
re: #248 Eclectic Cyborg
I’m guessing Musk just went ahead and did all this WITHOUT talking to his lawyers first.
There’s a reason most rebranding processes don’t happen over a weekend.
Why talk to lawyers when you can do some Ketamine and follow wherever it leads you?
How is a terrible businessman the most wealthy man in the world?
re: #231 GlutenFreeJesus
Good to know Supreme Court rulings are optional.
Only those that protect minorities and women. Anything protecting the wealthy, white Republicans are totally mandatory.
Welcome to the return of the Jim Crow South.
re: #218 gwangung
It was a neat design. The half hanging in the house was only the air intake and output with the control panel. All the moving parts were outside making it very quiet.
“That [was the] first time in the history of the DHS that it had a real-life preparation for a potential nuclear strike.”
Ex-Trump official, now Trump critic & author, @MilesTaylorUSA, reveals how close we came to nuclear war with North Korea under Trump:pic.twitter.com/T1FVjouSxW— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) July 24, 2023
One can only hope. She has some national recognition. Now all she needs is cash.
BREAKING: Gloria Johnson, one of the three Tennessee lawmakers who was rebuked for protesting gun violence in the state’s Capitol following a school shooting in Nashville that killed six people, is running against Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn in 2024. pic.twitter.com/N9hWylpeot
— PoliticsVerse 🇺🇸 (@PoliticsVerse_) July 24, 2023
re: #243 Eclectic Cyborg
Would Biden be within his authority to send the National Guard down there to dismantle them?
Fuck worrying about authority. That worthless fuck gov doesn’t have the authority to do that at our border(s). Just fucking do it, just like that shitstain did without asking or getting permission.
re: #256 Eclectic Cyborg
But I thought Trump and KJU were best bros?
/
What’s a little Armageddon between freinds?
re: #234 gocart mozart
[Embedded content]
Except surrender wasn’t coming. FFS, the government was still arguing with itself after Nagasaki was bombed 3 days after Hiroshima. Hirohito had to break traditional separation of the imperial court having no authority in military decisions to order a stand-down and accept the Potsdam Declaration. And even then there was an attempted coup to prevent this that included taking the imperial family under military arrest! If they’d intended to surrender, they had almost 3 days to do so. Instead, their first instinct was to ask the Soviets to oversee negotiations only to get told by Molotov that their nations would officially be at war the very next day! Anybody who tells you that the Japanese were about to surrender and Nagasaki was bombed because “we already had the bomb” are lying out their asses!
re: #261 Targetpractice
Any physical invasion of Japan would have looked like Vietnam on steroids, with no clear distinction between civilians and combattants.
re: #220 goddamnedfrank
LOL I actually have that Hallmark Christmas ornament. Went in to buy cards one year and the shit was so fucked up I couldn’t resist.
[Embedded content]
I don’t see how you could possibly let that go. There’s kitsch and then there’s this.
re: #103 Anymouse 🌹🏡😷
Massachusetts is being sued for involuntarily institutionalising people with epilepsy and other disabilities currently.
John Simmons, Mass. Senior Action Council, et al. v. Charles Baker (as Governor) et al (PDF, sixty-one pages, U.S. Dist. Ct. Mass. Civil Action No. 22-11715)
Specifically, the Republican governor and his Republican administration is being sued for violating the civil rights of people with epilepsy and other disorders, forcing them into segregated facilities which are a danger to their mental health and physical health (in the case of epilepsy).
Why the fuque did Massachusetts elect a Republican for Governor?
Magical balance. So-called “independents”, sacred be thy name.
re: #238 🐈 Crush White Nationalism 🐈
Well, while mocking and snarking on Jonah Goldberg is almost always a justified and useful endeavor, he does have a point here. If Nikole Hannah-Jones does believe that the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan “…when they knew surrender was coming”, she is (IMHO) adopting a (to say the least) dubious proposition. Yeah, I know she’s probably just taking the usual *radical* view that anything accepted as “official” or even just “accepted” history is ipso facto wrong/biased/propaganda, but in this case, the relative likelihood of Imperial Japan’s willingness to “surrender” prior to August 1945 is a pretty-well-documented issue. With the general odds in favor (“official” version or no) being rated, at the time, as near-zero.
How to help a starving comedian for only 22 cents a day!
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
re: #266 Jay C
Well, while mocking and snarking on Jonah Goldberg is almost always a justified and useful endeavor, he does have a point here. If Nikole Hannah-Jones does believe that the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan “…when they knew surrender was coming”, she is (IMHO) adopting a (to say the least) dubious proposition. Yeah, I know she’s probably just taking the usual *radical* view that anything accepted as “official” or even just “accepted” history is ipso facto wrong/biased/propaganda, but in this case, the relative likelihood of Imperial Japan’s willingness to “surrender” prior to August 1945 is a pretty-well-documented issue. With the general odds in favor (“official” version or no) being rated, at the time, as near-zero.
He’s just not in a position to criticize anyone, ever.
Yes
Slowly we will assimilate them.
bsky.app
‘of the day’ in some other sense…there are more.
*Snort*
The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump Hardcover - Illustrated, November 5, 2019
What if there’s a hidden dimension to Donald Trump; a sensitive, poetic side? Driven by this question, Rob Sears began combing Trump’s words for signs of poetry.
What he found was a revelation. By simply taking the 45th President of the United States’ tweets and transcripts, cutting them up and reordering them, Sears unearthed a trove of beautiful verse that was just waiting to be discovered. (emphasis added)
Needless to say, the same process could pull Shakespearean sonnets from the output of the proverbial ten thousand monkeys banging on keyboards.
re: #261 Targetpractice
Except surrender wasn’t coming. FFS, the government was still arguing with itself after Nagasaki was bombed 3 days after Hiroshima. Hirohito had to break traditional separation of the imperial court having no authority in military decisions to order a stand-down and accept the Potsdam Declaration. And even then there was an attempted coup to prevent this that included taking the imperial family under military arrest! If they’d intended to surrender, they had almost 3 days to do so. Instead, their first instinct was to ask the Soviets to oversee negotiations only to get told by Molotov that their nations would officially be at war the very next day! Anybody who tells you that the Japanese were about to surrender and Nagasaki was bombed because “we already had the bomb” are lying out their asses!
Yes, we needed the Soviets to hold Manchuria (and I think we seriously overestimated the strength of the Japanese military there—they had long since sent most able soldiers to SE Asia leaving raw recruits in their place). Historians general do not like monocausal explanations, so while the cost and effort of the Manhattan Project as an explanation for the bombings was likely a factor, it was probably nowhere near most important. And, in addition to the important points you bring up, there really wasn’t great understanding in Tokyo about what had happened in Hiroshima and little better of Nagasaki; considering the firebombings of Osaka, Tokyo and nearly every other city, the hardliners who wanted to keep going didn’t quite comprehend how the a-bombs could be worse.
re: #191 Dave In Austin
“You’re on, Marjorie!”
re: #266 Jay C
Well, while mocking and snarking on Jonah Goldberg is almost always a justified and useful endeavor, he does have a point here. If Nikole Hannah-Jones does believe that the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan “…when they knew surrender was coming”, she is (IMHO) adopting a (to say the least) dubious proposition. Yeah, I know she’s probably just taking the usual *radical* view that anything accepted as “official” or even just “accepted” history is ipso facto wrong/biased/propaganda, but in this case, the relative likelihood of Imperial Japan’s willingness to “surrender” prior to August 1945 is a pretty-well-documented issue. With the general odds in favor (“official” version or no) being rated, at the time, as near-zero.
The mild variation of this you also see is that the Allies (especially FDR) were at fault due to the “unconditional surrender” declaration earlier in the war. Therefore the Japanese were convinced that they had to fight to the last ditch since the Allies *under no circumstances* would ever consider easing said demand. (Extreme sarcasm in the last half of the last sentence.)
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