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1 month Ago

Your friendly neighborhood newsreader #1

Published by marco on

I was sent this article by my vast network of correspondents: Chicago gangs clash with Venezuelan Tren de Aragua members: ‘Blacks against migrants’ by Michael Lee (FOX News).

Let’s do some fun and quick and pretty easy analysis here.

The title slug is pretty provocative: “GANGS CLASH”.

Did they, though? Clash?

Let’s see what the article has to say! They spent time writing it, so let’s do them the honor of reading it.

Don’t worry, we don’t have to read far.

The very first paragraph writes,

“Venezuelan migrants... [More]”

3 months Ago

Checking in on James Howard Kunstler

Published by marco on

The article Bang-and-Whimper by James Howard Kunstler (Clusterfuck Nation) from a few months ago outlined the mindless and morally unhinged argument promulgated by people all across the political spectrum in the U.S. and Europe.

“The Woke-Marxist college kids are wailing over the actions of Israel in Gaza — as they will for anyone within their dumb-ass equation of victims-and-oppressors, especially involving brown and white people. It is a brutal operation in Gaza, for sure, but so was the Hamas act-of-war on October 7 that many want to... [More]

10 months Ago

Greenfield’s final post of 2023

Published by marco on

I’ve written about the author a few times because of the extremely sharp turn he took on October 7th, 2023. See Losing the plot completely on November 1, 2023, Some commentators are still MIA on November 6, 2023, Moar unhinged commentary on November 23, 2023, and Strawman battles: rape is never OK! on December 30, 2023. Just in case you think I’m picking on him, here’s part of his last post of 2023 Inflection Point 2023 by Scott H. Greenfield (Simple Justice).

“[…] the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7th and its ensuing war in Gaza has bubbled up the fundamental differences between a liberal democratic nation... [More]

Best of This is Hell! 2023

Published by marco on

 I’ve listened to This is Hell! for at least 20 years. When I worked in Chicago a few times for a client, I tried to get up to Evanston to the bar—Cary’s Lounge—under what is now the studio, but was never able to meet Chuck.

I haven’t listened to it as religiously this year as other years, but started walking with podcasts a lot more this winter and stumbled on the “best of 2023” series they’ve got going. It’s awesome! Their listeners chose really, really good interviews! They cover all of... [More]

11 months Ago

English. Do you speak it?

Published by marco on

For what felt like the millionth time, I angrily muttered “were” under my breath, as I read someone use “was” for what was clearly a subjunctive intent. Always willing to improve, I looked the damned thing up, to see whether I was shouting into the wind, as I do on so many other topics.

The article Getting in the (Subjunctive) Mood (Merriam Webster) explains quite well what the subjunctive mood is and how to formulate it. But, it does so in a nearly wholly capitulatory fashion to descriptivism over... [More]

1 year Ago

Conspiracy theorist accuses conspiracy...eorist of being a conspiracy theorist

Published by marco on

The article The Russel Brand Conspiracy by Tony McKenna (CounterPunch) writes the following about the allegations against Russell Brand,

“The allegations made against him by the Panorama program seem highly credible. They range from sexual harassment to rape. One victim alleged that Brand raped her against a wall of his house. This allegation pertains to 2012. The evidence to support the allegation consists of a text message she sent him telling him following the assault just how frightened she’d been, that ‘no means... [More]”

Fixing a crash blossom

Published by marco on

I recently read the headline Vacuum suction-mounted wireless TV zip lines off faulty walls to safety by Scharon Harding (Ars Technica). What an incredible crash blossom. The author used one hyphen but more punctuation would have been better.

How about:

Original
Vacuum suction-mounted wireless TV zip lines off faulty walls to safety
Add punctuation
Vacuum-suction-mounted, wireless TV zip-lines off faulty walls to safety.
Remove redundancy
Vacuum-Suction-mounted, wireless TV zip-lines off faulty walls to safety.
Restore phrase... [More]

We’ve been here before

Published by marco on

The interview The Great Reorganization of Sexuality and Gender by Hugh Ryan (This is Hell!) is quite an interesting discussion, which ranged over some absolutely terrible characterizations of what the concerns of so-called right-wingers are, as well as seemingly obstinately refusing to acknowledge the modern-day use of the word snowflake, instead clinging to a 19th-century definition, as well as completely misdefining the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and misusing “strawman argument” for good measure. Then he uses the phrase... [More]

Robert Edward Grant: King of Gobbledygook

Published by marco on

A good friend of mine sent the following video to me, telling me “just lean back, relax, and let it flow over you.” Excellent advice, my friend.

Robert Edward Grant: NEW EVIDENCE! Mysterious Inscriptions & Encodings INSIDE the Pyramids! by Next Level Soul Podcast (YouTube)

The following are some notes and comments I sent to him as I was watching it.

(A) Um, OK. Some interesting stuff, but WHOA. (B) You’re right; just let it flow over you. (C) Terrified that this is how I sound to other people.

“The Great Pyramid is 11/7, which is the base to the height. So 117 and 11.7 squared is 137 and that’s the number of times the... [More]”

Google’s trying too hard to be cool

Published by marco on

I had the following video in my queue recently,

Why is it overflowing? by Google Chrome Developers: Una Kravets & Adam Argyle (YouTube)

The following is not a comment on the usefulness of the information in these videos, but on the presentation, which I found so distracting as to make me stop watching. If the poster for it has changed, then here’s what it used to look like.

I dunno, it’s just too many colors and too much extra content and … too much stuff before I get to find out the answer to the question posed in the title.

The backgrounds of Una and Adam’s offices look... [More]

2 years Ago

Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Semis 2 and Finals

Published by marco on

I watched the first round of the semifinals but didn’t take notes. I was inspired to take notes for the second semifinals. It was a dumpster fire.

The legend

  • 👎 = Go Home
  • 🫳 = Could be identified as music
  • 👍 = Grudgingly granted to a couple of bands

Second semifinals

There were 16 contestants, but I’ve only reviewed fifteen below. Sue me.

Denmark 🇩🇰
Jesus fucking Christ go home. What was that? A 13-year-old waif with a stupid voice; just him on stage. Denmark is embarrassing... [More]

Everybody will be a porn actor

Published by marco on

The article Found through Google, bought with Visa and Mastercard: Inside the deepfake porn economy by Kat Tenbarge (NBC News) described something I’d been only vaguely aware of.

“Most deepfake videos are of female celebrities, but creators now also offer to make videos of anyone. A creator offered on Discord to make a 5-minute deepfake of a “personal girl,” meaning anyone with fewer than 2 million Instagram followers, for $65.”

Customized porn of anyone is novel to me. I’d never read it hypothesized in any of the... [More]

Paint everyone equally or stop painting

Published by marco on

Why This Art Is In Every Hair Salon by Nerdwriter (YouTube)

Near the end, he shows a matrix of Nagel’s artwork, showing 25 skinny white women and then says

“They give the impression of real people—chic, fashionable, independent people—but still leave enough space for you to place yourself in them. For salons, Nagel-women served as aspirational images, though it has to be said that these women, all being of one complexion, it’s likely they were only aspirational for a certain segment of the population. This speaks to the warped priorities of 1980s... [More]

Living in Switzerland be like…

Published by marco on

Would you like to buy a used Mercedes with 558HP for only CHF130K?

This car was sitting on a tiny, used-car lot near our home. They usually have only 3-5 cars on offer, usually more high-end stuff. This was much, much higher-end than usual, but I’m sure it will be snatched up by some eager young man who needs 558HP to get around town.

Think again

Published by marco on

Whenever I think that I can reach anybody with the power of my arguments and evidence, with my sophistry, with my charm ,.. I will now think of this guy.

 If it has tits or tires, I can make it squeal

Response to an interview request in wealth-management

Published by marco on

 I received a request to interview for a job in wealth-management some time back. I’ve been responding to every request, just to be polite (recruiters are people, man), and usually I send a boilerplate text. Usually “the job sounds like it would be a great fit, but I’m not looking” is honest enough, but for this position, that wasn’t true. So I wrote the following instead,

Instead of just writing “No”, I’ll give you my reasons.

  1. I am very happy with my current position.
  2. I am not interested in... [More]

Understanding a language

Published by marco on

Recently, we’ve heard that Ukraine is getting a lot of weapons from all over the world, primarily from NATO. NATO weapons are industrial machines that have to be configured and maintained over time. They almost certainly leave some room for interpretation. They require training and experience to use efficiently and to be able to actually configure a working machine.

The instructions are in English.

 If you don’t speak another language, then you probably assume, hey, sure, they speak English.... [More]

A pretty good description of a DevOps position

Published by marco on

 The DevOps AnalemmaI received an invitation to interview for a DevOps position at a large, well-known Swiss firm that was very well-written and also happened to describe what I do at Uster Technologies quite well. As a few colleagues with whom I’ve spoken about what I do have said: “that sounds like much more than standard DevOps.”

My job certainly is more than what most people would consider to be standard DevOps—but I think that might be because most people think of the implementors of DevOps rather than the... [More]

An Oasis of Wealth

Published by marco on

 The article The European Union Is Deliberately Leaving Migrants Abandoned at Sea recounts some horrifying behavior on the part of the people tasked with patrolling the EU borders, especially the southern maritime border in the Mediterranean. According to a surviving witness,

“[…] the waves were generated deliberately, thrown up by the maneuvering wake of a Greek coast guard boat at the borders of the European Union (EU). “They intended to kill us,” says Jeancy. Even in the most generous... [More]”

Vote. Or don’t. I don’t care.

Published by marco on

 The U.S. mid-term elections are coming up next Tuesday, on November 8th. Of course it’s being called the most important election. The U.S. is more poorly run and broken each time there’s an election, but I’m not sure whether that makes each one more important because there’s more to fix or less important because it’s obvious that it doesn’t really matter who gets elected.

I’m not even going to bother naming any of the issues because this article is not about that. Instead, it was inspired by... [More]

Stress and tonality are not uniquely Chinese

Published by marco on

Whenever I see an article about Chinese tonality or stress, I usually think about whether it also applies to my mother tongue, English.[1]

The article The importance of stress in Chinese utterances by Victor Mair (Language Log) describes a “a single sentence of seven morphosyllables spoken in seven different ways according to what the speaker wishes to emphasize.”

“Wǒ méi shuō tā tōu wǒ qián.

“我沒說她偷我錢。

““I didn’t say that she stole my money”.”

The article lists all of the ways that you can change stress... [More]

Unreliable reporting across the pond

Published by marco on

The article Europe Commits Suicide-by-Sanctions by Ron Paul (Antiwar.com) contains a perfect example of the quality of reporting you get when someone reports on a country they know little about.

“According to the Swiss newspaper Blick, those who violate the 66 degree heating limit could face as many as three years in prison!”

The Blick is about as reliable as The New York Post: sometimes, but not nearly always. There is no prison sentence for heating your apartment.

He gets all wound up:

“Prison time for heating your... [More]”

3 years Ago

Decline and Fall of Western Civilization

Published by marco on

The video Intentionally knocking over water to impress friends shows a group of tween or teen girls assaulting a mascot at a theme park by dousing them with water. A friend sent it to me in a group chat. I wrote back:

I would have to work much harder than I’m willing to do right now to express my disdain for nearly everyone in that video. Those girls with their stupid phones in the air, each starring in their own movie, are just older versions of the 8- or 9-year-old kid I saw on the train... [More]

Cynics are just fine

Published by marco on

I sent the following quote to a friend:

“But why should we have to be useful and for what reason? Who divided the world into useless and useful, and by what right? Does a thistle have no right to life, or a Mouse that eats the grain in a warehouse? What about Bees and Drones, weeds and roses? Whose intellect can have had the audacity to judge who is better, and who worse? A large tree, crooked and full of holes, survives for centuries without being cut down, because nothing could possibly be... [More]”
Olga Tokarczuk (Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead)

Freedom of the Press

Published by marco on

The less useful the media is for finding out the truth, the less likely it is to be censored.

I noticed that Trevor Noah gave the White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech this year. I only watched a minute of it, the portion that had been posted somewhere to demonstrate how amazing his support of journalism was. He spoke of how tough it was for journalists in Ukraine or Russia, where they are being persecuted and hounded for publishing unpleasant truths. This is unlike the States where you... [More]

Verdi’s Macbeth at La Scala in Milan

Published by marco on

According to the article, Verdi’s Macbeth at La Scala in Milan: The opera of the year—an inspirational experience for millions of viewers , the Opera is made for viewing via video:

“Even more significant is the fact that the director employed pioneering multimedia technology to bring the topicality of Verdi’s Macbeth to life and turn it into an inspiring experience for millions via cinema and television outlets.”

In fact, they claim that video is better:

“Only the “distant” audience... [More]”

Satirical Website Accidentally Indicts Entire Culture

Published by marco on

Just the fast that this joke must resonate with a good portion of this site’s audience suggests to me that this actually happens. What kind of a person would actually do this? What kind of society would actually allow this?

 Babylon Bee on Leafblowers

For reference, the building where I live here in Switzerland has had a grounds crew for the last couple of years. They do use leafblowers, unfortunately. They never start before 09:00 or 10:00 or so.
 

Lockdown in Xi’an

Published by marco on

The article China: Xi’an residents in lockdown trade goods for food amid shortage by Robin Brant (BBC) suggests that the BBC’s standards are perhaps not what they used to be. I read through the article, but it contains nothing but unsourced conjecture and anecdotes. There’s “Social posts show”, “numerous complaints on social media”, and “One video showed a resident appearing to […]”

It’s not that I don’t believe that this is happening to at least some degree. Of course not. In a city of 13 million, anything and... [More]

Listen. Pause. Think. Pause. Pause more. Respond.

Published by marco on

Hot takes are not a good thing for online discourse. They’re occasionally funny, but they tend to kill thought as people start to one-up each other with more hot takes. Or, even worse, “takedowns” of what were obviously meant as hot takes.

Is Anything on the Internet Real? by minutephysics (YouTube)

Listen first. Or read. Ingest.

Pause to think about what you’ve just read or heard. Try to sort out where it might go in your existing knowledge. Does it fit? No? Why not?

Try to imagine why the other person might have written or communicated the thought... [More]

Spoiled and blind or just moral and predictive?

Published by marco on

Are people who say “this year sucked” necessarily spoiled and blind to their own privilege? Or are they extending their moral obligation to mean that, even though they personally benefitted, “this year sucked”—and that things will continue to suck—for a lot of other people?

The article ‘Wow, What A Terrible Year!’ Say People Living At The Absolute Peak Of Human Civilization (Babylon Bee) is intended as satire, but as with all satire, there is supposed to be an underlying truth to it. That’s what... [More]