I’m terrible at this internet arguing thing. Someone makes some bizarre statement and I’m like ORLY and they’re yes RLY and I go OK then. As you were.

Goddamn Wikipedia catnip got me hard this morning.

So of course you knew The Doors’ Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar) was an old Brecht/Weill number and there was no way Morrison and Manzarek were coming up with that on their own.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Song

But did you know that it was Manzarek who added the Marxophone, a poisonous, tempo-limiting, Tartaresque “improvement” on the hammered dulcimer, to give it that special wobbly Halloween vibe?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxophone

How important is it that the Marxophone scatter white lead everywhere while you’re spooking it up? I guess that depends on your requirements for authenticity.

I like to think of the Marxochime Colony, the world’s only source for Marxophones at the time

http://www.fretlesszithers.net/marxochime.htm

as something like the colony of drag-survivalist cultists in Lost, sending their unearthly vibrations out into the world through Marx’s mysteriously-encoded mechanical notation.

http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/FAQ.html#Marx

And I’m sure it’s completely coincidental that A’abam is an old alchemical term for lead, the base matter from which alchemy begins,

http://bit.ly/1CPUzKX

perhaps derived from Babylonian Abaru

http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/element.php?sym=Pb

and we’re not dealing with anything strange Dee/Kelly “angels” aliens here at all.

Below: Bowie’s version, allegedly closer to the Weill original. There’s also a distressingly smug later live recording drifting around that shows the Weill-ether having worn off.

Spamming Claytonian JP with this one because it’s as close to gaming-related as I’m going to be posting for some time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxjtQ6shDf0//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

via Boris Stremlin and especially for Scott Martin Scott Dorward and not-Scott Patrick Stuart but also for everyone because Tony Blair is for everyone. And I say that with sadness, not malice.

We slowly starved the moon-goddess to death, and replaced her with a big lump of floating rock; we even sent an expeditionary force to its surface to plant a flag there and confirm its lifelessness. All the whispering local spirits were massacred, and their ownership of the sacred sites was passed on to brutal landowners… Machines have been sent out into space to let us know exactly how boring it all is. But if that’s the case, and the magical forces that once haunted every inch of our world are gone forever, then just what the fuck is Tony Blair?

Originally shared by Boris Stremlin

If you are bored with Cthulhu and Yog Sothoth, and want to spice things up a bit with another Great Old One:

https://samkriss.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/tony-blair-dread-creature-of-the-forbidden-swamp/

https://samkriss.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/tony-blair-dread-creature-of-the-forbidden-swamp//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Pearl Diver’s Punch mix, this time with proper Allspice Dram.

The plan now is to premix this with the rums to “fat wash” them, then only blend with juices at serving time. Only I don’t want to commit to a rum mix today.

Planning LS Polynesian, Appleton 12, El Dorado 12 for the first batch.

The Ashley Madison thing seems to be a Platonically perfect case for determining who gets the difference between public morals and legal ethics. Can you report/comment on a massive security breach without blaming the victims?

Also, 37 million usernames.

I’m wondering how many of those people are single. Like, if you’re really, really looking for sex with someone who genuinely isn’t hoping you’ll be their eternal life partner etc, AM seems like it should be an effective filter. Albeit one that’s almost certain to lead to other complications.

gentler, sweeter tiki drinks adapted to my wife’s tastes

Iai Caci

1 Jamaican rum

2 pineapple juice

1/2 Clement Creole Shrubb

1/2 Falernum

3 dashes Jerry Thomas (clove) bitters

Shake, strain into an old fashioned glass. Cherry.

Zombie love tap

2/3 grapefruit juice

1/3 cinnamon-infused sugar syrup

1 LS Polynesian rum

1 Jamaican rum

1/2 cachaca prata (Thoquino/Ypioca)

1 falernum

1 dash angostura bitters

1 dash orange bitters

6 drops absinthe bitters/pernod

Blend with ice. Mint sprig.

holy moly. Underground station maps.

Originally shared by Fantastic Maps

In case anyone wanted 3d maps of the London Underground Stations (and frankly who wouldn’t?)

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2015/07/12/3d-maps-of-every-underground-station-ab///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Hey Jez Gordon sorry if it got weird yesterday over Brahe. Just wondering if you have access to the 2 sources I’ve read on Uraniborg –

Jole Shackelford’s “Tycho Brahe, Laboratory Design, and the Aim of Science: Reading Plans in Context”  and Owen Hannaway’s “Laboratory Design and the Aim of Science: Andreas Libavius versus Tycho Brahe,” both in Isis. If by any chance you haven’t got them and you want them, let me have your email and some fortuitous accident could occur.

I haven’t got around to writing anything useful on Uraniborg in the 5 years since I read them and like I said, I’m writing nothing at the moment, not even for work.

There’s also Thoren’s The Lord of Uraniborg, a small extract of which is available here:

http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam034/90001477.pdf

cheers.

http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/samples/cam034/90001477.pdf//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

longest-gestating article is up!

Itinerario, volume 39, issue 01, pp. 117-140. Calamitous journeys – how shipboard space reinforces discipline in disaster narratives.

god it’s been a long time in the works.

If it weren’t for these two, I’d’ve given up on Penny Dreadful by episode 2.

The costumes and staging are gorgeous but the writing is occasionally painful and the lighting moody to the point of obfuscation but I don’t care because Eva Green is seriously the best thing I’ve seen on screen in ages and now that Nigel Hawthorne has dusted his last bibelot, Simon Russell Beale stands unchallenged as the most watchable old queen TV can handle.

Even though I cannot recommend the show, you can’t miss it because of these two. I would gladly jack in GoT for the Tyrion-and-Bronn show. I would even faster abandon Penny Dreadful for an Edwardian X-files with these two characters standing in for Mulder and Scully. That is all.

Actually that is not quite all. I haven’t seen Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell yet but if Simon Russell Beale played Norrell and Eva Green played Lady Pole (or even the Gentle(wo)man with Thistledown Hair) I reckon it would be unimprovable. Anyone you like could play Strange. Even Colin Firth.

Comes in to see wife watching Ancient Aliens on the Hitler Channel. Kids are rolling on floor laughing at wiry-haired dude.

Thinks: why the hell is she watching this?

Oh, right: post-op Percocet.

…but by Space Apollo Kenneth Hite has a way with this stuff. I guess I never noticed how much grace he has handling the material, until I saw it attempted by someone who has none.

hipster elves

Originally shared by Hans Youngmann

https://www.yahoo.com/makers/the-world-bodypainting-festival-turns-c1209397504999478.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Instead of radicalising British society, the recession that Thatcher’s government so carefully engineered, as part of its class war against organised labour and against the public institutions of social security and redistribution that had been established after the war, permanently destroyed the very possibility of radical, progressive politics in Britain. Indeed, it rendered impossible the very notion of values that transcended what the market determined as the “right” price.

The lesson Thatcher taught me about the capacity of a long‑lasting recession to undermine progressive politics, is one that I carry with me into today’s European crisis. It is, indeed, the most important determinant of my stance in relation to the crisis. It is the reason I am happy to confess to the sin I am accused of by some of my critics on the left: the sin of choosing not to propose radical political programs that seek to exploit the crisis as an opportunity to overthrow European capitalism, to dismantle the awful eurozone, and to undermine the European Union of the cartels and the bankrupt bankers.

Originally shared by borg drone

Kommentar von Patrick Breitenbach 

Das Selbstportrait von Yanis Varoufakis von Februar 2015 ist aufschlussreicher als jedwede Spekulation über ihn. Er ist bekennender (fragiler) Marxist (das ideologische rote Tuch der Eliten) und war zu keinem Zeitpunkt bereit ein wenig am bestehenden System herum zu doktoren – höchstens um die notwendige Zeit zu gewinnen ein alternatives – ebenfalls kapitalistisch geprägtes – System zu entwickeln (aber eben auch nicht um eine soziale Planwirtschaft zu implementieren, wie so manche Stammtischparolen von sich geben):

“Yet my aim here is to offer a window into my view of a repugnant European capitalism whose implosion, despite its many ills, should be avoided at all costs. It is a confession intended to convince radicals that we have a contradictory mission: to arrest the freefall of European capitalism in order to buy the time we need to formulate its alternative.”

Leider sind Krisen solchen Ausmaßes eben kein günstiger Anlass sich die Zeit wirklich zu nehmen um kritisch das bestehende System zu reflektieren. Diese medial aufgebauschten Krisen forcieren eher einen politischen Aktionismus zur Konservierung des Bestehenden. Symptome dafür sind medial kolportierte Erzählungen wie “Too big to fail” oder “Alternativlos”. Sie machen jedwede Bemühung um eine tiefgreifende Transformation des Bestehenden unmöglich. Dann lieber den ‪#‎Grexit‬ – also purer Aktionismus – statt sich die Zeit zu nehmen und genau zu analysieren welche Veränderungen – ohne ideologische Verblendung auf beiden Seiten – eigentlich vorzunehmen sind um eine nachhaltige wirtschaftliche Stabilität im Sinne aller Interessensgruppen in Europa zu gewährleisten.

Yanis Varoufakis wurde zum Sündenbock der Krise ernannt und regelrecht rausgemobbt. Sicherlich, auch er trug auch einen beträchtlichen Teil dazu bei, vielleicht weil er sich selbst und seiner Vision besonders treu bleiben wollte.

Es zeigte sich jedenfalls mal wieder , dass die Machtstruktur über eine Art Immunsystem verfügt. Als allererstes werden die radikalsten Bedrohungen für das System eliminiert. Varoufakis war mit seinem Mindset, seiner Aggressivität, seinem Intellekt und seinem Standing offenbar eine ziemlich große Bedrohung für das derzeitige Machtgefüge.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/18/yanis-varoufakis-how-i-became-an-erratic-marxist//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

so it turns out Wicked the Musical is all about Vancian magic and the grief it can cause.

There’s a book of spells. They include: summon tornado (30% chance of house)

shrivel heart

make metal golem out of heartless corpse

deathproof scarecrow.

Oddly enough, these spells are not ideally adapted to producing happy endings. 

starting to understand the formula here…

Originally shared by Alex Scrivener

2 oz Dark Jamaican Rum (1 oz each Coruba and Smith & Cross)

1 oz Passion Fruit Syrup (BG Reynolds)

1 oz Pineapple Juice

1 oz Lemon Juice

1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with crushed ice and pour into a tulip glass. Garnish with mint sprigs.

http://cocktailvirgin.blogspot.com/2015/07/trader-vics-grog.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Whenever anyone tells you they’re trying to get back to the original Grimm fairy tales as some sort of benchmark of authenticity or seriousness or whatever, hand them this.

And if they insist that sure, the Grimms totally bastardized the sources but if you back to the real folk tales then they’re totally better/grimmer/more metal, demand to see their sources. Because if they’ve got them, then they probably are worth seeing. 

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm023.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

This has to be deliberate, doesn’t it?

easily annoyed by terrible typesetting.

(hotel wallpaper)

from that World War 3 is closer than you think article, the Estonia to Game over flowchart is itself:

a) kind of like an 80s Nuclear Annihilation boardgame

b) a handy bit of nuclear sabre-rattling, of pretty much the kind we like to observe in the Russian media.

…read the article to be scared, by all means. It presents a bunch of very scary things. Also recognize that being scared helps to bring war closer. That used to be called terrorism, before the word became ethnically specified.

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/29/8858909/russia-war-flowchart//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

so… the people who were up in arms about rape being used as a plot point in Game of Thrones… presumably aren’t watching Orange is the New Black?

This is it. Everything.

idea for a short story that’s not even going to make a satisfying short story:

Protagonist develops telepathy. Discovers that consciousness is indeed a fraud and everyone, himself included, is basically a self-deluding chatbot on top of a set of extremely basic urges. All seemingly more complex problems are just beyond the reach of the chatbot-fabulist to fathom. Philosophical quandary about how the protagonist can observe this left unresolved.

I don’t know if this is Am Tart or Dust or what, but I figured you’d want to see it.

Originally shared by null

A forward warning about supplying idiots with fireworks.

no, seriously: what the fuck?

In TOYSRUS today. Action figures for movies from the 50s to 80s and for HBO MA tv series.

I know this is old news for people who shop. Actually I’d seen GoT action figures before (not chibi ones) at Barnes & Noble. But still, every time I see this stuff I think to myself I have no idea what you people are thinking.

Also, decapitated zombie heads with makeup. Yeah, that’s what we need to give my daughter’s friend for her birthday. That’ll be nice.

How I relate to a new bottle of spirits:

1. Wow, that’s expensive. Can I really justify it? Is it really special? Am I missing out?

2. Tasting carefully. Complicated! I have to treat this with respect.

3. Hm. I wonder what other drinks I can make with this.

4. What else are we slinging in here? Oh right, you’ll do!

LS polynesian is a rum made for making tiki drinks – it’s a further generation on the rhizome. Crown jewels are like this, maybe: a version of gold adapted for kingly use.

The Tiki restaurant/hotel/resort is an environment made for tourism – it’s not complete without its tourists, like lego’s not complete without the kid.

The Tiki Zone has tourists and “natives.” The tourist’s job is to be displaced, in a receptive state of discovery, open to possibilities of pleasure but not commanding it. It’s the natives who approach and offer flowers, the tourist gets sucked in, semi-passively. This is why Gilligan’s Island is a Tiki show – the tourists do not shape their environment just uncover it.

Feeling ranty on multiple fronts.

It’s my mother in law. If I go off on a 1200 word screed about something, please be patient and understand that you’re probably not actually the target.

I could give you the details but I bet we’d both rather not.

And sharpening up my arguments by rehearsing them here is just going to make it harder not to shout them all out later today.

The kids love this terrible Disney schlock TV show Once Upon A Time, so I get to see it occasionally as a “treat.”

It has a lot of talk about whether certain characters are irredeemably evil – one of the major themes of the show is asking if people can really change or not (hint: not in long-series syndicated entertainment that might be repeated out of order).

So we reach this point where it seems pretty conclusively demonstrated that some folks are just bad, and that there are real costs to showing them mercy – they keep doing more bad stuff, killing characters etc. So Snow White (:(( ) makes this whole argument, she puts the case and eventually, with tears in her eyes, decides what everyone always decides in US drama and presidential public statements: she’s going to kill the problem next chance she gets.

…and this is pretty clearly telegraphed as a moment when her good soul is in real peril. The program pretty much says this is a Bad Thing.

I was kind of amazed. And gratified. I don’t know how they’ll break the bind and end up with everyone smiling/scheming, but I’m intrigued that this remains an open question on Disney.

OK LET’s have ’em all – Tyrion and Tywin, Luke’n’Vader, Stannis & Thing, Oedipus (the twofer), Cronus, Abraham if you like.

Add your favourite below. Let’s have it all out here.

Originally shared by Wayne “Lumrunner” Humfleet

Unexpected upside

I know it’s a cliche but… turns out dealing with bitchy geek internet trolls on a daily basis has prepared me perfectly for…

…dealing with my mother in law.

srsly.

I know she won’t like anything, I know the first word out of her mouth will always be to denigrate, I know nothing’s as good as this thing she used to have back home…

…and so I make no claims. I present stuff with perfect diffidence. Does she not like it? No problem, someone else does. Is she spoiling for a fight? That’s OK, I have other things to do.

The internet: a place innocent of politeness and social graces.

It has its uses.

Joseph H. Vilas Natalie Bennett what’s your experience with Demerara rums like? Is El Dorado significantly different from other rums?

I know Lemon Hart is supposed to be unlike anything else… but I wonder what I could possibly use here. I think Barbancourt might substitute OK for Bacardi 8.

…back on the sugar syrup merry-go-round.

I have a sense this is not Adam Thornton’s jam.

http://cold-glass.com/2012/09/28/making-zombie-punch///cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

following my DnD is secretly Tiki crank theory, it occurs to me that Don the Beachcomber was the occult originator, starting in the 30s with his Braunstein-like Zombie Punch, while Trader Vic Bergeron was the popularizer, writing down recipes in plain English and defining a canonical trade dress for the nascent movement.

Further, after decades of being misunderstood and written off as a disreputable fad, over the past 10 years it’s been undergoing an OSR of sorts, spearheaded by a guy called Jeff.

Hmmmmmmm. 

The parallel between barman and DM should be obvious, right?

http://www.amazon.com/Beach-Bum-Berry-Remixed-Jeff/dp/1593621396#productDescription_secondary_view_pageState_1434638770279//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Goddammit how did I miss this exhibition?

I’ve been thinking for a few months about the phenomenon of Tiki culture. It strikes me as a kind of sub-creation such as Tolkien described – role playing avant le jeux, a completely imaginary tropical beach world where you could drink and bullshit about alternate realities with funny mugs in place of funny dice.

Anyone have any sourcebooks to recommend? I knew nothing whatever about this whole business until earlier this year, but suddenly I’m convinced that there was never anything coincidental about Gary Gygax’s Hawaiian shirts.

http://www.quaibranly.fr/en/programmation/exhibitions/last-exhibitions/tikipop.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Oh my god Natalie Bennett what have you done? Here I am like $300 and significant marital strife later having nearly perfected my Mai Tai.

For anyone who’s actually read GRRM’s books –

so now he joins JK Rowling in having the visualization of his words outpace his ability to write them… what’s the comparison like between the two cases?

Rowling’s books got longer and noticeably in need of an editor after filming began – dodgy plotting and melodrama intensified, although I didn’t notice her adjusting the characters to fit their film versions… but I guess I wouldn’t know in the case of new characters – was Slughorn always cast as Broadbent from the moment he hit the page?

But then the release of Rowling’s books stayed ahead of release of the movies, despite the latters’ critical stars growing up and imposing their own schedule constraints. That’s probably not going to be sustainable here (GRRM’s a famously slow writer, TV contracts have more immovable stakeholders than movies) – the later books are liable to be novelizations of the series.

Thoughts? Insights? Gossip?

Local variant on the Atlas:

2 applejack

1 Lost spirits Navy

1/2 grand marnier

1 dash peychaud’s

up.

This is respectable – rum and apple brandy combine nicely so neither dominates. But I’m not in love.

Can’t Count

1 Appleton rum

1 Campari

8 drops extreme d’absente (or prob. 1/4 pernod)

Fresh, sweetish, mellow. Nice for a tired in the evening drink.

Trying tomorrow: Banshee:

2 cognac

1 LS navy

1/2 poire william liqueur

… will work this up to a proper post when I’ve fooled with the atlas/banshee a bit.

Holy cow it’s the Premium Rum Comparative Tasting

I got bitten by the perfect Mai Tai bug. This, however, is a taste-test of spirits on their own merits. Mai Tai taste test laterrrr.

Appleton Estates 12 year old $33

Wow. This is superbly fruity, smooth and surprisingly light, like it could stand in for a really good Cognac and be sweeter and easier to drink all night. Lots of funky rum aftertaste reminds you of what you’re actually drinking. Highly recommended, and now I know where the canonical Appleton/Clement Mai Tai gets a lot of its esters. 

Lost Spirits “Polynesian” $43

is the natural thing to taste opposite the Appleton. It’s immediately obvious that it’s less refined. Still, this might be the world’s fruitiest spirit. With a few drops of water it’s pretty much lightheaded fruit essence. Amazing, but not really optimal when drunk neat like this. Still, it makes what I currently consider to be the gold standard Mai Tai (we’ll see net week).

Lost Spirits Navy $43

A totally different proposition, and really nice to try side by side with Appleton to see how different two dark rums can be. Higher proof gives it a fiery numbing warmth, flavour is superbly round, woody and patrician like the idea of a cigar only nicer – it’s sweeter than the Appleton, which made me momentarily suspicious because sweetness lends smoothness to alcohol like a cheap sort of flattery, but this doesn’t taste anything like cheap. It couldn’t possibly be anything other than rum, unless it’s a whole rack of barbecued ribs somehow distilled into drinkable form. Aftertaste is clean and smokey, if that makes any sense.

Barbancourt 15 $45

So I had to because it’s famous and I have it and it should stand up to this company, but it just doesn’t. It is light and smooth like a good cognac, but that’s where the comparison ends. Flavour simply falls short of the rest – it’s simpler, less involving, and frankly a bit thin in comparison with any of the others. Get back to work, Haitian distillers: this is only OK, not OMG.

buyer’s remorse sucks.

On the one hand, I get into Manhattan about twice a year and dammit I was going to go to Astor Wines.

And I am deathly afraid that Lost Spirits will never make their Polynesian Rum again (judging by their experimental track record so far) so I have to get it now while it exists. Fine.

And so I am now the proud owner of 3 bottles of Polynesian (having finished one with friends) and one Navy (so I can finally taste test/compare notes with Joseph) and one Cuban (misordering misfire, still quite interesting in its own right) and a Clement Creole Shrub because there it was in Astor and where the hell else am I going to find it.

…so you can imagine that I’m starting to get nervous about how much I’m spending on rum.

That’s not what’s giving me buyer’s remorse, though.

What’s worrying me is that I also ordered a Clement VSOP from my friendly not-quite-so-local booze store so I could do the canonical Clement/Appleton Mai Tai so I could definitively say which version I like better and to make all those rum drinks where Lost Spirits’ exuberance isn’t the obvious fit. And that means I have to go spend another $40 when I pick it up, and I guess $35 for an Appleton 12, and I’m starting to really wonder not only whether I needed to spend like the cost of a decent suit on rum but also where I’m going to store it all, such that it will not put my marriage in jeopardy.

The buyer’s remorse is mostly around the Barbancourt 15 that I bought right back at the beginning of this process, though, in hope that it would be the single aged rhum that would beat all Mai Tais (it isn’t at all) and therefore justify its $45 tag.

I absolutely refuse to total up just how many litres of rum I will have in the house by the time I’m done.

Not wanting to mess up Zak Smith’s thread on Lovecraft, it has long occurred to me that with its obsessive commoditization, its body horror and the malleability of identities it forwards, Dr. Seuss’s The Sneetches really needs a Lovecraftian critical reading.

http://riverwoodm.johnston.k12.nc.us/common/pages/DisplayFile.aspx?itemId=6318350//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js

Christopher Lee was 93

He maintained remarkable dignity

Despite starring in films the Academy

Would’ve classified quite confidently

As “B.”

…

for Alex Scrivener

cooking with 7 up.

With Pyrex you can see it’s clean.

….women’s faces in 50s ads are all slightly scheming enthusiastic satisfaction. Perhaps they are all Matilda.

Three different kinds of commercial pilgrimage today:

Hastings Tile in the Architects’ and Designers’ Gallery Building, NYC, has Jetsons type furniture and fake raw concrete in the form of carefully engineered giant Italian ceramic tiles, for when you want that Brutalist look but don’t want to get quite as brutal as actually pouring concrete.

Astor Wines just might be the single most comprehensive store in the city for wines and spirits. Scored some Lost Spirits Navy and Clement Creole Shrub. Mansged to escape without Liqueur des Violettes (more distinctively flowery than mere creme, apparently) and four dozen obscure amari.

Desigual has everything you need to dress like a Grenville and is finally available in design-starved Yanquiland even for men! The extraordinary value of this last point may be lost on anyone who hasn’t stumbled into a dozen or so branches of Desigual only to discover that this one used to have a couple of shirts but no longer and nobody knows why here look at the dresses and bikinis.

And those dresses and bikinis do look appealing on the hanger, but they’re really not made for someone with my build.

One for Michael Hazen spotted in midtown Manhattan, parked in a line of chauffered Escalades.

Alas, nobody seems to want an elliptical-powered bicycle. Maybe because this “street strider” is laughably space hungry for Manhattan sidewalks. Maybe because it costs $1000. How do Hammacher Schlammacher keep going?

Front business?

any games on in ca. 8 hours? Strangely, uniquely available this evening.

Absolutely irrelevant passing thought:

So, Shia LaBeouf. That word, LaBeouf, cannot possibly be a misspelling and misgendering of le boeuf (the bull), right? According to Wikipedia it really is his birth name and there’s some Cajun connection, so now I’m intrigued about the history of either ignorance or willful misdirection that wound up here.

…that boeuf is also French slang for “idiot” is pure gravy.

Erik Jensen I have noticed that these is an Erik Jensen credited on The Americans …any connection? (sorry if this is the hundredth time someone’s discreetly asked you)

Will we all want to kill Aubrey de Grey?

Maybe. But if so, there’s one great constant that every u/dystopian posthuman scifi movie has warned us about – one sure counter to whatever notions of heroic plebeian mortalism we might be harbouring. One thing we know we must be ready for and cannot prepare ourselves against.

The Cybermelnibonean Overlords of the Coming Race will know kung fu.

(even the Randesque Recruitbots of Tomorrowland know kung fu. It’s like the grep of near future killbotics – it’s actually more expensive to buy the whole moving like a self-conscious robotics engineer routine than to just get the ballerina/kung fu/locknpop package off the torrents)

Originally shared by Curt Thompson

Something a little heavy in advance of Nerdy 9th.

Somebody in my circles posted an article about transhumanism and the subject of the article was another rich guy (the head of Google engineering) talking about how technology was going to make people immortal in his lifetime.

Unspoken, as always, was the word ‘rich’. Technology is going to make rich people immortal in his lifetime.

And it started me thinking: Would immortality radicalize the populace of comfortable, ‘first world’ nations? I think it would. Not everyone, obviously. Probably not even most people. But I think there would be riots and terrorist actions.

Because immortality in a capitalist world is an unacceptable, terminal (no pun intended) ‘screw you’ to anybody who isn’t wealthy and hasn’t managed to somehow benefit from a rigged system where the vast majority of human beings have no chance at wealth. (And don’t give me any Libertarian bootstrap bullshit. The adults are talking here.)

The one constant, the great leveler, is death. We all die. Rich people live better and they live longer. But they still die. And if they manage to transcend even that on the backs of the comparatively poor….

Well, hell, if I’m going to die anyway, I’d be okay going out helping destroy the data center that held a bunch of billionaire brain back-ups and/or clones. 

(Note: this is hypothetical, science fiction violence, not a call to or longing for real world, here and now violence.)

Now obviously, there is a huge dose of privilege speaking here. The fact that I can talk about this subject, in this format puts me ahead of many, many people in the world in terms of safety, security, comfort and access to technology. But I still wonder if technological immortality might be that French Revolution spark that sets off a new Rein of Terror.

completely spoilery and self-indulgent Game of Thrones musing

in 3…

2…

1…

nearly there…

we must be below the fold by now…

.

.

.

.

The actress who plays Denise Walgreenian is really, really good at looking bewildered and overwhelmed, but after 5 seasons I’m still not sure if she’s a good actress or a merely adequate one.

I’m inclined to say really good, because her character has maintained the same knife-edge ambiguity throughout: people followed her even when we could plainly see she was clueless. Does she now have something of a clue, or is she the same dangerous, delusional white elephant that she always was?

I thought the freeing the slaves montage was either horribly, horribly stereotypical American programming or a set-up for a cruel fall… and although the landslide is under way, I’m impressed that I still don’t  know which exactly which of those it is.

And now in this last episode, she is beset on all sides and she has no idea what to do. Seeing death looming, she links hands with her former slave-translator in a momentary show of solidarity/cry for comfort, and we see just how much she needs this tiny core of committed and loyal followers.

But then she gets the chance to fly out of it on a dragon. And there goes the solidarity. What’s it like to be in her corps now?

It’s probably a pivotal moment. But they cut before we get to know if she’s slipped into full-on narcissist mode or whether she’s going to turn back around and save her guardians. This is the test of character right here.

And we don’t know (or at least I don’t because I haven’t read the books) because this ambiguity has been carefully nurtured the whole time.

Damn cliffhangers.

Tomorrowland is a remarkable work of propaganda. I really don’t think I’ve seen such a preachy movie since Monument Men. Or maybe Syriana.

I largely agreed with its message until George Disney bludgeoned me with it. Now I’m suddenly in doubt. I think something must be wrong.

A while since I last posted this, so perhaps some of you have not seen it.

This is why the internet wasn’t such a terrible idea after all.

http://www.bogleech.com/pokemon/pokeween/porygonz.html//cdn.embedly.com/widgets/platform.js