16 September 2018

Link round-up for 16 September 2018

Various interesting stuff I ran across on the net over the last week.

o o o o o

I bet this wall art scares the shit out of a lot of people (found via Calvin).  Then there's the BBC.

King of the road!

An otherworldly being walks among us.

Rubber ducks play a role in software debugging.

I'm OK, you're OK (found via Mike).

Keep it local.

This place offers pretty much everything.

Use of stupid technology may hinder your job-search efforts.

TV makes Evangelicals do weird things.

Trumpanzees' cultural options are increasingly limited.

Creepy, yet morbidly intriguing.

Here's an impressive optical illusion.  And here's some delving into how some such illusions work.

It's nice to know there are still other avid readers out there.

This is an apple as you've never seen it (found via Jerry Coyne).

What do angels actually look like?

It's pointless to study the non-existent.

There is already an epic-scale live-action Mulan movie.

This statue suggests the sophistication of Greek art in the fourth century BC.

Here's a message for Trump at 90,000 feet.

A flaming-nutball preacher sounds off on hurricane Florence.

Nan's Notebook takes a look at tiresome things.

What a load of.....goop, take 2.

Religionists freak out at the slightest sign of beliefs different from their own.

This probably won't work -- but why not?

Ray Comfort offers a display of stupidity to rival his immortal banana self-pwnage.

Here's what the end of Roe v. Wade would mean, state-by-state.

For each flag, ten Hosts.

NRO explains why the Kaepernick ads are a winner for Nike.  The NFL and political leaders are standing up to Trump on the issue.

This is the cold reality of "God".

Sometimes assholes get fired.

The wingnut "mother of all rallies" looked more like an abortion.

Kavanaugh's background has disturbing implications (found via a comment by Nonnie9999).  Wingnuts are displaying their slimy character in response to the sex accusation. It's all discouraging for victims in such cases.

Would the disciples of Jesus have died for a lie?

War is worse than Hell.

This is naked greed under capitalism (found via Scottie).

If you allow violent thugs to take over your institution, people will avoid it.

Decentralization offers hope of freeing the internet from corporate and government power (I'm not tech-savvy enough to evaluate this -- just putting it out there).

Our closest ape relatives have much to teach us about sexuality and violence (there's more here than you've probably seen in other postings on this subject).

Time to say goodbye to NASA's Dawn spacecraft, the only probe ever to orbit two different asteroids.

The Church of England has lost more than half its membership since 2002, as the land of my ancestors shakes off the centuries-old lies of religion.

This kid has guts.  The world needs more like her.

Japan pushes for a return to mass butchery of self-aware creatures of which we still understand very little.

A British singer gets a chance to see the reality of life under a gangster regime.

Black Africa's schools want to put more emphasis on native languages; I hope they don't reduce access to the precious window on the world that French and English provide.

Bill Maher thinks Trump's base is getting bored with him.  After a year and a half, this 85%-Trump-voting county is no better off.

If Gillum wins Florida's Governorship, he'll become a force to be reckoned with in the Democratic party.

Republican trashes environment, blames Democrats -- will it work?

Russian trolls are at work in Texas.

Calvin has another round-up of Trump images; more here.  Shower Cap has the week in review.

The primaries are over -- what have we learned?

Julia Salazar is one of the few Democratic candidates whose progressivism extends to sex workers.

Booman takes a sober look at impeachment.

[Image at top:  The world of classic TV, too alluring for Evangelicals?]

10 Comments:

Anonymous NickM said...

"The theory of evolution, though relatively recent, has already been shown to be wrong in most of the major arguments used to convince students. In spite of this, it has become as firmly entrenched as the tooth fairy. Why? Because evidence that God created is kept out of the schools? Yes, but there may also be another reason. If you evolved from pond scum, the only solid basis for morality that exists is that which is inherited from pond scum. Girls who have been convinced of this are easier marks."

This came from here:

https://www.creationism.org/heinze/EvolutionWhoppers_en.htm

That to me is grossly offensive. On so many levels. My wife is not an "easier mark" and I don't "believe" in science. I have studied it but it is not a belief as such. And also I am not exactly "pond scum" but I am descended from molecules in motion and for me this is not only a more coherent narrative but a better story.

Sorry, a bit OT but I think Igot the link via you. And it is your kinda schtick.

16 September, 2018 05:34  
Blogger Mary Kirkland said...

I've never seen a starfish do anything but sit there. That was the most interesting thing I may have ever seen. It even looked curious and seemed to be leaning towards the person taking the video.

16 September, 2018 08:15  
Blogger Debra She Who Seeks said...

Man, that starfish on the beach is creepy! And I want a dancing sandwich! I enjoyed seeing all those close-ups of the Athena statue too. It took me a minute to figure out your statement "For each flag, ten Hosts" but bravo!

16 September, 2018 08:37  
Blogger W. Hackwhacker said...

Infidel - thanks as always for the link! I was particularly struck by the courage of that 9- year old Aussie girl who protested her national anthem and is being attacked for standing up (by not standing up) for her principles. Gutsy young girl, indeed. (I'm sharing the story with my readers, with attribution, of course). As an old fart white male, I firmly believe in this country and worldwide, it's largely going to be the vision, strength and determination of women to get us out of the pit that men have dug for us.

17 September, 2018 07:12  
Blogger Ten Bears said...

The graphic intrigues. The Johnny Quest characters are as I remember them but the others, the Flintstones, Jetsons and Scooby-doo were to my recollection far more two dimensional.

17 September, 2018 11:51  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Nick: As usual, they take no thought of the effect of what they say on their intended audience. One could argue that religious believers are "easier marks" because of the way they're trained to submit to authority, and the prevalence of sex-abuse cases involving clergy against lay believers would support that.

I don't think I've ever been to that website, though.

Mary: Most of the starfish humans see are dead. The live ones are quite startling.

Debra: Non-vertebrate animals tend to be disturbing to us. They give us a sense of what life from another planet might be like.

The Greeks' achievements in sculpture and architecture -- as in so many other fields -- at a time when most of the world was still primitive, are stunning.

Hackwhacker: Thanks for the post! One doesn't need to agree with the girl's viewpoint to recognize her courage in sticking up for her viewpoint, and the oblivious and bullying character of the adults who are trying to shame her for it.

Thomas: Art always tends to enhance its subject, I think. It doesn't aim at a bald depiction of reality. And perhaps these characters are drawn as they are remembered rather than as they were.

18 September, 2018 06:10  
Anonymous Sam240 said...

Regarding the language instruction in Africa:

My thoughts turned to Basque and Catalan as mediums of instruction in Spain, as the linguistic environments are comparable - they are regional languages in a world of worldwide tongues.

There are four models of instruction in the Basque Country. Model D, where Basque is used as a medium of instruction, and Spanish is taught as a second language, is just as effective in producing Spanish proficiency as Spanish-immersion or bilingual programs. However, it is much better at producing Basque proficiency than other models.

Similar effects have been found regarding Catalan-immersion schools.

The use of Spanish as a lingua franca across Spain and the ready availability of Spanish-language materials, in addition to the Spanish-language classes, mean that students in Catalan or Basque immersion schools aren't cut off from the wider world of Spanish.

In much of sub-Saharan Africa, either English or French is a lingua franca, and the majority of the media are in the dominant European language. If you couple immersion in a local language such as Yoruba with a daily English-language class from the beginning, I wouldn't expect any reduction in access to the wider world or in the ability to use English.


CAVEAT/P.S. I only checked the situation in Spain. Does anyone have information about other countries? I am open to changing my mind if I get more examples.

18 September, 2018 19:38  
Anonymous Marc McKenzie said...

A bit late, but will add my 2-cents:

--That image you used looks to have been done by Alex Ross, one of the best illustrators around today. He has the ability to take characters from comics and animation and make them look real, and has cited Norman Rockwell as a major influence. I'm a huge fan of his work, and you should follow him.

--That starfish...man. Our world has creatures more "alien" than anything from science fiction!

--Television has always made Evangelicals do weird things. I mean...have we forgotten all those TV preachers from the 1980s?

--"Culture" and "Trump Supporter" are incompatible, period. :)

--Being the son of a librarian, I learned very early on about the importance of reading.

--It's too bad that those who ran to third-candidates in 2016 to remain pure didn't bother to contemplate the possible end of Roe v. Wade under Trump....but then again, they obviously didn't consider a lot of things, like people's civil rights being trampled upon, environmental laws being gutted, and so much worse.

--The Dawn spacecraft was a trailblazer with its ion drive....incredible to see something that was once in the realm of science fiction become reality.

--I truly hope that Andrew Gillum wins this November, if only because he campaigned hard and his GOP opponent is a racist piece of human waste. If anyone thinks that these two candidates are the same, then they are truly fools.

--For me, the main take from the 2018 primaries is that the Democratic Party is the true representation of America, with women and minority candidates being a large part of the party. Compared to the GOP, the Democrats are more diverse in terms of race and gender and the cry from the far Left to drop "identity politics" has been bluntly refused.

19 September, 2018 08:43  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Sam: There are a lot of such examples around the world -- Scots Gaelic in Britain, Indian languages across the Americas, and so forth. It's true that when the "big" language has a dominant enough presence, greater teaching of "smaller" languages shouldn't endanger mastery of it.

Marc: I just did a search on Alex Ross and I see what you mean about his realistic-fantasy style. I don't remember where I found that image, unfortunately.

Evangelicals certainly made use of TV when it served their purposes (preaching and raking in money).

Trump's idea of "culture" is probably a casino with a fake Eiffel Tower on it. Most Trumpanzees wouldn't even aim that high.

It's hard to "give up identity politics" when the enemy is doubling down on it. If all this relentless demonization of Latinos isn't "identity politics", I don't know what is.

20 September, 2018 04:23  
Anonymous Marc McKenzie said...

@Infidel: In regards to Alex Ross, you can track down his book MYTHOLOGY--granted, it is focused primarily on his work for DC Comics, but the art featured is stunning.

20 September, 2018 11:38  

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