Posted on

“It’s weird the people setting our national priorities have different priorities than the nation”

LESS CLICKS

  • Why do a newsletter? I calculated the amount of clicks this newsletter reduces, on average. I could write some silly code to count every link or bullet in these newsletters (editor: he could not do that), but let’s just say if I am daily sending 5 – 7 links on average, to about an aggregate 20 – 25 people a day, let’s be conservative and say I am contributing to about 100 – 175 less top-level “buzzes” or multiple text messages or emails that impact people’s daily lives.  Then a 2nd click within the email or text to the article would double that to around 350 notifications / emails / buzzes, and then approx 40% of the time there’s a comment, which is another 100.  It will reduce conversation to some extent, but now people can peruse and click once to come to the blog, and then click and read what they want on a Friday, vs getting buzzed throughout the week, all day. I am saving you all about 500 collective clicks a week. Call it driving a knife through the heart of the attention economy.

SPACE NOT JUST FOR BELTALOWDA

  • I always think about the people sitting and thinking “we didn’t land on the moon”. Wait… once? How about 6 missions and 12 astronauts. Were all those faked? Wait, did we put reflective stuff up there to shine lasers off of? Is that stuff there? Did a robot land it LATER? I mean jesus FC. Now we’ve seen the rover on Mars from the Orbiter… sort of FREAKING AMAZING.

https://www.universetoday.com/150311/perseverance-seen-from-space-by-esas-exomars-orbiter/

 

  • That this isn’t a joke or anything but actually real is hard for my 10 year old brain to comprehend: No longer do children say “I want to be an astronaut”, they say “I want to work in the space industry”. Bezos, Musk, Virgin…. In 2025 there’s apparently a space station hotel, ahem… OPENING. https://www.space.com/gateway-foundation-von-braun-space-station.html

You can sign up with them! https://gatewayspaceport.com/

 

 

NASA · First Acoustic Recording of Laser Shots on Mars

 

 

 

 

  • Why does something like our universe exist instead of nothing? https://alwaysasking.com/why-does-anything-exist/ (I actually know this answer for myself. It helps. This gives you all the tools and more to arrive at your own conclusion, but the “I’m not clicking that” is because reality does exist, and we just happen to be here to pontificate the existence. Because more likely than not, multiple times before and after, we’ve not existed in other multi-verse or prior or post big contractions and new big bags… we wouldn’t be able to consider it. But a few degrees and some space dust and some light and forces happened in such a way… we can. That simple! It’s a coincidence! Yay! *BUT* the notion we’re trapped in the quantum simulation and that nothing exists in material form because “matter” isn’t real at a subatomic level is compelling.  The particles that make up our mass and forms, when broken down, cease to be or act “real” by our definition. That’s where the magic of philosophy enters the quantum realm, and becomes useful.If you’ve not seen a film called “Mindwalk” they elegantly illustrate why nothing in the macro realm we perceive could possibly be real, because the way subatomic particles’ structure allows for endless space between what we see as manifesting as matter. Full film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uec1CX-6A38

 

 

Encode mighty things! This parachute says “You Salty Bitch U Dead LOL”

 

SCIENCE, TECH, FUTURISM & PROBABLY DOOM

 

  • College men are more willing to help women with erect nipples, according to new research. This is the 2nd study. It’s interesting to me, without jokes, in the sense that men are hard wired to think it’s an arousal thing, but physiological an erect nipple doesn’t necessarily mean that at all.

 

 

 

Not my words, but good enough

“It’s a longer article, but very very good look at this stuff and how fucked we are cuz Zuckerberg is chasing stock grown and growing user engagement despite any sort of negative consequences we may see, because misinformation, hate communications, and inflammatory posts are by definition the most engaging. And that’s what the top levels of Facebook continue to chase.”

Which begs this (cute new channel, trying hard, not perfectly polished, but worth the 10mins):

  • How can you trust what your brain is thinking if you don’t know what it’s thinking has been altered? or “how cyberwarfare is changing your brain” –>

  • Future fashion will include in garment devices to protect themselves from autonomous vehicles, creating extra visibility to human pedestrians, bikers, etc. https://futurism.com/the-byte/devices-protect-self-driving-cars

 

WEIRD VEGETABLE ROBOTS!

 

  • I’ve a twitter account (the name is from a Rick and Morty episode) where I look at Generative Adversarial Network’s production of GAN2 Style deep learning production of human faces that do not successful remove prior human faces which therefore glitch, as the Artificial Intelligence is focused solely on the main subject. The effect is disturbing, Lovecraftian, somewhat horrifying, but namely fascinating. None of the humans in the images are real, and I solely focus on the glitches, because at times the uncanny valley of the single non-glitched humans is even more horrifying. They do horses, molecules, art, cats, and more. You can procedurally generate a human, refresh for the next: https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/

MOVIES & TV & CONTENT AND WHAT’S IS IT CALLED?

  • A 2018 event in which Dan Harmon provided a masterclass in apologizing about imperfection with a transparent and successful admittance of the value of using mistakes to move the needle in resolving our MeToo issues. It’s unreal. Hard to watch? Must watch. The woman he was speaking about is the one who called it a masterclass, and publicly accepted his apology (and privately).

 

  • TALES FROM THE LOOP: A more human and adult form of Stranger Things and a solid replacement for Dark, without it being too dark. LOVING THIS SO FAR. (the art book is stellar, and I will end the post with some of the author’s artwork. It’s an Amazon Prime, I’m early in the series (only one season) and VERY excited.

 

 

  • The VVitch by Eggers (The Lighthouse) is a technical marvel for a low budget period piece.

 

 

  • OLD COMMERCIALS OH MY GOODNESS. An hour of early 1980’s…. Goes from Hubba Bubba to Kenner Star Wars to Castle Grayskull playset in the immediate few seconds:

 

  • If you like The VVitch, Rosemary’s Baby or Hereditary or Midsommar or Cults… “A Dark Song”. Wild. Visionary new director. GORGEOUS film, great writing, Two people just tear up the screen for 95 minutes. I actually wrote a theory on the plot that seems to have nailed it for film people, so any confusion just ask. Spoilers below….

Memories are quite weird. So was when Marilyn Chambers touched my bottom.

  • A made a post with all the weird and kooky and crazy films where you’re watching and are like “what?” and thing unravel:

Memories are quite weird. So was when Marilyn Chambers touched my bottom.

  • Lastly a fast paced 87 minute film called “Mandela Effect” talks about a horrific version of a curious brain issue, and I’ve given some examples while opining on Mumblegore, a new verite type of horror.

Memories are quite weird. So was when Marilyn Chambers touched my bottom.

  • If you like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and Gustavo Fring, I highly recommend checking out “Night on Earth” by Jim Jarmusch, where Giancarlo Esposito becomes New York. It’s energetic and fantastic. The whole film is a forgotten delight:

 

THE WORLD OF MUSIC TO READ!

 

  • Here’s a wonderful cover of Jeff Buckley’s “Lover, You Should’ve Come Over”

  • ANDY! Cinco de Mayo is on *WEDNESDAY* this year.

  • I will let Jack and Diane cover, but all the words are “Sucking on a Chili Dog” stand alone:

LIFE/CULTURE & PORN STAR BOTTOM TOUCH AT WORK

  • The most epic moments in mental health: Taxi Driver, Annihilation, and Meghan Markle and Harry! You realize Harry is trying to save his wife in a way that no one attempted to save his Mother. That’s beautiful. Or be cynical, you can do that to!

 

 

  • Burning Man 1994!!!! The most insane thing… I worked at Live 105.3 KITS on the Alex Bennett Morning Show in 1995. The Burning Man crew with Larry et al came to the show and set us on fire and talked about how they had this festival, were almost broke, and needed more attendees. They talked about a bunch of stuff, very pagan, libertarian at the time. The drive by shooting ranges were always fanciful but unproven with media… and here ya go! The internet archive found a trove of 30,000 VHS recordings they digitized, and the 26m mark or so shows the mad lads goofing off. It’s so silly. 1h of history to peruse:

  • I don’t know if i agree with it completely… I’m more no nonsense, but I’m still being kind. That being said, it’s a twitter thread instead of the article itself. I usually only post the article, to reduce clicks, but decent thread in case you wanted to share… It’s sort of a “Seth-Meyers-ing” of saying, you’re not alone… this is a new part of the pandemic, a new part of the wall, and new tired and stressed emotion:

You’re not imagining it. A lot of us aren’t exactly being “nice” right now, and we’re definitely not being kind.

Here’s why everyone is acting like such a jerk lately.https://t.co/ccKB6sui44

— VICE (@VICE) March 11, 2021

  • “The great highway during the pandemic”, from artist and reddit user with the most san francisco art ever… https://www.reddit.com/user/Robin_Galante/ (she’s all commissioned up right now, but I know a few friends’ old homes that would be awesome gifts!!)

 

  • This is the most downvoted comment in the history of reddit…. it is about Star Wars from EA’s reddit team. HILARIOUS. Reddit has never had a thread with a million *upvotes*. To get 650K *DOWNVOTES* is pure legend.

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsBattlefront/comments/7cff0b/seriously_i_paid_80_to_have_vader_locked/dppum98/

 

A picture appeared to show a ship hovering above the surface of the sea off southwestern England.

 

 

  • A friend sent this fascinating piece about Byzantine trade routes and studying artifacts to understand the breadth and depth of how open routes were back in the day. Caitlin Green: A very long way from home: early Byzantine finds at the far ends of the world. I hadn’t realized byzantine spread that widely… and yes all due to trade routes. https://www.caitlingreen.org/2017/03/a-very-long-way-from-home.html

However… the Icelandic Berserker Vikings were unreal travelers, who traveled all the way down to Turkey by boat- https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/12/12/viking-sword-discovered-in-turkey/

AAAaaaaand “trade routes” did include slave trading… even North Africa raided Iceland to steal humans as slaves… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Abductions

  • Politics doesn’t change, exhibit #1,308: quote from Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72” about that 1972 political campaign (same as any past or recent)… talking about how a party was acting that led to its demise in the run up to 1855. YES THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR.

  • On remembering it, Behind the Green Door was really weird, but the star did touch my bottom. Didn’t think I would daylight this story about Marilyn Chambers… uhhh….

Memories are quite weird. So was when Marilyn Chambers touched my bottom.

 

DAN HARMON’S SPORTS CORNER

For example, my nephew is going to make more money in e-sports or drone racing than football players in the NFL, soon. This video isn’t CGI, nor fake, etc. THIS IS DRONE RACING!

 

 

GAMES

 

MEMES I WASTED MY TIME ON & DIGITAL EPHEMERA

  • I call this “the moment you realize the science fiction you loved when growing up was just Space Opera Fantasy”. There’s room for all of it, and Star Trek can go hard science fiction on the best of days, but I love this, and am proud of it. I am never proud of memes.

 

  • I may have shared, but I took someone’s photo with a nice sentiment and posted it on the subreddit that is the opposite of gatekeeping… “gates open come on in!” type of welcoming and positive place. They seemed to like my notion, so I share it here:

 

 

  • IT DO BE LIKE THIS:

 

 

  • No one is accusing Cameron of an ego… (he’s re-releasing Avatar in China to beat Avengers: Endgame for top box office ever)

 

  • This is the dumbest meme I’ve ever made:

 

  • Not mine:

 

  • This is awesome and mind blowing, the REAL WB disclaimer. Amazing.

Warner Bros disclaimer of old cartoons

 

  • This boat race produced an insane shot… from a HELICOPTER. In those winds? These are unreal boats… that don’t slow down. Info below:

https://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/23910/Savage-conditions-in-Bay-of-Biscay

“David Adams, Race Director, speaking from race HQ in Gosport, explained the horrendous conditions the skippers were facing in the infamous Biscay, “The boats have been facing extremely violent storms of over 50 knots, with a number reporting 60-70 knots on the nose and huge seas. The main problem is that you can’t slow these formula 1 boats down and they simply crash on through – it is bone breaking action!”

Commenting on the weather patterns sweeping into the region, Adams added, “We always knew that this would be a nasty corner to negotiate. We were expecting strong winds of 40 knots, but none of the weather models or advisors predicted 60 knots, and it looks as if this big storm might be around for at least another 24 hours. With such conditions, you can expect waves of 12-14 metres. I spoke to each of the teams and their weather advisors before they left Bilbao and none of the skippers had concerns about leaving on Sunday.”

  • Lucky this guy isn’t out there, but the optical illusion of a beach is worth it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sailing/comments/m0xhp6/oooooph/

 

 

FINALLY THIS WEEK:

  • Tales from the Loop Art, that inspired the show:

 

By Uncle FishbitsCategories: art Astronomy brands Cosmology design Food / Beverage funny futurism health and nutrition Insane movies music Nature philosophy Physics politics privacy science social media stream of thought / consciousness tech television time lapse video games words