Permit me to suggest my fave Xmas movie, “'Lady in the Lake,' a 1947 American film noir starring Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows, an adaptation of the 1943 Raymond Chandler murder mystery directed by Montgomery. Seeking to capitalize on an intended Christmas theme, the script changes the novel's midsummer setting to the Holidays, frequently using cheery Yuletide themes as an ironic counterpoint to grim aspects of the story. The opening credits appear on a stack of Christmas cards, the last of which reveals a handgun.”
So it came up below but it's kind of a separate subject. Preserving jobs. Nobody likes to see people lose jobs, but in the end there is no industry safe from obsolescence.
I think part of my perspective on this comes from the fact that I come from an area that was part of the original industrial revolution and what happened after that. Haverhill, where I live now, once produced 10% of the shoes in the US. It's called "Shoe City" or "Queen Slipper City". There are no shoe factories here. Amesbury, a couple of towns over is known as "Carriage Town" because they made a lot of carriages. And upholstery for carriages. Newburyport is called "Clipper City" because they built clipper ships. Amesbury has no carriage factories and Newburyport's harbor silted up a century ago.
So to me, the idea of "preserving jobs" seems pretty pointless. Could all those jobs have been saved? SHOULD all those jobs be saved? Should we still be building carriages in Amesbury or making shoes in Haverhill that cost 10 times as much as the same shoe made in Bangladesh? And if the answer was yes in the beginning but obviously not now, then when would the cutoff be?
In the end, simply "preserving jobs" just maintains inefficiency and prevents progress. It's also an excuse to cut down trees, mine coal, burn oil, and all kinds of other nasty shit.
'The Thin Man' takes place on Xmas Day, and 'The Thin Man Returns' is a direct sequel taking place on New Year's Day. For that, these movies make a drlightful one-two holiday punch.
'The Thin Man Goes Home' is quite witty and enjoyable entry to the seties.
The tendency is to see a bunch or rectangles at first glance. If you defocus a little and/or begin to direct your gaze to something else, the circles pop out in a 4x4 grid. I wonder if this could be a result of the "straight line" detection machinery having preference over the "arced line" machinery in the visual cortex. Alternatively, it's about the spatial resolution of the patterns: the straight lines have a much tighter periodicity than the circles, so they grab the attention first.
Prohibition was an unmitigated disaster. (Still is in its War on Drugs form.) Last time I checked, though, per-capita alcohol consumption never made it back up to pre-prohibition levels, although we're heading that way now.
Katz reminded me of a lovely memory. Way back in the day... We were still in Connecticut, so I was like five.. Our dog was neutered and then camped out in front of the fridge for a few days, laying on his back, waiting for the cold air.
Oh man. That dog went through a lot. We moved to Japan a year later and he had to be quarantined (Japan doesn't have rabies, so at that time all pets you brought in had to be quarantined. I don't know if that's still true.)
Apparently the House GQP assholes are all mad at the other 8 assholes who ditched McCarthy. McCarthy is a spineless coward, but apparently he was THEIR spineless coward, and he was very good at raising money.
Seriously! Their big focus is on impeaching Hunter Biden, and making sure that Ukraine doesn't get any money to fight Russia, and to keep Hispanics out of the country. That's their ENTIRE platform.
Plus they know that our economy, especially in rural areas, depends on laborers from Spanish-speaking countries, papers or not. Just walk into any gas station or grocery store in Iowa. Visit 'Woodman's' in Eau Claire. Check out roofing crews anywhere. It's bullshit.
Almost all the construction labor in my city is Hispanic. I was amused when Trump was chasing Hispanics out of the country when the housing economy was booming. I said to my mom "I hope people like paying an extra $50,000 for their houses." That was right before housing prices went bananas, and one of the reasons was soaring labor costs. SMRT!
Yeah, my guess is that he's retiring as a "fuck you" to his fellow House idiots, but he'll get to retire to spend more time with the Koch's big, fat, pile of fossil fuel cash.
How grotesque. This whole billionaire-funded venture of paying for people in public service positions *not* to do their jobs and/or fuck up the institutions where they work, needs to be stopped.
This country was moronic to agree to endlessly cut taxes on billionaires, and to let the Supreme Court decide to allow unlimited dark money in elections. They basically legalized graft.
Thomas and Alito are probably 2 of the most corrupt assholes who've ever squatted on the SC, and I don't think Boof Kavanaugh is far behind them in the corruption department.
Reminds me, I think we are due for a new Randy Rainbow, unless he is busy on tour. Certainly there is enough going on we could use both his perspective and humor.
Permit me to suggest my fave Xmas movie, “'Lady in the Lake,' a 1947 American film noir starring Robert Montgomery, Audrey Totter, Lloyd Nolan, Tom Tully, Leon Ames and Jayne Meadows, an adaptation of the 1943 Raymond Chandler murder mystery directed by Montgomery. Seeking to capitalize on an intended Christmas theme, the script changes the novel's midsummer setting to the Holidays, frequently using cheery Yuletide themes as an ironic counterpoint to grim aspects of the story. The opening credits appear on a stack of Christmas cards, the last of which reveals a handgun.”
William Powell made every movie great. Even today, he would be an everyman’s man.
This movie is hilarious, and the dialog still holds up very well. Reminds me of a Preston Sturges film
It may not be "a" holiday movie, but I watch it every holiday season. And I laugh out loud every year at the tabloids line!
So hot, the pianist keeps a fire extinguisher handy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZY9_Xr5XPA
So it came up below but it's kind of a separate subject. Preserving jobs. Nobody likes to see people lose jobs, but in the end there is no industry safe from obsolescence.
I think part of my perspective on this comes from the fact that I come from an area that was part of the original industrial revolution and what happened after that. Haverhill, where I live now, once produced 10% of the shoes in the US. It's called "Shoe City" or "Queen Slipper City". There are no shoe factories here. Amesbury, a couple of towns over is known as "Carriage Town" because they made a lot of carriages. And upholstery for carriages. Newburyport is called "Clipper City" because they built clipper ships. Amesbury has no carriage factories and Newburyport's harbor silted up a century ago.
So to me, the idea of "preserving jobs" seems pretty pointless. Could all those jobs have been saved? SHOULD all those jobs be saved? Should we still be building carriages in Amesbury or making shoes in Haverhill that cost 10 times as much as the same shoe made in Bangladesh? And if the answer was yes in the beginning but obviously not now, then when would the cutoff be?
In the end, simply "preserving jobs" just maintains inefficiency and prevents progress. It's also an excuse to cut down trees, mine coal, burn oil, and all kinds of other nasty shit.
We need to get to The Culture or The Federation, stat.
Lets go with The Federation. Culture space ships have the best names but they are fucking moody.
Whut
'The Thin Man' takes place on Xmas Day, and 'The Thin Man Returns' is a direct sequel taking place on New Year's Day. For that, these movies make a drlightful one-two holiday punch.
'The Thin Man Goes Home' is quite witty and enjoyable entry to the seties.
Ballad of a Thin Man –by Bob Dylan
.
Because something is happening here
But ya' don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?
–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=we37yX3zpKA
.
(story of my life!)
Now I'm gonna have this song stuck in my head for at least two weeks.
And someone says "what is?"
There's something happening here,
But what it is ain't exactly clear.
There's a man with a gun over there,
Telling me I got to beware.
In the opening scene, love Nick's instructing the bartenders on how to shake different cocktails.
Here's a brain teaser for your Sunday morning. There are 16 circles in the image.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d65ac8d79f5fc0489ce9f6b228c48e0f4020f9b334b571fca7f9d70da54d47d7.jpg?w=800&h=634
The tendency is to see a bunch or rectangles at first glance. If you defocus a little and/or begin to direct your gaze to something else, the circles pop out in a 4x4 grid. I wonder if this could be a result of the "straight line" detection machinery having preference over the "arced line" machinery in the visual cortex. Alternatively, it's about the spatial resolution of the patterns: the straight lines have a much tighter periodicity than the circles, so they grab the attention first.
There are no arced lines - that's what makes the circles difficult to perceive when you're looking closely.
YES! That's what makes the arc so difficult to detect initially. It's an arc implied by the pattern of straight lines intersecting!
I see dozens but I'm looking at them edge on.
found them!!! Took a few minutes. Thanks, that was fun!
One commenter, "a few more whiskies might help".
well, "show me the way to the next whiskey bar..."
I'm hungover enough from b-day celebration last night that I see 100,000 circles in that image.
Once you see 'em, you can't un-see 'em.
Someone mentioned Steve Miller earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmkUaskSjaQ
I love that early Steve Miller Band stuff.
I love Ben Sidran's piano.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lp7x6rmHgM
Did they REALLY drink that much Back in the Day? If so, how did they get anything done?
Prohibition was an unmitigated disaster. (Still is in its War on Drugs form.) Last time I checked, though, per-capita alcohol consumption never made it back up to pre-prohibition levels, although we're heading that way now.
" per-capita alcohol consumption never made it back up to pre-prohibition levels, "
prolly because people found other ways to get fucked up.
we're heading that way now
"Ooh! Cannabis for the interception! I didn't know they could move that fast."
"They can't really, they're just a lot more coordinated than Team Alcohol."
Supply *will* meet Demand.
Well they drank out of what are today in fact known as "Nick and Nora glasses."
Whereas today it's the martinis what got big.
Blissfully, ignorantly.
No wonder they had a Depression...
Very slowly.
I swear to gawd that when I die I want to be EMBALMED with champagne.
Katz reminded me of a lovely memory. Way back in the day... We were still in Connecticut, so I was like five.. Our dog was neutered and then camped out in front of the fridge for a few days, laying on his back, waiting for the cold air.
Oh man. That dog went through a lot. We moved to Japan a year later and he had to be quarantined (Japan doesn't have rabies, so at that time all pets you brought in had to be quarantined. I don't know if that's still true.)
Then we moved him to California six years later.
He was a good dog.
I wonder what kind of accent he barked with.....
"Shazooom!"
This might make you physically ill if you choose to watch all the way through. Kevin McCarthy on CBS Sunday Morning today. It was painful to watch.
https://youtu.be/ClzkKXh9lxs
It's ALWAYS painful to watch Qevin McCarthy.
Wow, I "missed" it. Sorry you had to see it.
Huge pliosaur skull is huge.
𝗣𝗹𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗮𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆: 𝗛𝘂𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗗𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗳𝘀
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67650247
That headline really had me hoping.
Likely just a fake skeleton placed there by an all-knowing being to test our faith in folk legends from a bronze age tribe of desert dwellers.
And some angel has to mess with every radio-carbon dating that's done on earth so they don't ALL say "6,000 years." Talk about a crap job ...
OMG, the thing nightmares are made of!
I'm a bit more disturbed by that bite-force graphic.
They don't specify WHICH human.
Isn't that Obama?
The undead ones.
Haha, yeah, imagining sharing the water with *that* guy is a bit teeth-chattering!
Ooh, this is so cool; thanks for sharing.
Apparently the House GQP assholes are all mad at the other 8 assholes who ditched McCarthy. McCarthy is a spineless coward, but apparently he was THEIR spineless coward, and he was very good at raising money.
So sad.
I'll pour one out for my homie Qevin.
What a stomach-turning lot the R’s are.
Seriously! Their big focus is on impeaching Hunter Biden, and making sure that Ukraine doesn't get any money to fight Russia, and to keep Hispanics out of the country. That's their ENTIRE platform.
Plus they know that our economy, especially in rural areas, depends on laborers from Spanish-speaking countries, papers or not. Just walk into any gas station or grocery store in Iowa. Visit 'Woodman's' in Eau Claire. Check out roofing crews anywhere. It's bullshit.
Almost all the construction labor in my city is Hispanic. I was amused when Trump was chasing Hispanics out of the country when the housing economy was booming. I said to my mom "I hope people like paying an extra $50,000 for their houses." That was right before housing prices went bananas, and one of the reasons was soaring labor costs. SMRT!
The prison labor industrial complex enters the chat...
2/3 just plain evil, 1/3 just plain dumb. And these fucks are making major $$$$. Gross.
GOP = Gross Old Party
He's still going to do that this cycle at least, I'm sure.
But now he's less beholden to raising for "the party" and more able to just pick and choose from his allies.
Yeah, my guess is that he's retiring as a "fuck you" to his fellow House idiots, but he'll get to retire to spend more time with the Koch's big, fat, pile of fossil fuel cash.
How grotesque. This whole billionaire-funded venture of paying for people in public service positions *not* to do their jobs and/or fuck up the institutions where they work, needs to be stopped.
This country was moronic to agree to endlessly cut taxes on billionaires, and to let the Supreme Court decide to allow unlimited dark money in elections. They basically legalized graft.
Thomas and Alito are probably 2 of the most corrupt assholes who've ever squatted on the SC, and I don't think Boof Kavanaugh is far behind them in the corruption department.
Reminds me, I think we are due for a new Randy Rainbow, unless he is busy on tour. Certainly there is enough going on we could use both his perspective and humor.