When Kites Go Bad August 31, 2020
Posted by geoff in News.4 comments
Kite festival in Taiwan. 3-year old entangled in kite strings. Terror ensues.
Qwertyuiart August 30, 2020
Posted by geoff in News.5 comments
As someone who struggled to get a B in his high school typing class (IBM Selectric II, baby!), I think this is just cruel.
COVID-19 Update: Through 8-28-2020 August 29, 2020
Posted by geoff in News.5 comments
Haven’t updated the COVID-19 chart in a while, mainly because they keep finding new deaths and changing all the data for the past 5 months. Got tired of updating it, so this time I just screengrabbed Worldometer’s chart:
Casualties are falling, but ever so slowly.
Entertaining Riotous Conspiracy Thoughts August 26, 2020
Posted by geoff in News.7 comments
Seems like for riots to persist this long you have to have a combination of:
- A sympathetic local (and national) media
- Anti-police mayor & city council
- A DA who refuses to prosecute arrested rioters
Kind of wonder if some of the cities (where a police shooting of a black person didn’t happen) were handpicked for having the right combination.
Campaign Verbiage Goals August 24, 2020
Posted by geoff in News.11 comments
Interesting campaigning situation this year.
We want Biden to talk more to prove that he can…
…and we want Trump to talk less to prove that he can.
Throwback Thursday August 20, 2020
Posted by skinbad in Heroes, Man Laws.9 comments
I was trying to explain this to a couple of my kids a few days ago and it took me a little searching to find them. I’m glad they’re still out there. I wonder if the people behind ad campaigns like this are appreciated by their peers a few years down the road. I hope so.
Pants on a Frog August 17, 2020
Posted by Sobek in News.16 comments
In the 18th Century, if you were a fertility researcher, it might have been your job to put tiny pants on a frog.
“You might value pants for their leg-sheathing, buttock-concealing and pocket-generating powers – but they can also serve as frog genital shackles, and they played a critical role in 18th century fertility research.”
I didn’t even keep reading the article, because there’s absolutely no way the author could top the majesty of that opening paragraph.
COVID-19 Update: Through 8-16-2020 August 17, 2020
Posted by geoff in News.1 comment so far
Well, we certainly seem to have stopped the increase in COVID-19 deaths:
Daily new cases are dropping as well, suggesting that we should start to see a decline in the casualty rate. Here’s the daily cases chart I shamelessly stole from worldometers.
Fighting Off the Insidious Effects of Coloring Books August 16, 2020
Posted by geoff in News.2 comments
We will never reach peak ‘tard, and I will never stop clicking on the clickbait.
Case in point: a couple of days ago Emanuele Lugli, an instructor in art at Stanford, started worrying about the stultifying effects of coloring (link goes to Slate):
The Dark, Forgotten History of Coloring Books
A medium celebrated for its stress relief in quarantine has a more sinister side.
What if the recent popularity of coloring books comes not from the creativity they purportedly inspire, but from the submission they induce? This, after all, has been their mission from the start. It may be lost to the fans of coloring books that their success peaked in the 19th century, when such publications taught children how to behave. And obedience seems to be what many of us crave in these pandemic days.
…
To color is to inhabit a world designed by others, to dwell in an environment where you are left with no options but to memorize what is already there. But I am in no need to be reminded of what a small, limited life feels like: I live it and am tired of it. I am even more tired of the tamed fantasies that coloring books want me to make my own.
Newsflash for Mr. Lugli: coloring is a contract between you and the artist who drew the outlines. The artist promises that if you stay within the lines and pick halfway-decent colors, you’ll end up with something that looks pretty good without requiring much skill or effort.
The artist does not expect you to find inspiration or exercise much creativity – it’s a somewhat engaging, very short term project with a clear goal but no point. Like paint-by-numbers or the illustrious jigsaw puzzle, people with no artistic talent can make something that’s a little bit cool.
…something that’s usually discarded within a day because there was never any meaning or attachment to it.
The fact that someone who considers himself an artist finds the medium limiting or even confining is unsurprising. It’s like a race car driver feeling restricted by driving a minivan (though I personally feel like the thrills of driving a minivan on public roads far exceeds those from driving something that corners well and hugs the road).
What is surprising is that he found coloring to be worthy of comparison to art, which makes me suspect that his art credentials are not very impressive.
I don’t think he’s ready for Spirograph.
Weeping Willow August 15, 2020
Posted by Sobek in News.1 comment so far
Playing around some more with my new pastel set. Also, Weeping Willow by the Verve:
Innocent Bystanders 