7am and 83F. More hotness, and not the sexy kind….
Woke up this morning thinking about lies. Funny that SteveF’s last comment yesterday was about lies. I’ve told my kids to keep trying to lie to me to. My wife was horrified. They NEED to be able to lie, well and convincingly, and to know WHEN and to whom they should attempt lying.
Lying and our relationship to lies is one of the things that separates kids from adults. Our entire world is built on lies, polite fictions, “aspirational statements”, and myth.
Cognitive dissonance is the result of lying to ourselves. Insanity is the result when we are forced to behave as if we believed obvious lies. Propaganda in the USSR, and the “PC” culture in the USA both force one to act on beliefs that are verifiably false, as though they are true.
Advertising is pervasive and almost always a lie. The myths of our culture are lies told to shape and support who we want to be as a people. The masks we wear while interacting with others are almost certainly lies of omission, if not fact.
And yet, we expect and respect honesty. We DEMAND it from leaders while we KNOW they can’t tell us everything for good and practical reasons. We lie to our kids, and teach them that the bedrock foundation of their lives is untrustworthy.
In order for our ‘high trust’ society to work, we have to accept the lies and act as if they were honesty, both in ourselves and others. When the willingness to do so breaks down, and we assume the lies are based in ill will rather than in shared common goals, our society breaks down. Our relationships break down, and our civilization breaks down.
n
Only 67f when I began my commute this morning. It was almost cool. Is this a sign that fall is coming early? Nah … no such luck. This is just a teaser before a sweltering August I’m sure.
I was just reading about the latest WorldCon kerfuffle. The organizers “misgendered” a disturbed snowflake, who wants the world to use made-up words (e/em/eir/emself) to address him. Oh dear, simply dreadful. Guess what, you don’t get to redefine the English language; the world is not about you.
WorldCon also canceled an event for “marginalized creators”. Reading between the lines – that apparently refers to authors whom no one outside their circle particularly cares about. And the whole program was apparently too little oriented towards social justice. All the snowflakes and SJWs are up in arms, while the actual fans of actual SF&F are avoiding the convention in droves.
That sucking sound? That’s the end of the flush, as WorldCon and the Hugo awards finally go down the toilet. Oh, of course, WorldCon is in California. Where else would they find enough fruits and nuts to fill their seats?
77º and Sunny today. The weekend was busy, and yesterday was catchup day. It’s a great life if you don’t weaken.
Lies are great. They’re especially good when you have a well-earned reputation for honesty. I don’t respect liars, but I can respect honest people who lie when necessary. The classic response to “do these pants make me look fat?” is a good one, though I would NEVER lie about that. What good does the truth do when all it accomplishes is hurting the person being addressed?
Politicians are going to lie. Advertisers are going to shade the truth. Salesmen are going to make their product sound like the best thing ever. Understanding that and the dissonance that entails is the key to surviving in this day. I don’t hold it against them, but if they tell me the sun is shining I’m going to go outside & check before I believe them.
And I always thought that the kind of people who read “speculative” fiction and attended WorldCon were open minded and inclusive. I know that back in the 80’s when I went to a few WorldCons I met mostly Libertarian folk. This whole business with the Hugos recently and SJWs taking over and redefining what is “acceptable” fiction is bull crap. I’ll read who I want and don’y you snowflakes try and stop me. You would think with digital media and self publishing taking off that there would be room for everyone and every view. But I guess some viewpoints are more equal than others.
There are two primary genders. There are undoubtedly folks that are confused. I feel bad for them. There are folks that are XXY or XYY. I feel bad for them as well. They can call themselves whatever they want. I’m not going to go to the effort of memorizing all the various contortions for addressing them. Shoot – I’m lucky if I can remember a person’s name an hour after I meet him. I have neither the capacity nor the will to remember all that other crap.
But humanity continues through men & women (XY and XX) procreating. Anything else is an evolutionary dead-end. They can call it whatever they want, but if it ain’t makin’ babies, it’s the end of the line for their genes, so they don’t really matter.
As for gender confusion. I have my own theory. I beleive in reincarnation and feel that many issues of gender confusion come from subconsious memories of life as another gender. I understand that reincarnation is not an accepted premise but based on my research and personal experiences, this is my view.
Speaking of lies:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/07/fake-hate-texas-waiter-made-up-story-about-racist-islamophobic-tipper-hatehoax/
n
YUUUP, so I introduce myself as in a W. C. Fields movie.
E.G., “I’m Bob, big b, small o, small b.” Good ice breaker….always gets a smile and chuckle.
If I remember correctly, Bob is not your name. So you’re just trying to confuse people. I see how you are.
Texas Waiter Khalil Cavil Made Up Story About Racist-Islamophobic
The desire to be a victim in our society is very strong. I looked up some of the stories before the admission that the note was fabricated and all assumed the customers were guilty as charged without question. Some stories even called them “abusers”, which has other connotations. Journalism really is dead.
OK, here is a lie that cannot be tolerated. “A.F. Branco Cartoon – Liar, Leaker and Liberal”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-leaker-liar-and-liberal/
James Comey lied to the FISA court. James Comey paid the Trump Dossier guy one million dollars out of FBI funds. BTW, Himlery paid the Trump Dossier guy fifteen million dollars out of campaign funds as opposition research. James Comey needs to be charged with abuse of office and obstruction of justice.
Breaking Cat News – “emergency Popsicle meeting”
https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2018/07/24
Why do the cats not get popsicles ?
Crankshaft – “gonna find a secret agent”
http://comicskingdom.com/crankshaft/2018-07-24
Had a short power outage this morning. It woke me up – I wear a CPAP mask, and the machine beeps on a power outage. And the oxygen concentrator in the bedroom also beeps when power is interrupted. (The outage happened in the morning, so at least it wasn’t dark.)
Since wife is on oxygen 24/7, we quickly switched over to the portable oxy machine. Then I waited a bit to see if it was a temporary thing.
After 10 minutes, still now power. And the local utility had tweeted the cause; a tree down into wires nearby. So decided to hook up the generator, since those can take a while. It’s a 5000W, and I had previously wired in a transfer switch to 6 of the house circuits.
And I noticed:
1) You need to know how to open the garage door manually (that’s where the generator and electrical panel are. A lot harder if the spring is broken, but I got that fixed last year.
2) Rolled the generator out to the driveway.
3) Got the power cord (generator to bypass switch) out; it’s 10 feet long.
4) Noticed that I needed a longer cord to get the generator farther away from the garage (10′ is recommended to prevent CO2 poisoning). Oops.
5) Hooked up the cord anyway; the generator is only 3 feet away from the garage door.
6) Fuel tank is full.
7) Had to start it manually (has a pull cord), as the battery is dead. (Knew about that.) Fuel on, choke on, 4-5 pulls to get it going.
8) Flipped the bypass panel switches to transfer power from generator to isolated house circuits.
And, it all worked! Then about 5 minutes later, the power was restored. Since I live in a subdivision area, power is usually restored quicker than if I was in a more rural area. I’ve been here about 5 years, and the longest power outage was about 9 hours. Most are under 2 hours.
But, some lessons learned:
1) I need to get a longer generator-to-bypass-switch power cord. That will get ordered this week.
2) Battery should be replaced, but the generator pull start works well (the generator is fairly new). Since the pull start works well, probably a lower priority.
3) Twitter is a good way to keep informed; subscribe to your utility’s Twitter account; your utility might post status updates there more often than a FB or web site;.
4) Always keep your cell phone charged. Get a backup battery for the phone. Lots of choices and price range: https://amzn.to/2uOP0vw .
5) The automatic FLASHLIGHTS that plug into a outlet and turn on with a power outage are good things. There are lots of choices, like these https://amzn.to/2LNNHDA .
6) Ensure all FLASHLIGHT batteries are fully charged, are in a place you can quickly find them, and have extra batteries for FLASHLIGHTS and cell phones.
7) Test your generator and connection procedures (like ensuring the power cord is long enough). Have fuel stored as needed (and use fuel stabilizer).
It was a good practice for outages, since there are lots of trees next to power lines here in my area across from Mutiny Bay, WA.
I speak English and I use the pronouns that the target presents as. If you call yourself Jane and have bumbs, tou will be called she/her. If your name is Dick and present as a lumberjack, he/him is what I use.
If you say to use Xe/Xir/Xem I will likely ridicule you and use whatever seems right, if I notice you at all.
But I guess that is my priviledge talking.
“Hard Drive Stats for Q2 2018”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-for-q2-2018/
“As of June 30, 2018 we had 100,254 spinning hard drives in Backblaze’s data centers. Of that number, there were 1,989 boot drives and 98,265 data drives. This review looks at the quarterly and lifetime statistics for the data drive models in operation in our data centers. We’ll also take another look at comparing enterprise and consumer drives, get a first look at our 14 TB Toshiba drives, and introduce you to two new SMART stats. Along the way, we’ll share observations and insights on the data presented and we look forward to you doing the same in the comments.”
Spinning hard drives are becoming more reliable. That is a good thing.
1) You need to know how to open the garage door manually (that’s where the generator and electrical panel are. A lot harder if the spring is broken, but I got that fixed last year.
Very good thing to get fixed. Garage door springs have an incredible amount of energy in them. I have seen one break and unwind. The door header took a big hit in the process but it was on the inside of the garage and I did not care about the visible whacked place in the board. The tech was not hurt but had to take a minute before removing the broken spring and putting a new one in place.
Taking a break to cool down. Took advantage of the slightly cooler temps this am, and the overcast, to get some driveway cleanup done. Mainly involves going thru the pile that is on pallets under tarps and scrapping out what I can. Cleared about 2 pallets worth, mainly because it wasn’t stacked well. Really it should have been about a pallet.
Gonna re-cover everything and do my shipping and kid pickup. Then I’ll get back to it.
If I lose today with paying work, I better make sure I’m getting good value for it.
n
Weasel words–
” been hit by a police round.” SHOT DEAD BY COP is what it should say.
n
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5987349/Los-Angeles-Trader-Joes-manager-27-killed-police-bullet.html
I speak English and I use the pronouns that the target presents as. If you call yourself Jane and have bumbs, tou will be called she/her. If your name is Dick and present as a lumberjack, he/him is what I use.
The 2014 Hugo and Nebula winner book uses female pronouns and adjectives for all characters, no matter what their gender is. I am reading the third book in the series now.
https://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Justice-Imperial-Radch-Leckie/dp/031624662X/?tag=ttgnet-20
Always keep your cell phone charged. Get a backup battery for the phone. Lots of choices and price range
We have a land line with a couple of old school plug-in phones in addition to a cordless system. I pay $$$ for that copper, but we’ve never lost phone service.
Jeez Lynn I can’t believe you made it through two of those.
I read the first one and just thought that everyone in their space navy was a female. Then it dawned on me. I guess I’m slow. Doesn’t one of the characters become a
spaceship?
Gah. So not worth part of my life.
N
I read the first one and just thought that everyone in their space navy was a female. Then it dawned on me. I guess I’m slow. Doesn’t one of the characters become a
spaceship?
Yes, one of characters was an AI for a ship who has been impressed upon a human, a Radch. The character does not even care what gender it is so all Radch’s are female.
Thinking about it, do the Star Trek Borg care what gender they are ? No, they are so integrated into the machines that they have become genderless. That is the Radch.
Here is my review of the second book in the series:
https://www.amazon.com/Ancillary-Sword-Imperial-Radch-Leckie/dp/0316246654/?tag=ttgnet-20
“Book number two of a three book space opera series. Or, it could be military SF. I read the well bound and printed trade paperback. I am now reading the third book in the series.”
“In the far distant future, humanity has dispersed to the stars. Vast new cultures has sprung up, some weak, some strong. And the integration of artificial intelligence to humans has become complete, so much that the AI totally permanently overrides the human consciousness. AIs are now running the Radch organizations, even up to the emperor which is spread over hundreds of bodies, ancillaries.”
“This series continues to distract me by using the female pronouns and adjectives throughout the Radch society for both males and females. It is as if the gender of the person does not matter whatsoever. But other societies in the series do not use the same, weird.”
“My rating: 3.7 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars (499 reviews)”
“To Stop Phishing, Google Gave Security Keys to All Employees”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/362659/to-stop-phishing-google-gave-security-keys-to-all-employees
“Google’s investment in giving USB security keys to all employees has been paying off. The employees haven’t reported any takeovers of work-related accounts since 2017, when the new policy was introduced.”
Interesting. A return to old software dongle days but now for security purposes.
“Federal Court Says Hawaii Must Allow Open Carry of Guns”
https://freebeacon.com/issues/federal-court-says-hawaii-must-allow-open-carry-guns/
“9th Circuit says open-carry ban ‘violated the core of the Second Amendment and was void under any level of scrutiny'”
Wow ! What has happened to the 9th circus ?
They didn’t want to wake up dead?
n
Exactly; however, that is an example of when I do not use my real name. I prefer not to use my real name in a Hollyweird LGBT bar.
-shrug- Maybe I’m an overgrown child. I take as close to an absolutist stance on lying as is possible. An intentional falsehood will not pass my lips. Oh, sure, I joke about everything and I tell stories and I use sarcasm like a stiletto, but if it appears someone believes one of my jokes I clarify immediately. And I’m intolerant of adults who lie. I won’t put up with someone at work making excuses for why he didn’t finish a task when I know damned well the real reason was that he was sitting around joking with coworkers all afternoon.
Yes, this causes me untold problems in all areas of life. Some are the obvious, eg me being considered an asshole for refusing to accept someone’s promise when he’s broken them before, or being screamed at for giving an honest answer when asked my opinion (and after warning them that they might not like it). Another is non-obvious: being called a liar because people cannot accept the concept of someone not telling constant self-serving lies. -shrug- As I said this morning, say whatever you like but be prepared to live with the consequences. I’m willing to take the consequences of my life choice. (And choice it was. I think I’ve mentioned having alcoholics around me as a kid. One of the things alchies are famous for is their constant lying. I got sick of it young and decided how I’d deal with it before I was a teen.)
None of this is inconsistent with telling my kids when they were young that they could lie if they could get away with it. Partly that was lessons in lying cleverly, partly it was lessons in how to spot the signs of a liar, and partly was the concealed edge that they’re better off not trying to lie to me because I’m pretty damned sharp and I’ll penalize them if I catch them at it.
At my place of employment (a call center run my MegaGiant Defense Contractor, Inc.) everyone above the rank of ordinary phone drone has one of those dongles attached to their lanyard. From what I’ve observed, each time you use it to log in, it then generates a new random log in key for next time.
Some people just need killing.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5987507/Baby-boy-kidnapped-set-fire-left-dead-railroad-tracks.html
n
It’s pedos all the way down…
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/07/nude-drawing-of-barron-trump-posted-by-cartoon-networks-rick-and-morty-co-creator-justin-roiland/
This is the partner of the guy who just deleted his twitter over previously publishing a “comedy ” routine featuring infant rape.
n
They’re not necessarily all pedos. Maybe some of them have questionable senses of humor, are trying to be edgy, don’t have a good sense of when a joke’s been pushed too far, think they’re offending only the right-wing nazis, some combination of the above.
Apply Occam’s Razor to find the simplest, and thus most likely, explanation… Yah, they’re pedos.
YUUUP, here is what I do when I am told something with which I disagree. It it one of two things: (1) they are too stupid to know the truth, or (2) they are lying. Well, I give them the benefit of my doubt: those that argue with me are stupid. Consequently, I treat them as such.
Theybies! Yep.
http://takimag.com/article/mamas_dont_let_your_theybies_grow_up_to_be_cowqueers_jim_goad
and pretty soon your head will spin so fast it might fly off
https://www.politico.eu/article/immigrants-migration-culture-integration-sweden-struggles-over-child-marriage/
Congrats to RickH for his successful test of his preps.
Every time we test, we find something to improve. Every time we actually try something new, we find things to tweek, or stuff that doesn’t work as expected. It’s the nature of the beast, and it’s why we test and train.
Time to check batteries, rotate stuff, USE some gear, etc.
n
This is the partner of the guy who just deleted his twitter over previously publishing a “comedy ” routine featuring infant rape.
No comment from Jim Davis. Interesting.
Davis is one of the cartoonists you hear about having a dark side that the public rarely sees. Davis and Lynn Johnston who used to draw “For Better or For Worse”
It would be “Game Over” for “Garfield” if that really is Davis’ signature.
has he drawn Garfield in the last decade? I haven’t been paying attention since I stopped looking at newspapers, but didn’t all the old guys franchise out or die?
n
“theybies”
Oh FFS. What a way to build a mass murderer.
Cleansing fire. Sometimes it can’t come soon enough.
n
I’ve been lucky enough not to run into one of these folks yet, but I’ve decided that I’ll choose to use the pronoun “schnee” to address them if I do. After all, if they’re allowed to make up pronouns for themselves, surely I’m allowed to do that also.