May 07, 2015
Election whimsy
I do have to say I'm enjoying reading the list of all the parties participating in the UK election today. With partial results (199 seats reporting out of 650) we have something called "Plaid Cymru" which has managed to bag 3 seats with 153,513 votes. Scotland? I assume so.
But it's further down the list where it gets fun:
"Class War" party currently has 59 votes.
"Monster Raving Loony Party" has 358. (Wasn't this one in Monty Python?)
"Yorkshire First" has 647.
"Cannabis is Safer Than Alcohol" has 4,121. (Gotta be Cambridge!!!)
Man, we Americans miss out on the fun.
Actually, not totally. A couple of years ago there was the "Rent is Too Damned High" party in NYC.
The British party I'm rooting for is UKIP, who currently have 863,441 votes but no seats yet. Anyone who hates the EU can't be all bad.
UPDATE: Oh, brother. Monster Raving Loony Party has a website!
UPDATE: Plaid Cymru is in Wales, it turns out.
UPDATE: The Conservatives have an absolute majority in Parliament and can form a government without any coalition partner. Which is a shock. Labour lost 23 seats; the LibDems lost 48, leaving only 8. The Conservatives gained 23 seats.
UKIP only has one seat, but it got 3.9 million votes, coming in third.
If you want a morning grin, check out Metafilter's response as the results come in. Start here.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at
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Yes, Cymru is Wales. I only know that because of Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at May 07, 2015 10:35 PM (PiXy!)
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I could tell Plaid Cymru was the Welsh nationalist party, only because it was occasionally mentioned by Andrew Breen back in the days when I read the sci.military.naval USENET group.
Posted by: cxt217 at May 08, 2015 09:04 AM (1QyNw)
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"The British party I'm rooting for is UKIP"
According to the British guy I know, who, for the sake of this comment I'll call "the average Brit", UKIP are all a bunch of nasty racists, presumably without any redeeming features. In spite of the fact that about all you hear of them outside the UK is that they're a bunch of racists, somehow, they just are, because the news is censored or just not reported on or something. Or so I'm told.
So you and I are probably bad people for liking them.
Posted by: RickC at May 08, 2015 11:27 AM (ECH2/)
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I tend to like UKIP too, although they have no track record of governing, but the logic of "enemy of those awful guys must be good" leaves a lot to be desired. Look no further than the unsavory characters who overthrew the previous government of Ukraine and declared their opposition to Putin. We also weaseled around this dilemma in the Middle East before W. declared that we aren't friends of awful dictators just because they pretend not to like Iran. In short, I need to look at the true character of UKIP, especially their stance on basic freedoms, before I declare support.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at May 08, 2015 11:33 AM (RqRa5)
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Another reason I'm rooting for the UKIP is that progressives accuse them of being racist.
Modern usage of that word has long since lost any resemblance to the traditional meaning it once held. The current joke is that a "racist" is anyone winning an argument with a progressive. (And a "sexist" is any man winning an argument with a progressive woman.)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 08, 2015 11:47 AM (+rSRq)
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I am inclined to favor UKIP, but with a certain degree of caution - a few of their members were noticed working with Russians and European fellow travelers spreading pro-Putin/anti-West propaganda in Brussels last year. I do not think it is a good idea to ally with Putin's government even if they are the enemy of the EU.
Posted by: cxt217 at May 08, 2015 03:34 PM (5G4zh)
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Hmm. I wonder how crazy the Metas would get if someone were to mention that the sudden rise of UKIP in spite of the lack of parliamentary seats mirrors the 1930 electoral results for the National Socialist German Workers' party.
It technically doesn't; the Nazis placed second instead of third, and got no seats until the Reichstag elections two years later. But when have the facts ever stopped the Metafilter community from freaking out?
Posted by: Tatterdemalian at May 08, 2015 04:22 PM (4njWT)
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Oh dear.
They just described the BBC as part of the right wing plutocrat press.
Suddenly...everything tastes purple.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at May 09, 2015 04:12 PM (ohzj1)
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May 06, 2015
May 03, 2015
Don't mess with Texas
Some people in Texas held an art show today for pictures of Mohammed.
Obviously it was a provocation, and a pair of jihadis showed up to make the party complete. Latest word is that one policeman was shot in the leg, and has been released from the hospital. Meanwhile, the jihadis are both cooling.
They haven't been taken to any hospital because there was a strong suspicion that they were wired with explosives. So they got left where they fell until the bomb squad could check them out. I don't get the impression anyone is in any hurry, either.
Yes, the art show was a deliberate provocation. No doubt about that at all. But our right of free speech has been getting seriously eroded in the last few years by various forms of heckler vetos, and it was about time someone stood up for it. Some of the hecklers are willing to die in order to shut us all up. The only way to preserve our right is for some of us to risk death to prove how important it is.
Let's make something really clear: If we don't have the right to deeply offend other people, then we aren't free at all. If I can only say things that no one objects to, then I am a slave. The right of free speech must include offensive speech, including "hate speech", or it is meaningless.
The people who attended the show knew exactly what they were doing. (I wonder how many of them were carrying concealed?) Pam Geller, the organizer, wasn't stupid; apparently they spent $10,000 on security. From the evidence it was well spent.
As always, the press is trying to ignore what's obvious to everyone else. Wapo says:
The incident occurred outside theCurtis Culwell Center where the New York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) was hosting a contest that would award $10,000 for the best cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad, according to the Associated Press. But Harn said its still unclear whether the shooting was related to the event.
Horseshit! If it's unclear to you, then you're blind!
The AFDI is classified as an anti-Muslim "hate group†by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Its leader, according to the group's social media postings, is Pamela Geller.
The Southern Povery Law Center's "hate group" listing has become notorious last couple of years because it paints with a ridiculously broad brush, and has included some absurd choices. But the point here for the Wapo is "See, those idiots holding this art show are h8ters; they brought this on themselves."
Putting a crucifix into a bottle of urine? Art!
Drawing a cartoon of Mohammed? Hate Speech!
Bullshit.
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May 01, 2015
Volcanoes, again?
Seems we're having another volcanic eruption right now. I didn't know about this one.
It would be awesome if it crested out of the water, like Surtsey did, but that won't happen for thousands of years if ever. Pity.
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how-old.net
It says I'm 67. I'm actually 61. But I admit I'm not aging gracefully. (But I didn't go bald!!!)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at
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Posted by: Wonderduck at May 02, 2015 07:36 AM (jGQR+)
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Says my wife is 23, off by a decade. Says I'm 63, off by 7 years. But I can't fault that last, the chemo aged me quite a bit.
Posted by: Brett Bellmore at May 02, 2015 09:46 AM (L5yWw)
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My stroke took a lot out of me, too.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 02, 2015 10:31 AM (+rSRq)
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April 28, 2015
This should be a really strange experience
Tomorrow the Chicago White Sox will play against the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore, in an empty stadium because of the riots. I assume it will be televised, but the players don't see that. All they'll see, and hear, is nothing. The only cheering they'll hear is their teammates.
I wonder how it'll go? Has this ever happened before?
UPDATE: MLB is making this game their "free game of the day" on their website.
UPDATE: The Orioles won, 8-2.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at
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It's happened with soccer, although not in the US. It's imposed as a punishment for teams whose fans are excessively violent. Naturally, there's a Wikipedia page on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behind_closed_doors_%28football%29
Posted by: Boviate at April 28, 2015 04:34 PM (iiTgy)
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 28, 2015 04:49 PM (+rSRq)
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I listen to sports-talk radio pretty much all day. The station I listen to,
WSCR-AM 670, is the home station of the White Sox. During the afternoon show, they brought up the question if it's ever happened before.
At least in the US, the answer is no, not like this. There was, apparently,
a game between the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners in 1979 that had an actual attendance of 250 (653 paid). It had been raining all day in Oakland, and at gametime it was windy and a chilly 43 degrees. It was also one of the first times ever an A's home game was televised, and the team was horrific to boot. But that's not exactly the same as what's going on here.
The only zero anybody came up with was
Siena College in 1989. An outbreak of measles on campus forced the men's basketball team to play seven games at home without spectators, and this for a team that wound up
going to the NCAA tournament.
So, yeah, that's about as close as we've come to this situation.
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 28, 2015 06:51 PM (jGQR+)
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I can understand why that basketball team had to play that way. All it would take is a couple of people who were infectious and didn't realize it to spread the disease far and wide in a big crowd who were together for a couple of hours.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 28, 2015 09:34 PM (+rSRq)
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As it was, one of the Siena players came down with it and during the course of a game probably infected a player from the University of Hartford before he displayed symptoms.
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 28, 2015 09:51 PM (jGQR+)
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 29, 2015 02:34 PM (jGQR+)
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Not just any golf competition, either. His reference to "green jacket" means he was thinking of The Masters, in Atlanta.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 29, 2015 06:42 PM (+rSRq)
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April 27, 2015
Site format changes
Today seems to be the day for it. Townhall just changed their format and I don't like it. BakaBT just changed their format, and I'm suspending judgment until after they fix some bugs.
NRO changed their format a couple of months ago and I stopped reading it.
I assure you all I am not planning to change the format of this page.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at
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Thanks for the small miracle. There is nothing more irritating to see that a website changed their look so they could 'look modern' or because the old design was getting too boring. Inevitably, the changes tend to make the site harder to read (Sometimes, literally so - the change to a light font on a light color background is most irritating.).
...And that is not including malware coming from the ads, bad scripting which leads the page hanging, and changing all the internal page names so that my favorite links will no longer work...
Posted by: cxt217 at April 27, 2015 07:13 PM (KJJfH)
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Same design at RACS for 14 years. We've run it thru the wash cycle every Jan-Feb for 7 or 8 years now, but can never come up with anything better, just fancier and more 'modern' looking. And our old clunky site looks great on a tablet. Most importantly, I still like it. No plans to change here unless we have to.
Posted by: Bob (aka Robert) at April 28, 2015 12:53 AM (/38s5)
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Thank heavens for small blessings, Bob!
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 28, 2015 07:38 AM (jGQR+)
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Bob has a point about the inexorable march of the technology forcing site changes. The trouble is, most sites adopt to tablets by making poor decisions and blowing money on fraudulent consultants.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at April 28, 2015 09:03 AM (RqRa5)
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I'm pretty sure BakaBT made a number of their less popular changes to make the site more 'mobile friendly'. (eg. more items that were on the page now under menus to take less screen real estate. The real tip-off is the way they put bookmark, wishlist, etc under a menu icon made of several horizontal lines, a standard mobile iconology)
Like most they seem to have ignored that mobile friendly = less desktop friendly. (RACS being a positive exception!)
Posted by: StargazerA5 at April 28, 2015 12:27 PM (5YSpE)
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I can't think of any good reason why BakaBT should become mobile friendly. How many people run torrents on their mobiles?
Anyone looking for a torrent to download is going to be doing it on a standard computer, not a mobile.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 28, 2015 05:22 PM (+rSRq)
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The JPL site recently turned into a gigantic pile of suck.
Posted by: Mark A. Flacy at April 28, 2015 10:04 PM (PClZt)
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Believe it or not, some people only own a smartphone or tablet, and not a laptop or desktop computer. A subset of those people run torrent clients. There are 50-100 million installs of the µTorrent for Android client on Google Play alone (and 1,379,232 reviews!). I would have guessed the install base was in the hundreds of thousands before looking it up.
Posted by: John at April 29, 2015 11:29 AM (jY+2F)
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April 17, 2015
SJWs pop an artery
BoingBoing posted this picture on Twitter:
And the response was ferocious.
How many SJWs does it take to change a light bulb?
UPDATE:
Who are you calling "Kitty kitty kitty"?
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at
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...and they deleted it.
Posted by: RickC at April 17, 2015 01:14 PM (ECH2/)
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I should have stored a copy of it. A lot of the responses amounted to "Apologize!"
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 17, 2015 02:49 PM (+rSRq)
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I guess we're back to short people, fat people, and Canadians as the only ones we can make jokes about.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 17, 2015 03:04 PM (+rSRq)
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How about this? "Speciation is a social construct."
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 17, 2015 03:06 PM (+rSRq)
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April 16, 2015
Mundanes will believe anything
Someone in the UK is under the impression that underboob blue ribbons are a new fashion trend in Japan.
Which of course is baloney. The only place it'll show up is Hestia cosplay.
It's interesting going through something like Yandere (NSFW) to see what characters have, and have not, caught on with fan artists. And based on what I saw just now, Hestia is a hit. Dunno about the show, but the artists love her.
Fino Bloodstone whiffed entirely; there are only 11 (NSFW). Hestia already has 72 (NSFW) and that show has only been out for a couple of weeks.
UPDATE: Having said that, I'm sure the ribbon is part of the reason why Hestia is so popular so far, and it was a stroke of genius by the character designer.
UPDATE: Here are some others (without links):
Louise 567
Misaka Mikoto 738
Super Sonico 317
Sonsaku Hakufu 155
Rias Gremory 120
Millhiore F. Biscoti 128
Lucy Heartfilia 47
Eris 56
Sento Isuzu 218
Haramura Nodoka 185
Maka Albarn 131
Ishiki Akane 66
The popularity of Railgun is a bit of a surprise.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Weird World at
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Some people tested it out for practicality. Doesn't really work - not in the right place to provide any support. (Of course if you're a goddess that might not be an issue?)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at April 16, 2015 05:04 PM (zJsIy)
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Some people tested it out for practicality...
"Practicality..."
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at April 16, 2015 06:19 PM (ohzj1)
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Erp...
Well, that went poorly.
In any event, Avatar's comment should not surprise me, and yet...
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at April 16, 2015 06:24 PM (ohzj1)
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This is what Brickmuppet tried to link to.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at April 16, 2015 06:48 PM (+rSRq)
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Daarn, now I have to rewatch that.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at April 16, 2015 07:08 PM (RqRa5)
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April 12, 2015
How to start a riot
I wonder what would happen if someone attended a leftist demonstration carrying a sign that said, "Execute Mumia"?
(Which won't happen. The governor commuted his sentence from "death" to "life without parole". But we can still dream.)
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