... have a luscious conversation.
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July 18, 2017
At the Succulent Café...
... have a luscious conversation.
(And consider buying something through The Althouse Amazon Portal.)
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65 comments:
That camera (or lens) has a very soft focus, or no focus at all. It looks good at two feet though.
Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff respond, politely, to that Lisa Feldman Barrett violent speech op-ed.
@ Etienne
Enlarge it (by clicking on it twice). There's sharp focus on the flowers and the background is (intentionally) soft.
It's rained enough here in Tucson that one of our little cactuses is blooming again !
The Ocotillos are all leafed out again.
Temp is in the 80s mid day.
Now, if people will just stay out of stream beds.
Everybody's a critic.
I only go to the movies 1 or 2 times a year -- most of it is crap, and my kids (thank God!) have aged past all those damn comic book hero movies.
But, I am definitely going to see Dunkirk this weekend.
I actually downloaded the highest resolution version. I suspect what I'm seeing is just JPEG compression. I guess I was more curious than anything.
My eye's don't seem to focus well with smaller pictures anymore. My eyes are reducing pixels in my old age... The pixels are burning out...
Sempervivum or commonly hens and chicks. Mother plant produces offsets, flowers, then dies. Very hardy. Had one in a half of a geode in college. Survived for a semester or more without any water before I got tired of it.
Sexual offenses by Presidents: I think Trump's peak horndog years have passed and that he'll be reasonably well behaved. He might end up being one of our more chaste presidents, at least while holding office...... FDR had a fairly lively libido, especially for a guy in a wheelchair. His big offense, however, was not his infidelities but by involving his children, especially his daughter, in his intrigues. Eleanor felt doubly betrayed when she learned that not only had FDR died with his mistress but, also, that her daughter had arranged the meeting. Eleanor herself treated her lover Hitchcock as a disposable commodity so she's not entirely sympathetic as a wronged woman.,... Bill Clinton's offense was fairly spectacular, but I would guess that he and Hillary had reached an understanding years before. I think the reverbations were felt more by his followers than by his wife. Defenders of Clinton can't help but look hypocritical when discussing the offenses of Judge Thomas and Trump.........I think the most disturbing sexual offense committed by a President was perpetrated by JFK. The offenses of FDR, Clinton, and Trump were within normal limits. These are the kind of indescretions that someone with means and opportunity might be motivated to act upon. There might be some younger woman in the office from whom a blowjob might offer a welcome break from the day's tedium, but who has ever contemplated ordering some subordinate to fellate another subordinate. That's some weird shit, What's even weirder is that JFK seems to have completely escaped infamy for this weird act.
The Brits were terrible at war. Their Generals had no concepts past frontal assaults. They would spend weeks and months massing their forces for a frontal assault. If and when they did decide to attack, they were slaughtered.
Patton understood this. He despised the British officers. All of them, not just Montgomery.
All those soldiers massacred trying to escape Dunkirk, would have done more good to go guerrilla warfare. They were going to die anyway, so at least take some of the German Army with you.
That concept was utterly beyond them. Patton was accused of giving out too many medals. He would go to the front every day and award medals. He said that he was guilty as charged. However, it was amazing that he could pin a piece of cloth on a man, and that man would get him another kilometer.
He had a secret most troops didn't know. He would always be seen driving to the front lines, but no one saw him return. The secret was, he had a small plane waiting for him, and it would fly him back from the front. Not only that, it allowed him to visualize the front from the air.
... have a luscious conversation.
Just a belated thanks to Freeman Hunt, for yesterday, “The idea of human beings using these robots is so sad (and gross) that I find it hard to heap any social justice scorn on top of the existing patheticness.”
Thanks Freeman,
on the Hunt,
tho you be the devil,
you are fair.
And I, as,
a freeman,
know better,
than to encourage a girl like you,
to do any less,
than,
crawl safe and snug into the house,
and let,
the Wind,
for free,
carry your house, and all that be within,
to crush,
for freemen everywhere,
the Wicked Witch,
and all her toys and bots.
My wife approves,
but doesn’t like the part,
about crushing “all her toys and bots.”
Women, in real life, are worse than bots,
Gotta get back to taming the shrew, or Feste will never be feste again.
@Etienne Look at the 3 flowers in front. You can blow the up really large and see sharp detail.
"The idea of human beings using these robots is so sad (and gross) that I find it hard to heap any social justice scorn on top of the existing patheticness."
What about very old people or disabled people or people who are in remote places or who are terribly unattractive? I think the use of robots shouldn't be disparaged. Think of the thousands of people who could take good advantage of help from robots.
Laslo Films Presents "The Creeper Three: The Creeper Menace"
"The Creeper Three: The Creeper Menace"
Tucker's parole officer Jenkins stops by to discuss an Incident in the Neighborhood.
Could it be that the Creeper's Reign of Terror has returned?
This doesn't happen in Madison. But it could.
Oh yes, IT COULD.
I am Laslo.
"That's some weird shit, What's even weirder is that JFK seems to have completely escaped infamy for this weird act."
I think it was the early 60s and the birth control pill was just coming available. Younger people don't remember that era.
It was a time when sexual license seemed the thing. Suddenly, there were no consequences.
I think the Washington media people all knew but they were probably doing something similar.
I remember reading about a famous TV woman, maybe Barbara Walters, saying John Lindsay had given her crab lice.
They were all fucking each other, like movie stars had done in the 40s. Howard Hawks commented about two of the actors in his movie "Red River" were fucking each other every time they found a level spot
JFK was treated like Obama was by the media. He was their creature.
They all knew Nixon was more competent but he was not good on TV. Kennedy did an appearance on the USC campus when I was a student. A girl I knew, who was very cool and clear headed, went to the rally and came back a Kennedy nut.
The Kennedy people talked about the "jumpers" who were girls who would stand in the crowd and keep jumping so they could see him.
Of course, he took advantage.
Very funny, Laslo -- is that you in the blue t-shirt?
Every time we flew in Iceland the first time with a new crew, we would head north to Jan Mayan island (yahn my-ahn).
This was always exciting for the people on the island, because they would always answer the radio and we would give them something to look at way up high.
One day we asked them how many were left, as it was winter time, and they said it was two guys, a girl and a dog.
So our uncouth radio operator, before I could stop him, asked "who gets the dog?"
It was so embarrassing. I apologized to them, and told them he was just an enlisted man, and would be dealt with when we landed back in Iceland.
They told us not to be too harsh, because the supply boat was two weeks late, and the dog was starting to look more and more like a steak dinner. "It may turn out that we all will have him."
Yea, I guess Norwegians didn't quite get the joke...
Dunkirk and detail ...
“You can blow the up really large and see sharp detail.”
Ouch on a rant. Was thinking, yesterday with all the blow up doll-bots, about a young fellow, on a base where I once served, who got caught by the LtCol, with a blow-up doll, drunk outside the fence of the base, dead-drunk, in the grass.
Poor bastard never made it into Honor, Perseverance, Spirit and Heart. Never learned "Swift, Silent, Deadly".
But that was long ago, in a place far away, and that’s all I’ll say about that (no it wasn’t me), so don’t ask, don’t tell.
All the luscious conversations really are the spice, and lovers make better warriors, but sometimes playing games isn’t where men and women are supposed to be, not if they’ve volunteered.
Maybe, someday, bots will replace men and women in war, though I doubt it, because bots can’t be taught what McArthur said about soldiers - something about, true soldiers pray for peace. I don’t think bots can do that. Nor do humans, not very well, anyway.
In luscious conversation, it’s all about seeing “the sharp detail.”
Fabi said...
"Very funny, Laslo -- is that you in the blue t-shirt?"
Nope. Not me.
I am Laslo.
" ... What about very old people or disabled people or people who ..."
Yes, Ann. Yes, yes, yes. A thousand times, yes. Those and more.
Privacy – well, I don’t want a neo-revival of Bowers v. Hardwick, with fuckers snooping through bedroom windows anywhere from sidewalks. Watching disabled, poor, old, or young. If you know what I mean.
I really don’t know where Trump & Kuchner, our new tech-tzar, are really going with neural nets at airports, or under toilet seats, or in your house with nano-bots, if they ever get that shit ‘perfected.’
Rrhardin prolly knows more about that than I. Ask him.
What, me worry?
NB ... I don’t really need a bot, because I’ve got a woman, mean as she can be, killing me softly with her song, “I’ll strive to please you everyday.” That’s God. How lucky can one fucker be?
But, everywhere, at all times, my greatest assets are my greatest blindnesses, so to the diasabled, poor, blind, young, and to all the girls who just wanna have fun - have away!
Black feminist racist writes:
3 Types of Racists That Are More Dangerous Than What You Think a Racist Looks Like
#1 Dangerous racist: Thinks people should be treated the same regardless of their race.
#2 Dangerous racist: Thinks immigrants should adapt to the host culture, rather than vice-versa.
#3 Dangerous racist: Thinks people should get ahead in life by their own efforts.
"What about very old people or disabled people or people who are in remote places or who are terribly unattractive? I think the use of robots shouldn't be disparaged. Think of the thousands of people who could take good advantage of help from robots."
It's not a masturbation issue. The point of the robot, I think, is that it doesn't offer simple sexual stimulation; it offers the illusion of having an intimate relationship with a person. But it isn't a person. It has no feelings at all. It offers no actual intimacy. Its user could be dying on the floor, gasping for air, and it would go on with its pre-programmed sex talk. As our president would say, "Sad!"
It's even sadder if you're talking about people who feel forgotten already. Maybe there should be social matching websites dedicated to helping such people find each other to form friendships or romantic relationships. (Maybe such websites already exist.)
There are a few GOP Senators who won't vote for Repeal: Collins, Murkowski and Capito (all women!).
These are the problem children.
The failure to repeal Obamacare should not be placed on Trump or the GOP in general, but on the specific GOP folks who are thwarting repeal.
My uncle Peter spent a year on Jan Mayen as a telegraph operator in the 1920's to earn money for college.
Later another year on Svalbard (Spitzbergen), also as telegraph operator.
White feminist racist writes:
"White people aren’t safe, and men aren’t safe, no matter how much I’d like to assure myself that these things aren’t true."
“ But it isn't a person. It has no feelings at all. It offers no actual intimacy.”
Like Scarlett O’Hare’s fantasies. Her fantasies could never love her back. Gone with the wind.
But, there’s “always tomorrow” for another fantasy. Her best escape from one failed fantasy was to create another one. Scarlett was a victim. Of herself. She burned herself with more blisters than Sherman's March ever could.
Bay Area Guy said...
There are a few GOP Senators who won't vote for Repeal: Collins, Murkowski and Capito (all women!).
These are the problem children.
The failure to repeal Obamacare should not be placed on Trump or the GOP in general, but on the specific GOP folks who are thwarting repeal.
Well, Trump did nothing to promote the cause. (Which may have been a good thing; Trump's personal involvement might have made it worse.) The Fox News Channel has spent the last month going after the Crooked Trump-destroying Lame Stream Media, instead of discussing health care policy. (Althouse, too.)
And then there were the other "No" votes. Senator Rand Paul. Senator Mike Lee. Senator Ted Cruz.
Hmm..Chuck writing a post attacking Trump on a topic that even Chuck admits that Trump has nothing to do with....inconceivable.
Allow me to break it down for you:
The Minneapolis cop was a Muslim, a devout Muslim. The infidel woman he shot, Justine Ruszczyk, was - in the eyes of Mohammad - dressed very inappropriately, so Officer Noor shot her.
It was a scene right out of the movie FARGO; Noor was seated in the front passenger seat of the police cruiser, and had to reach over his partner in order to shoot Ruszczyk at point-blank range.
And it will be Praise Allah in the mosque tonight.
“The Minneapolis cop was a Muslim, a devout Muslim. The infidel woman he shot, Justine Ruszczyk, was - in the eyes of Mohammad - dressed very inappropriately, so Officer Noor shot her.”
That’s all? The sum total? And nothing more? Not a sniff of probable cause? Threatened by dress code alone?
Because after the Salem Witchcraft Trials, I’m not in the mood for anymore spectral evidence. I’ll study this for myself.
The Fox News Channel has spent the last month going after the Crooked Trump-destroying Lame Stream Media, instead of discussing health care policy. (Althouse, too.)
But the WSJ! And National Review! All that conservative media writing so importantly. So brilliantly, bitterly, beautifully.
To no effect? The Devil you say!
What have we learned, class?
GOPe media efforts can't move the needle.
I think it is true that the GOP can neither repeal nor replace Obamacare on their own, so they have the choice between working with the Democrats to "fix" (i.e., fund) Obamacare or let it collapse and be blamed for the collapse.
Refusing to take a position on an issue, is also taking a position, though seldom a glorious one, and will be rewarded accordingly.
That Muslim cop thing is still not clear but it is possible.
Last year there was a video of a cop, who later turned out to be Muslim, going around who was responding to a call about barking dogs. He walked up to a front gate and shot the dog, which yelped and cried until it died. He then rang the doorbell and told the owner, "I just shot your dog."
Muslims don't like dogs and think them "unclean."
I just don't know what happened there, It was a black shooting a white so we may never know.
Gee, Rush is down on the senate women for killing ACA straight out repeal. Just who you'd expect, he said.
The women can't think straight meme will grow. They've contaminated zociety's brain.
Muslims don't like dogs and think them "unclean."
I just don't know what happened there, It was a black shooting a white so we may never know.
Maybe she was menstruating.
“Maybe she was menstruating.”
Forensics, accurately (telling the truth), precisely (telling the truth over and over again), the coroner’s report, in new P.C., “she had blood coming out of her wherever.”
This can't be the standard cop lie, so just imagine the angst at Minneapolis police headquarters - which is currently in virtual lock-down. They'll have to bring in Francis Ford Coppola to create this lie, and it has to be a real humdinger, maybe even the cop-lie of the century.
Meanwhile, take a shot, o' you defenders of Sharia.
Fernandinande said...
White feminist racist writes:
"White people aren’t safe, and men aren’t safe, no matter how much I’d like to assure myself that these things aren’t true."
7/18/17, 1:02 PM
She doesn't even consider her sons safe. They're potential rapists too.
Those poor boys.
Michael K said...
"That Muslim cop thing is still not clear but it is possible."
Thank you.
Michael, if this goes to pathology, using SNOMED, compositional, non-hierarchical, multi-directional med-science language (not the hard codes of ICD), assume the best case truth-telling. What? It’s not like motive was carved into the round, and we induct mens rea, but just how much creative-story telling is available in pathology? If this goes through ICD, what does the CDC do generating a new ICD code? - “Muslim cop shooting non-Muslim, no other motive, no other pathology”? Code that.
It may be just poor trigger discipline in a new cop.
But it is pretty hard to explain.
I have seen a few bad shootings, one was a guy I operated on, cared for for years and testified at the trial of his lawsuit against LA City, not the individual cop. The story is in my second book. Oh, he lost. It was before Rodney King.
It was a reflex. I can't see why this one happened. Why in the world were the bodycams off ?
Thanks!
KISS.
Michael K said...
It may be just poor trigger discipline in a new cop.
HUH?
Two to one odds that she posed a threat. They are in process of making up semi-credible story. Anticipate sordid rumors about woman's past.
Media in a bind, anti cop but pro Muslim.
"... no footage from the patrol cruiser’s dashcam or the body cameras that Noor and his partner were wearing, and Noor has had several complaints filed against him since joining the force in 2015. "
http://dailycaller.com/2017/07/18/muslims-fear-backlash-after-minneapolis-cop-shoots-australian-woman/
Her first mistake was going up to the police car while they were still in it.
Cops feel vulnerable in their car, as they should, many die in their car.
"Two to one odds that she posed a threat."
Yeah. Good looking blonds in PJs do threaten Muslim men.
Is having sex with the deformed and ugly one of those jobs Americans won't do?
"Her first mistake was going up to the police car while they were still in it."
On the other hand, they were responding to a possible assault in progress, so it seems like they should have expected the possibility that someone, the victim perhaps, would run up to the car.
If someone is especially unattractive, that person is not alone. There are lots of other especially unattractive people around. Why not get together and make beautiful music?
After six months of constant media bashing - Poll: Clinton more unpopular than Trump
Couldn't come out yesterday. Would have ruined the meme.
Marty is a great movie, and it's about homely people getting together. The people in it aren't all that homely because they're the Hollywood version of homely, but so it goes. One of my favorite films.
BREAKING NEWS from the NYT email breaking news service
The White House acknowledged on Tuesday that President Trump had a second, previously undisclosed, private conversation with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia this month, raising new questions about their relationship as the cloud of Russia investigations continues to shadow the Trump administration.
comedy gold.
Is having sex with the deformed and ugly one of those jobs Americans won't do?
In my experience...yes.
Even though Blade Runner was set in November of 2019, I don't think that the technology is anywhere near Darryl Hannah level yet.
A washable stuff animal type "sex bot" with working va jay jay or phallus, that can lay next to you in bed, while it seems #sad, is probably way better than anything that they can come up with any time in the foreseeable future. I think the Jude Law model from the movie AI is a century off if it is a day.
I'm counting on you to keep fighting for what we all started: become a 2018 founding member of the DSCC Women's Senate Network today. You'll even get your very own "Nevertheless, She Persisted" sticker when you do!
Elizabeth Warren
"It's not a masturbation issue. The point of the robot, I think, is that it doesn't offer simple sexual stimulation; it offers the illusion of having an intimate relationship with a person. But it isn't a person. It has no feelings at all."
Much of our human feeling is experienced unilaterally. Are children's dolls sad? Is it sad for a man to commune with a photograph of his dead wife? Is it sad to read and feel for a fictional character? Is it sad to spend time in prayer if God is not on the line? Is it sad to vividly imagine a true love whom you might meet in the future? Do these things impair our ability to do things with other people?
If these things are good or good until a real person (or God) comes along, then maybe you mostly only think that masturbation is lowly and not better than nothi.
Much of our human feeling is experienced unilaterally.
I don't think that's what repels me. A doll of any type, including the type used for the same purpose as these robots, isn't sad like one of these robots. I think the robots are sad because they are programmed to appear to care. They respond, but their empathy is false.
The robot could spend months and months saying nice, caring things, and then when the person is in distress and needs an actual person, the robot is exposed in that moment as an unfeeling machine. It's the trickery of leading people in to feeling like there's a relationship, like the feeling is not unilateral, that's upsetting, I think.
“ .. but their empathy is false ..”
God help me, because I don’t want to get between you two.
Freeman is reporting a subjective.
Ann seems – feels – to be pushing for more. But, I’m not sure.
There’s plenty of clinical showing that fantasies are not homogeneously benign, without entrapping side effects.
My earlier blather about Scarlet and her impossible fantasies, burning herself into victim status, are well-founded on the clinical evidence of “Victims V,” or the Scarlet O’Hare Syndrome. The pre-non-invasive technique literature on this is in, e.g., “Women, Sex, and Addiction: A Search for Love and Power,” Charlotte S. Kasl, 1990, where “Sex” is gender plus sexual fantasies, that like Scarlet O’Hare;s fantasies can never love Scarlet back, sucking the metabolic torque out, leaving depression to move in. The “Women” go through this cyclically. Self-victimization. The formal idea that fantasy is “unilateral” is exactly the problem in depression. Since Kasl, non-invasive observations map narrative (interior fantasies) to brain cell pathways. But, the clinical effects of depression are still observable.
Correction:
The formal idea that fantasy is “unilateral” power (Kasl, " ... search for Love and Power”) is exactly the problem in this kind of depression.
Francis Ford Coppola has refused to make up a story for the Muslim police officer who shot an infidel woman for violating Sharia dress codes. The officer, Mohamad Noor, has also refused to speak to investigators - as they have no jurisdiction over Sharia.
Meanwhile, Noor's partner has indicated that he was "stunned" by the shooting, and lucky he wasn't injured by the blast when Noor reached over him in order to shoot the pj-clad infidel.
In a related story, Muslim foot-baths are being installed in the 14th Street playground.
I saw a great t-shirt for any anti or non lean-in types. It said, "Always on vacation." Heh.
'm counting on you to keep fighting for what we all started: become a 2018 founding member of the DSCC Women's Senate Network today. You'll even get your very own "Nevertheless, She Persisted" sticker when you do!
Elizabeth Warren
Racking up loss after loss leading to Donald Trump in the White House hurt the ability to raise funds. Nevertheless, she persisted.
Much of our human feeling is experienced unilaterally. Are children's dolls sad? Is it sad for a man to commune with a photograph of his dead wife? Is it sad to read and feel for a fictional character? Is it sad to spend time in prayer if God is not on the line? Is it sad to vividly imagine a true love whom you might meet in the future? Do these things impair our ability to do things with other people?
That is more interesting and insightful than anything you'll read about sex robots in a major media outlet.
It's the trickery of leading people in to feeling like there's a relationship, like the feeling is not unilateral, that's upsetting, I think.
Oh this happens with humans all the time. With the robot at least you know that going in.
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