Leftovers & Links #40

It’s corny and sanctimonious, but here's a dinosaur from the UN’s Development Programme, a branch of the bureaucracy that’s worried about climate change.

The dinosaur is wrong, though — climate change won’t make humans extinct. Humans with enough money will do just fine, but 'enough money' will be lots more than you or I have so we can kiss each other's asses goodbye.

The climate crisis — already underway, but just getting started — will make billions of humans miserable, leave a lot of us dead, and make “hell” a routine part of the weather forecast almost everywhere.

Anyone who's working against climate change, hip hip hooray and don't let me discourage you, but I'm pessimistic. (Can you tell?) The time to take action was twenty years ago, but damned near nothing’s been done, and the rich and powerful don’t care so nothing’s going to be done, except more conferences, more speeches, and more videos. Maybe there'll be a telethon.

Our unlucky survivors will inherit a shitscape world in fifty years, but it’ll be the Garden of Eden compared to fifty years after that.

♦ ♦ ♦

While I'm being so cheerful...

Remember when Republicans were merely racists and rednecks? I'm wistful for those good old days. Now they're all about opposing reality, science, and democracy.

The Republican Party presents an existential threat to the United States, and they're enthusiastic about it, seeking to destroy elections, civil rights, women’s rights, and everything America pretends to stand for.

And nearly nobody in power is playing defense against the Republican agenda — certainly not most Democratic elected officials. They're still trying for bipartisanship, and "reaching across the aisle" to fascists.

There’s nobody on our side except ourselves, and there’s nothing we can do to save America short of revolution — which ain’t gonna and can’t happen here.

♦ ♦ ♦

Give me a few hours and just one edible, please, and I'll be in a better mood by midday. Sorry.

♦ ♦ ♦

Texas cops refused to escort Biden bus harassed by MAGA marauders.

Quote: In one transcribed recording, Matthew Daenzer, a San Marcos police corporal on duty the day of the incident, refused to provide an escort when recommended by another jurisdiction. 'No, we're not going to do it,' Daenzer told a 911 dispatcher...

♦ ♦ ♦

Here’s yet another story of police misconduct that sent innocent men to prison. I wonder how many thousands of other innocents are in prison, and suspect I’m being under-cynical saying merely thousands.

♦ ♦ ♦

Quote: I brace myself to be the idiot. I'm going to waste everyone's time asking questions that everyone knows the answer to, and I just got looped in, so everyone's going to feel like they need to walk through all the super-obvious stuff to satisfy the one guy who didn't do his homework.
So I start asking questions, and slowly begin to realize that nobody in the room has any idea what they are talking about. That there are fundamental misunderstandings and misconceptions about existing systems. And, naturally, it turns out that the questions I have are questions that other people have.
—andrewla, at Hacker News

♦ ♦ ♦

On the bright side, remember that time when Saturday Night Live tried punk rock?

♦ ♦ ♦

In making The Exorcist, there was a shot of the little girl walking downstairs upside down, but it wasn't convincing because they couldn't eliminate the wires. CGI made that possible years later, and the scene has been added to recent releases of the movie.

♦ ♦ ♦

VIPs expect special treatment. At Wikipedia, don’t even ask.

Quote: The closest approximation to a Wikipedia power player would be Jimmy Wales, the chairman emeritus of the foundation that supports Wikipedias in more than 250 languages and the face of the project for its 20 years of existence. But Wales is not actually in control of anything. When he gets personally involved in helping a petitioner, a crowd of editors track his movements to ensure that he not hold special influence.
This tradition began way back in Wikipedia’s history, when Wales insisted that the birth date on his own article, and his birth certificate, was wrong. The editors did not take his word for it. More recently, in 2019, Wales highlighted the complaints of a YouTube conspiracy theorist, Mark Dice, who believed his achievements were being underplayed by Wikipedia. The editors explained that they didn’t care about Wales’s opinion, and the Dice article today is even less flattering than it was before.

I love me some Wikipedia, but it's disappointing that Jimmy Wales stands with Mark Dice, someone I'd never heard of, who seems to be just another wingnut.

♦ ♦ ♦

Some years back, I subscribed to The New Yorker, printed on paper and sent via the mail. Of course, magazines never stop selling their subscriber lists to other magazines, so ever since, there've been junk mail offers to subscribe to every magazine in America.

When I had a job and the price was right, I answered the junk mail call and subscribed to Harper’s, among a few others. I’d planned to renew my subscription to Harper's, but I won't.

They didn’t crosscheck their junk mail, so they sent a renewal notice and a “special introductory offer” for new subscribers. The introductory rate is much cheaper, so I’ve started a new subscription and let my current subscription lapse. Hope there’s another introductory offer next year.

♦ ♦ ♦

This is a little stale, but — After actor Leslie Nielsen died in 2010, ESPN published an obituary for umpire Enrico Pallazzo, played by Frank Drebin, played by Leslie Nielsen in The Naked Gun.

♦ ♦ ♦

Mystery links — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

—①—

—②—

—③—

Sincere tip 'o the hat:
BoingBoing
Captain Hampockets
Follow Me Here
Hyperallergic
Messy Nessy Chick
National Zero
Ran Prieur
Voenix Rising
EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS:
Becky Jo
Name Withheld
Dave S.
Best viewed with Netscape Navigator™, version 3.
11/1/2021
Leftovers & Links