Hijack This Thread

[Sam the Centipede]

We are also losing James Corden, who is taking his fam back to England (where he will have to relearn driving on the wrong side of the road before we get anymore Carpool Karaoke).

My impression is that England doesn't want him back, no more than they wanted Piers Morgan (the 'g' is silent) back. Corden is slightly creepy, whereas Morgan is positively evil, and inexplicably has escaped the appropriate consequences of his role in the London press's phone-hacking activities.

[neonzx]

We are also losing James Corden, who is taking his fam back to England (where he will have to relearn driving on the wrong side of the road before we get anymore Carpool Karaoke).

My impression is that England doesn't want him back, no more than they wanted Piers Morgan (the 'g' is silent) back. Corden is slightly creepy, whereas Morgan is positively evil, and inexplicably has escaped the appropriate consequences of his role in the London press's phone-hacking activities.

I don't really find Corden creepy. The restaurant blowup I actually thought was a orchestrated gag. No, apparently it was real. That's pretty jerk move. But Corden reminds of one of my friends -- he is "offbeat" with a very similar funny personality in the same way(except not rude to restaurant staff) and could have done standup probably.

Other night show hosts. I'll take a pass on Seth Meyers. His delivery is just off-putting to me. He laughs at too many of his own jokes during delivery.

[raison de arizona]

https://twitter.com/mhdksafa/status/1599269126605746176

If selling a gay couple a wedding cake means a "christian" baker participated in their marriage, does selling a gun to a murderer mean a "christian" gun store owner participated in the murder?

[Volkonski]

Lockerbie plane bombing suspect taken into U.S. custody

https://www.reuters.com/world/man-accus ... 022-12-11/

A Libyan man accused of making the bomb that killed 270 people after it blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988 is in custody in the United States, Scottish and U.S. law enforcement officials said on Sunday.

Abu Agila Mohammad Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi was taken into custody about two years after former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr first announced the United States filed charges against him.

A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that the United States has custody of the suspect. Mas'ud is expected to make his initial court appearance in a federal court in Washington.

Details about the timing of the hearing will be forthcoming, the spokesperson added.

[neonzx]

https://twitter.com/mhdksafa/status/1599269126605746176

If selling a gay couple a wedding cake means a "christian" baker participated in their marriage, does selling a gun to a murderer mean a "christian" gun store owner participated in the murder?

Yeah, Ive heard this used before and I think it is a logic fallacy.

A same-sex comes in for a wedding cake. You know they want a cake for a celebration.

Some dude comes into a gun shop and wants a high-powered gun. Do you know they are planning to shoot up a school,etc?

As an aside, never heard of a wedding cake being a deadly weapon.

[keith]

Sheesh, ya try to bring a little fun into people's lives, and what happens? The girls are all screaming, and the guys are making snark. I'ma go back to stomping grapes.

Bottling is on wednesday.

[Foggy]

A Libyan man accused of making the bomb that killed 270 people after it blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988 is in custody in the United States, Scottish and U.S. law enforcement officials said on Sunday.

Please, Fox News, tell us why Joe Biden violated this gentleman's constitutional rights, won't you? If Rush Limbaugh was still around, he'd tell you why this is an OUTRAGE committed by Joe Biden.

[realist]

A Libyan man accused of making the bomb that killed 270 people after it blew up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in 1988 is in custody in the United States, Scottish and U.S. law enforcement officials said on Sunday.

Please, Fox News, tell us why Joe Biden violated this gentleman's constitutional rights, won't you? If Rush Limbaugh was still around, he'd tell you why this is an OUTRAGE committed by Joe Biden.

HUNTER BIDEN'S LAPTOP!!

[MN-Skeptic]

My 19-year old niece is a cello performance major in college and is in the market for a new cello. She is currently trying out a cello that I think costs in the range of $40K. I saw her and her mother this afternoon at a concert, and my SIL told me that the store selling the instrument had a potential buyer a year or so ago, but refused to sell it to him when he said he was going to put it in the hold of the airplane for his trip home. Geez, my niece won't even leave her current $9K cello in their SUV when we go into a restaurant to eat. We always need a spot inside for the cello. (It's not a theft issue, it's a matter of how the temperature can damage the instrument.)

[tek]

I'm glad the only musical instrument I play is the radio

[northland10]

My 19-year old niece is a cello performance major in college and is in the market for a new cello. She is currently trying out a cello that I think costs in the range of $40K. I saw her and her mother this afternoon at a concert, and my SIL told me that the store selling the instrument had a potential buyer a year or so ago, but refused to sell it to him when he said he was going to put it in the hold of the airplane for his trip home. Geez, my niece won't even leave her current $9K cello in their SUV when we go into a restaurant to eat. We always need a spot inside for the cello. (It's not a theft issue, it's a matter of how the temperature can damage the instrument.)

At one of my past apartments, the landlord for the apartment included a clause on the lease stating that I could not have the temp below 45-50 in the place. Apparently, a prior tenant had turned off the heat when they were gone for 2 weeks, and the pipes froze. I told them that was not a problem. I had (still have) a violin and I cannot let it get that cold.

This is my instrument from my school days so it was more like $1K.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

I'm glad the only musical instrument I play is the radio

Hubby likes to sing: "I remember how good we felt when they played our favorite song. And I remember how good you looked with nothing but the radio on."

[Volkonski]

Kyle Griffin :verified:
@kylegriffin1@twtr.plus
Breaking WaPo: The Dept. of Energy plans to announce that scientists have been able to produce a fusion reaction that creates a net energy gain — a major milestone in the decades-long quest to develop technology that provides unlimited, cheap, clean power. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/20

[Danraft]

That page is gone…

[raison de arizona]

That page is gone…

Big oil doesn't want you to read it!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate- ... -benefits/

[RTH10260]

50 years ago (article published last year)

Time to Fight
How the Powell memo convinced big business it was losing American hearts and minds.

BY NITISH PAHWA
AUG 30, 20211 :28 PM

In the early 1970s, American corporate executives were in a state of panic. From the Great Depression through the social movements of the 1960s, mass popular and institutional outrage had arisen against their companies’ sins, including discrimination and toxic pollution. Even the supposedly conservative, business-friendly Richard Nixon was signing legislation that added more regulation of corporate practices.

The education director for the national Chamber of Commerce, Eugene B. Sydnor Jr., wanted a plan of action to counter these forces, and he reached out to a good friend to draw that up: Lewis Powell, then the head of the American Bar Association, an attorney for tobacco companies like Philip Morris, and a rumored Supreme Court nominee. Powell himself had faced down movements that were hostile to his clients, including anti-tobacco initiatives that flourished after scientists began linking smoking and cancer, and he was frustrated with growing influence of a young Ralph Nader and his burgeoning consumer protection movement.

In 1971, Powell wrote a lengthy, confidential memo to Sydnor and the Chamber, titled “Attack on American Free Enterprise System,” outlining ways that corporations could band together not only to fight off regulations but also to infiltrate American institutions—universities, publishers, magazines, ad agencies, TV networks, and even courts—to make them more broadly sympathetic to business. The tone of the prose indicates that this was a personal venture for Powell: “The time has come—indeed, it is long overdue—for the wisdom, ingenuity and resources of American business to be marshalled against those who would destroy it.”

Fifty years later, that vision has come to pass. A right-wing dark money network, financed over the decades by magnates from Bryce Harlow to Richard Mellon Scaife to Joseph Coors, has funded think tanks, media outlets and writers, college programs, legal organizations, and politicians dedicated to advancing pro-business causes. As journalists like Jane Mayer have documented, the strategy has worked all too well: Megacorporations now enjoy fewer regulations, lower taxes, more lobbyists, more businesspeople in power, and the ability to impede policy perceived as hurting their bottom line, whether that be related to climate protections or health care reform.



https://slate.com/news-and-politics/202 ... merce.html

[AndyinPA]

Yeah, we didn't end up here because of DFO.

What always amazes me is how easily regular people were convinced the rich and mighty were their saviors. I understand many of the reasons, faux noise being high among them, but it still surprises me. I guess it helps that about 30 percent of people are authoritarian followers, so they are primed.

[noblepa]

Yeah, we didn't end up here because of DFO.

What always amazes me is how easily regular people were convinced the rich and mighty were their saviors. I understand many of the reasons, faux noise being high among them, but it still surprises me. I guess it helps that about 30 percent of people are authoritarian followers, so they are primed.

Many people seem to be gullible enough to act against their own self-interest. For instance, all the working-class MAGA followers who were ecstatic when Trump and the Republicans were able to lower the tax rates on the very rich, while their rates stayed pretty much the same. My wife and I together make a little over $100k, yet my effective tax rate (tax liability / gross income) stayed almost exactly the same.

I remember back in the nineties (1994?) when the MLB players went on strike. One of the major bones of contention was the salary cap, which, by some reports only affected about a dozen players all of MLB, yet the players association was able to convince all the other players, many of whom were making the league minimum of about $500k to risk that salary so that a few players making $5M could now make $8M. Very, very few of those players will ever make anything even close to the cap.

Why do so many seniors vote R when the party's wet dream for several generations has been to abolish Medicare and privatize Social Security?

[Patagoniagirl]

I don't understand either.

[RTH10260]

[Patagoniagirl]

This was really weird. I signed up for a supposed seminar on Macular Degeneration. Zoom, of course. I was doing this as a way to understand and help my mother, who is legally blind.

Here is the sign in page, which I could barely see, and still got it wrong.

Screenshot_20221214-172723.png (176.6 KiB) Viewed 645 times

[jcolvin2]

I remember back in the nineties (1994?) when the MLB players went on strike. One of the major bones of contention was the salary cap, which, by some reports only affected about a dozen players all of MLB, yet the players association was able to convince all the other players, many of whom were making the league minimum of about $500k to risk that salary so that a few players making $5M could now make $8M. Very, very few of those players will ever make anything even close to the cap.

Why do so many seniors vote R when the party's wet dream for several generations has been to abolish Medicare and privatize Social Security?

I agree with your comment about people who vote against their economic interest. However, I don’t think the baseball salary cap analogy is a good one. The salary cap was by team (aggregate payroll) and not by player. The owners were seeking to fix the total cost of labor. If a team only had a $600k in cap space, it couldn’t offer a $750k player a contract commensurate with his abilities. This had the overall effect of depressing inter-team competition for players.

[raison de arizona]

They’re not middle class, they are temporarily economically disadvantaged millionaires just waiting for their lucky strike.

[Volkonski]

News
@newsbot@mstdn.social
A Reuters @SpecialReport found that four major suppliers of Hyundai and Kia employed underage workers at Alabama factories in recent years, and many more are being investigated

https://reut.rs/3PF6Zgf 1/7

[RTH10260]

‘There was an explosion, and I had to close my eyes’: how TV left 12,000 children needing a doctor
The Japanese government held an emergency meeting and share prices crashed after a Pokémon broadcast. For years, its effects went unexplained – until researchers started digging …

Benjie Goodhart
Fri 16 Dec 2022 18.00 GMT

Twenty-five years ago, at precisely 6.51pm on 16 December 1997, hundreds of children across Japan experienced seizures. In total, 685 – 310 boys and 375 girls – were taken by ambulance to hospital. Within two days, 12,000 children had reported symptoms of illness. The common factor in this sudden mass outbreak was an unlikely culprit: an episode of the Pokémon cartoon series.

The instalment in question, Dennō Senshi Porygon (Electric Soldier Porygon), was the 38th in the Pokémon anime’s first season – and initially, at least, it sparked a medical mystery. Twenty minutes into the cartoon, an explosion took place, illustrated by an animation technique known as paka paka, which broadcast alternating red and blue flashing lights at a rate of 12Hz for six seconds. Instantly, hundreds of children experienced photosensitive epileptic seizures – accounting for some, but far from all, of the hospitalisations.

Ten-year-old Takuya Sato said: “Towards the end of the programme there was an explosion, and I had to close my eyes because of an enormous yellow light like a camera flash.” A 15-year-old girl from Nagoya reported: “As I was watching blue and red lights flashing on the screen, I felt my body becoming tense. I do not remember what happened afterwards.”

The condition is perhaps best understood as the placebo effect in reverse. People can make themselves ill from an idea

The phenomenon, headlined “Pokémon Shock” by Japanese media, became big news – it was reported around the world. The cartoon’s producers were questioned by police, while the ministry of health, labour and welfare held an emergency meeting. The share price of Nintendo, the company behind the Pokémon games, dropped by 3.2%.

To medical experts, the figure of 12,000 children requiring medical treatment made no sense. The programme had been watched by 4.6 million households. About one in 5,000 people has photosensitive epilepsy: 0.02%. But 0.02% of 4.6 million would mean 920 people were affected – this figure was more than 10 times that amount.

The mystery persisted for four years, until it piqued the attention of Benjamin Radford, a research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in the US, and co-host of the podcast Squaring the Strange. “The investigation had just stalled, the mystery sort of faded away without an explanation,” he says. “I wanted to see if I could solve the case.”

Along with Robert Bartholomew, a medical sociologist, he set about examining the timeline of events, and unearthed a key detail. “What people missed was that it wasn’t just a one-night event but instead unfolded over several days, and the contagion occurred in schools and over the news media.”




https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... n-hospital