Empress of Mars: Undisputed @zebratron2084@awoo.space

@anthracite Oh, they shall tame that wild beast. Yes. They shall tame it and ride the beast. Into glory.

@Leucrotta And it's interesting, most people seem to get introduced to Manu Dibango while looking into where the "mama se mama sa" line from "Wanna Be Starting Something" came from... Love him too though.

@Leucrotta Oh shit, have you heard Amerigo Gazaway's "Fela Soul" remix album? De La Soul/Fela remixes (and some bonus Gorillaz). It is straight up one of my top 5 albums of all time. I can't even listen to the original Feel Good Inc anymore.

https://amerigo.bandcamp.com/album/fela-soul-deluxe-edition

This is just not cool.

https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/h7j342/ultimate_trolling/

During a conversation with @anthracite this morning, we discussed the impoverished state of metric cat education in this country.

Everyone is familiar with the SI base unit of felinity, the "cat" (symbol: 🐾​) But outside of the ailurological science and engineering fields, few are aware of the derived units:

* the pounce (​🐾/s)
* the wiggle (🐾/s²)
* the sits (🐾/kg)
* the fits (🐾/m³)
* the sploot (🐾/m²)
* the mew (dB/🐾)
* the snooz (🐾/joule)
* the everready (ampere/🐾)

@chandra @anthracite (FWIW, I didn't seriously think you'd developed a nose-removal kink... though thank you, you've still inadvertently given me one to add to our running list of fake fchan threads. >:D )

@Phorm Not at all relevant media but I'm sharing it anyway because I love this freak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuvgeIvu3_k

And the pre-mutilation version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCc0GlYso5Y

"Watched" The Vast Of Night in the background while finishing up work tonight. I think it's one of those films that's earned being viewed with my full attention, so I can actually *think* about how all the pieces fit together.

Good stuff. Basically, imagine a paranoid 1950s atomic sci-fi story redone with 2020 moral values and cinematic realism. There's a definitely theme of sociocultural haves and have-nots that I'm going to have to tease out in more detail next thru.

Very mild spoiler coming:

Spent the whole film waiting for a cheap screenwriting trick (a la the tacky martial arts combat that ended so much of the "thoughtful" sci-fi of the 1990s) that never actually happened. Just solid, spooky character-driven small town sci-fi all the way through. Highly recommended.

@Phorm Hey, no foolin', I MISS my parents' old air popper. The microwave stuff just isn't the same... and it's all about those sexy jet-stream aesthetics.

(Can genies live in air poppers? I mean, there's oil, there's heat, could it technically be considered a lamp?)

@chandra @anthracite Honey, I miss the heck out of you, but you have some WEIRD TF fantasies. *grin* Are you sure this isn't some weird scheme to make everyone replace their noses with wiggly bunny boopers? :3

@Phorm One of the finest friggin soldiers I've ever met. ;_;

@Phorm DID THE LOSS OF BENEDETTO MEAN NOTHING TO YOU?!?!? D:

@KitRedgrave While it's not really good game, even for its time, and won't really scratch your itch... You might at least find this notorious Boardgamegeek "classic" amusing.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12246/against-wall-motherf

@chandra @anthracite And then when someone poaches Trump's, thinking themselves very clever... they turn it down. And with infinite and slightly condescending cosmic patience, they pat them on the head and explain, "Human. Only human nose."

@anthracite Oh, no, no, I read about this one. It's like that Science of Discworld book, a non-fictional companion about atmospheric chemistry. I wouldn't get your hopes up, Enmerkar has an advance copy and was very disappointed. It was mostly oxygen so it kept combusting while he was trying to read it. ;p

@LexYeen@snouts.online Ok, but is "webbed" one syllable or two? This is important.

@Sig This reminds me of one of my favorite running gags from the Upright Citizens Brigade: they would never say "a horse" when they could substitute "a hornless unicorn."

Like a high school overachiever on caffeine pills... I'm so excited and I'm so scared. (God, I hope none of you poor souls get that joke. ;> )

Seriously, I generally consider the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone to be good news. We needed a show of power like that. I've been impressed with how organized and focused they've been in taking charge. I know there's a strong historical precedence for actions like this provoking real and permanent change.

I'm also so worried that they're walking right into a trap. The right-wing media machines are going to spin this like crazy. I honestly *don't* know if it's going to end in state violence since this is all a war of optics. (I know, I don't like that term either, but it fits.)

The sensible thing for both sides to do now is negotiate, but I don't trust the SPD, let alone whoever else might get called in, to be sensible. And this is right in Trump's most irritable spot: a sign that he's not in control.

I don't think I could ask the people occupying Capitol Hill to back down. They know what they're getting into and I'm proud of everything I'm hearing about how they're handling it. There's so much at stake here, and no amount of "good behavior" was ever going to fix it.

I just can't imagine that, even if Trump is just going to bumble through as usual, someone in power didn't have a plan for this. I can't imagine that they're going to take it lying down. And meanwhile, I'm terrified that this is going to become a breeding ground for all the human weaknesses that *always* end up keeping the Nice Things out of our grasp.

At least they haven't fallen apart in a race to out-dogma each other like OWS did. I have a lot of hope here. But we can't afford to screw this one up... and we usually do. *sigh*

IMHO this is the money quote:

Okay, but WHY are all cops bastards? A penitent ex-cop tries to answer this question.

https://medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759