Xmas ghosts are stirring

Could be a whole series. PhDead.

YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Trump: ICE Killings Create Bad Publicity | America's Secret Weapon | Epstein's Muffin Recipe

There's been a number of weird Valentine's ones, Colbert showed and riffed on a couple of them.

Movie does not have great reviews, but always interested in watching more horror directed by women.

Director's website:

Why Does Trump Do That Weird Capitalization Thing? Experts Dissect His Language Patterns. Is the former president a skilled orator or a relentless yapper? Here's what linguists think.

The CAPS and UNDERSCORING are just SO PERSUASIVE! A person who writes like that must REALLY KNOW WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!

Ironic in a way - the story closed on the note that Canada hadn't begun regulating the Internet yet. (I watched it on YT using a VPN.)

Overall it was a story talking about chat relay service and whatnot, optimistic connection of people to people & developing subcommunity values.

Many of the sloppers certainly are avid, and the process for sure does facilitate massive output.

Mostly agree. Though I also think people overestimate the degree to which people would generate slop vs eat it up. Passive consumers will still exceed slopmeisters, I suspect.

It certainly looks like an achievable design, not implausible, but also not cheap!

Artists Against Generative AI | Ngl, how hard AI is getting to be able to tell is kind of worrying and I know it's only gonna get worse | Facebook Ngl, how hard AI is getting to be able to tell is kind of worrying and I know it's only gonna get worse. Like I suspected it was AI but still wasn't sure til I found the original post. The page that.....

Google image search throws up a lot of results none of which at first glance are a store. One forum looking at a set of similar images thinks that's a tell of AI iterations.

www.facebook.com/groups/14041...

Soviet Russia's Rocket Boots When the Soviet Union wanted to outrun the U.S., it turned to a secret weapon: rocket boots.

Reminded of this.

If it can be done in a state court, hopefully!

D. "A Valentine Vagary—Verbose and Volatile." Boston Statesman. May 11, 1850: 1 col 1. A VALENTINE VAGARY—VERBOSE AND VOLATILE.—After Hood. Lady Louise, who with your queen-mein e'en In sainted spirits might above move love. Your facile eyes gleam like the bright night-light! And from their fleet beams those would beat retreat, Who in wild wars regarded not hot shot! A dainty, radiant damsel Fayaway, Fine paced as is some airy-dairy Mary Startling the daisies out where those cows browse, A star in her Milky-Way, with fair air there, Catching the creamy streamlets in thin tin! But, oh, "it is not always May," say they, Gloom-eyed, grim grief to all may come, some glim Misery shut one in jaws of whole-soul dole, Like swallowed Jonah in his whale-jail pale! But let us not from any morrow borrow sorrow. Hasty sad folks will sometimes tear their hair: I will but beg, if ever you do too, A single glossy soft one gie thee mee! My "thread of life" to be the wile you'll smile, But a slim snake, if you frown, bringing sting? Methinks I see you, lass Louise, seize these Exorbitant rhymes making, without doubt, pout, And, with soft hand upon your sleek cheek, seek To guess who 'tis can write such gruff, rough stuff. Lily Louise, it does appear queer here, For peach-cheeked you, I should not fly sky-high, Radiant as if (were such omelet yet met) You dined on roseleaves dipt in dew; to you To put into your — smile, a fit tit-bit. Indeed, if you in any book took look, At every turn perhaps you'd spy a higher-flyer: Yet some there are who will rehearse worse verse Than these inordinate lines, that tell, pell-mell, Such a triple tinkling tale as Hood could—good. Let nature's nobler bards prolong strong song. Dear mysteries in Mr. E. we see, Who, peering into the Sphynx's wise eyes, cries "Has all this wonderful world become hum-drum?" And hear the voluble, chaste Bryant, riant, pliant, In solemn beautiful talk to teach us nature's features. [...]

Not all necessarily good... but demonstrating novels being cultural reference point. As in a # of cases, the character Fayaway's name included rather than a title. This one titled "A Valentine Vagary—Verbose and Volatile."

"A dainty, radiant damsel Fayaway,
Fine paced as is some airy-dairy Mary"

references to Typee, Omoo, and Mardi by decade chart showing a general trend upward from 1840s to 1990s, big jump for 2000s and 2010s (70+ each), 2020s only at 10 presently. At the current count, among 408 works published during the years 1847-2026 inclusive, Typee is referenced in 351 of them (86%), while (with some overlap) Omoo is in 116 (28%), and Mardi in 46 (11%). 19 reference all three; Typee and Omoo, 61; Typee and Mardi 4; Omoo and Mardi 2. Typee alone 267; Omoo alone 34; Mardi alone 21. [Lansingburgh, where his family lived at the time]: 7.

Been compiling a list of works of fiction referencing any of Herman Melville's earliest books: Typee, Omoo &/or Mardi. Have yet to find a simple way to search just fiction-have to use various tricks. 2020s currently dip probably just b/c of copyright: no GB/HathiTrust/IA snippets that I can see.

What about stats in US territories?

I'd say rein in the gerontocracy but that should be abolished too.

Since they're evidently saying houses of worship have proven incapable of teaching religion or providing a place to pray, maybe they should lose their tax exempt status.

Are US territories not tracked?

You souped that meatball!

Not one of those sad Disney dog movies? I'll add it to the watchlist!

Use of warehouses remains something too. Sheds, essentially, not meant to house people even temporarily.

People as product to be stored then shipped, for someone's profit.

Dood van een danseres=Death of a Dancer

It does translate that way! The Body in the Library translates as Het lichaam in de bibliotheek. It's just that the Dutch book identifies on its copyright page that the original title was The Body in the Library.

Dood van een danseres : Christie, Agatha, 1890-1976 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive 199 p. ; 21 cm

This other edition says The Body in the Library.

Seems to welcome scientific detail about it, which does seem like something they'd happily do as a gag.

"Mystical boinging" is appropriately exempt from this objection.

School district responds to petition to remove Megyn Kelly from hall of fame The petition, which has garnered nearly 800 signatures as of this writing, asks the high school to remove graduate Megyn Kelly from its Hall of Fame.

People had petitioned to remove Megyn Kelly from Bethlehem Central High School's hall of fame, mooted when it was reported that the hall of fame itself had previously been decommissioned.

Legislative intent would seem to prohibit that, which can't be just dismissed, can it?

lawrepository.ualr.edu/cgi/viewcont...

The thought of a fish having fingers is admittedly terrifying.