Author | Lightnews

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 7h

You'd have some eminence grise virologist say "that's not how you id a virus" because it used a technique developed after his salad days. Invocation of unsystematic or anecdotal evidence (the funeral homes aren't doing a brisk enough trade in South Africa for there to be a plague) and so on.

1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 7h

The encounter I remember with AIDS denialism was reading Kary Mullis's autobiography (back in the late 90s early 2000s), Mullis is a deeply flakey guy by his own account. I remember bumping into it here or there talking to people or reading internet conversations about it, it seemed typically bad.

1 1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 2d

The thing that got me is that apparently the logic is something like:

"Don't support the Democrats or mainstream movements who promise little and deliver little or nothing. Instead support other movements that have delivered even less, but at least promise more."

4 5

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 3d

Whereas the makers of the Chevy Chase Memoirs of an Invisible Man decided they should double down on it.

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 3d

I got all these from the Facebook feed of a lefty (there were also some vaguely positive responses, but also lots more blanket criticism).

1 3

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 3d

No danger of being proven wrong. 🙄 Criticisms vary, a lot seem to be based in the hatred of brunch.

I "like" the one that says not accomplishing things is damning. I mean if you want me to drop any political movement that fails to immediately accomplish things, okay. Are you sure about that?👀

2 1 7

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 3d

Stirring seems essential in cooking (or mixing drinks say) which is surely within the ambit of chemically. Not stirring enough definitely yields chemically different baked goods etc.

So it seems like any inefficacy of stirring is specific to a set of conditions as the chemical engineers suggest.

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 6d

Worked for Naruto

1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 6d

ποῖον σε ἔπος φύγεν ἕρκος ὀδόντων

What got stuck in your teeth?

1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 6d

It was the time before (English) spelling had been invented (or at least the tail end of that period).

1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 7d

Wordle 1,580 6/6

🟩⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 7d

Hmm this and the last xkcd are sort of establishing a theme.

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 7d

Not for comedies, but I did consider how the kids in Liberty's Kids never age from 1773 to 1789 as part of my pro-British anti-revolutionary reinterpretation (clearly those malcontents were starving those poor children).

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 7d

It does actually predate George Lucas saying it (earliest instance found is by psychoanalyst Theodor Reik in 1965), even if Twain never said it. Twain did actually say history does not repeat itself, but not the rhyming thing.

quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/12/h...

quoteinvestigator.com

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 8d

I totally thought of them (the ones that have lots of songs) as musicals and in my memory the ads for them (in the 80s and 90s) they were advertised as such ("latest musical animated film from Disney" or something), although I'm not sure if that is true, watching a few old ads does not confirm it.

1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 11d

Yeah, TRON Uprising was great!

1 2

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 11d

I didn't notice the odd name, but I was wondering wait specifically Coca Cola or is this like referring to all "soda pop" as "Coke" as in some parts of the US? Coke cola suggests a contrast with things like Pepsi Cola, but it seems unlikely that the British government would single out one brand.🤷‍♂️

1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 11d

You mean "intensive porpoises" the most exacting and pedantic members of the animal kingdom.

2

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 11d

What is at work is we interpret the entire sentence to convey something like:

"His expression of surprise was so emphatic that the short hop he made felt to me the observer as though he leapt 10 feet in the air."

Maybe?

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 11d

I think we need to keep in mind that when we speak ironically or hyperbolically etc. the meaning of the words is not what changes, rather the entire sentence gives an interpretative context.

If we interpret "He was so surprised he jumped 10 feet in air." as hyperbole "10 feet" means "10 feet".

1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 11d

Tellingly using "literally" to mean "not figurative" is a figurative use of literally. Literally comes from the Latin for letter, but when someone says "two things are literally the same", they often mean "exactly the same" but there are no letters involved. Or so I think of it.

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 11d

Tron is one of those bad ideas that every once and awhile someone looks at and says, sure its failed every other time, but surely I'm different.

Man and woman talking on a bed in the "But it Might work for us" meme.

Text:
"Well did it work for those people?"
"No, it never does, I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but..."

"...but it might work for us."

1 2

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 12d

I'd be glad to be corrected, but based on a quick search the movie, seems to be only streaming in Japan.

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 12d

Congratulations.🎉

1

Allan Oooh-lley👻 @allanolley.bsky.social · 12d

You can also watch the episode on the Perimeter institute's YouTube channel:

youtu.be/2zIqyiUlD4Q?...

CBC Radio Quirks & Quarks: 50th Anniversary Episode at Perimeter Institute

YouTube video by Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics

youtu.be

1