Seriously great, and she’s obviously a horror fan. There’s nothing quite like her music out there. I’m kind of puzzled that it’s so popular, but I’m not complaining.
Year: 2019
Bösendorfer
That Bösendorfer piano she is playing in the video below sounds absolutely wonderful. I’d love to have one of those, but they cost more than $250,000 for the base model.
No time soon, then. But it sounds so, so good.
Metalliszt
Very Liszt-like, which is not accidental. Liszt was kind of the “heavy metal” composer and pianist of his time.
Wicked Game
Another great “Wicked Game” cover.
Updated Update
Microsoft Abandons Windows 10’s Constant Forced Updates.
Well, that’s one out of a thousand of its problems, but it’s something.
If I literally could’ve nuked Microsoft when my work Windows 10 machine at a previous job ran forced updates 5 minutes before a very important, millions-of-dollars-in-the-balance meeting, I would’ve. Since it was my work machine, I was not permitted to change its settings (though I easily could’ve despite all the “security” software on it).
Now, I use a Mac at work anyway, so it doesn’t matter as much to me. But not sure how long I can keep using a Mac since they’ve utterly destroyed their desktop OS’s fonts, so it might be back to Windows 10 soon.
Rupt
Obama and Clinton were deeply bitter to each other in 2008. Bernie was a kitten in 2016. He’s perceived of as negative though because he’s not corrupt. The dirty cops inherently hate the clean one.
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) April 7, 2019
So true. Reminds me of the piece that Lance Mannion wrote that said that Bernie was not fit to lead because he was not corrupt, didn’t have cozy relationships with lobbyists and the like. That is some bonkers centrist “logic” right there. Centrism: when you’ve given up all honesty and integrity and are just waiting to die.
Running Up That Hill
Just a fantastic cover.
Bambam
Obama is living proof that you can get away with just about anything if you’re confident, eloquent, reasonably good-looking and sociopathic in nature.
Philone
I wonder if philosophers get annoyed when us plebs babble on about it so much without having spent 10 years analysing all the foundational texts
— Emily Painter (@cosimia_) April 5, 2019
I have spent 20+ years examining the foundational texts, and they still get annoyed because I don’t have a PhD, even though many of them are not that impressive as thinkers. They have the right credentials, though, which is largely what matters to most.
My advice is just to do your own thing and use experts when it’s helpful. Often it’s not, or counterproductive, if your mind is good enough.
Mini-brains
What is it with people in minivans wanting to race my SS at lights? I never do, because I don’t road race, but do they not realize the SS can go 0-100mph in 10.5 seconds?
I mean, there are certainly some minivans that aren’t slow, but come on. What do they think they are going to achieve?
Purity
I wonder why humans naturally tend to gravitate toward purity tests? I even have that tendency, though I try to suppress it whenever I notice it (not always successfully).
I’d guess it has a lot to do with in-group bonding being extremely important throughout our evolutionary history, and believing something hindering or just plain wrong is a very costly signal of loyalty, thus hard to fake — similar to flat-earthers and what they believe, or feminists convinced of the ubiquity and reach of BernieBros.
BernieBros and Russiagates
Bernie Sanders is the most popular candidate among Hispanic voters.
WHAT? I was told only white males under 30 liked Bernie, and that if you said anything different you were a dreaded (though fictional) BernieBro! You mean all those Marcotte types were lying, like they absolutely didn’t about the ACA?
In reality, as anyone with even 1/10 of a functioning brain knows, Bernie had and has wide appeal to women, minorities, and similar demographics.
When Someone’s Right….
Stronger men have an advantage over stronger women. Period. This trans inclusion in female athletics is a necessary consequence of an incoherent social constructionist gender theory and it threatens to make a mockery of women's sports https://t.co/BlfmLb5axW
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 6, 2019
Yes, I know it’s Jordan Peterson, but in this case I agree with him 100%. It’s a travesty what’s being done to women’s sports.
There are important physiological differences between men and women. For instance, average women have only 37% of the upper body strength of average men.
There’s nothing any pseudo-feminist wishful thinking can do about that. That’s just a fact of life, as much as some people wish it weren’t.
Right now, weightlifting and other sports are being completely ruined by men dressed as women. I expect tennis will be next, and that’s when I will stop watching it.
Cynically, I think if I called myself Michaela and “became” a woman, I could probably compete at world-class level in women’s deadlifting events if I cut some weight and trained for a few years more. I could probably still do 400+ at 140 pounds if I was really strict on my diet and kept training. And then I’d win a lot of competitions.
That’s totally fair, right, because all it takes is wishful thinking to be a woman?
Troll Toll
Lauren Mayberry on misogyny. Can’t imagine the bullshit she’s faced, being intelligent, young-looking (at 27 there, she looks 13), pretty, and worst of all (from the loser male misogynist perspective) super talented. That’s like the perfect quartet of traits for misogynistic trolls to relentlessly attack. Didn’t realize she was Scottish, though — had never heard anything but their songs before watching this interview, so had never heard her speaking voice.
I don’t think we should call them trolls, though. In a sane world, a death threat in a tweet or text message or FB post would be handled the same way as one dispensed in person. But then the tech companies wouldn’t rake in as much cash, and we couldn’t have that, could we?
Clearest Blue
My favorite CHVRCHES song. Also, who is Lauren waving at, at 2:05?