Wednesday Night Open Thread

When you think of geeks and nerds, you usually thing of men, right? But aren’t computer programmers geeks or nerds?

[The YouTube]

Got something you’d like to share? It’s Wednesday Night Open Thread.

What’s on your mind?

Yes, But Can They Hoard Cats?

Turns out that helper-bots Alexa and Siri are capable of hearing and reacting to commands that are undetectable to the human ear.

Cool. Teach them to push shopping carts and we can upgrade our homeless population.

Tarantino Would Make You Watch the Whole Uncomfortable Mess

[THE MOMENTS BETWEEN THE MONTAGE | Chris & Jack] (Viewer #175,044)

It’s a clever concept. I just wish the dialogue were similarly clever. Mostly it’s just awkward. So if you like awkward humor, you’ll like this.

Link of the Day: Even Worse Than Leash Laws for Werewolves

[High Praise! to NewsBiscuit]

Health and Safety regulations driving vampires ‘batty’

[Think you have a link that’s IMAO-worthy? Send it to harvolson@gmail.com. If I use your link, you will receive High Praise! (assuming you remember to put your name in the email)]

Icebreaker: Which Famous Person Would You Like to Meet?

Having finished “The 25 most popular icebreaker questions based on four years of data” and enjoyed the results, I’m moving on to a new list:

76 Fun Icebreaker Questions (Not all of which will be used, since some are either/or questions, which are boring.)

Your mission: answer the question in the comments with a good story.

If you don’t have a good story, you are encouraged to make one up.

Which famous person would you like to meet?

Absolutely none of them.

Good heavens, they’re all busy doing the important things that they’re famous for. Why would I make them waste their time by spending it with someone who couldn’t help them do their important things?

There’s a very good reason I’m not in their circle.

Real Ones Have Them

[High Praise! to Freedom Is Just Another Word]

[reference link]

Straight Line of the Day: Next to Be Replaced by Robots:…

Works like this: I feed you Moon Nukers a straight line, and you hit me with a punch line in the comments.

Next to be replaced by robots:…

The Illustrated Frank J: Our Last, Worst Hope

[source]

[title reference link]

Normally, Sir, Yes. But Today the Van Broke Down

Now coming to nursing homes in the UK: robots which can listen, learn, and react to people, which will help look after residents.

Uh oh… any chance these bots learned their customer service skills in a cheese shop?

Random Thoughts: Intellectual Dark Web and Israel

Opposition to abortions stems from the fact it involves violently ripping apart a tiny human. If your argument for abortion is all about women’s rights but dances around the whole killing tiny humans part, you can be sure it won’t convince anyone.
It’s a bit like a vegan says to you “Meat is murder” and you respond about how great and tasty meat is. You might think you have a very compelling argument, but it leaves the central reason for the objection intact.
Similarly, if you’re arguing for making abortion illegal but dance around the whole needing to force women to remain pregnant using state violence if necessary, then you’re also definitely not convincing anyone.
Anyway, I like helping us all have intelligent debate of important issues. Hopefully with these ground rules we can hash out the abortion issue by the end of the day!

It’s good the Secret Service makes sure there aren’t any guns around when Trump gives a speech. Could you imagine what would happen if Trump got his hands on a gun?

It’s impossible for people to have so much they won’t whine about someone else having more. And they’ll say it’s the one they’re whining about who is greedy.

Billionaires have way more wealth than they deserve, but so do you.

A good use of a time machine would be to get an average person from a couple hundred years ago so you could explain your problems to him and he could then beat you up for being a whiny, entitled prick.

I got so pumped up from watching the first season I tried to remember one of my old katas from when I was a kid. My 2yo saw me and tried to imitate it, but she’s not Cobra Kai material.

Considering the pace they put out Rick and Morty, I don’t know what to think of a 70 episode order. It’s a bit like Bantam announcing they have a contract for 10 more books from George R.R. Martin.

With my next book, I might try a different strategy. With Sidequest, I wrote something everyone can enjoy, while a better strategy is to write something half the country hates and boycotts which causes the other half to buy it out of spite.

I simply don’t trust a man who doesn’t enjoy a properly cooked steak.
I’m okay with you not eating a steak for religious or moral or health reasons as long as you acknowledge you very much would enjoy a medium rare steak if you ate one.

I decided to try memeing again.

Owning the libs is much more economical than leasing them.

I still don’t get people not just using the “ignore” option for extreme voices — which is not only the best option but also the easiest. The best explanation I’ve heard is that some people treat their intellectual spaces like a church — they don’t want it profaned.
What college students need is bigger work loads. My major in Electrical and Computer Engineer kept me way to busy to even think about protesting things.
The thing is, the left wants to suppress some voices, they’re just terrible at it and tend to amplify what they target. Which is good for some voices that should be heard more but bad for some like Milo Yiannopoulos who would be unknown otherwise.

Guys, there’s less than two days left to get on the Bears Want to Kill You Kickstarter. While everyone is worrying about Donald Trump, climate change, diabetes and other completely imaginary nonsense, very real bears could kill us all.

I’ve always told my kids that if a bear attacked us, I would uppercut it so hard its head would explode. It’s been a while since I learned how to do that in Tae Kwon Do, though.

I’ve repeatedly had the police called on me, but it’s always like, “Hey, this guys is so awesome. Everyone from the police force should come, watch, and learn.”

I have no idea what anyone means anymore when they say “conservatism.” I’m pretty sure everyone now has their own version of what that means that exists solely in their own heads.
I try to use “left” and “right” now as those are kind of meaningless terms that just denote a side, while “conservative” and “liberal” are words that have meanings that tend to cut against how they’re actually used.
Many called “liberals” in the U.S. are literally conservative and have a status quo they want to preserve. Many called “conservatives” are trying to make radical change.
And when I see people say “liberals are wrong about everything” or “conservatives” are wrong about everything” that’s just insane. There are always things that need changing and things that should be preserved.
But people have definitions in their heads where “conservative” or “liberal” just means “people I disagree with on everything.” It’s really useless language that buries their point.
This rant was inspired by this Chait column, which I think had some good points but was buried under the fact that when he said “liberalism” or “conservatism”, I had no idea what he meant by that.
Like “conservatism is a failed dogma” — what does that mean? I thought part of what American conservatism is trying to conserve is classical liberalism — which means liberalism is a failed dogma! It’s all failed dogmas!
And most of the complaints about liberals these days amount to critiques on how illiberal they are. And I find it unclear on the right if conservatives are those opposed to Trump or are those opposed to Trump no longer considered conservative.
I wish there was a reset button and we could toss out the words — liberal, conservative, Republican, Democrat — and start over and figure out what the ideas we’re actually talking about are… if any ideas are left.

All I want is enough reputation to upvote good answers on Stack Overflow. I just never come up with a question I can’t eventually find an answer to on Stack Overflow — it just sometimes takes a long time which is why I want to upvote the good answers.

I refuse to listen to any argument that conservatives aren’t closed-minded.

The phrase “intellectual dark web” falsely implies there’s an intellectual light web. The mainstream is now all mindless tribalism and people repeating the same useless points like mantras.

Most of political debate now is debating why one doesn’t need to debate.

Maybe people should just build bubbles so strong they’re protected from knowing whether they won or lost elections and thus everyone is happy.

“So we ended up with Trump by being dismissive of the views of half the country. Well, guess what: We’re going to be even more dismissiver!” -left-wing genius in no need of hearing opposing views

“Han, you must continue the family business.”
“But I don’t want to make red plastic cups. I want to smuggle things… in space!”
“YOU’LL SULLY THE SOLO NAME!”

Fox just canceled Firefly again for good measure.

I have studied politics carefully and have determined that everyone who disagrees with me is dumb and bad and that no reasonable person could think otherwise. Thus there is nothing left to do with those who disagree with me except call them names and throw small rocks at them.

Are you saying me irrationally hating people could make them more hateful in response? Then I was right to hate these people so easily tricked into being hateful.

I don’t know how people so dumb and awful can be convinced they’re so right all the time. I blame the self-esteem culture. Kids need to be told “Shut up, dummy,” more often.

The left are always like, “Adolf Hitler and Karl Marx had some good ideas.” Yeah, maybe, if they were some ideas that didn’t have anything to do with politics or economics. Like if they said, “Let’s get pizza tonight.” Still, to be on the safe side, I’d get tacos.

It’s hard to believe that concept of “cultural appropriation” came from anything other than an extreme love of scolding.

“You’re racist!”
“No I’m not. Look I’m even embracing other cultures.”
“That’s culture appropriation and also racist.”
“You’re… you’re just pulling my leg now, right?”

What exactly is the end game with the left convincing themselves that tens of millions of Americans are racists and Nazis who shouldn’t be engaged with? It sounds ominous, but I’m guessing the end result will just be irritating.

Can I join the Intellectual Dark Web? I have lots of smart ideas that buck the status quo plus no one likes me.

I think I’d like to have a billion dollars. On one hand, people would yell at me, “You are bad. You are bad for having a billion dollars.” On the other hand, I’d have a billion dollars. The benefits outweigh the costs.

I always like the C.S. Lewis perspective that mother is the ultimate job with all othe jobs existing to support it.

If women were able to make the choice regardless of circumstances/finances, do you think we’d have more or less stay at home mothers?

You know who the American left remind me of? Adolf Hitler. And I don’t mean they all have mustaches like him. I mean they resemble him in temperament and politically.
I know what you’re saying. “What an extreme comparison! Adolf Hitler was widely regarded as the worst of the Hitlers! Some even say he was a nazi!” But the resemblance is uncanny.
If you listen to what I say with an open mind, I think you will have to agree that the left are literally Hitler (I’m using “literally Hitler” in the figurative sense).
Adolf Hitler hated listening to people who disagreed with him—just like the American left! When the left hear of someone that disagrees with them, they get extremely angry—just like Hitler used to get!
The American left love using the government to try and control people’s behavior, something Adolf Hitler loved as well! If Hitler ever got his hands on a government, he’d use it for control. And Germany gave him a government. Big mistake.
The left hate Americans having guns. Adolf Hitler also hated Americans having guns. When Americans with guns tried to come to his country, he sent an army to stop them. That’s an extremist!
The left love calling everyone Nazis. Know who also constantly called people Nazis? Adolf Hitler. He even called his friends Nazis.
The left are warm-blooded, have hair, and three middle ear bones. Know who that also describes? Adolf Hitler. I guess in this way, the left are actually like all mammals, but it makes them especially like Hitler.
I’m not trying to make a political point here. It’s like when you watch a movie and know you recognize an actor from somewhere and feel so much better when you remember where. Well, the left reminded me of someone and now I figured out who: Adolf Hitler.

I think you’re always going to have tension in the Middle East when there’s people who want to kill the Jews and Jews who don’t want to be killed and neither side is willing to compromise.

Some people disagreed with me, but I used FACTS and REASON to make my conclusion, which means anyone disagreeing with me is against LOGIC. People like that should be SHUNNED from debate. One word for you: BLOCKED!

Some have claimed that Trump is like Hitler. This is RIDICULOUS. Hitler was an artist, and Trump has NO INTEREST IN ART. In fact, he was thrown out of MoMA for YELLING AT THE PAINTINGS. What he was yelling was, “BE LESS BORING!”

I have no interest in “triggering the libs,” but it does appear to be an effective strategy. The right, by being awful, can consistently trick the left into being even worse.

I’ve never given serious thought to abandoning all my principles (what are those even for?) and being part of the grifter right. How much money can you make at that? Does it have to be a full time job, or can I stir thing up part time?

I just don’t get the whole Palestinian thing. The question seems to be “How nice should you be to people who want you dead?” The international community wants Israel to be nicer while most Americans think Israel is plenty nice all things considered.
And there are bigger, much more abusive countries than Israel, so why is Israel more than half of what the UN is always talking about? Well, I guess there’s the obvious reasons.
I guess the answer is either anti-semitism or a huge amount of racism where people consider Israelis the only ones in the Middle East worth holding to any standards.

There’s a new urban fantasy anthology out which includes a story by me, and it’s FREE… plus a dollar.
But, really, a dollar is nothing these days, so that’s pretty much the same as free. A lot of great stories in it, so snatch it up. Don’t be stupid.

“I’m sentencing you to death. And I’m going to execute you the same way I executed that ant that bit me.”

I have basically no expectations for the Solo movie. I just want to see Donald Glover play Lando.

Tax what you want less of, and in Seattle they’re going to be taxing… employing people.
How do people with less economics understanding than a monkey hoarding grapes keep getting in charge of things?