Skip Navigation

Posts
3
Comments
153
Joined
3 yr. ago

Been a student. Been a clerk. Been a salesperson. Been a manager. Been a teacher. Been an expatriate. Am a husband, father, and chronicle.

  • Not that I'm aware of. However, there was that one giraffe, Gracie, who escaped in Texas. Fortunately she was found, weeks later. Then, someone took it upon themself to dig into the story.

    "Sometime during the day on June 12, she “put on her rock climbing shoes,” said Johnson, and scampered across the cliff face to freedom.

    "Gracie’s natural camouflage perfectly suited the area’s dense mix of cedars and brush.

    "Then, fifteen days after her disappearance, Gracie was spotted, “fat and happy,” a few miles from her home—first on a neighboring ranch’s game camera and then by helicopter. So began the hard work of capturing and relocating her. As Johnson put it, “You don’t just push a giraffe into your pickup.”

    "She was **lightly sedated from the air via tranquilizer dart. ** The team then attached a halter line, eye mask, muzzle, and earplugs (befitting her “rounded ears,” which became a fascination to those following online) and loaded her into the trailer, which was carefully towed by a Jeep through goat trails, rivers, and ravine crossings and under low-hanging branches cut by the team as they drove. Once loaded onto the main giraffe trailer, she made it back to Cedar Hollow, her odyssey complete.

    "Jones called me the morning before with the news that Gracie’s owner had stepped in. This owner “has never told me how to run this ranch,” explained Jones, but when they heard a writer was coming out, they instructed Jones to proceed with “extreme caution,” seemingly due to the overwhelming attention recently heaped on Cedar Hollow."

    I admit I'm cherry-picking. But, still.

    All I'm saying is that if I was Gracie, in that situation, I'd want the option. Being bagged and tagged in Texas, imprisoned in a place that heaps tragedies, held captive in a country not my own, one that deports its refugees with glee... yeah. No thanks. As a theee-year old giraffe I'd want out.

    Even permanently.

  • I'm just impressed that Im not the only one who's seen this movie. I own one of the (probably) few remaining DVDs.

  • No, I was talking about the timing.

    Sounds like you know something about this giraffe's troubles.

  • Early in YouTubeland (circa 2008-2010) there was a user called AntiConsumer. Content was all taken down and the profile disappeared.

    I'd love to know where to find some of that material now. There were clips from documentaries, ads, lectures and more. Might have seen my first bits of Michael Parenti there. Im pretty sure that my firat exposure to Wesley Clark's "7 countries in 5 years" talk was from there.

  • Its never a good time for this joke. That said, some jokes are told so people start to pay attention.

    Pay attention now.

    When Ms. Rachel jumps in and speaks on it, you know what time it is.

    Black people are being lynched in America. Again.

    This is indicative of America's rot; capitalizing on its moral superiority while, simultaneously, engaging the base, grotesque trappings of power and wealth. Racial, sexual, and national categorization guiding policy. It ends in lynching. Then, as now.

    America was forced, from within, three times, to end this conduct: the disregard for BIPOC people as people.

    Lynching of free Black Americans began with the end slavery. From day damn 1. With varying frequency, throughout US history, Black people are murdered in public. "And justice for all" rings hollow. The promise of American freedom perverted.

    Free Americans murder subsets of Americans. It perverts freedom and denies justice.

    In 1864, a slaver (hard R), could destroy any of his own property. Including enslaved humans; property under law. The Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 meant to remedy this. Texas finally received General Order No. 3 on Juneteeth, 1865.

    On 21 June 1964, a mob (made mostly of male good ol' boys) police-Klansmen could hunt and kill a Black person and his two Jewish friends. It was then up to law-men; police, Sherrifs' departments, district attorneys, and governors to determine whether investigations would proceed against lynchers. Mississippi burned.

    The US Civil Rights Act of 1964, changed this, 3 231 days after the "the last classical lynching (as recorded by the Tuskegee Institute)."¹ 12 days after the last lynching for which convictions were obtained. Is it a crime if none are ever convicted?

    Sidebar: there is a Federal statute, the Emmitt Till Antilynching Act, on the books in the US. Guess when it was passed. 29 March 2022.

    In 2014, Officer Daniel Pantaleo choked Eric Garner to death in Staten Island, NY. The Grand jury declined to indict. This police killing is often cited alongside the police killing of George Floyd on 25 May 2020.

    Is it a crime when there is no conviction?

    George Zimmerman. Not convicted. Kyle Rittenhouse. Not convicted. How many killings makes a pattern? 100? 1 000? 1 000 000?

    I bet there's a website with 100. Found it.

    Picture this: An America that sends badges to hunt immigrants. En masse. An ever expanding, ever voracious prison system seeking inmates, convicts, and victims. Police with qualified immunity. Many bad apples. Many broken people. Many violent acts. An America always vigilant against attack.

    When 'Stand Your Ground' and vigilance meet, there are problems.

    Now, what qualifies as a lynching? Exercising State power is excused; from Presidents all the way down the chains to police officers. There is a classical form. A spate of black people hanging from trees since 2025 isn't lynching. Right?

    Right?

    Pay attention.

    ¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynching_in_the_United_States. Accessed 20 August 2026.

  • Indian food is right up there in my food heaven with Thai, Chinese, Korean, Mediterranean (Turkish, Lebanese, Greek) and Jamaican breakfasts, beef patties, roti, and jerk everything.

  • Why do you suppose humans aren't well equipped to deal with negative emotions? Also, why do you suppose people have so many more negative emotions than we did in the past?

    I'm nearing the half century mark. I work in education. I used to work in sales and retail. I've traveled to most corners of the planet. I read widely. I can attest, humans aren't well equipped to deal with negative emotions and people have so many more negative emotions than we did in the past. This is the Internet.

    Also, I'm not shitting on therapy. Therapy is keeping the wheels on this bus I'm riding. That said, therapy often fails at addressing underlying causes precisely because the dreck we exist in — and are forced to wade through — drives us back to therapy.

    "It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted in a profoundly sick society." ~ attributed to Jiddu Krishnamurti

  • Art nouveau, Dark deco, solarpunk, minimalism, Japanese wabi-sabi.

  • I got this book at prerelease. Love it and the YouTube videos that started it.

  • Dark mode should be the default on phones, websites, programs, apps, and all electronics.

    My AMOLED screen draws less power this way.

  • I never thought Saturday morning cartoons would be horrible.

    They are, now, horrible. That's not just my "old" talking. With reboots, similarities, and call-backs, there's not really anything that is groundbreaking. Safe-bet, focus-grouped, merchandisable intellectual properties.

    At least, all the ones I've stumbled upon.

  • Ads stuffed into everything.

    Native advertising in my Reddit feed before I quit Reddit.

    Unskippable ads in YouTube. Remedied only by Firefox and uBlock.

    The sheer quantity of ads on Amazon Prime and CBC Gem keep me from those streaming platforms. Others will go that way soon enough.

    The last straw were the ads in the launcher I used to use for Android. NovaLauncher got dropped in a hurry.

    I'm worried about ever buying a car that will hold me as a captive audience to be advertised at. Ads on screens in bathrooms, elevators, and at gas pumps all irk me.

  • I only recommend to follow your interests. Reading the blurbs will ruin nothing. I saw the Power of Nighmares, then found out about Century of the Self. HyperNormalisation came out soon after I finished those. I have so many more to see.

    This was nearing the end of my "predominantly documentaries" phase of viewing films. I was geographically limited in being able to access them as freely.

    Now, I'm piling a lot of information into my head from books. My focus is on Canada's journey toward Reconciliation, the crime of genocide, and the power structures that facilitate crimes against humanity.

    Like, I know I should just read Hannah Arendt, but I havent gotten to her yet.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

    Jump
  • Favourite? Kondiaronk as introduced to me by Graeber and Wengrow in The Dawn of Everything.

    I have spent 6 years reflecting on the state of European society and I still can’t think of a single way they act that is not inhuman and I generally think this can only be the case as long as you stick to your distinctions of “mine” and “thine.” I affirm that what you call “money” is the devil of devils, the tyrant of the French, the source of all evils, the bane of souls and slaughterhouse of the living. To imagine one can live in the country of money and preserve one’s soul is like imagining one can preserve one’s life at the bottom of a lake. Money is the father of luxury, lasciviousness, intrigues, trickery, lies, betrayal, insincerity—of all the world’s worst behavior.

    Most ... (I don't even know what to say about this guy except to say I'm surprised he exists): Adrian Carton de Wiart

    Just... look him up. Served in six wars including BOTH World Wars.

    YouTube videos have titles including, "The Unkillable Soldier", "The Man Who Would Not Die", "Invincible".

    Actually, here's one quote from the top of his Wikipedia page:

    He served in the Boer War, First World War, and Second World War. He was shot in the face, head, stomach, groin, ankle, leg, hip, and ear. He was also blinded in his left eye, survived two plane crashes, tunnelled out of a prisoner-of-war camp, and ripped off his own severely injured fingers when a doctor declined to amputate them. Describing his experiences in the First World War, he wrote, "Frankly, I had enjoyed the war."

  • My friend, an Adam Curtis festival deserves to happen. I'd be down to help make it happen online.

    The views I have done:

    • Hypernormalisation
    • The Century of Self
    • The Power of Nightmares
    • The Trap: What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom
    • Everything Is Going According to Plan (Collab with Massive Attack)

    The views I have yet to do:

    • Bitter Lake
    • TraumaZone
    • All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
    • Shifty
    • Pandora's Box
  • I wish I had the spare $200 for it. Ill have to pick it up used or from collector in, like, 4 years.

    Really, though, my discretionary $200+ spent on a single book — at this point — would go to Le Pater. I dig Alphonse Mucha and Art Nouveau.

  • Better than the rest

    • The Wire & Homicide: Life on the Street (David Simon Box Set)
    • Atlanta
    • The Expanse

    Comedy

    • NewsRadio (for Maura Tierney and Dave Foley and Phil Hartman and Khandi Alexander and Vicki Lewis and Stephen Root)
    • Schitt's Creek
    • Ted Lasso (Seasons 1 and 2)
    • Murphy Brown
    • Sex Education

    Sci-Fi

    • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
    • Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009)
    • Dark
    • Devs
    • Altered Carbon (Season 1)

    Drama

    • The Newsroom
    • Law & Order (seasons 1-8)
    • Succession
    • Severance

    Intense Drama (TV-MA and little levity)

    • Chernobyl
    • Adolescence
    • Utopia
    • MR. ROBOT
    • Luther
    • True Detective (Season 1)
    • Vince Gilligan Box Set (Better Call Saul & Breaking Bad & Plur1bus (has levity))
    • Ozark

    Anthology shows

    • Black Mirror
    • Love Death + Robots

    Animated

    • Rick and Morty
    • Samurai Jack (2001-2004, 2017)
    • Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005-2008)
    • Gravity Falls
    • South Park
    • Neon Genesis Evangelion
    • Final Space

    Perpetually on deck for me

    • Fargo
    • Andor
    • Band of Brothers
    • Barry
    • Legion
    • Letterkenny
    • Bojack Horseman
    • Scavenger's Reign
    • Fringe
  • This show. This has one of the greatest poetry readings in TV history built into it. The build up, the absolute crescendo to the end of this show was a feat.

    Yes. Yes to devs.

  • Century of the Self should be required viewing. Adam Curtis made the film/series modernity needs.

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world

    Which of Gossip Goblin's "The 13 Cycles of Humanity" do you think we are trending toward? TW: body horror, AI generated video (think, Terry Gilliam).

    youtube.com /playlist
  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world

    What X-mas themed things do people who hate X‐mas like?

  • Ask Lemmy @lemmy.world

    Request: An image or animated zoetrope that shows the corpo-media-police industrial complex.