Sunday Morning Book Thread - 12-01-2024 ["Perfessor" Squirrel]

(HT: California Girl NOT CaliGirl)

Welcome to the prestigious, internationally acclaimed, stately, and illustrious Sunday Morning Book Thread! The place where all readers are welcome, regardless of whatever guilty pleasure we feel like reading (extra guffaws not included). Here is where we can discuss, argue, bicker, quibble, consider, debate, confabulate, converse, and jaw about our latest fancy in reading material. As always, pants are required, unless you are wearing these pants...(a Thanksgiving feast on the go!)

So relax, find yourself a warm kitty (or warm puppy--I won't judge) to curl up in your lap, snack on leftover turkey, stuffing, and pie, and dive into a new book. What are YOU reading this fine morning?

As I mentioned last week, I am very grateful to all of your support for my meager contributions to AoSHQ. I believe I'm merely the curator of this space while y'all are the CREATORS of the Sunday Morning Book Thread with your own comments and contributions. As a matter of fact, nearly all of the content this week is from YOU...Thank you!

P.S. Thanks to TRex for a great Hobby Thread yesterday!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:00 AM | Comments (251) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 1 December 2024

Top Story

• What will a less psychotic SEC mean for crypto over the next four years? We asked a dozen experts and here's what dribbled out of them. (The Register)
  
  Molly White runs the invaluable Web3 is Going Just Great which lists all the frauds and failures of the crypto space.
  
  Turns out that beyond that she's basically just another leftist lunatic.
  
  
  

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (237) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Open Thread

You know what to do.

Posted by: CBD at 10:44 PM | Comments (489) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Saturday Evening Movie Thread - 11/30/2024

Michael Powell (and Emeric Pressburger)

The best form of this is going to be the recent documentary Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger narrated and executive produced by Martin Scorsese. He has been a fan of the work of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, often under the production company banner The Archers, since he was an asthmatic child unable to go out and play and spending all day in front of his television where he discovered movies like The Tales of Hoffmann on a local station in New York. He and his fellow students at NYU in the 60s like Brian De Palma kept searching for uncut prints of movies like The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Peeping Tom, but it was after the success of Mean Streets that he actually found Powell alive and forgotten in Kent which began a friendship between the two men that lasted the rest of their lives. Powell even married Scorsese's editor, Thelma Schoonmaker.

Well, I guess I don't have to write anything, just go watch that!

Well, I'm gonna write more anyway because I watched every Powell and Pressburger film as well as every film Powell himself made alone (though I could never find a copy of the one film that Pressburger made alone), and I have come away with thoughts. I will share such thoughts!

The important thing to consider regrading Powell and Pressburger is that they were such a tight collaborative pair that shared writing, directing, and producing credits on fourteen feature films. They also worked together on ten more in different capacities, the most important being five of them where Pressburger is credited as sole writer and Powell is credited as sole director. Powell directed 31 other films without any involvement from Pressburger (mostly from the early quota quickie period) while Pressburger only directed one film without Powell (Twice Upon a Time, which I would have watched but could never find a copy of).

When considering Powell's career and even the collaboration between Pressburger, it could be said that most of Powell's work would be considered fairly standard fare for any capable and talented director in the British film system of the day (the early 30s through the early 60s, roughly). However, it's not that bulk that people like Scorsese latch onto, it's the special period, mostly through the 40s, that capture the imagination. It's not the capable and entertaining Hitchcock-like Contraband but the ethereal The Red Shoes.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison at 07:45 PM | Comments (211) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hobby Thread - November 30, 2024 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb for the last whispers of November. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread.

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it landed on a theme of the written word for this week. Apparently the Wheel is interested in hearing about the talents of the Horde who are clever with the written word. This is NOT a book thread. Repeat. This is NOT a book thread where we debate the contents of our libraries, revel in recent finds, and share regrets of books not yet read. Perfessor Squirrel maintains a marvelous venue elsewhere for that (but check the policy on pants before participating).

This is a thread about a those among the Horde who enjoy writing stories, essays, scripts for the screen, stage or airwaves. This is a thread about those among the Horde who enjoy good poetry, haiku and limericks. Are you the one who comes up with the joke or the dinner toast? Are you silver tongued? Do you write for your own giggles or do you share? Do you keep a notebook with you at all times for random thoughts, rhymes, and sketches? Do you doodle? Do you have a daily writing routine? Do you write in a diary or journal (with instructions to destroy upon your death, no doubt)? Do you write longhand with pen or pencil or write on a computer? Does anyone write on a typewriter? When you write, does your cat need to be RIGHT ON TOP OF WHERE YOU ARE WORKING?

Have you written works that nobody else will ever see? Are you a published author? Are you self published? Have you gone direct to publishing on your own website or substack?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:30 PM | Comments (289) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ace of Spades Pet Thread, November 30

* * *

Good afternoon and welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. Thanks for stopping by. Kick back and enjoy the world of animals.

Would you like a treat?

Let's relax a little with the animals and leave the world of politics and current events outside today.

* * *

Posted by: K.T. at 03:18 PM | Comments (78) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Nov. 30

Sequence of maturation of a single bloom

Happy Saturday, everyone! Have you had a chance to go outside? Have you been traveling? Today's opening photos (and those below) are from a lurker. The Horde is wonderful.

Do you recognize that flower? I've grown it.

Posted by: K.T. at 01:24 PM | Comments (46) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Has anything filled you with wonder this year?

Happy Saturday After Thanksgiving! Are you still feeling thankful?

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
-G.K. Chesterton

I think that many people have been surprised by many things lately. Some have been happy about their surprises and some have been very sad about their surprises. But has anything moved you to a sense of wonder?

One thing that has filled me with wonder is that IT IS ASSORTED BILLIONAIRES who have been supporting our civil liberties, such as the right to free speech. Elon Musk went through a lot of pain and financial loss when he took over Twitter to protect the free speech rights of the Babylon Bee.

DOGE is a big deal, promising to free us from a lot of excess regulation. It is also led by billionaires. (Chris Rufo, a former leftist activist, has some cautions).

And then there is the push-back against the Biden Administration by several tech billionaires:

Posted by: K.T. at 11:04 AM | Comments (280) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Saturday Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival

The Breakfast of Champions

*****

Good morning. Yes, there is coffee below the fold.......Enjoy your last Saturday of November 2024.

Before we get going just a few house keeping matters to take care of. (Rulz for those of you in Sarasota)

1) This is an open thread. Feel free to lurk, opine and/or bloviate.
2. Be nice. Be kind. And please, no jumping on the furniture.
3. Running with sharp objects? Sure, we will laugh at you.
4. Have a great weekend!

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 08:23 AM | Comments (361) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 30 November 2024

Top Story

• When you read about million dollar bananas, expect money laundering, not conceptual art. Cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun eats $9.5 million banana artwork Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan. (ABC / MSN)

  A cryptocurrency entrepreneur has eaten a $US6.2 million ($9.5 million) banana artwork he purchased.

  This is the Australian ABC, so it's really only a $6 million dollar banana, not a $9 million dollar banana.

  The debut of the edible creation at the 2019 Art Basel show in Miami Beach sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art - Mr Cattelan's stated aim.

  And no, the banana wasn't five years old. The banana wasn't part of the "art". There was merely the concept of a banana:

  The artwork owner is given a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Mr Cattelan as well as instructions about how to replace the fruit when it goes bad.

  This is banana. Is taped to wall. Replace when become drippy.

  The 34-year-old crypto businessman was last year charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission with fraud and securities law violation in relation to his crypto project Tron.

  Yeah, no shit.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (211) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Good, The Bad And The ONT

Hi folks! Let's see what I dredged out of the bowels of the internet this week.

Posted by: WeirdDave at 10:00 PM | Comments (365) | Trackbacks (Suck)

It's Officially Christmas Season Cafe

Dog demands cuddles.

All the ladies crazy about a sharp-dressed dog.

Roadhouse, as performed by the Pet Repertory Company.

Dog isn't afraid to take the road less traveled.

Dog and deer are frenz.

Steve Inman:

Get permission before you people into your stupid TikTok videos.

Posted by: Ace at 07:10 PM | Comments (531) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Down-Unda Lambada Open Thread

Posted by: Ace at 05:50 PM | Comments (257) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Bears At Play Open Thread

Posted by: Ace at 04:40 PM | Comments (161) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Lip Sync Open Thread

Just a lip sync thread, that's all.

Posted by: Ace at 03:30 PM | Comments (197) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Raven Helper Open Thread

Posted by: Ace at 02:20 PM | Comments (151) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Expert Gun Handling Open Thread

Posted by: Ace at 01:18 PM | Comments (273) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Lunatic Race Lady Joy Reid Doubles Down on Disconnecting from Suppressive Persons in Your Family

Not a cult.

Posted by: Ace at 12:11 PM | Comments (317) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Venezuelan Gangs Operating in Tennessee’s Mid-Size Cities: ”It’s Not Happening” ”It’s actually a good thing.”

We all know the propaganda sequence that occurs when conservatives shed light on the woke pathologies of the left which are imposed on society.

1) It’s not happening.

2) It may be happening a little, but it’s not a big deal.

3) It’s actually a good thing that it’s happening.

4) Only a bigot would oppose it from happening.

The story of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua operating throughout Tennessee, including smaller cities such as Knoxville and Chattanooga, is quickly working its way through the left’s propaganda sequence. This foreign gang activity deep in the heartland is the result of the open borders policy that Democrats and the left support.

While I may have taken some liberties in the headline about which stage of the sequence we’re at, The “It’s not happening stage” quickly became inoperable after only a few days.

On Friday November 15, David Raush, the Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), stated that violent Venezuelan gangs were operating in all of Tennessee’s major cities - not just Memphis and Nashville - but also Knoxville and Chattanooga.

“TBI Director Says Violent Venezuelan Gang Operating In Chattanooga, Other Tennessee Cities” [Chattanoogan – 11/15/2024]

Local officials in Chattanooga quickly pushed back…

“‘No evidence’ of Venezuelan gang in Chattanooga area after TBI director raised flags” [Chattanooga Times Free Press – 11/18/2024]

Chattanooga Police Department Chief John Chambers said his department has "no evidence to indicate that the gang is actively operating in our city" in a statement posted to social media Monday.

In fact, despite the Director of the TBI stating on the record that Venezuelan gangs were engaged in criminal activity in Chattanooga, including human trafficking, Chattanooga mayor Tim Kelly flippantly dismissed the TBI’s warning, stating to a local TV station that Tren de Aragua’s criminal activity is “not a concern for us right now in Chattanooga.”

To be fair, Tim Kelly is a trust fund eco-leftist who believes his purpose as mayor is to save the world from global warming. There is no reason to doubt his sincerity when Mayor Kelly states that South American gang activity in Chattanooga does not concern him.

Just one week later, a Tren de Aragua gang member was arrested in Chattanooga.

“Member of Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, arrested in Chattanooga” [Fox 17 Nashville – 11/25/2024]

In Operation Crime and Justice, a member of the violent Venezuelan gang now operating in Tennessee is charged in connection with a human trafficking operation in Chattanooga. Earlier this month, the TBI warned of the growing TDA gang in Tennessee's major cities.

Tennessee Conservative News has a pretty good roundup of this story, which notes that three women were also arrested, but rather than being Tren de Aragua members, these women are apparently being held in captivity and forced into prostitution.

TBI Director Rausch stated of these women, “they are victims as well,” and live in “great fear” of their captors as many women are kidnapped off the streets in Venezuela and then forced into prostitution in the U.S.

In other words, these women are sex slaves that have been smuggled into the U.S. by a criminal Venezuelan gang. Slavery is alive and well in Chattanooga, and the city’s Democrat mayor says this is “not a concern” of his.

As the propaganda sequence plays out, it’s only a matter of time now until we’ll be told that only a bigot would oppose a Venezuelan gang operating sex slavery rings in Tennessee.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 10:56 AM | Comments (236) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread

The Glutton
Norman Rockwell

Posted by: CBD at 09:30 AM | Comments (301) | Trackbacks (Suck)