Daily Tech News 16 June 2025

Top Story

Why Johnny (class of '27) can't read. (Substack)

Only 5% of college English majors were able to understand the first seven paragraphs of Dickens' Bleak House.

Now it's understandable that someone might not fully grasp the specifics of social roles in 19th century England - at least not if they haven't read Dickens or Austen or other great authors of the period before - but it is worse than that.

Much worse.

Paragraph from Bleak House:
As much mud in the streets, as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.
And here's the response. Note that this is from a college English major:
[Pause.] [Laughs.] So it's like, um, [Pause.] the mud was all in the streets, and we were, no . . . [Pause.] so everything's been like kind of washed around and we might find Megalosaurus bones but he's says they're waddling, um, all up the hill
And this is when the students had access to freely look up anything with which they were unfamiliar.

Kowalski, analysis:
Like this subject, most of the problematic readers were not concerned if their literal translations of Bleak House were not coherent, so obvious logical errors never seemed to affect them. In fact, none of the readers in this category ever questioned their own interpretations of figures of speech, no matter how irrational the results. Worse, their inability to understand figurative language was constant, even though most of the subjects had spent at least two years in literature classes that discussed figures of speech.
Full depressing article here.

Tech News

By why male models? (arXiv)

Using AI for writing essays fries your brain.

But the above study is a year old and the students had all been in college for two years or more at the time, so that's probably not the full answer.

Edit: Turns out the above study (the first article, not this one) was originally conducted in 2015. So no, AI is not the answer. Their brains were already fried.
Don't buy an RTX 4090; it's probably fake. (Tom's Hardware)

And expensive. Not a good combination.
Could this city (Vienna) be the model for how to tackle the housing crisis and climate change? No. (NPR)

Apart from anything else - Vienna has a pretty mild climate most of the time, rarely getting very cold and never getting extremely hot - there's something more important hidden away in a footnote:
About half of Vienna's 2 million residents live in social housing. Here, at Biotope City, the social housing has solar panels. Vienna is using social housing to cut greenhouse gases and help adapt to climate change.
It's a nice pod, but it's still a pod.
Facebook's Llama 31 can recall 42% of the text of the Harry Potter novels if you prompt it with the text of the Harry Potter novels. (Understanding AI)

Yeah. How about that.

I think the author has been using too much AI and has progress from the second article to the first.

Musical Interlude

Disclaimer: Why Genesis can't read.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:44 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 w00t

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 04:45 AM (CQE5S)

2 Mornin'

Posted by: Don in SoCo at June 16, 2025 04:46 AM (vd6bO)

3 Mornin'

'Video unavailable in your country. '

So, whatever video you put up can't be watched here in the US.

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at June 16, 2025 04:49 AM (sAmhv)

4 Poot. Thanks, I'll find a substitute.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 16, 2025 04:50 AM (BLOW1)

5 This version should work better.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 16, 2025 04:52 AM (BLOW1)

6 youtu.be/rpEyuenDAo4

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at June 16, 2025 04:53 AM (sAmhv)

7 Ah, thanks. Fading Lights is the best song on that album.

youtu.be/sRKtxLDTgAw

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at June 16, 2025 04:55 AM (sAmhv)

8 Blocked in Myanmar, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia... And the US, Canada, and Greenland.

Weird.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 16, 2025 04:55 AM (BLOW1)

9

My goodness.

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 04:56 AM (CQE5S)

10 8: Yea, very weird. Interesting collection of blocked countries. It's Genesis, for crying out loud, not Slayer.

Posted by: Puddleglum, cheer up for the worst is yet to come at June 16, 2025 04:57 AM (sAmhv)

11 Oh, no! In comment #9, my quote escaped. I had excerpted this line from the front page of the thread:

"About half of Vienna's 2 million residents live in social housing."

and then I had said:

"My goodness."

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 04:59 AM (CQE5S)

12 Good Morning!

Let's smile & be happy & strike fear into the heart of killjoy leftists everywhere.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 16, 2025 05:01 AM (u82oZ)

13 I think a lot of younger kids have learned to hide their thoughts behind a veil of insoucinant stupidity. It has a very dada punk feel to it,

Posted by: Accomack at June 16, 2025 05:03 AM (Bbhox)

14 Maybe I've never heard that Genesis song before?

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 05:06 AM (CQE5S)

15 Maybe I could read the full depressing article later when the sun is up and after I have coffee. and had a chat with God,( ?) and spouse, all of which make me feel better.

My mother/ theEnglish professor/-would be turning over in her grave.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 05:08 AM (2GCMq)

16 Even the good news the Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is dead will not bring back any Israeli dead.

Eliminating lots of worthless scum vs productive, inventive, cultured, civilized people is a sad tradeoff.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 16, 2025 05:11 AM (u82oZ)

17 I am thankful to God my husband and I raised a young man who likes to read and who hasn't
read it- but would probably understand it- Bleak House. Right now during his lunch break he is reading plays by Euripides. I only know this because he carries it in when he comes home from work.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 05:13 AM (2GCMq)

18 "insoucinant stupidity"

What a great phrase!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 05:14 AM (2GCMq)

19 So basically "Idiocracy" is coming true. Got it.

(I tried linking it in the URL line for the convenience of anyone who hadn't heard of this movie, but apparently IMDB links are banned?)

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 16, 2025 05:23 AM (O7YUW)

20 It's pathetic that college students are stopped in their cognitive tracks by a passage that presents no challenge to me, a high school dropout. But then, reading comprehension was never my problem in school.

The WebOS debacle is a painful read. I almost got a TouchPad when they blowing them out for around $100. A community had sprung up that managed to get other OSes running and more fun stuff. I have an LG TV running WebOS today, though it's hard to make much judgment of the platform in such a narrow implementation.

Posted by: Epobirs at June 16, 2025 05:26 AM (/0z9K)

21 The comments from that first article discuss the underlying cause, and they conclude that people are going to college who simply should not be.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 16, 2025 05:28 AM (BLOW1)

22 @11/m: and then I had said: "My goodness."

Reminded me of the banner at engrish.com.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 16, 2025 05:29 AM (O7YUW)

23 Evening to you late toilers, morning to you early risers and insomaniacals! 'Tis a Monday, true, but always remember:

"Compared to being on the wrong side of the ground, even a bad Monday is pretty small kumquats, nicht wahr?"

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 16, 2025 05:32 AM (omVj0)

24 Morning, Tech Peeps

Posted by: fluffy at June 16, 2025 05:33 AM (AN2gy)

25 Good morning, all!

Salty, I found this in my quote pile this morning:

"Be like a pilot. The most useless info to a pilot is the amount of runway behind the plane as it takes off.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 18, 2023 06:24 AM (u82oZ)"

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 16, 2025 05:34 AM (PiwSw)

26 I'm up earlier than I planned, as usual. Partly due to large black cat Stirling, who crept up next to me, squeaking softly, and bumped his head against mine.

Repeatedly.

After sitting on my chest and purring.

At last I gave up, started the coffee, and took their chow out of the refrigerator. I'll feed them in a moment.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 16, 2025 05:36 AM (omVj0)

27 Many years ago, in a somewhat saner era, California enacted a requirement that students had to pass a genuine test of their supposed grade level to advance and more importantly, graduate. The Los Angeles Times had horrifying coverage of the first wave of students to be unavoidably informed that they were either idiots or had never been made to perform to minimum a person their age should be able to demonstrate. Students expecting to graduate instead were told they were several years behind their grade level.

Did this lead to any great reforms in CA schools? Not as far as I can tell.

Posted by: Epobirs at June 16, 2025 05:36 AM (/0z9K)

28 Happy Monday, one and all. The weather is dreary and was the perfect accompaniment to the first article. To be blunt, there is no excuse for students in this country to be that illiterate.

The rest of my comments can wait because I'm having my first cup of coffee.

Posted by: NR Pax at June 16, 2025 05:37 AM (OPGS/)

29 Full Depressing Article Here

Project Muse

They Don’t Read Very Well: A Study of the Reading
Comprehension Skills of English Majors at Two Midwestern
Universitie

'Muse'. Now there's some heavy irony to fortify your day. Those illiterates they're talking about probably don't even know what a 'muse' is in the first place.

Posted by: RickZ at June 16, 2025 05:37 AM (gKDq2)

30 {{{I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper}}}

Still true.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 16, 2025 05:38 AM (u82oZ)

31 "Changed by the Spirit"- A Christian devotional on 2nd Corinthians 3;12-18

https://tinyurl.com/6yjb5pnu

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 05:38 AM (sQWHi)

32 18 "insoucinant stupidity"

What a great phrase!
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 05:14 AM (2GCMq)

Just delete the first n. Sorry.

insouciant.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, why yes I am an English major at June 16, 2025 05:39 AM (PiwSw)

33 Have a great day, everyone.

Work those Plan Bs. We may need them. And remember -- OPSEC, OPSEC, OPSEC.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at June 16, 2025 05:40 AM (u82oZ)

34 The comments from that first article discuss the underlying cause, and they conclude that people are going to college who simply should not be.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 16, 2025 05:28 AM (BLOW1)

This is not news to anyone here.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at June 16, 2025 05:40 AM (i24o9)

35 22 @11/m: and then I had said: "My goodness."

Reminded me of the banner at engrish.com.
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 16, 2025 05:29 AM (O7YUW)

hahahahaha New site to me.

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 05:40 AM (CQE5S)

36 @21/Pixy Misa: "The comments from that first article discuss the underlying cause, and they conclude that people are going to college who simply should not be."

There's a lot of money to be made by admitting a large group of first year students and then kicking most of them out for not maintaining academic standards (and then doing it all over again the next year.)

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 16, 2025 05:41 AM (O7YUW)

37 And they are creating colleges for people who shouldn't be teaching. If you think of collegiate education as a Keynesian "dig a hole fill a hole"work program, things will make more sense.
I live in the lower delmarva. Maybe 30k people live here. We have five college/universities: U of Salisbury, UM eastern shore, UM Princess Anne, WorWic CC and UV Eastern Shore.
The democrats are making work for their voters.

Posted by: Accomack at June 16, 2025 05:42 AM (JY+81)

38 @35/m: "hahahahaha New site to me."

Hooboy, you're gonna be there a while. *laughs*

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 16, 2025 05:43 AM (O7YUW)

39 25 Good morning, all!

Salty, I found this in my quote pile this morning:

"Be like a pilot. The most useless info to a pilot is the amount of runway behind the plane as it takes off.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 18, 2023 06:24 AM (u82oZ)"
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at June 16, 2025 05:34 AM (PiwSw)

Nice!

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 05:46 AM (CQE5S)

40 I got choked up at this . Israelis and visitors worshipping God in a bomb shelter ;

https://tinyurl.com/2wfbsarz

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 05:48 AM (sQWHi)

41 Does that line from Bleak House quoted above qualify as 'purple prose'?

Posted by: fluffy at June 16, 2025 05:48 AM (AN2gy)

42
g'mornin', 'rons

Posted by: AltonJackson at June 16, 2025 05:49 AM (tljrc)

43 Education standards are a McGuffin.
The goal is a bureaucracy controlling accreditation for all jobs.

Posted by: Accomack at June 16, 2025 05:53 AM (JY+81)

44

Surely glad my role model (DAD) doesn't have to see what has happened with the young in the world he rendered safe to be raised in.

Doing away with cursive writing? Being raised illiterate because of that sorry fact? Denying their rightful gender? I would not have blamed him for discarding them. Fortunately, there are enough of us raised right to counteract the idiots.

Posted by: IRONGRAMPA at June 16, 2025 05:54 AM (hKoQL)

45 purple prose
noun
prose that is too elaborate or ornate.

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 05:54 AM (CQE5S)

46 41 Does that line from Bleak House quoted above qualify as 'purple prose'?
Posted by: fluffy

More a shade of mauve, I'd say.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 16, 2025 05:54 AM (BLOW1)

47 Morning, 'rons and 'ettes.

Posted by: olddog in mo at June 16, 2025 05:55 AM (BwZyW)

48 Education standards are a McGuffin.
The goal is a bureaucracy controlling accreditation for all jobs.
Posted by: Accomack at June 16, 2025 05:53 AM (JY+81)

A self-sustaining Tyranny of the Credentialed.

Posted by: RickZ at June 16, 2025 05:55 AM (gKDq2)

49 Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, why yes I am an English major at June 16, 2025 05:39 AM (PiwSw

It's ok . I knew what the word was 😊 and I am the world"s worst typist on these stupid cell phones,

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 05:57 AM (sQWHi)

50 Does that line from Bleak House quoted above qualify as 'purple prose'?
Posted by: fluffy at June 16, 2025

***
Good question, fluffy. By modern standards, maybe. But it's not just a collection of adjectives and adverbs thrown onto the page; it's evocative, so that you *see* a primordial ooze and *see* the gigantic dinosaur wallowing in it. It's as if London's 1830s civilization has disappeared under the mud to the (fanciful) point it might as well be 65 million years B.C.

The other "problem" with it is that, to modern readers taught to be uncomfortable with older styles, it has an omniscient narrator. There is no viewpoint character and Dickens could be accused of "telling" instead of "showing." Though I think he is "showing" just fine.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 16, 2025 05:58 AM (omVj0)

51 >>> By modern standards, maybe. But it's not just a collection of adjectives and adverbs thrown onto the page; it's evocative, so that you *see* a primordial ooze and *see* the gigantic dinosaur wallowing in it

There was mud. Oh yes, there was mud.

Posted by: fluffy at June 16, 2025 06:00 AM (AN2gy)

52 46 41 Does that line from Bleak House quoted above qualify as 'purple prose'?
Posted by: fluffy

More a shade of mauve, I'd say.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at June 16, 2025 05:54 AM (BLOW1)

purple prose + a whiter shade of pale = a shade of mauve

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 06:00 AM (CQE5S)

53 @50/Wolfus: so that you *see* a primordial ooze and *see* the gigantic dinosaur wallowing in it

Boston, when the molasses flowed.

Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 16, 2025 06:00 AM (O7YUW)

54 Full depressing article here.

Nope. Your synopsis depressed me enough. Won't read it

Posted by: olddog in mo at June 16, 2025 06:01 AM (BwZyW)

55 I have a feeling that this little girl/ pretending to be a librarian- will be able to read Bleak House if she wants when she grows up. You can just skip down past the description to the video if you want to look at it;

https://tinyurl.com/2upextvb

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 06:02 AM (sQWHi)

56 >>> Boston, when the molasses flowed.

Maybe I should go to the North End this summer to smell the molasses for myself, but I try try to avoid cities these days. Manchester, NH is more urban than I want to experience.

Posted by: fluffy at June 16, 2025 06:05 AM (AN2gy)

57 45 purple prose
noun
prose that is too elaborate or ornate.
Posted by: m

Amusing side note: In one of the later Ranger's Apprentice novels, the main character was trying to write a speech for his best friend's wedding. He was trying to be poetic and failed miserably.

Later, they had to set a fire to distract their enemies and his notes were stolen and used to start the fire. It burned purple. I had to reread it to make sure that's what I saw.

Posted by: NR Pax at June 16, 2025 06:06 AM (OPGS/)

58 Christian song from the early 70,s, "Because he lives" by Bill and Gloria Gaither:

https://tinyurl.com/47nvrxhr

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 06:08 AM (tx9jT)

59 Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.

Rejoinder: No jacket required.

Posted by: Captain Obvious. Laird o' the Sea at June 16, 2025 06:11 AM (6YdsJ)

60 Does that line from Bleak House quoted above qualify as 'purple prose'?
Posted by: fluffy
-----------
Dickens's novels were serialized in the newspapers, and he was paid by the word.

Posted by: Captain Obvious. Laird o' the Sea at June 16, 2025 06:12 AM (6YdsJ)

61 Some of the comments on that Substack article -- if the commenters are not writing tongue-in-cheek -- are almost as depressing as the students responses. .

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 16, 2025 06:12 AM (omVj0)

62 I am now going to go get a coffee, take a walk and look at some lovely flowers if I can get out of the driveway A huge tree limb outside and FenSpouse will have to use the chainsaw when he gets home. Fortunately it didn't fall right across the driveway but I don't want to scrape the car.

May you all have a blessed day and know that you are a blessing to others.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at June 16, 2025 06:13 AM (tx9jT)

63 Fen, good luck to FenSpouse at removing the tree branch. I would have said "removing the limb" but I'm on enough watch lists as it is.

Posted by: NR Pax at June 16, 2025 06:14 AM (OPGS/)

64 On a positive note...

We've never really NEEDED English majors.

But, of course, English majors not knowing English very well is a net negative to the discourse.

It's like art Majors thinking the Dutch masters were lame and gay.

Posted by: eleven at June 16, 2025 06:17 AM (fV+MH)

65 Birdbath status?

Posted by: Just Wondering at June 16, 2025 06:18 AM (lIgBp)

66 Only 5% of college English majors were able to understand the first seven paragraphs of Dickens' Bleak House.

-------------------

For over thirty years I worked in universities and have noticed the gradual erosion of skills of students. In late 80s they were smart and literate but by the time I retired a few years ago students could barely write and grammar and spelling seemed to be optional. However, they all knew their rights and how to scare a higher grade out f academic staff.

Posted by: Decaf at June 16, 2025 06:18 AM (unUNN)

67 Mud as deep as primordial ooze gives you a taste of what's to come in Bleak House, much like watching Randi Weingarten speak gives you a real flavor of what the problem is in education.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 16, 2025 06:21 AM (/u0kJ)

68 36 @21/Pixy Misa: "The comments from that first article discuss the underlying cause, and they conclude that people are going to college who simply should not be."

There's a lot of money to be made by admitting a large group of first year students and then kicking most of them out for not maintaining academic standards (and then doing it all over again the next year.)
Posted by: Grumpy and Recalcitrant at June 16, 2025 05:41 AM (O7YUW)
- - - - - - - - - - - -
And even more money to be made when The College Degree became a mandatory thing for employment, simply because jobs wanting to test for things like being able to read a "DANGER!" sign became 'raycist!' and caused disparate impact.

Government paying upfront in guaranteed, non-dischargeable "loans" only makes the situation worse. Then the 20-some-year-old kiddos demand government cancel their loan payments while the colleges and universities keep the money. It's a nice scam, much like the USAID stuff.

Posted by: Another Anon at June 16, 2025 06:28 AM (4h45B)

69 I wonder what the students would make of, "I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal, primordial atomic globule."

Posted by: Captain Obvious. Laird o' the Sea at June 16, 2025 06:29 AM (6YdsJ)

70 "Be like a pilot. The most useless info to a pilot is the amount of runway behind the plane as it takes off."

Only if said pilot will never re-use that runway. Or never re-use it with the same class of aircraft. There's more, but the reality is that the most useless info to a pilot is that quote.

Posted by: Richard Cranium at June 16, 2025 06:30 AM (BkdKv)

71
Coffee that is hot is coffee that is good.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 16, 2025 06:30 AM (QnmlO)

72 Grim thought:

These are the kids who *should* be going to college. They're the spineless, brainless clay to be crammed into the mold and shat out the other end, half a million in debt and ready to tell the world exactly how many watts their light bulbs should be.

It's all the people who can read and form concepts and have an imagination who are not welcome in the Ivory Tower and have no reason to be there.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at June 16, 2025 06:31 AM (BcT2b)

73 I see Lincoln Projection is going after Sen. Mike Lee for tweeting a connection to Waltz and calling the Minnesota shooter a Marxist. Confederate Rick Wilson is particularly mad.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 16, 2025 06:32 AM (sFwe/)

74 "Coffee comes in five grades: coffee, java, jamoke, joe and carbon remover."
---------Oscar of Gordon

Posted by: Captain Obvious. Laird o' the Sea at June 16, 2025 06:32 AM (6YdsJ)

75 73 Lincoln Projection
Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 16, 2025 06:32 AM (sFwe/)

LOL

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 06:34 AM (CQE5S)

76 BBC

Police said Vance Luther Boelter was armed at the time of his arrest in a rural area west of Minneapolis, but gave himself up peacefully when challenged. ... Boelter was detained after investigators found a car he allegedly used in Sibley County, about 50 miles (80km) from the murder scene in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

What an idiot.

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 06:35 AM (CQE5S)

77 It's like art Majors thinking the Dutch masters were lame and gay.
Posted by: eleven at June 16, 2025 06:17 AM (fV+MH)

Well yeah. Phillies are half the price and can hold just as much ganj.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at June 16, 2025 06:36 AM (BcT2b)

78 Right now during his lunch break he is reading plays by Euripides.

Euripides pants, Eumenides pants.

Posted by: BeckoningChasm at June 16, 2025 06:36 AM (WPL6O)

79 mornin yall. Now that the No Kings nonsense is over I wonder what they will come up with next. I would like to see "No Prince Harry".

Posted by: fd at June 16, 2025 06:36 AM (vFG9F)

80 What an idiot.
Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 06:35 AM (CQE5S)
--------
Forget it, m, it's Minnesota.

Posted by: Captain Obvious. Laird o' the Sea at June 16, 2025 06:36 AM (6YdsJ)

81 79 mornin yall. Now that the No Kings nonsense is over I wonder what they will come up with next. I would like to see "No Prince Harry".
Posted by: fd at June 16, 2025 06:36 AM (vFG9F)

I saw that there were handmaid cosplayers at one of the protests. I can't even.

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 06:38 AM (CQE5S)

82 80 What an idiot.
Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 06:35 AM (CQE5S)
--------
Forget it, m, it's Minnesota.
Posted by: Captain Obvious. Laird o' the Sea at June 16, 2025 06:36 AM (6YdsJ)

"So can we arrest'cha?"

"Oh yeah, no, yeah."

"Didja kill da guy?"

"Oh no, yeah, no."

Posted by: Warai-otoko at June 16, 2025 06:38 AM (BcT2b)

83 Coffee that is hot is coffee that is good.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 16, 2025 06:30 AM (QnmlO)

I keep a glass pitcher of iced coffee in the fridge in warmer weather; holds 5 brewed mugs. That's good, too. Only have to make it every three days or so.

Posted by: RickZ at June 16, 2025 06:38 AM (gKDq2)

84 "Coffee comes in five grades: coffee, java, jamoke, joe and carbon remover."
---------Oscar of Gordon
Posted by: Captain Obvious. Laird o' the Sea at June 16, 2025

***
Ha! And, +100

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 16, 2025 06:39 AM (omVj0)

85 Byeee...

Posted by: Captain Obvious. Laird o' the Sea at June 16, 2025 06:40 AM (6YdsJ)

86 In one of the released perp shots, he looks like a complete Richard Cranium.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg5v5l4eylyo

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 06:42 AM (CQE5S)

87 Well, I tried.

On Sat. evening we went to the Buffalo Wild Wings near our house, and I ordered a "Beer Cheese Steak Sandwich" with shaved sirloin. Ate half, thought it was good, brought the rest back.

This morning I thought I'd get creative, heat the shaved meat up, and pop it with a scrambled egg into a nacho cheese taco shell. But I should have scraped the meat free of the bread on Sat., instead of letting it sit in the fridge. A minute of microwaving the sirloin bits produced a steaming stiff unappetizing mass that was clearly inedible. I dumped it and went with the egg and cheese within the toasted taco shell.

So much for my brilliant chef career.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 16, 2025 06:51 AM (omVj0)

88 " A minute of microwaving the sirloin bits produced a steaming stiff unappetizing mass that was clearly inedible. "

WHUT?

Posted by: The dog at June 16, 2025 06:53 AM (vFG9F)

89
" A minute of microwaving the sirloin bits produced a steaming stiff unappetizing mass that was clearly inedible."

WHUT?
Posted by: The dog at June 16, 2025 06:53 AM (vFG9F)

All culinary disasters at Schloss Hadrian can be disposed of with great gusto.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 16, 2025 06:55 AM (QnmlO)

90
Only 5% of college English majors were able to understand the first seven paragraphs of Dickens' Bleak House.

Common clay like me, a mere STEM brute, might not do much better, but I've never purposed to be an English major. Or read Dickens.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 16, 2025 06:58 AM (QnmlO)

91 From what I understand, they don’t really teach by assigning full novels today.

Instead, students get long excerpts of material to read, short stories, or articles in place of novels.

It’s why so many students today never read entire books.

Then if they have to read a full novel they’ll use Cliffs/Sparks Notes and bluff their way through it.

Their attention spans are so limited it’s difficult to get them to concentrate for more than ten minutes on anything.

Which explains the rise of Instagram, YouTube, Twitter/X and TikTok - bite sized text with or without visual aids and illustrations.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at June 16, 2025 06:58 AM (6ydKt)

92 Congratulations to Dad and US Open winner, JJ Spaun

https://tinyurl.com/33pj3tss

Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 16, 2025 06:59 AM (ijc9M)

93 I see Lincoln Projection is going after Sen. Mike Lee for tweeting a connection to Waltz and calling the Minnesota shooter a Marxist. Confederate Rick Wilson is particularly mad.

That is Mike Lee's forte, he stands alongside the action and writes what he thinks he sees. Doesn't do anything, doesn't exercise any authority or use his position to actually advance human flourishing, but does dutifully stand alongside and whines.

But we like the sound of his whining, so its OK.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at June 16, 2025 07:00 AM (a4flb)

94
It's a nice pod, but it's still a pod.

Negative, I am a meat popsicle.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at June 16, 2025 07:00 AM (Tv15w)

95 The One Degree of Tim Walz applies to the accused killer's wife.

She worked for Tim when he was in Congress.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 16, 2025 07:02 AM (skGot)

96 "Scientists have discovered mysterious radio signals emerging from deep beneath Antarctica's ice - and have no idea what's causing them."

PPR.

Posted by: Penguin Pirate Radio at June 16, 2025 07:03 AM (vFG9F)

97 Which explains the rise of Instagram, YouTube, Twitter/X and TikTok - bite sized text with or without visual aids and illustrations.

A while back I was having engine troubles with a car that was older than the guy who came by to assist and lend his mechanical knowledge.

He took pictures of the engine, tapped around on his mobile phone, watched some videos, read some things and promptly went about mending the problem.

Knowing how to use short snippets from the internet, chat forums, YT and bots to do tasks is a modern day skill.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at June 16, 2025 07:03 AM (a4flb)

98
Blocked in Myanmar, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia... And the US, Canada, and Greenland.

Weird.
Posted by: Pixy Misa

Not weird, but the loci of power in which reside those persyns of mystery wot runs this world

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at June 16, 2025 07:03 AM (Tv15w)

99 A minute of microwaving the sirloin bits produced a steaming stiff unappetizing mass that was clearly inedible. I dumped it and went with the egg and cheese within the toasted taco shell.

—

I’ve never found a good way of reheating steak with a microwave.
It’s always over-done, tough, and dry.

I’ve eaten what comes out but it’s never as good as freshly cooked.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at June 16, 2025 07:04 AM (6ydKt)

100 100

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 07:04 AM (CQE5S)

101
"Scientists have discovered mysterious radio signals emerging from deep beneath Antarctica's ice - and have no idea what's causing them."

Hitler's most secret bunker

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at June 16, 2025 07:05 AM (Tv15w)

102
I’ve never found a good way of reheating steak with a microwave.
It’s always over-done, tough, and dry.

I’ve eaten what comes out but it’s never as good as freshly cooked.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at June 16, 2025 07:04 AM (6ydKt)

Cold steak >>>>> Reheated steak

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 16, 2025 07:05 AM (QnmlO)

103
Hitler's most secret bunker
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at June 16, 2025 07:05 AM (Tv15w)

The Penguin Pentagon

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at June 16, 2025 07:06 AM (QnmlO)

104 I’ve never found a good way of reheating steak with a microwave.
It’s always over-done, tough, and dry.

I’ve eaten what comes out but it’s never as good as freshly cooked.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at June 16, 2025

***
Same with even good french fries. With the oven they come out crisp but too dry. With the microwave they are hot but too wet.

I have to say the ones at Buffalo Wild Wings were pretty good, and so was the half of the sandwich I consumed. A shame I couldn't get my full value out of the rest of the sandwich.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 16, 2025 07:07 AM (omVj0)

105 Reheating steak is best done in a little olive oil on the stove, I believe. Add some onions and tabasco et voila!

Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 16, 2025 07:08 AM (ijc9M)

106 Knowing how to use short snippets from the internet, chat forums, YT and bots to do tasks is a modern day skill.
Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at June 16, 2025 07:03 AM (a4flb)

I agree on that part.
I use YT a lot, and specialty forums, for just that purpose.

But watching a video is not going to help you get through a novel like Bleak House as an English major in college.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at June 16, 2025 07:08 AM (6ydKt)

107 Pixy-misa

Did you see the Ugly American tourists desperately Jonesing for clicks on social media are totes mad at Hyashibara Megumi.

Ayanami Rei has compared their rude actions like using a Torii gate as a chin-up bar in destroying Japan to an invasive species attacking the Japanese crayfish. So the retards claim it is Ranma-chan who is the racist.

Wish Lina Inverse would drop a Dragon Slabe on these idiots.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 16, 2025 07:08 AM (skGot)

108 Reheating steak is best done in a little olive oil on the stove, I believe. Add some onions and tabasco et voila!
Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 16, 2025

***
Oil in a skillet might have worked better at that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at June 16, 2025 07:09 AM (omVj0)

109 Adolf was a pawn of Big Penguin?

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 16, 2025 07:09 AM (skGot)

110 Hitler's most secret bunker
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at June 16, 2025 07:05 AM (Tv15w)
====================
No way. Who would ever have a secret lair in the Antarctic?

Posted by: Lex Luthor or Superman? at June 16, 2025 07:09 AM (ijc9M)

111
Why Johnny (class of '27) can't read. (Substack)

Oh, sure, pick on two Midwestern universities!

Why not pick two Ivy League universities instead, where plagiarism makes itself right at home?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at June 16, 2025 07:10 AM (Tv15w)

112 Same with even good french fries. With the oven they come out crisp but too dry. With the microwave they are hot but too wet.

—-

There are some techniques that help with steak or chicken.

Covering them with a wet paper towel, or putting a small glass of water in the microwave while heating it works sometimes.

You just need to get a little steam in there to replace all of the moisture being boiled out of the meat.

It’s a little better result that way but still not perfect.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at June 16, 2025 07:12 AM (6ydKt)

113 Did you guys know that the White House may have lied to us about Joe Biden's mental fitness?

Posted by: Jake Tapper at June 16, 2025 07:12 AM (PiwSw)

114 Fowler Museum at UCLA returns Larrakia cultural objects to Australia

https://tinyurl.com/4abaj7na

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 07:12 AM (CQE5S)

115 Oh, sure, pick on two Midwestern universities!

Why not pick two Ivy League universities instead, where plagiarism makes itself right at home?
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at June 16, 2025 07:10 AM (Tv15w)
=======================
Done

https://tinyurl.com/yjv492tx

Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 16, 2025 07:13 AM (ijc9M)

116 No King Penguins!

Posted by: Power to the Penguins! at June 16, 2025 07:14 AM (vFG9F)

117 A self-sustaining Tyranny of the Credentialed.
——-

That sure covers a lot of territory these days

Posted by: Common Tater at June 16, 2025 07:14 AM (ebH14)

118 "Fowler Museum at UCLA returns Larrakia cultural objects to Australia

https://tinyurl.com/4abaj7na
Posted by: m"

Were they boomerangs?

Posted by: fd at June 16, 2025 07:15 AM (vFG9F)

119 A self-sustaining Tyranny of the Credentialed.

Until an unsanitized phone wipes out the whole planetary population.

Posted by: Anna Puma at June 16, 2025 07:15 AM (skGot)

120 Doing away with cursive writing? Being raised illiterate because of that sorry fact? Denying their rightful gender? I would not have blamed him for discarding them. Fortunately, there are enough of us raised right to counteract the idiots.

One of the board members for our HOA-like corporation forged his father's name on a legal property document granting his dad a stock share for the cost of approximately one tenth its par value.

The draftsman style writing (all printed caps) was remarkably different than his father's signature style of cursive, which made it clear that this was not his father's signature.

The reason? This forty-something year old couldn't write cursive and wasn't even able to mimic his father's signature in the least way.

I think every generation has its illiterate HS graduates for this is an evergreen story. We just like to cherry pick the narratives and examples we want to condemn another generation for the same faults we have.

Posted by: Unknown Drip Under Pressure at June 16, 2025 07:16 AM (a4flb)

121 JJ nood.

Posted by: Nazdar at June 16, 2025 07:16 AM (NcvvS)

122 Six hours in the car yesterday listening to the news was tough to take. Did y'all know Trump is a complete waste of oxygen and the world is ending soon, maybe Tuesday?

Posted by: Huck Follywood at June 16, 2025 07:16 AM (cqbaT)

123
Have we attained peak No Foo Kings yet?

Did the assembled multitudes of AWFLs succeed in their valiant quest?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at June 16, 2025 07:17 AM (Tv15w)

124 Potato “spears” are a good substitute in the oven in lieu of actual fried spuds. Parboil, drench in olive oil and season heavily. Microwave “oven” is just a tongue burning rubber food generator.

Posted by: Common Tater at June 16, 2025 07:18 AM (ebH14)

125 This isn't exactly English:

"The Fowler Museum — dedicated to global arts and cultures, with a focus on Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Indigenous Americas — has been shaped by a responsibility to rethink collecting practices and to honor the voices of communities represented in its holdings."

the museum ... has been shaped by a responsibility

‽

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 07:19 AM (CQE5S)

126 New'd

Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at June 16, 2025 07:20 AM (7NkZG)

127 126 New'd
Posted by: Elrond Hubbard at June 16, 2025 07:20 AM (7NkZG)

heh

Posted by: m at June 16, 2025 08:28 AM (CQE5S)

128 58 percent (49 of 85 subjects) understood so little of the introduction to Bleak House that they would not be able to read the novel on their own. However, these same subjects (defined in the study as problematic readers) also believed they would have no problem reading the rest of the 900-page novel.

"Ah, arrogance and stupidity all in the same package. How efficient of you!"
-- Ambassador Londo Mollari

Posted by: Socratease at June 16, 2025 12:01 PM (YgfoU)

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